Westport, Conn. (December 6, 2006) — Save the Children is assisting children and families affected by Typhoon Durian, which struck southern Luzon in the Philippines on Thursday, killing as many as 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands more families homeless.

Save the Children has a team working in the impact area assisting families in evacuation centers and has begun to distribute essential non-food items such as blankets, mosquito nets and hygiene items. The agency also will address the needs of vulnerable children, working to keep children safe and providing them a supervised place to play, while also focusing on helping children return to an educational setting as soon as possible.

The typhoon’s high winds and hours of heavy rain created huge mudslides that forced the evacuation of entire villages, leaving many parents and their children with little to sustain themselves since the disaster. Hardest hit were communities at the base of the Mayon volcano, from which tons of mud, boulders and other debris poured.

Philippine government officials estimate as many as 250,000 families — or more than 1 million people —have been affected by the typhoon in the Bicol Region of the island nation. Damage to roads and other infrastructure is hindering access to affected areas.

Save the Children, which has worked in the country on behalf of Filipino children since 1982, is appealing for financial support as it mounts a response focusing on providing basic living necessities to families displaced by the typhoon.

"The storm has thrown tens of thousands of Filipino families into extremely difficult circumstances," said Rudy von Bernuth, who heads Save the Children’s emergency response team. "Save the Children is working to meet the immediate needs of children and families who have lost nearly everything."