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Save the Children to Help Children Impacted by California Wildfires
Watch video about our Safe Spaces Kits 
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Qualcomm -- people sleep in donated tents, on the cement, around the halls and byways of Qualcomm Stadium. |
Westport, Conn. (October 23, 2007) — Save the Children, a humanitarian agency that responds to disasters and works to improve the lives of children around the world, is deploying a team of crises experts to assist children and families affected by the devastating wildfires in Southern California.
The team, which will be posted to San Diego, will provide assistance to children and families evacuated from their homes.
"We know from experience that the needs of children are rarely a priority in emergency situations," said Mark K. Shriver, Save the Children's vice president for U.S. programs. "When children are displaced from their homes and schools and their routines are disrupted, they suffer in unique ways, and sometimes they lose faith in grown-ups' ability to protect them."
Save the Children, which has responded to nearly 20 emergencies around the world over the last year, works with the American Red Cross and other national disaster response organizations in the United States to ensure that the particular needs of children are addressed during a disaster. The agency has already trained 60 Red Cross staff members and shelter volunteers in California to set up and run its trademark program "Safe Spaces" for children in evacuation centers. The agency also has provided the Red Cross with 20 safe play kits for use in shelters.
The Save the Children experts traveling to California — several of whom worked in the Gulf after Hurricane Katrina — will support this effort, assess the damage and identify other needs of children impacted by the wildfires.
In addition, Save the Children and Mississippi State University's Early Childhood Institute will monitor the status of child-care facilities in the region affected. The agency will reach out to these facilities and local schools to offer assistance in the effort to get children back into school and child care as quickly as possible once the fires have receded.
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| Save the Children staffer Nino Acuna plays with 5-year-old Angelina at a shelter in Santee, Calif. Save the Children provided games and other safe play materials to the shelter where Angelina and her family are sheltered. This is the second evacuation for them during this fire. Their house was destroyed in the fires of 2003. And they do not know the status of their current home. |
"Returning children to their normal routines is a proven way to help them recover from loss and from the frightening images of destruction they have experienced firsthand or they may have seen on television," said Shriver. "It also allows parents the time and space they need to get their lives back together."
Save the Children implements long-term literacy and nutrition programs in California's Central Valley and in San Bernadino. The agency also advocates at a state and national level to raise the priority of children in disaster planning, response and recovery.
Save the Children works in more than 50 countries, including the United States, and serves more than 33 million children and 32 million others working to save and improve children's lives, including parents, community members, local organizations and government agencies.
How to Help Children Cope with the California Wildfires: Ten Tips from Save the Children
Read about Save the Children's response
