From The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/21/children-risk-haiti-earthquake

Save the Chil­dren says risk to health ‘extremely seri­ous’ as coun­try strug­gles to recover from earthquake

Aid is dis­trib­uted to Hait­ian earth­quake sur­vivors. Pho­to­graph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Chil­dren have been badly affected by the earth­quake that brought dev­as­ta­tion to Haiti in January.

Save the Chil­dren says an esti­mated 1 mil­lion chil­dren have become sep­a­rated from their par­ents or lost one or both parents.

Haiti is the poor­est coun­try in the west­ern hemi­sphere, with one in 13 chil­dren dying before their fifth birth­day and 9% suf­fer­ing from acute under-nutrition.

Save the Chil­dren said the risk to children’s health is “extremely serious”.

“Chil­dren are the most vul­ner­a­ble when dis­ease starts to spread, and the san­i­ta­tion sit­u­a­tion in many of the makeshift set­tle­ments is a sec­ondary dis­as­ter wait­ing to hap­pen,” it said in a statement.

“An increase in diar­rhoea, sca­bies and ring­worm has already been noted.”

The char­ity warned that abuse and exploita­tion of chil­dren could increase – one-fifth of chil­dren in Haiti were work­ing before the quake. Chil­dren who have been sep­a­rated from their fam­i­lies are at risk of sex­ual exploita­tion and of being trafficked.

Thou­sands of schools have been flat­tened, and the gov­ern­ment said the edu­ca­tion sys­tem had “collapsed”.