From UNICEF

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_53291.html

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Three months after the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake that rocked Haiti and left its mark on over a mil­lion chil­dren, UNICEF today reports that the unprece­dented human­i­tar­ian response has averted a worse cri­sis for chil­dren – but warns that there is much still to be done, not least as Haiti approaches the annual rainy season.

In its sum­mary of activ­i­ties after the 12 Jan­u­ary quake – Chil­dren of Haiti: Three Months After the Earth­quake – UNICEF notes that despite mas­sive destruc­tion and dis­rup­tion to key services:

1. there has been no sig­nif­i­cant dis­ease out­break or increase in mal­nu­tri­tion rates
2. over a mil­lion affected peo­ple are receiv­ing clean drink­ing water
3. over 200,000 women and chil­dren are ben­e­fit­ing from selec­tive feed­ing programmes
4. mass vac­ci­na­tion cam­paigns have reached over 100,000 chil­dren to date
5. res­i­den­tial child care cen­tres host­ing more than 25,000 chil­dren have been assessed and pro­vided with urgent food and med­i­cines to ensure well­be­ing of chil­dren and;
6. schools have begun to open in tem­po­rary accom­mo­da­tion, with the pro­vi­sion of thou­sands of tents and hun­dreds of sets of learn­ing and teach­ing materials.

How­ever, the report also high­lights key chal­lenges in areas such as pro­vi­sion of san­i­ta­tion, risks of vio­lence against women and girls liv­ing in dis­place­ment camps, and the broader issue of much-reduced gov­ern­ment and civil soci­ety capac­ity. Many gov­ern­ment min­istries and depart­ments lost build­ings, per­son­nel and vital data.

UNICEF iden­ti­fies urgent pro­vi­sion of improved shel­ter for dis­placed fam­i­lies, increased pro­vi­sion of basic ser­vices and strength­ened pro­tec­tion of women and chil­dren as urgent pri­or­i­ties. UNICEF is work­ing already with other orga­ni­za­tions to sup­port the safe relo­ca­tion of fam­i­lies liv­ing in the most vul­ner­a­ble camps to new loca­tions ahead of the rainy season.

The report also calls for sup­port for ‘trans­for­ma­tive agenda’ for Haiti’s chil­dren, which places chil­dren at the cen­tre of recov­ery and recon­struc­tion efforts. In par­tic­u­lar, UNICEF sin­gles out tack­ling the trend of chronic mal­nu­tri­tion, cre­at­ing a pro­tec­tive envi­ron­ment for chil­dren, and ensur­ing edu­ca­tion for every child as crit­i­cal pri­or­i­ties for the future devel­op­ment of the country.

These pri­or­i­ties, says the report, stand out as both urgent in the short term and essen­tial to the pro­gres­sive and full real­iza­tion of rights by children.

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For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Edward Car­war­dine, UNICEF Haiti,
Tel + 509 38 81 23 71, / + 1 646 651‑2492,
ecarwardine@unicef.org

Patrick McCormick, UNICEF Media, New York,
Tel + 1 212 326‑7426,
pmccormick@unicef.org