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Asia / Pacific: Disaster survivors struggle with long road to recovery
5 Nov 2009
By World Vision staff
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Children sit absorbed in a puppet show at a World Vision Child Friendly Space in the Philippines.
Photo by Juan Miguel Lago.
©2009 World Vision International |
One month on from a series of natural disasters in South-East Asia, survivors are struggling to begin the long and difficult process of rebuilding their lives.
Thousands of people were killed or left homeless by earthquakes that struck Western Sumatra in Indonesia on 30 September.
Back-to-back storms began the same week, devastating several countries including Vietnam and the Philippines – which has experienced its worst flooding in 40 years.
World Vision launched an immediate response to support survivors of the disasters with emergency aid kits, including blankets and tarpaulins.
Philippines
In the Philippines, the fourth storm in a month, Mirinae, brought heavy rain and winds to the main island of Luzon at the weekend.
Many affected communities have not yet recovered from earlier typhoons Ketsana and Parma. Thousands of families are still living in crowded evacuation centres and further rains have worsened the condition of flooded areas.
However, the latest storm moved away quickly and measures put in place to help families prepare for disasters helped to lessen its impact.
“We are thankful that Mirinae has not caused much damage or many casualties,” said World Vision’s Elnora Avarientos in the Philippines.
“It was a strong storm but government efforts to pre-evacuate people living in high risk areas and the warnings it released regularly really helped to minimise the impact.”
World Vision will respond to the storm through existing long-term community development work.
The organisation is also continuing to support community work in flooded areas of Manila, following the first of the storms, Ketsana.
Vietnam
Typhoon Mirinae weakened into a tropical depression after hitting central Vietnam on Tuesday afternoon.
World Vision is concerned that the storm has created further challenges for people in Vietnam affected by Typhoon Ketsana last month.
Ketsana's heavy rains caused flooding in some central and central highlands provinces. Hundreds of thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed and there was extensive crop loss.
The government of Vietnam supported affected provinces with rice and water disinfectants.
World Vision is planning to provide relief for 65,000 people, continuing until next March. The response will include food (rice and seeds), support for repairing houses, and support for education, including provision of books and classroom repair.
To date, 52,000 people have received relief from the organisation. Further assessments of damage and needs are taking place in affected areas where World Vision is working through long-term development programmes.
Indonesia
In Indonesia, emergency relief operations are continuing following September’s earthquakes, which triggered landslides that buried communities and blocked roads.
World Vision has distributed more than 11,000 family kits containing blankets, sleeping mats, tarpaulins, sanitary items and soap, and 4,000 children’s hygiene kits.
The organisation has also distributed water containers and a hygiene promotion campaign is running with community training and radio talk shows.
Emergency health tents, generators and a mobile clinic have been set up. Portable toilets are being provided in schools for community use, and 13 safe places for children – known as Child Friendly Spaces – are running.
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