After almost two weeks, Haiti experienced again a strong aftershock on January 20 that made the already worn out children and families (from January 12 killer quake) more stressed and added more damage to the devastated country. The services and infrastructure necessary for aid distribution were paralyzed.
The earthquake has erased thousands of lives estimated at 200,000 and still counting as rubbles reveal more casualties according to Haitian government. People who were spared with their lives are left without livelihoods, with grief for their lost relatives who were either dead or still awaiting to be rescued. But each day that passes makes the hope of finding survivors dimmer.
UNICEF is Always There When Needed
The biggest obstacles during the distribution of aids were destroyed infrastructures. UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) is working with different agencies on the ground to deliver the much needed supplies to those who need help.
Volunteers deliver bottled water from UNICEF to an orphanage in Tabarre where children sleep in tents. The hard-hit capital of Port-au-Prince is already getting safe water, food and other supplies for its severely affected people.
Young children are the most in need in this situation. Like those who lost relatives, orphaned, and separated from their families. The Sister of Mercy feeding center in the capital has many children whose parents did not return anymore after the earthquake. It seemed they left their children in the center to live.
So far, children under 5 who were left without relatives were given safe spaces by UNICEF and its partners. The children are registered and being traced to determine if they can be reunited (with their families) if their family or anyone known close to them survives. Caregivers to these children are having a hard time accommodating them in 2 small rooms because their big shelter went to the ground. Babies are taken care in a feeding center in Port-au-Prince. UNICEF has arranged nutrition support for children under 2 years of age in this earthquake hit zone.
More Issues on Children
About 900 or more children have emerged unaccompanied in the middle of this chaos and UNICEF has set up temporary centers to give them shelter, food and necessary care.
UNICEF Regional Communication Specialist Tamar Hahn was on the field with UNICEF Regional Child Protection Adviser Nadine Parrault. They were about to take the children from a tent hospital when the doctors advised them that two of them have wounds that needed to heal to prevent infection. The children there have developed a bonding and they need each other so they thought it was best for all of them to stay at the far end of the hospital tent where doctors and nurses rest to watch over them.
Authorities are at the same time fighting the problems of illegal adoption. The children who have lost their families are feared to be smuggled out of the country without going through the legal procedures. Adoption is a very humanitarian way of helping displaced children but there might be parents trying to find their lost children and children longing to locate their relatives.
UNICEF has ways of rescuing these children to avoid them from being taken out illegally by putting specialized staff at the airport that will take charge and process their documents.
Now is the perfect time for the whole world to join hands for the sake of the youth in Haiti who needs a long-term solution to their present difficulties. They need our donations.