Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines - Emergency Assistance - UNICEF 2014

February 2014 - On November 8 2013 Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) made landfall in the Philippines a densely populated country of 92 million people. The category five typhoon killed over 6 000 Filipinos caused 4 million people to be displaced from their homes and caused severe damage to infrastructure including homes roads schools and health centres. Although many people have already received life-saving humanitarian assistance significant humanitarian needs remain including early recovery activities that contribute to building communities that are more resilient. With DFATD’s support the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is helping up to 1.34 million people affected by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines including 558 000 children. The project aims to provide safe drinking water improve sanitation provide nutrition and health services protect children from violence and abuse and provide education. Project activities include: (1) providing sufficient and safe water for drinking cooking and personal hygiene; (2) building and repairing appropriately designed toilets to ensure proper sanitation or the safe treatment and disposal of waste water; (3) providing key hygiene items such as soap and toothbrushes to children in schools and in learning spaces; (4) providing supplementary feeding or extra food to infants young children and pregnant women beyond the normal ration of their home diets to prevent undernutrition and malnutrition; (5) vaccinating children aged 6 to 59 months against measles and providing full immunization (according to the World Health Organization’s Expanded Programme on Immunization) to children under one year; (6) establishing child-friendly spaces in which children can play and access the support they need to deal with grief and loss; (7) providing psychosocial support services to children and their caregivers; (8) providing learning materials and supplies for pre-school and school-aged children; and (9) set

The expected immediate outcomes for this project include: (1) increased access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities; (2) improved hygiene practices; (3) increased access to emergency nutrition services for malnourished children; (4) increased access to essential vaccinations; (5) increased access to child protection services; (6) improved access to psychosocial support services for displaced preschool and school-aged children; and (7) increased access to educational facilities and quality emergency educational services. The expected intermediate outcome is reduced vulnerability of crisis-affected people especially women and children.