Constructing market-based livelihood opportunities for refugees and host community families

I. INTRODUCTION

A menu of options for supporting livelihoods of refugee and host community families

I. INTRODUCTION

By Fan Xiaowen, Sichuan Programme Manager, Save the Children China

Imagine what life is like for a child whose village has been struck by a massive earthquake.

Her home badly damaged, she’s been forced to live in a flimsy tent – its fabric barely thick enough to keep out the cold air at night.

Her immediate needs include shelter, food, water, blankets, crockery, toiletries, clothes and sanitary items.

Too much of a good thing

The next day, the first aid worker arrives with a nice warm blanket. Now she can be warm at night.

The first-ever Birth Day Risk Index compares first-day death rates for babies in 186 countries to identify the safest and most dangerous places to be born.

“Some girls are not lucky enough to go to school because they have to collect firewood all day and help indoors” says 15-year-old Fatuma.

She’s just one of the 125, 930 under 18-year-olds living in Bokomayo, one of Dolo Ado’s refugee camps. She’s been here for three years.

Today, Save the Children’s the education team is speaking to groups of girls and boys both in and out of school to find out their views on education.

Save the Children has begun responding to the needs of children affected in the Sichuan earthquake, providing a host of relief goods and services to them regain a sense of normalcy.

Already, the children’s aid agency has distributed immediate relief to nearly 900 people including 200 children in villages in Sichuan province. Relief items include towels, sanitary napkins, soaps, hand sanitizer, raincoats, plastic tarpaulin, toilet paper and baby diapers.

An estimated 230,000 children have been affected by a powerful earthquake that hit China’s Sichuan province on Saturday. Fan Xiaowen, Save the Children’s Sichuan Programme Manager, reports.

It was not a typical Saturday for the children in Sichuan, China.

A 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the province, causing buildings to collapse and blocking roads with debris.

At least 180 people have been killed in the most affected areas of Ya’an and Lushan, children among them.

Overall, 1.5 million people have been affected and tens of thousands left homeless.

On Friday 22nd March a massive fire broke out in the Ban Mae Surin refugee Temporary Shelter located in Khun Yuam District, Mae Hong Son Province. The incident left 37 dead and others seriously injured, and completely ravaged two sections of the camp destroying the homes and limited possessions of 2,300 refugees (more than half of the entire population). This situation report presents the joint humanitarian response, up‐dates on the priority requirements, and indicates the agreed actions.

GeneralUpdate on Situation:

Liberia has succeeded in reducing child mortality at annual average reduction rate of 5.4% in under-fives and 2.2% reduction in newborns.

The neonatal mortality rate has fallen from 32 per 1,000 live births to 27, and the under-five mortality rate has dropped from 110 per 1,000 live births to 80.

The decline in the neonatal mortality rate is slower than that in under-fives by about 56%, and neonatal deaths constitute 35% of all children who die before their fifth birthday. Most often, newborns die due to infection or premature birth.

Pioneering new approaches