Attachments
Highlights
• An additional 13,919 people have benefitted from UNICEF WASH activities over the last reporting period, bringing the total to over 52,000 people with access to safe water in official shelters, schools and rural areas.
• UNICEF is supporting the MoE in applying its methodology for tracing children out-of-school in emergency zones (1,746 tracked so far) with the objective of including them into the national educational system.
• Humanitarian assistance is still needed, especially for children living in informal shelters and rural areas. Ongoing provision of water, sanitation and hygiene is critical to prevent the spread of water-borne diseases like ZIKV in the upcoming rainy season.
Humanitarian strategy
UNICEF is currently focusing on the immediate provision of safe water and sanitation to 90,000 affected people, rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure and sector coordination. UNICEF will continue working on vector control for the prevention of ZIKV—a long- term activity that will be shortly transferred to a regular program—and other mosquito-spread diseases and providing support to health and nutrition services through the provision of health supplies and early identification of children at risk of malnutrition. Whereas UNICEF initially focused on psychosocial assistance to children, their families and first line responders at the outset of the emergency, it is important to now give priority to supporting families with protective environments and strengthening institutional and community capacity on violence prevention and response. UNICEF supported the national Safe Return to School Plan through the provision of supplies and materials, the establishment of safe temporary schools and the rehabilitation of damaged schools. At this stage of emergency, UNICEF is applying its methodology for tracing children out-of-school, adopted by the Government, to assure inclusion of all children in schools in the affected areas. Seven months after the earthquake, the response and recovery will be focused mainly on rural areas which have received less humanitarian assistance. Meanwhile, transition strategies are also being identified in each sector to support the phases of rehabilitation, reconstruction, resilience and disaster risk reduction.