(Extract)
General update on response to Cyclone Nargis
Save the Children is the biggest international aid agency responding to cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, 100 hundred days after the cyclone we have reached over half a million people, including at least 225,000 children, with life saving assistance. Aid is getting through. Most people have received some assistance but much more needs to be done.
We are working in 14 of the 15 most affected townships in Yangon and the Ayererwady Delta. Immediately after the cyclone our response focused on life saving needs including shelter building supplies, food and water. In the initial phase of the response, we distributed large quantities of relief items, including plastic sheeting for over 80,000 households, over 2 million kg of rice, almost 96,000 sachets of oral rehydration salts, 7,000 blankets, and almost 14,000 blocks of soap.
As we now look towards the long term we will continue to help children get back to school, helping parents to start earning money again and looking after children who were orphaned or separated by the cyclone. We also set up safe play areas for children, gave out education supplies and begun helping to get the education system up and running again.
Save the Children has been working in Myanmar for 13 years. We have more than 940 staff working on the cyclone response including about 50 international staff, 34 national volunteers, and more than 1,200 staff in the country as a whole.