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Sudan

Sudan Child Protection: Floods impact on children as of 08/09/2020

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Impact on Children

Destruction of homes and displacement leading to further disruption and breakdown protective environments and access to social services for children/adolescents and their caregivers. The floods are further deepening already existing vulnerabilities due to disease outbreaks such as COVID-19, conflict and poverty leaving them exposed to different forms of abuse, violence, exploitation and neglect such as Psychosocial distress, Child labor, death and injuries especially from drowning, UXO’s and ERW’s washed away and destruction of homes, Exploitation and abuse including sexual exploitation. Children with Disability may experience increased vulnerability due to lack of access to health and social services; safety of displacement areas is not guaranteed.

Preparedness and Response :

A preparedness and contingency plan was developed by child protection partners to reach an estimated 100,000 children as a worst-case scenario, however the floods this year are unprecedented, already affecting 50% more children than anticipated, meteorological reports indicate that the flooding is likely to continue for more weeks. In 17 states already affected by floods, there are 18 Child protection partners with already existing operations who can scale up their interventions in case of increased need.

The main gaps are in Redsea, Sennar, Gezira, Northern, River Nile, North Kordofan and West Kordofan states, due to limited presence of operational partners as well as overstretched child protection services as these same states are also hardest hit by COVID. Partners anticipate that access due damages on the roads and inadequate stocks, COVID-19 as major challenges. Response will be through a community-based approach through deployed mobile teams who will train and work with community-based child protection actors. In addition, child protection services will also integrate other services including risk communica-tion and community engagement due to COVID, prevention of diarrhea related diseases, vaccination, and malaria prevention.