Overview
The UNICEF Turkey earthquake Situation
Report covers the activities in the Recovery Plan for Turkish Children
(RPTC), with a feature focus on the control of water-borne and poor hygiene
related diseases through the implementation of an articulated water and
sanitation project.
The tenth anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) gives relief workers around the world further reason to focus on children's rights as the cornerstone of all implementing activities. It is every child's right to live in an environment that nurtures and fosters a healthy upbringing. The goal of all relief aid workers is to provide the basic services essential to foster a "Child Friendly Environment" in a disaster area. The fulfillment of these rights is key to UNICEF's objectives in disaster response.
The provision of safe drinking water and environmentally safe sanitation facilities amongst others, provide the basic building blocks for the growth and health of earthquake affected children. Following a disaster as catastrophic as the two earthquakes that shook north-western Turkey in 1999, the challenges faced to meet these goals have both been numerous and complex.
Earthquake relief programmes have met multiple difficulties in reaching the population, due to the sheer size of the affected area and number of victims, the tenuous shelter situation, and climatic conditions which included the worst winter Turkey has experienced in the past 12 years.
As of 13 March 2000 - seven months after the first earthquake and four months after the second - more than eight percent (8.4%) of the population residing in the five affected provinces live in tent camps or prefabricated cities as a direct result of the disaster. Currently, approximately 85,000 people reside in tents, and 134,000 live in prefabricated housing units. It is estimated that over 77,000 children aged 0-18 years are still homeless due to the two earthquakes.
UNICEF's earthquake related interventions in the Water and Sanitation sector fall within two realms: advocacy and implementation. The direct implementation of services is currently reaching 30,000 survivors in terms of sanitary services and more than 150,000 through the provision of monitored and safe drinking water. Furthermore, advocacy and awareness-raising activities targeting both the local counterparts and the homeless population, greatly enhance the outcome of UNICEF's assistance.
Even though emergency response is dictated by the urgency of needs, efforts have been made to maintain the CRC as the main focus of the RPTC. The water and sanitation project is one of the sectors that reflect this approach. Water and environmental services have not been limited to shelter conglomerates, but to schools and Primary Health Care Centres (PHCCs) - key institutions which endeavor to foster a child friendly environment.
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Table of Contents
Overview
Environmental Sanitation
UNICEF Response
Water and Environmental sanitation
Health - Nutrition
Education
Psychosocial
Child Friendly Environment
Communications Monitoring and Evaluation
Level of Funding
For more information on UNICEF, visit its website at <http://www.unicef.org>