Hurricane Matthew slammed Haiti as a powerful category 4 storm, and has Cuba and the Southeast U.S. in its path. Save the Children has deployed an emergency response team, with hygiene kits, baby items, household kits, mosquito nets and jerry cans. Our response includes protecting children, setting up Child Friendly Spaces in shelters, distributing food and water, and deploying our Emergency Health Unit focused on Cholera prevention and treatment.
In addition to 145 mph+ winds, Hurricane Matthew unleashed torrential rainfall totaling 3 feet+ and a life threatening storm surge. Flooding, mudslides, infrastructure damage and elevated risk of diseases like Cholera, are all possible. Children are most vulnerable during disasters such as this. Our emergency response team will be carefully evaluating how we can best help and protect children, including getting them back into school as soon as possible.
Save the Children supports 131 schools in Haiti, including 27 in the area of south Grand'Anse and 39 in Port-au Prince, and provide technical assistance in water, sanitation, hygiene and newborn health to the Ministry of Health. Your gift will help us protect vulnerable children and provide desperately needed relief to families. 10% of funding will go to the emergency reserve Children's Emergency Fund.
Whenever and wherever children are in crisis, Save the Children is there, working around the clock to meet children's unique health, education and protection needs - even in the most challenging, the most complex, the most controversial circumstances. We have worked in Haiti for more than 30 years. Our singular focus on children and families has helped nations recover from disasters like the Indian Ocean and Japanese Tsunamis, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and the Nepal earthquake.
