Save the Children Races to Children & Families

Save the Children staff plays with children refugees who's homes were destroyed during the earthquake at the Church of Ladder Day Saints, Port Au Prince, Haiti.

Save the Children is launching child-friendly space activites at the church in downtown Haiti.

Child-Friendly spaces provide safety, structure, and emotional healing to children who are suffering due to to the loss and devastation they have experienced.

Overview of Save the Children’s response • Number of beneficiaries we plan to reach: 600,000 • Number of total beneficiaries reached so far: *99,032 • Number of beneficiaries reached since last sitrep: 7,785 *number includes distributed medical supplies and medicines to support beneficiaries over 6 wk period

Overview of Activities by Sector: Emergency Health Care • As of January 22, Save the Children’s health interventions had reached approximately 85,000 children and adults. • Our mobile clinic in Leogane is treating approximately 100 patients a day. The unit is staffed by 14 expatriate doctors. • Four mobile health teams of one doctor and one nurse each are seeing patients in Jacmel. • On January 19, 16.5 tons of medical supplies donated to the agency by AmeriCares were distributed in Leogane and at the general hospital in Port-au-Prince. • Medical supplies were distributed by Save the Children’s response team and a partner agency to 14 hospitals and clinics throughout the Port-au-Prince region.

Food • The World Food Program (WFP) will be providing Save the Children with high-energy biscuits for distribution. Save the Children is also coordinating a longer-term strategy with WFP for food distributions, which are scheduled to begin this week. • On January 16, Save the Children distributed food for 2,000 people at the L’Hopital de l’Espoire (Hope Hospital), that focuses on pediatric medicine and helps support two orphanages.

Water • Latrine construction and rehabilitation has benefited some 3,600 children and adults in both Port-au-Prince and Jacmel. • Clean water is being provided to over 2,000 children and adults in camps in Port-au-Prince. • Large quantities of bottled water are being received for distribution with our hygiene kits.

Shelter and Non-Food Relief Items • 300 kits of hygiene and household supplies were distributed on January 21 at a makeshift camp in Port-au-Prince, benefitting 1,500 children and adults. • 5,000 families in Jacmel have been targeted for our shelter and relief supplies. • 2,500 household kits are being procured at Save the Children’s office in the Dominican Republic for rapid delivery by truck to Port-au-Prince. • 1,000 family-size tents are being shipped by Save the Children from China, where the agency responded to that nation’s earthquake in 2008. • 25,000 sheets of plastic for temporary shelter have arrived at Save the Children’s base in Miami. • 100 semi-permanent structures for housing or other uses have been ordered and will arrive within a week.

Child Protection • Eleven Child Friendly Spaces in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel have been opened. Over 3,500 children have benefited from access to structured, supportive activities to help them recover from what they’ve experienced. Kits for 77 other spaces are in Port-au-Prince; Save the Children plans to open hundreds of these essential sites for children. • Save the Children has trained 50 social workers from other nongovernmental organizations to provide psychosocial support to children, including training in child protection policies and how to conduct activities at our Child Friendly Spaces. • The agency has been requested by the UN to coordinate the reunification of separated children with their families. We are beginning to collect information and reports of separated and unaccompanied children for follow-up action.

Education • Save the Children will be among the lead agencies to rapidly restore education for children to provide them with a structured, secure environment.