Education more important than ever in the wake of Cyclone

UNICEF: Education more important than ever in the wake of Cyclone Pam

Donate: www.unicef.org.nz/vanuatu

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Children in Vanuatu have this week started to return to school, following the devastating impact of Cyclone Pam a fortnight ago today.

57,000 children have been targeted by the education cluster working group which is led by the Vanuatu Ministry of Education with UNICEF as one of the co-leads.

UNICEF New Zealand Executive Director, Vivien Maidaborn, said, “In the aftermath of an emergency such as this, one of UNICEF’s biggest concerns it to ensure that education is not interrupted for a prolonged period and that children get back into the learning environment as quickly as possible to regain a sense of normality.

“Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and Kiribati are on the long road to recovery. Ensuring that education continues bolsters the entire community and means no child will be left behind.”

UNICEF is establishing temporary learning spaces and delivering school supplies including backpacks, School-in-a-Box and Early Childhood Development kits to enable children to get back to school.

A UNICEF School-in-a-Box kit contains every element needed to set up a classroom from scratch. For children who have been through so much trauma and distress, this safe and familiar environment is a lifeline to help them cope.

UNICEF Pacific’s Alice Clements, a New Zealander in Port Villa added, “For children, the implications of this disaster, economic and otherwise are absolutely huge. I keep meeting children who are not able to return to school for between two weeks to two months at this stage, including students who are in their final months of exams and have critical goals to meet with their studies.

Education is a crucial part UNICEF’s emergency response that also includes health, nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene and child protection. Ms Clements reiterates how each of these areas is implicitly connected when she says, “Clean water is critical to ensure that children are healthy enough to study and therefore healthy enough do well in their studies.”

UNICEF International this week called for NZD$6.3m to cover the needs of approximately 82,000 children over the next three months. The appeal amount reflects both the scale of the need, and the significant logistical and procurement challenges linked to providing an effective large-scale humanitarian response to remote island communities.

Ms Maidaborn added, “New Zealanders share a deep empathy and respect towards our Pacific neighbours and have responded to their time of need by raising over NZD$1m for UNICEF NZ’s emergency appeal. When matched by our incredibly generous ambassadors Gareth and Jo Morgan, the total raised so far stands at NZD$2m. This is a tremendous milestone but the recovery has only begun and the people of Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and Kiribati will continue to need our help and support long into the future. Please donate what you can atwww.unicef.org.nz/vanuatu.”

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