One Year After Cyclone Nargis

UNICEF Continues To Build Back Better One Year After Cyclone Nargis

Wellington, 1 May 2009. – Kiwis played a key role in supporting UNICEF’s aid efforts after Cyclone Nargis ravaged Myanmar a year ago, but UNICEF is still working on the ground to get people’s lives back on track.

The Cyclone that hit Myanmar on 2-3 May 2008 left 140,000 people dead, 2.4 million severely affected and 800,000 displaced.

UNICEF NZ Donor Manager, Ellen Voller, says that communities devastated by Cyclone Nargis faced formidable challenges both immediately after the disaster, and during recovery and rebuilding. The cyclone destroyed or badly damaged over 50 per cent of schools and nearly 75 per cent of health facilities in the affected areas, with the total damage estimated at close to US$2 billion.

UNICEF has been on the ground in Mynmar since 1950 and continues to work with the Government and NGO partners to address the education, health, nutrition and other needs of children and women in Mynmar.

After the cyclone, UNICEF supplied learning materials and trained teachers and repaired and rebuilt schools to get children back into the classroom as quickly as possible. Almost 1,000 schools were repaired working with Parent Teacher Associations. Some 2,325 schools received basic furniture such as desks, tables, chairs and blackboards, while more than 2,300 primary schools received learning materials. These measures benefitted hundreds of thousands of children.

Nine out of the 37 child-friendly model schools are now ready for the new school year in June 2009. Ten more are to be ready by the end of this year and the rest by 2010.

Health, nutrition, and water and sanitation programmes ensured the prevention of major disease outbreaks and a worsening of the malnutrition situation. The health needs of nearly 300,000 women and children were met.

UNICEF provided 250,000 affected people with 3 litres a day of safe drinking water and 10 litres a day of clean water for bathing, cooking and cleaning in 10 townships. 20,000 families, 500 schools and temporary settlements have access to sanitary latrines and clean environments as a result of UNICEF’s work.

Emergency response has also had far-reaching implications for child protection programming. Family tracing and reunification has been a priority for UNICEF and so far hundreds of children have been reunited with their families or are now in other long term care arrangements.

Ms Voller says the terrific level of support shown by the New Zealand public has been of great help with UNICEF’s aid efforts over the past year.

“The Kiwi response certainly counts as one of the largest experienced by UNICEF NZ after a disaster in recent times. But the challenge facing cyclone survivors now is that aid flow and attention has lessened as the immediate disaster has passed.”

ENDS

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