UNICEF ready to provide assistance to landslide-affected areas
BEIJING (August 12, 2010) — The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is preparing to respond to requests for emergency assistance for children and families affected by the devastating landslides in Zhouqu County in Northwest China’s Gansu Province.
State media reported that as of today, the landslide, the deadliest to hit China in six decades, has caused 702 deaths with 1,042 missing and 45,000 people evacuated.
The Government of China has dispatched rescue teams, medical support, emergency relief supplies and soldiers to Zhouqu County. The Zhouqu County Center of Disease Control’s office, along with cold chain equipment, refrigerators and vaccine transport vehicles have been severely damaged. Rescue efforts continue to be hindered, however, by rains and heavy mudflows which have blocked major roads.
As students are currently on summer vacation, school was not in session when the landslide struck. However, in any emergency, young children are among the most vulnerable.
It is reported that the schools buildings of the No.1 and No. 2 Chengguan Town Primary Schools, and the County Kindergarten have been severely damaged or have totally collapsed, causing an unknown number of teacher casualties and loss of educational facilities. This may pose some challenges for the new school semester, scheduled to start in early September.
UNICEF has been in close contact with government counterparts in Zhouqu County, since late 2008, when UNICEF introduced its Maternal and Child Health (MCH) and immunization programs in the aftermath of the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Zhouqu County was one of the counties in Gansu Province most severely affected by that emergency.
UNICEF has received news of the following urgent needs:
- Ambulances, emergency medical equipment for safe delivery and neonatal care. The Zhouqu County MCH Hospital has been flooded, and the entire building and all the medical equipment in it have been destroyed.
- Support for the emergency measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and Hepatitis A vaccination campaigns that will target 10,000 children aged 8 months to 6 years; provide freezer room for vaccine storage, vehicles for transport of vaccines, and IT equipment to recover the Child Immunization Registry Information System, which will allow health staff to better plan and monitor vaccination campaigns.
UNICEF remains in close contact with local and central-level government counterparts and is mobilizing urgently-needed supplies for children and women in the emergency zone.
About UNICEF
UNICEF has saved more children's lives than any other humanitarian organization in the world. Working in over 150 countries, UNICEF provides children with health care, clean water, nutrition, education, emergency relief, and more. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF supports UNICEF's work through fundraising, advocacy, and education in the United States.
UNICEF is at the forefront of efforts to reduce child mortality worldwide. There has been substantial progress: the annual number of under-five deaths dropped from 13 million in 1990 to 8.8 million in 2008. But still, 24,000 children die each day from preventable causes. Our mission is to do whatever it takes to make that number zero by giving children the essentials for a safe and healthy childhood. For more information, visit www.unicefusa.org.
For additional information, please contact:
Marci Greenberg, U.S. Fund for UNICEF, 212.922.2464, mgreenberg@unicefusa.org
Lauren Monahan, U.S. Fund for UNICEF, 212.880.9136, lmonahan@unicefusa.org
Kiní Schoop, U.S. Fund for UNICEF, 212.922.2634, kschoop@unicefusa.org
