Disaster Response Syrian Arab Republic Project #22709

UNICEF Emergency Response

by UNICEF USA

Project Report | Jan 19, 2022
Update: Emergency Response in Yemen and Ethiopia

By Kelly Procida | Manager, Global Cause Partnerships

UNICEF/UN0565901/

Dear Friend,

Seven years into the conflict, Yemen remains one of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with 20.7 million people — 71 percent of the total population — in need of humanitarian assistance. Significant challenges continue to persist, including limited access to the most vulnerable populations, increased fighting in Marib Governorate, heavy rains destroying shelters of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and threatening infrastructure, continued high rates of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) cases, and conflict-torn areas forcing families to flee from their homes.

As of the end of October 2021, four million people, including two million children, continue to be internally displaced. In addition, as of late 2020, Yemen hosted approximately 138,000 migrants and 177,600 refugees and asylum-seekers. Over 90 percent of migrants are of Ethiopian origin and are mostly in transit to Gulf countries to seek livelihood opportunities. Approximately 2.3 million children are facing acute malnutrition and more than 15.4 million people cannot access water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. Furthermore, approximately 20.1 million people need assistance to access health services. Women and children continue to be disproportionately affected with 4.8 million women, 10.2 million children, three million people with disabilities, and 2.1 million men requiring assistance to access health services.

Thanks to your support, UNICEF has responded to emergencies across the globe including Yemen. Between January and October 2021, UNICEF has ensured that:

4,632,037 conflict-affected children and caregivers were reached through Mine Risk Education (MRE) activities;
653,676 children were vaccinated against measles;
216,126 children were admitted for sever acute malnutrition treatment;
4,133,897 women, girls and boys accessed gender-based violence risk mitigation, prevention or response interventions;
7,363,745 people had access to safe water; and
30,784 households received humanitarian cash transfers

The overall humanitarian situation in Tigray continued to deteriorate with the resumption of airstrikes in the capital, Mekelle and surrounding areas, and expansion of the conflict affecting several areas in Amhara and Afar regions. Malnutrition among children and women worsened. Findings indicate an average severe acute malnutrition (SAM) rate of 2.5 percent, moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) rate of 13.2 percent, and an average of 66 percent of screened pregnant and lactating women (PLW) are malnourished.

Over 377,000 people were displaced as of the end of November, of whom over 200,000 people were newly displaced and had settled in 12 Internally Displaced People (IDP) sites. Of the total population displaced, more than 70,000 were children under the age of five and over 190,000 were women. Furthermore, severe drought worsened in the month of November across parts of Somali and Oromia regions. In Somali, over 2.4 million people faced acute water shortages. Since October 2021, the education of over 100,000 students has been disrupted in the drought-affected areas with the partial of full closure of 1,100 schools.

With your generous support, UNICEF is responding to the needs of children across the globe, including Ethiopia. UNICEF and partners worked to ensure that vulnerable communities have been reached through the following interventions:

2,067,004 children received Vitamin A supplementation;
1,154,191 children and women accessed primary healthcare;
4,442,745 people accessed safe water;
101,202 children and caregivers had access to mental health and psychosocial support; and
191,553 children were able to access education

In 2022, UNICEF will continue to provide life-saving assistance for children in some of the hardest-to-reach districts. With public services near collapse, UNICEF will support health and nutrition interventions through community-based activities for affected populations, including internally displaced persons. UNICEF WASH interventions will include providing durable, cost-effective solutions that strengthen the resilience of local institutions and communities, including in the context of COVID-19. UNICEF will support interventions that build the resilience of affected children through life-skills education and psychosocial support in community spaces, schools and hospitals; mitigate the risk of injuries from exposure to landmines and explosive remnants of war through targeted campaigns; and provide services to children with acute protection needs.

On behalf of the vulnerable children of Yemen and Ethiopia, thank you for your support!

In partnership,

Kelly Procida

UNICEF/UN0539203/

Permalink

Sep 28, 2021
Update: Emergency Response in Afghanistan & Haiti

By Kelly Procida | Manager, Global Cause Partnerships

UNICEF/UN0518455/Bidel

Dear Friend,

For many years, Afghanistan has been one of the most dangerous places on earth to be a child – and over the past few months, children have been faced with fresh conflict, violence and turmoil. Even at the start of 2021, 18.4 million people – around half of the population - were in need of humanitarian assistance, nearly 10 million of them children. But the humanitarian situation has greatly deteriorated in recent months due to the triple impacts of conflict, COVID-19 and drought, leaving Afghanistan’s children facing a more precarious future than ever. Since the end of May, the number of people displaced by conflict has more than doubled and now stands at 575,000. In addition, pressures on livelihoods and harvests have left 12 million people experiencing emergency or crisis levels of food insecurity.

The situation is fluid and unpredictable – but UNICEF has been delivering life-saving support in Afghanistan for 70 years, and UNICEF is here to stay. Throughout its time in the country, UNICEF has built trust with communities and nurtured community networks, developed lasting relationships with local partners, negotiated with all parties to conflict for access, and become adept at delivering life-saving supplies and services in difficult circumstances. As needs continue to increase in the face of this current complex crisis, UNICEF’s humanitarian work in Afghanistan is more critical than ever.

Thanks to your support, so far in 2021, UNICEF has reached 1.7 million people with humanitarian assistance and despite the many challenges and uncertainties arising from recent events, UNICEF and partners are already supporting mobile health and nutrition teams in camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Since the beginning of August, some 2,500 children and 1,700 pregnant and lactating women received basic health services in IDP settlements. Nutrition programs are ongoing and during August, an estimated 11,000 children under the age of five who are suffering from severe acute malnutrition were reached with treatment. In terms of the education response, UNICEF has distributed textbooks, classroom materials and tents in six provinces benefiting over 7,500 children. UNICEF is also providing safe water through water trucking to 12,500 drought-affected people in the Nimroz province which is one of the most water-stressed areas in the country.

UNICEF recently leveraged U-Report, which is a UNICEF-supported free, text message-based service to launch a poll to 100,000 Afghans, including 15,000 girls, to understand their most pressing needs. Most individuals responded that they need cash-based assistance to sustain a livelihood, especially with the winter months ahead. As such, UNICEF is scaling up its cash transfer program which aims to reach 20,000 households (around 140,000 beneficiaries) in the provinces that are most affected by multiple emergencies and which have the highest multidimensional poverty levels, including Samangan, Farah, Faryab, Herat and Kandahar. UNICEF appreciates the commitment of partners and donors to stand together with UNICEF, as it stands with Afghanistan’s children

------------------

On August 14, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the southwestern departments of Haiti, resulting in the death of over 2,200 people and leaving a further 12,200 people injured. Approximately 130,000 homes were destroyed, putting thousands of people in urgent need of assistance. Overall, the earthquake is projected to have affected over 800,000 people, including 340,000 children. Unfortunately, two days after the earthquake, Tropical Depression Grace made landfall in Haiti, causing heavy rains which delayed immediate relief efforts and further compounded the humanitarian situation.

These disasters struck Haiti as the country was reeling from the assassination on July 7 of former President Jovenel Moïse, as well as an escalation of gang violence that has led to the displacement of 19,000 people since September. UNICEF reported that gang violence in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince forced nearly 8,500 women and children to flee their homes in just two weeks during the month of June.

Thanks in part to your support, since August 14, UNICEF has been able to scale up its emergency response activities in Haiti. Some of these activities include:

Provided emergency medical kits that contain essential medicines and supplies to several hospitals which will serve 30,000 people for three months. UNICEF also provided tents for the continuity of health care for hospitals which were destroyed;
Reaching over 73,000 people on a regular basis with safe water through water trucking, portable water tanks and water treatment plants;
Identified 14 children who were separated from their families during the earthquake and is currently conducting family tracing activities to reunite them with their caregivers. The identification of further separated children is ongoing;
Set up recreational spaces throughout communities and health facilities to reach children with mental health support activities; and
Coordinating with the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN as well as World Food Program to target 100,000 households with humanitarian cash transfers to help families meet their most pressing needs.

Of particular concern is the impact that the earthquake has had on the education sector. According to the latest assessments, over 730 schools have been damaged or destroyed, leaving 100,000 children at risk of not being to access an education this year. UNICEF is supporting the Ministry of Education to rapidly provide learning spaces for children where it will support the implementation of emergency curriculum for children ages 3-18 as well as provide early childhood development materials, school furniture, textbooks, and teaching materials. In addition, UNICEF will provide the most vulnerable families with cash transfers to support their children’s continued education. While the emergency education response is ongoing, UNICEF will support the rehabilitation of nearly 2,800 individual damaged classrooms

UNICEF and partners have developed a six-month response plan in which UNICEF will continue to work with the government and other partners to provide humanitarian assistance and recovery support to the people most affected by the earthquake, while working to ensure the continuity of essential health, nutrition; water, sanitation and hygiene; education and child protection services.

On behalf of the vulnerable children of Haiti, thank you for your support!

UNICEF/UN0521943/Ergen

Permalink

Jun 1, 2021
Update: Supporting Communities Throughout India

By Whitney Simon | Manager, Global Cause Partnerships

Dear Friend,

In January and February 2021, a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, India appeared to be recovering from the first wave of cases in 2020. However, since March there has been a significant resurgence in the number of cases. By April, the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic had hit India hard, straining the country’s healthcare systems to a breaking point. In the peak of this second wave, four new cases were recorded every second and more than two deaths every minute.In addition, the country’s COVID-19 response is further challenged by climate emergencies. About 24 million children are impacted by floods, drought, cyclones, and other hazards that exacerbate underlying vulnerabilities on a recurrent basis in India.

With your generous support, UNICEF is leading preparedness and response efforts to address the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19, natural disasters, and civil strife, targeting the most vulnerable, including people in slums and migrant families. Your generosity has ensured UNICEF is positioned to protect children and their families from exposure to COVID-19, to minimize the impacts of public health measures, address the socioeconomic consequences, and maintain access and provision of basic social services in the following ways:

Reduce COVID-19 transmission and mortality by strengthening risk communication and community engagement interventions to reach communities with lifesaving information and community-led approaches that promote healthy and safe lifestyles, tackle misinformation around COVID-19 and increase adoption of vaccines, treatment and tests.
Improve infection prevention and control through the provision of safe water, sanitation and hygiene services and supplies for people in highly vulnerable rural and urban communities, in health facilities, schools, pre-schools, quarantine centers, immunization centers.
Ensure continuity and sustained access to basic health services for children and their families through support for facilities such as health clinics and schools and by building upon the capacity of frontline workers.
Respond to the impact and consequences of natural disasters and civil strife through bolstering resilience to predictable hazards by enhancing child-centered disaster risk management systems and risk-informed programming.

Thank you for continuing to stand along UNICEF to support communities impacted by humanitarian disasters around the world to make this work possible. With your help, UNICEF has been able to reach crisis-affected and vulnerable children and adolescents in India with lifesaving assistance and services. By contributing to this work, you are providing critical support to UNICEF, increasing its ability to strengthen essential systems during the pandemic and ensure access to lifesaving services for vulnerable populations.

In Partnership,

Whitney

Links:

As India Faces Brutal COVID-19 Crisis, UNICEF Is There to Help

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 12 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.