Thursday, June 26, 2008

UNICEF external situation report Myanmar cyclone Nargis, 25 Jun 2008

Needs Assessment

The current estimate of the population in the three camps in Laputta is around 8,000, with an additional 600 people living in nearby monasteries, as they await transportation back to their villages. UNICEF staff that have visited both the camps and villages agree that the conditions are better in the camps in terms of the availability of food, safe water, adequate shelter and sanitation, vector control and basic health services. More than 30,000 people have moved back to their own or other people’s villages from Laputta proper in the last three and a half weeks. The main priority of the team in Laputta is to provide assistance to the villages.

There is concern that time is running out for the planting of paddy seeds. Up to now, 32,000 baskets of paddy seeds have been received for Laputta Township, which will cover 15,000 acres. There are more than 300,000 acres for rice cultivation in Laputta. This concern is not confined to Laputta, but all the affected townships in Irrawaddy.

It has been estimated that there are approximately 20,000 to 25,000 people, who are yet to receive any assistance in the south west part of Bogalay. The need for assistance is huge.

In Myaung Mya, the present camp population in the four official camps is 2,300. There are also around 950 people in 4 unofficial camps. In one of the unofficial camps the number of inhabitants has been growing slowly, despite encouragement from the local authorities for people to leave, as some people return to Myaung Mya from the villages. Conditions in the camps are in certain respects reasonable, with sufficient safe drinking water, sanitary latrines and food available. Vector control is carried out and there have been no reported disease outbreaks. The official camps are, however, very crowded and people do not have any proper bedding. Many people sleep on tarpaulin sheets, which have been donated.

UNICEF has so far dispatched over 200 missions to the affected townships of Yangon Division, with seven missions dispatched both yesterday and today. This week UNICEF’s focus in Yangon has altered slightly, as UNICEF will now focus its assistance on 13 rather than 14 townships. Thanlyin Township will no longer be one of the priority townships. The 13 priority townships are Kyauktan, Kee Myint Taing, Dala, Dagon East, Dagon Seikkan, Dagon South, Hlaintharyar, Shwe Pyi Thar, Kawhmu, Kungyangon, Twante, Thonkwa, and Kayan. These townships are covered by five field teams, each containing between two to eight people, with each team covering two or three townships. Each day they visit, at least, one township to distribute and monitor supplies and assess the present situation.

UNICEF Response

Health

In Laputta, four Measles cases and a few Dengue cases have been reported. Investigations are underway.

A demonstration on using Abate larvicide took place today in Laputta. For spraying, UNICEF has been supporting township health department, NGOs and HA teams with Deltamethrine.

In Pyapon, high larva density has been observed in household water containers in urban areas.

Also in Pyapon, DHF control has been carried out every Saturday in each ward of the township from June 7.

In Shwe Pyi Thar Township in Yangon, 33 cases of DHF have been identified since the cyclone, including 5 cases this week. UNICEF supported control measures are ongoing, which includes fogging and IEC.

UNICEF has distributed more than 300,000 copies of health and hygiene education booklets and 50,000 copies of dengue prevention pamphlets to the affected people through MOH as well as NGO partners.

Nutrition

Blanket feeding with BP-5 for children under five in affected areas in four townships with a high number of children ‘at risk’ of malnutrition has been initiated.

In Deadeye Township, following the training of Health Assistants from the Myanmar Health Assistant Association, an outpatient Therapeutic Feeding Programme will begin in difficult to reach areas.

WES

So far in Laputta, UNICEF has supported 58 villages from 19 village tracts with water, latrines and environmental sanitation activities. 35 ponds have been renovated by pumping out water.

Education

Almost all the schools in Laputta are reported to have been reopened, as have schools in the urban areas of Bogalay. It is still unclear whether or not schools will be established in the villages that were totally destroyed. MoE is now deploying one government teacher per affiliated (community) school. Data regarding numbers of children continues to be a great challenge and working with estimates affects delivery of supplies.

To date, MCO has set up 35 school tents in 35 villages in Bogalay and Laputta and has provided direct support to 32 communities for building their temporary schools and repairing school roofs. The first batch of school furniture has been dispatched to Laputta for use in the tent schools.

The draft teacher training document on psychosocial care has been developed and is currently under review by the MoE. Once approved this training module will be incorporated into the regular Child Friendly School training pack and will be provided to five affected townships in both Irrawaddy and Yangon Divisions.

Child Protection

CP teams, including two international staff, are currently stationed in Ngapudaw, Laputta, Pyapon and Bogalay. Staff are registering unaccompanied and separated children; carrying out family tracing; placing children with families; training community members to set up child-friendly spaces and watch groups; and collecting data. Activities are being carried out in collaboration with staff from the DSW, MRCS and other partners.

There are currently 39 UNICEF-supported Child-Friendly Spaces functioning in Irrawaddy Division, with 12 UNICEF supported Child-Friendly Spaces functioning in Yangon Division.

Child-friendly spaces help to normalize the lives of children. Activities include drawing, playing, drama, songs, story-telling, dancing along with other educational and recreational activities that help to fulfill children’s need for stability, routine, and supportive relationships. These activities also help to raise awareness, and to empower children to protect themselves and strengthen their life skills. Listening to children and encouraging them to ask questions is the key to the CFS approach.

CFSs are also being used as a springboard for preventative and outreach work. By fostering social connections and interactions CFSs can provide involvement in concrete and meaningful activities that give people a sense of accomplishment and control over their lives. CFSs also allow adults some time to recover and reenergize, so that they can continue to provide the support that children need.

Inter-Agency Collaboration and Key Partnerships/Clusters

UNICEF is actively leading four clusters, as well as participating in various other clusters as a deputy-lead or member.

Nutrition Cluster

The nutrition cluster meeting focused on better coordination and mapping at sub-township level, as there have been instances of overlap and duplication. The preliminary results from the Tripartite Village Tract assessment appear in line with the results of rapid assessments.

An overview of the nutrition cluster composition, objectives, achievements and challenges was presented to the Deputy Health Minister. Good Coordination with MOH was identified as a strength and unsolicited breast milk substitutes as a challenge.

Education Cluster

Nothing to report today.

Child Protection Cluster

The PCW Cluster Writing Team continues to analyse data from the Village Tract Assessment and is preparing inputs on the social impact on children, women and other vulnerable groups for the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report.

In Yangon Division, a total of 58 Child-Friendly spaces (CFS) are functioning, with 74 functioning in Irrawaddy Division.

WASH Cluster

The cluster inputs and project sheets for the Humanitarian Appeal have been submitted. The appeal aims to supply safe water and sanitation to 1.4 million people.

The first draft of technical guidelines for sanitation in high water table areas and for solid waste was presented at the cluster meeting yesterday.

World Vision, CESVI and UNICEF presented the status of implementation in the affected townships. It was agreed that coordination mechanisms at the township level need to be further strengthened.

The focus now is on supplying treated water, distributing chlorine and cleaning ponds.

Supply and Logistics

Since yesterday, 5 UNJLC flights have arrived, with 860 boxes of health supplies, 516 boxes of student bags, 10 crates of tents and steel frames and 1200 boxes of water purification tablets.

Also since yesterday, 140 life jackets; 43 tents (24 sq meter); 44,900 bed nets; 900 boxes of paracheck; 1 drum of abate (25kg); 8,758 sets of latrine pans & pipes; 80,000 bars of soap; 50 essential drug kit A; 4 essential drug kit B; 4,000 plastic buckets; 6,000 roofing sheets; 600 plain sheets; 2 cartons of roofing nails; 360 sets of tarpaulin; 10,000 essential learning packages; 1,500 cartons of emergency food ration; 1 emergency health kit; 5,000 clean delivery kits; 1,500 family kits and 4 dewatering pumps, with suction and discharge hoses, have been distributed to 8 townships in Irrawaddy Division.

The local procurement of school furniture, portable latrines, hygiene kits, carpenter's/mason's tool kits and tarpaulins has been finalized for ordering and several purchase orders for other relief supplies were issued.

Status of UNICEF Supplies Distribution As of 25 June 2008

Supplies for Family:

37,110 family kits, 58,717 sets of tarpaulin, 17,500 pairs of slippers for adult, 12,250 pairs of slippers for children from 5 to 14 and 5,250 pairs of slippers for under 5 children.

Health and Nutrition related supplies:

186,130 bed nets, 21,283 clean delivery kits, 57,662 masks and 28,132 gloves, 42 cold boxes, 474 vaccine carriers and 2 Deep Freezers.

1,916 essential drug kit A, 178 first aid kits, 169 essential drug kit B, 58 emergency health kits (Basic Unit), 8,179 bottles of 20gm Zinc tablet (100 tablets per bottle), 8 trauma medicines for emergency and 504,700 packets of ORS.

2 set of Emergency Health for supplementary (which includes supplementary 1, 2 and 3) 23 set of Emergency Health for supplementary for malaria and 18 cartons of CMV (multi-vitamin).

100 MUAC, 3,010 cartons of Plumpy nutrition, 875 cartons of F-100, 127 cartons of Phased 1 milk F-75, 38 cartons of Resomal and 500 Vit A bottles were sent accordingly.

30 lots of 15 additional drugs items, 200 kits of feminine and 69,000 tablets of Doxyclcline.

1 lot of MERCY relief, donated from Singapore which includes 50 items health related supply and 24/cartons of 4,495 Emergency Food Ration (NRG 5).

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene related supplies:

3,301 jerry cans (20 litre) and 43,100 (10 litre), 54,547 plastic buckets (14 liter), 1,000 of plastic pails. 657 drums of bleaching powder, 22,593 bottles of water guard (250ml), 149 cans of water guard (20ltr), 2 water bladders, 4,667,608 water purification tablets, 89 water storage tanks, 2 unit of water treatment unit and 10 coil High Density of Poly Ethylene.

190 life jacket, 20 long rubber boots and 1 Rubber boots.

900 water family kits, 9 water tank pillows (5,000L) and 5 water tank pillows (50,000L).

34,000kg of lime power, 1 lot of pipes and accessories and 19,285 sets of latrine pans and pipes.

626,561 packets of soaps and 47,900 pack of sanitary napkins, 21,300 of female underwear L-size and 10,600 of female underwear M-size.

19 boxes of WTU accessories, 5 Water Purification Units, 25 water tanks, which can contain up to 400 gallons, 400 bottles of 6 litre and 3,600 bottle of 0.6 litre drinking water.

Child Protection related supplies:

1,846 ECD/CFS kits have been distributed child friendly spaces opened in affected townships.

Education related supplies:

148 tents have been opened as temporary learning spaces in affected areas.

150,291 line roofing sheets, 14,058 plain roofing sheets, 1,726 kg of nail, 402 ‘school in a box’, 776 recreation kits and 40,433 essential learning packages were also provided to schools in affected townships.

In additions to above supplies, the health promotion communication section has distributed 29,000 DHF pamphlets together with 12,000 dengue fever books, 45 vinyl DHF posters and 7,000 MOH Pamphlet to the affected areas. Moreover, 100 each of Mega phones were distributed in Irrawaddy.

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