Cyclone Nargis leaves at least 400 orphans in Myanmar

Asia-Pacific News

Jul 7, 2008, 10:18 GMT

Yangon - Two months after Cyclone Nargis smashed into Myanmar's central coast leaving at least 138,000 dead or missing, the number of children still searching for their parents exceeds 400, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced Monday. 'The most serious issue in child protection in the aftermath of the cyclone is the problem of separated and unaccompanied children,' said UNICEF, one of a host of UN agencies and non-governmental organizations that have participated in the Cyclone Nargis relief operation. 'There were 428 children separated from their parents by the cyclone, of whom 15 have been reunited with their families,' said UNICEF's spokesperson Zafrin Chowdhury. According to government figures Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar on May 2-3, killed more than 84,000 people and left 54,000 missing, most of them washed away by a tidal wave that accompanied the storm. UNICEF identified children left orphaned or separated from their parents as the most vulnerable victims of the natural disaster. The UN agency, in collaboration with the social Welfare Ministry, has set up 51 child-friendly spaces in temporary settlements to help children find their parents and aims to establish 100 in the Yangon and Irrawaddy provinces, that were hardest hit by the storm. Remarkably, to date there has been no major outbreak of dengue, cholera or typhoid in the cyclone-hit region, despite the tardiness of the international relief efforts that were initially delayed by the government's reluctance to allow aid and foreign experts in to the areas. UNICEF claimed to have distributed medical supplies including oral rehydration salts, antibiotics, infusion, vaccines and Vitamin A enough to treat 600,000 people, including children, against diarrhea, malaria and dengue over the past two months. 'We anticipated outbreaks in the affected areas and tried out best to prevent them,' said Chowdhury. 'I was also impressed by local communities' response to the disaster, especially by the monks who helped to organize the villagers,' she added.

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Cyclone Nargis leaves at least 400 orphans in Myanmar

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