29th July, 2015
More than 10,000 children affected by earthquakes in Nepal have been identified as "acutely malnourished" and about a million children continue to live in areas at "high risk" of landslides and floods, UNICEF said this week.
In a review published three months after earthquakes devastated the small Asian nation, the child-focused UN agency said that while the humanitarian situation in the country has improved since the quakes struck on 25th April and 12th May, 10,000 children remain "acutely malnourished" including more than 1,000 with "severely acute" malnourishment.
The report said that more than 200 children remain without a parent or caregiver and more than 600 have lost one or both of their parents to the quakes. Nearly 900,000 houses have been damaged or destroyed and more than 32,000 classrooms have been destroyed and, citing a Nepalese Government-led assessment, it said between 700,000 and almost a million people face being pushed below the international poverty line of $US1.25 a day.
UNICEF said that that "as the rainy season takes hold", access to some areas where children remain at risk of landsliders and floods is becoming "increasingly challenging, threatening these children”s access to water, sanitation, education and health services and putting them at a higher risk of exploitation and abuse, including trafficking."
UNICEF is providing $US15 million worth of direct cash transfers to approximately 330,000 households in Nepal, representing an estimated 450,000 children, who live in 19 districts most affected by the earthquakes. The organisation said the support is being channeled through existing government social assistance programs and aims to reach vulnerable individuals including Dalit children, people with disabilities, widows, the elderly and marginalised ethnic groups.
Tomoo Hozumi, UNICEF representative in Nepal, said the fact poor households when faced with difficult times often resort to harmful coping strategies, such as reducing food consumption, cutting health and education expenditure, and sending children to work, "can have irreversible negative consequences on them and more so on their children".
"The top-up cash provided will help vulnerable households to at least meet some of their basic needs such as food and medicine without further resorting to harmful coping strategies during these lean times," he said.
– DAVID ADAMS
