UNICEF Brings Relief To Hurricane-Ravaged Cuba, Turks And Caicos Islands
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) staff in Cuba are rushing to provide clean water and sanitation to the areas
hardest hit this week by Hurricane Ike, the fourth deadly tropical storm to batter the Caribbean region with torrential
rains and heavy winds within the past month.
Preventing outbreaks of infectious disease is now the top priority in the wake of Ike, UNICEF's deputy representative in
Cuba, Viviana Limpias, said yesterday from Havana.
"We are also concerned with the status of schools and recreational facilities for children on the island, given that the
return to school has been pushed back until further notice and many classrooms are currently being used as shelters,"
Ms. Limpias said.
More than 2.5 million Cubans have been evacuated from their homes in recent weeks because of either Hurricane Gustav or
Ike, which pummelled the island country within nine days of each other. Many hospitals, schools and entire communities
remain without electricity and hundreds of roads have been washed away.
In Cuba's western-most province of Pinar del Rio, where winds during Gustav reached 340 kilometres per hour, 600 out of
930 schools were damaged, and many were completely destroyed. Cropland was also badly damaged.
Food and water have been identified as the most urgent needs, especially for the displaced, while jerry cans, kitchen
utensils, mattresses, sheets, towels and water filters are also being procured.
Ms. Limpias added that natural disasters on the scale of the hurricanes are especially frightening for children.
"More funding will be needed to ensure children's well-being since we are expecting several other hurricanes in the next
few months."
UNICEF officials are also in the Turks and Caicos Islands, which were ravaged by Ike last weekend, to conduct a relief
assessment. More than 80 per cent of homes, schools and other public buildings were damaged on Grand Turk and South
Caicos islands, two isles in the chain.
"We sent in a team as soon as it was possible to secure flights into the worst-affected areas and, once we determine the
needs, UNICEF will respond," the agency's representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Tom Olsen, said
yesterday.
UNICEF is also one of many UN agencies, along with the peacekeeping mission known as MINUSTAH, at work in Haiti to try
to bring relief to the country suffering most as a result of the series of tropical storms.
At least 300 Haitians have been killed and some 800,000 people are in urgent need of assistance, particularly in the
northern city of Gonaïves, which has been inundated by flood waters.
Yesterday the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes called on Member States and donors to fund the $100 million
humanitarian flash appeal launched this week to alleviate the plight of Haitians.
ENDS