Protecting Haiti’s Children A ‘Top Priority’

Protecting Haiti’s Children A ‘Top Priority’ -- UNICEF

Wellington, 5 February 2010. – Keeping children safe and reuniting them with family is a major concern in post-quake Haiti, says UNICEF NZ.

Thousands of children are believed to have become lost and separated from their families in the chaos following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake last month.

UNICEF NZ Executive Director, Dennis McKinlay, says that children on their own are easy targets for child traffickers or others wanting to exploit them for child labour, sex or other purposes.

“It is vital that the well-being and safety of these children be assured. They have a right to be protected from people who would do them harm.

“We are working closely with the Haitian Government and partner agencies on a range of measures to protect children, including identifying vulnerable children, accompanying them to ‘safe spaces’, and tracing missing family members.

“UNICEF has visited more than 160 orphanages and other child centres to assess children’s needs and provide essential relief supplies, including special children’s kits. The kits contain blankets, sleeping mats, towels, clothing, and toiletries, and will reach up to 50,000 orphaned children.

“We are supporting the Haitian Government through the positioning of child protection staff at border points where people may attempt to illegally remove children from Haiti and broadcasting child protection messages to the public.”

Mr McKinlay says that in the longer term adoption will be a positive option for children whose parents were killed in the earthquake.

“Before adoptions can be initiated, however, we have to ensure that children are safe and establish if relatives are still alive. In the best interests of the children concerned, proper adoption processes need to be followed and that will take time.”

Mr McKinlay says that the emergency is causing an enormous humanitarian need for the estimated 1.5 million children affected.

With crowded conditions increasing the risk of childhood diseases spreading, UNICEF is supporting an emergency immunization campaign that will reach 500,000 children under 7-years-of-age. Children are being immunized against measles, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.

Lack of water and sanitation is posing a threat from water-borne diseases like diarrhoea and cholera that can kill young children. UNICEF is providing safe drinking water to more than half a million people each day at hundreds of sites in and around Port-au-Prince, as well as supporting the provision of hundreds of latrines.

ENDS

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