Typhoon Haiyan: How UNICEF is responding to children’s health needs

A volunteer measures a child’s upper arm circumference – a gauge of nutritional status
© UNICEF/Dianan Valcarcel Silvela

I have just returned from Tacloban. I am a UNICEF health specialist and travelled there as part of UNICEF’s global support to help colleagues working to restore health systems that protect children in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Yolande).

Even after my return home to Bangkok, I am still awed by the fury of the Typhoon, its massive destruction. I am also struck by the strength and the spirit of the people whose lives it decimated. Among the heaps of debris, there are signs that announce “we will rise again” and “homeless, roofless but not hopeless”.

Typhoon Haiyan: Jhana and Gwendolyn's story

Jhana with her UNICEF hygiene kit in Tacloban
© UNICEF Philippines/2013/Kent Page

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Tacloban has become a makeshift home for 300 families whose homes were wiped out by Super Typhoon Haiyan. Among them is 20-year old Jhana, a proud new mother of a very special daughter, Gwendolyn.

Gwendolyn was born just one week before Haiyan struck. "The typhoon washed away our home" says Jhana , as she breast feeds Gwendolyn amongst the hundreds of others sheltered amongst the church pews. "But she is my angel and I will do everything to make her life beautiful."

Typhoon Haiyan diary: Mud and ruin in Tacloban

By Nonoy Fajardo, Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Specialist

A boy displaced by Typhoon Haiyan in the city of Tacloban, Philippines
© UNICEF Philippines/2013/JMaitem 

I have been working on emergencies for more than 15 years now, and I seriously thought I had seen it all. But flying into Tacloban on Monday as part of a UN assessment team, I was in for a shock. As the plane taxied along the bare runway, I could see mud and ruin – only mud and ruin – where once there had been trees and buildings and all the normal signs of life.

Yes there was still a tarmac runway, but that was all that was there: a runway. Everything that had once been inside the terminal buildings was now outside, and what had been outside was now inside, even including a flight of stairs. We were told to avoid parts of the ruined buildings because there were still bodies in the rubble, where airport employees had sought refuge.

Typhoon Haiyan diary: Aid is getting through

By Christopher de Bono (Regional Chief of Communication, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific)

A child displaced by Typhoon Haiyan in an evacuation centre in Tacloban
© UNICEF Philippines/2013/JMaitem

It’s day four since Typhoon Haiyan hit, and the good news is aid is getting through. And I’m proud to say that UNICEF’s water and sanitation supplies – the aid category that we are leading on – are now in Tacloban, where they will help us avoid the much-feared outbreaks of typhus and cholera. Other agencies are leading on food, shelter and medicine.

The bad news is that not enough is getting through. Despite the amazing, tireless efforts of the Philippines Government and army, and all my colleagues in the aid community, we are still not reaching everyone in dire need.

Typhoon Haiyan diary: "There is nowhere to go"

Written by Chris de Bono

A mother carries her daughter as they walk in Tacloban, Leyte, Philippines
© UNICEF Philippines/2013/JMaitem

I just got off the phone with Leon Dominador Fajardo, or 'Nonoy' for short, a UNICEF Emergency Specialist in Tacloban City. He is a thorough professional – an old hand who has seen disasters and devastation before, but there was a quiver in his voice. “People, families with children are walking along the ruined roads,” he said. “I don’t know where they are going – there is nowhere to go. They are walking because their homes are gone and they have nowhere to go.”

It had taken him a hour to get out of the airport because of the debris. Some other colleagues had been stuck in the airport overnight. The roads are almost impassible in the pitch black night and the risk of accidents is very real – to drivers and passengers but more importantly to people camping on the street.