Immunization Campaigns for Earthquake Survivors in Haiti

UNICEF correspondent Guy Hubbard on the ongoing effort to supply sanitation, food, immunization and education to earthquake survivors in Haiti.

Immunization Campaigns for Earthquake Survivors in Haiti Guy Hubbard: One month on, the impact of earthquake continues to shake those who survived it. Through the massive population displacement, malnutrition rates high at the best of times are expected to rise. So UNICEF and partners have opened or reopened 81 facilities catering to the out-patient treatment of severe acute malnutrition. On nutrition part in WFP has through a systematic food distribution provided a two weeks worth of food to an estimated 2 million Haitians. UNICEF and partnership of the Ministry of Health has also launched the country wide immunization campaign to circumvent the spread of disease in the cramp and four more settlements. The campaign targets children under 7 and vaccinates against measles rubella, tetanus and diphtheria. Louis-Georges Arsenault: The humanitarian response will come to you for sometime. There's no doubt about that, reaching out to 216 camps, 400,000 people, 500,000 people have remains as I'm speaking today as one after remains of many big challenges. Not only for UNICEF, for the whole international. Guy Hubbard: Beyond basic survival, UNICEF’s core concern is being safety of children either orphaned or separated from their families during the quake. UNICEF has been registering these children and placing them in child-friendly facilities while working to track down their immediate or extended families. As primary survival and protection issues to deal with, the focus of shifting to education with approximately 5,000 schools damaged and half of the school going population affected, the education system has almost ceased to function. But UNICEF schools in the box have arrived at the organization’s storage facility in Port-au Prince and are being distributed. Working from the Ministry of Education, the goal is to get as many children back to the classroom as quickly as possible. Guido Cornale: This is a major challenge we ever have because all our school activities have been interrupted not only in the earthquake affected areas but also in the rest of the country due to the state of emergency and due to the heavy migration of populations outside Port-au Prince. Guy Hubbard: One month on, UNICEF and its partners are committed and are continuing their life saving interventions throughout Haiti's affected areas. But there are also building on these interventions to ensure the country’s children are able to survive and even thrive in the aftermath of tragedy. Their futures and the future of Haiti depend on it. This is Guy Hubbard reporting for UNICEF television. Unite for children.