How UNICEF is helping
Elementary school students in Banda Aceh eagerly receive UNICEF supplied school-in-the-box and recreational kits on their first day at school since the tsunami hit.|
11 April 2005
Key UNICEF Actions
Working closely with government and partners, UNICEF has:
Health and Nutrition
- Vaccinated more than 202,000 children against measles, as part of an ongoing immunization campaign for all children 6 months – 15 years, in 17 affected districts in the Aceh province. Children are also being given doses of Vitamin A to boost their immune systems.
- Established five supplementary feeding centers to help combat malnutrition among young children and pregnant women.
- Provided essential micronutrients including iron supplementation for pregnant women, zinc supplementation for children, and oral rehydration treatment for children suffering from diarrhoea. UNICEF has distributed 500,000 iron tablets for pregnant women and 909,000 sachets of oral rehydration salts.
- Reached 95,000 people with essential health supplies including essential drugs to treat infections and other medical conditions, basic and essential medical and surgical supplies and equipment.
- Provided more than150,000 women and children with bed nets to protect against malaria.
- Established 17 centers in camps in the six most-affected districts to register and trace separated and unaccompanied children. Besides family tracing, the centers also provide recreational activities for children and structured counseling for parents and children. More than 11,000 children used these centers in the first ten weeks of operation.
- Conducted training programs for the Indonesian military and female police officers on child protection issues and gender violence. The women police patrol the child centers in temporary camps.
- Provided emergency school supplies and learning material for the resumption of classes. Schools reopened on January 26, the day after UNICEF’s “Back-to-Learning” campaign was launched with the distribution of school-in-a-box and recreation kits for 20,000 children in Banda Aceh. To date, UNICEF has distributed over 4,600 school-in-a-box kits, 4,667 recreation kits and 38,800 sets of exercise books, meeting the needs of 373,000 children.
- Provided tents to temporarily replace destroyed schools and provide additional learning spaces in schools with a high influx of students.
- Recruited and trained 2,000 new teachers.
Water and Sanitation
- Provided some 24,000 people with 120,000 litres of safe drinking water a day through water tankering activities.
- Distributed more than 754,000 water purification tablets to approximately 9,000 families.
- Distributed over 32,000 hygiene kits to children and families in temporary camps. Each kit contains bath soaps, toothbrushes, toothpaste, a bucket, towels and sanitary napkins.
- Conducted hygiene education campaigns in the 15 largest temporary camps in Banda Aceh.
- Carried out a “Clean Start” programme that ensured schools were safe and clean for the start of classes.
Key UNICEF supplies procured offshore
Cooking sets for families to use during emergencies. UNICEF has shipped 4,200 cooking sets to Indonesia. Each set contains cooking pots, bowls and cups.
Mosquito nets to prevent children and their families from contracting malaria. UNICEF has shipped 20,000 long lasting mosquito nets to Indonesia. A long lasting net is a ready-to-use net pre-treated with insecticide, requiring no further treatment during its expected life span.
Oral rehydration salts (ORS) to replace lost fluids and salt in cases of acute diarrhoea. 1.2 million ORS sachets have been shipped to Indonesia.
Tarpaulin rolls (4x50m) and sheets (4x5m) to provide basic shelter and protection for up to 42,840 families.
School-in-a-box kits containing basic school supplies for 301,950 children.
Emergency health kits for 55,000 people for 3 months. Emergency health kits are designed to help meet the initial primary health care needs of displaced populations who are without medical facilities. Each kit contains drugs, medical supplies, and basic medical equipment.
Recreation kits for 21,600 children. Each kit contains balls for several types of games, frisbees, skipping ropes, coloured tunics for different teams, chalk and a measuring tape for marking play areas and a whistle and scoring slate.