FROM THE FIELD
Donate to the U.S. Emergencies Fund and support our work. (August 29, 2008) - Save the Children has dispatched an emergency response
team to the Gulf Coast to expand its ability to assist children and families who might be displaced by Hurricane Gustav, which is bearing down on the Louisiana coast as a possible category-3 storm. Save the Children - which assisted over 190,000 children and caregivers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama after Hurricane Katrina - continues to provide long-term education and nutrition
programs in the Gulf region. Save the Children has been operating children-focused programs on the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans exactly three years ago
today. Forecasters are predicting the new storm could strike New Orleans early next week which is why Save the Children's programs focus on not only helping children and communities recover,
but also on preparing for new emergencies. Save the Children staff members are preparing to hand out 1,500 children's evacuation backpacks at the two mass shelters that are
being set up in Louisiana in anticipation of a major evacuation of families from the Gulf Coast. Save the Children is also prepared to establish safe spaces for children in shelters.
The agency has pre-deployed kits to set up safe spaces in shelters established by the Red Cross, with whom Save the Children has partnered, to ensure the protection and well-being of children. Save
the Children also plans to work to ensure that child-care centers can quickly re-establish services and schools can rebound so students do not fall behind in their education. "Children
are extremely vulnerable during an emergency and evacuation," said Mark Shriver, Save the Children's vice president for U.S. programs. "We know from experience that their needs are often
overlooked during the confusion before, during and after a disaster. Save the Children will be there to provide safe activities for children in shelters and to help them and their parents return to
the normalcy once the danger has passed." Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating lasting change for children in the United States and in more than 50
countries around the world. For more than 75 years, the agency has been helping children survive and thrive by improving their health, education and economic opportunities and, in times of acute
crisis, mobilizing assistance to help children recover from the effects of war, conflict and natural disasters. Donate to the U.S. Emergencies Fund and support our work. Your contribution will help Save the Children's U.S. disaster
programs focus on four key areas in this and future U.S. crises: creating Safe Spaces in community gathering places; supporting the recovery of organizations that children and families depend on;
offering emergency preparedness workshops for children and their care providers; and building children's and caregiver's resilience. Find out how you can help children by
reading Save the Children's Ten Tips for Helping Children Cope with Disasters [ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
