After the Floods
The floods which swept across SE Asia last year wrought devastation, death and distress in many already vulnerable communities. They also galvanized Governments and agencies into action to alleviate the impact, and many instances have emerged of excellent collaborative work responding to the crisis.
Our own programs worked tirelessly to assist victims of the waters, in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in Cambodia, and particularly across the border in Thailand, where the floods had a largely unforeseen impact in Bangkok, home to our Peuan Peuan program. (You can read numerous blog posts right here on this site about the amazing Peuan Peuan team pulling together during the crisis.)
In recent weeks the Bangkok-based Friends-International team has been working closely with the Government and other agencies to evaluate responses to the flooding (especially issues around child protection in emergencies) and to collate lessons learned into strategic planning for just such eventualities in the future. Among those involved in this process have been UNICEF, Save the Children UK, Plan International, World Vision Foundation (Thailand) and many others. One document has already been published, ‘Child Protection in Emergencies’, and further results will appear in March of this year. The findings will provide useful tools for effective implementation of child protection procedures in emergency situations which potentially can have wider practical impact also.
