Children of the floods

Out and about over the weekend helping with relief efforts, our Program Director in Bangkok, Ann, has sent us this report on one of the emergency shelters there…

‘The Rajabhat Panakorn University in Bangkok was set up as last week as an emergency shelter for flood evacuees and is now full to capacity. Other areas of the campus are now being opened to evacuees who continue to come in from the northern areas of Bangkok, including Thung Songhong, Don Muang andLaksi.

Of the 1300 people currently in the emergency shelter, almost a third are children and most of those are very young, up to seven years old. About 60 are babies who are still in need of milk.

Facilities are cramped but clean; children are able to stay with their families and university students are on support shifts, helping where they can.

Medical facilities are very limited – fortunately at the moment not many people are ill, but there is one baby who is quite sick, and there are people suffering from TB and living with HIV among the evacuees, so specialist support is needed here… undoubtably this situation will worsen, as exposure to dirty floodwaters does carry significant health risks.

This is a very big facility, with children everywhere and nothing for them to do, so we (Peuan Peuan) are hoping to work with UNICEF to set up activities and of course to reinforce child protection in the shelter. We also need to ensure adequate supplies of drinking water for all, and milk for the little ones.

We are grateful for any assistance you can give to our program in its work to help flood victims – direct donations can be made to the bank account below, please e-mail us details if you require a receipt. On behalf of us all, we thank you for your support…’