Fieldnotes: Blogging on UNICEF's child survival work in the field

Read the news or look at our homepage and you'll see that there is a lot going on in the world. In places like Peru, Darfur or the South Asia flood region, it is especially difficult to be a young child right now. What can you do to help? eBay for UNICEF!

Maybe over the holiday weekend you are planning to clean out the garage or basement. Don’t throw it away, sell it on eBay and help the children of the world.

Through the eBay Giving Works program you can buy and sell items to support UNICEF. The U.S. fund for UNICEF is currently being highlighted for Peru disaster relief.

Currently we are selling several books. But check back often as we are always adding new items to auction. Happy Bidding!

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Hello, I'm Elizabeth Repass, and I work in the New York office of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Next week, along with my colleagues from all over the United States, I will be traveling to Panama. Our base for the trip will be Panama City, and we’ll also spend two days in the province of Chiriqui, which is on the Pacific coast close to Costa Rica.

Panama is a country of contrasts: Caribbean and Pacific, jungle and beach, wealth and poverty. The wealthiest 20 percent of Panama’s population have an income 32 times higher than the poorest 20 percent, and indigenous and afro-descendant peoples are much more likely to live below the poverty line. But we will also see hope and progress: throughout the country, UNICEF helps children lead healthy lives with access to education, security and opportunities.

	Elizabeth Repass prepares for her upcoming trip to Panama.

For many of us, including myself, this is the first time that we will see UNICEF in action in the field. In Panama City we’ll see urban projects supported by UNICEF, such as an HIV/AIDS prevention and support program and a youth organization aimed at preventing violence through sports, culture and education. While in Chiriqui, we’ll see programs aimed at alleviating the effects of rural poverty, including schools, a UNICEF-supported and community-built aqueduct and a feeding program for undernourished children. I am so excited for this opportunity to see UNICEF’s work firsthand.

Over the next two weeks, my colleague Jessica Dolan (from our Chicago office) and I will be providing you with regular updates on our travels. As soon as we arrive in Panama City, we’ll be sure to let you know what it is like. I hope that you will explore Panama and UNICEF with our group through these entries.

The full extent of last week's earthquake in Peru is still coming to light. At 8 points on the Richter scale, it was massive and has caused major damage to homes, churches, and critical infrastructure, such as roads, water supplies and sewage systems.

© La República, 2007

In the community of "El Bosque" in Pisco, a group of children requesting for help after the earthquake.

© La República, 2007

Boy being attended in one of the tents installed by the Ministry of Health.

© La República, 2007

A group of children with their mothers at night in the main square of Ica.

© REUTERS, 2007

Earthquake survivor Wilmer looks at the debris on a street in Pisco, August 19, 2007. Desperate survivors packed up on Saturday and fled Peruvian towns demolished three days earlier by a massive earthquake.

Peru's earthquake has left hundreds dead and thousands homeless. In the Andean winter, time is of the essence. DONATE NOW to support UNICEF's emergency relief efforts and ongoing work for the children on Peru.

In this country, getting married at 10 years old sounds preposterous. But for girls (and boys) in some countries, it’s an unfortunate and even dangerous reality. Each day, more than 25,000 girls, some as young as nine or ten years old, are married to older men in developing countries. If nothing changes, another 100 million girls will be married over the next ten years. The impacts on their lives, and potential threats to their health, are severe.

This is an important matter for UNICEF because child marriage hurts the health, education, and development of children. Addressing child marriage requires both changing laws and changing cultures, and there are successful efforts in many countries that make a difference.

Though the U.S. Government recognizes the problem of child marriage, our great nation can and should do more to challenge this practice. As Americans, we care about programs to reduce poverty, promote child and maternal health, and invest in education; all of these are undermined by the practice of child marriage.

A bipartisan group of legislators in both chambers of Congress want to increase U.S. leadership in preventing child marriage. In the House, the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2007 (H.R. 3175), and in the Senate, the International Child Marriage Prevention and Protection Act of 2007 (S. 1998) set aside funding for programs to prevent child marriage. Just as important, these bills require developing an overall U.S. strategy that lays out how our government can fight child marriage and promote girls’ empowerment through existing initiatives and development programs.

YOU CAN HELP by letting your own legislators know that you care about this issue, and you support this legislation. Go to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF's advocacy page and send a letter to your Member of Congress!

According to the latest official report, the death toll from last week’s earthquake in Peru has risen to 503 dead and 1,042 injured. In addition, 34,410 houses and four hospitals were destroyed and 11 hospitals suffered considerable damage, as assessed by the relevant authorities of the Peruvian Government.

The most urgent humanitarian needs at the moment are water, water containers, water purification tablets, tents, tarpaulin, electric generators, portable beds, blankets and tools to remove rubble. With the support of international cooperation, the Peruvian Government has implemented two campaign hospitals. Lack of sanitary facilities is posing a serious threat to health conditions. Eleven provisional shelters have been organized and the local government has anticipated that 2,000 tents will be received; still, 5,000 more units are needed.

A United Nations interagency team (UNDSS, UNDP, PAHO, UNFPA, UNICEF and UNDAC) is working in the affected areas. In addition to the items already sent, UNICEF also plans to distribute 514,800 chlorine tablets and 3,000 water containers. These supplies will be distributed through the Ministry of Health as soon as possible.

A few more details on UNICEF's efforts to save kids' lives in the immediate aftermath of the quake:

Death from diarrheal dehydration is a danger when entire neighborhoods have collapsed and clean water is not available, so yesterday UNICEF delivered 90,000 chlorine tablets, along with 540 large plastic containers with lids and faucets, 300 chlorine measuring devices and 20,000 DPD tablets which will help provide safe drinking water to the affected children and families.

Other supplies such as 3,000 plastic spoons, 1,500 measuring jars and 3,000 plastic cups will allow children to receive oral rehydration therapies, in addition to 100,000 units of rehydration salts that will arrive today from Panama.

UNICEF also delivered flyers for families to learn how to handle safe water, how to prevent conjunctivitis and skin diseases, the importance of food hygiene practices as well as recommendations to avoid pneumonia and acute diarrheic diseases.

More to follow...

UNICEF’s Representative in Peru, Dr. Guido Cornale, reports that UNICEF will be distributing water-purification tablets, water containers, oral rehydration salts and water tanks with a 10,000-liter capacity. Access to clean water is critical in an emergency to prevent the spread of disease.

You can read the latest news release here. We'll continue posting info as we receive it.

Please comment below to send your support to our colleagues in the field in Peru. We'll make sure they get your messages.

Marilú Wiegold, UNICEF's communication officer in Lima, just sent us this photo from the Andina Press Agency. It was taken in Pisco, where so many people lost their homes. Our current estimate is that about 40 percent of the affected people are children.

We hope to have more information soon, as communications have been re-established.

We'll share details of UNICEF's emergency response as soon as we have it. UNICEF has tremendous experience meeting the needs of earthquake survivors, from so many previous disasters: the 2001 quake in India, the 2003 quake in Iran, the 2005 quake in northern Pakistan, the 2006 quake in Indonesia...

Children are always the most vulnerable in disasters. If you want to donate online to support UNICEF's relief efforts, go to http://www.unicefusa.org/peru

Just a quick note to let you know that UNICEF staff and offices in Peru have escaped major damage. Will post additional information as available.

© UNICEF/ HQ07-0657/Pirozzi Seventh-month-old Mawi, who has recently recovered from malaria, sits on her mother’s lap under an insecticide-treated bednet in a feeding center on the outskirts of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. UNICEF supports the center’s therapeutic feeding, growth monitoring and immunization programs, and also provides a generator, vehicle, insecticide-treated bednets and essential drugs and supplies.

Malaria is one of the world's worst killers of children. Each year about 1 million children die from this disease after contracting it from mosquitoes.

In Congo, one of the most malaria prone regions of Africa, only 5 percent of pregnant women and young children sleep beneath insecticide treated bed-nets. UNICEF recently formed strategic partnerships that get supplies like bed-nets to communities in need of these preventative tools.

UNICEF worked with the Congolese railroad and local police to transport bed-nets from Pointe Noire to several regions in Congo using donations from the US Fund for UNICEF and the Government of Japan. The trains passed through treacherous rebel territory to reach affected communities.

Partnerships such as these should not only be praised but should be strengthened through continued efforts from the private sector, donors and governments.

To learn more about recent and current efforts to fight malaria, visit:

UNICEF’s Bed-net Campaign in Congo
http://www.unicefusa.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=duLRI8O0H&b=39284&ct=4265663

Fast Facts on Malaria
http://www.unicef.org/ffl/10/index.html

Malaria: Bedlam in the Blood
By Michael Finkel for National Geographic Magazine
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0707/feature1/index.html

Malaria Matters, a blog maintained by Health Expert/Tropical Disease Specialist, Bill Brieger
http://www.malariafreefuture.org/blog/