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

And there are so many ways you can help here at home. Do you have a blog or a website? You can put up one of our UNICEF badges, which invite your site's visitors to join our cyclone relief efforts (this page will tell you how). If you want to be even more proactive, you can create your own Emergency Response fundraising page. And, as always, you can just talk to family, friends or coworkers about UNICEF's very essential work in Myanmar. Lots of you are already lending a hand, but we can always use more—much more— help. To be honest, one of the best ways you can contribute to our work in Myanmar right now is to help us reach our goal to raise $8.2 million for our emergency operation there. The need for supplies is just massive, and will continue to be for some time. We're all very worried here about the news that another major storm may be heading towards Myanmar. Anything you can give is helpful.

One of UNICEF's biggest concerns in Myanmar at this moment is making sure people have enough access to clean water. In the wake of a disaster like this, traditional sources of clean water, such as wells and rivers, are often contaminated by debris and human waste. And contaminated water makes people, especially children, very sick very fast. One of our health specialists on the ground is estimating that, already, up to 20 percent of children in the cyclone-affected area have developed diarrhea. In a viciously ironic cycle, diarrhea severely dehydrates children, making their need for water even more desperate.

Wire reports state that, in Yangon, the price of increasingly scarce clean water has already skyrocketed by more than 500 percent. Of course, when people have lost everything, they can't afford to buy even reasonably priced water. UNICEF is rushing family water kits and water purification tablets to the area so people can turn potentially hazardous water into drinkable water. For children who are already suffering from diarrhea and/or dehydration, we use something called oral rehydration salts (ORS), a lifesaving solution that helps severely dehydrated children recover, fast. As of now we've sent out 127,500 packets of ORS to the area.

UNICEF is staying on top of the danger from contaminated water by setting up a surveillance system to track water-borne diseases like diarrhea and cholera. We'll be able to tell if these diseases begin to gain a foothold in the area, and we'll respond as rapidly as we did to the cyclone itself.

Thank you again for your support while we continue to do whatever it takes to help the children affected by the cyclone.