One month after
Typhoon Ketsana devastated Vietnam's central highlands displacing nearly 200,000 people and killing 163, families now face a race against time to prepare their land for the rice planting season so
they don't face food shortages, according to Save the Children. Save the Children's Emergency Team Leader in Vietnam, Michelle Brown, said: "Save the Children provided emergency
aid to almost 100,000 people - of which at least half were children - including more than15,000 household kits, 15,000 hygiene kits and 600 tons of rice. But now families face a race against time to
get their livelihoods back on track in the coming months so they don't face further food shortages."Many people need to replace livestock which was killed and seeds and tools which
were destroyed, as well as transform mud-filled flooded rice plains into cultivation land in time for the planting season which starts in a few weeks time."Save the Children has already
given cash grants to the worst affected families and is scaling up its food security work. The charity plans to help more than 10,000 people get their livelihoods back on track over the coming months. Lien, who is a single mother from Hai Lang district, Quang Tri province, which was one of the worst areas affected, lost all her pigs and chickens during the flooding caused by Ketsana. Her
rice field is still submerged in water and any rice she had saved went stale. "Save the Children's support is so precious to us," Lien said. "We were provided with rice at
a time when we needed it most and it will last us for another month or so. "However, now with the cash grants, we are able to buy assets such as seeds, tools and maybe a piglet to
sustain our livelihood in the long run, which is especially important now that the planting season is about to begin." Michelle Brown added: "The challenges are enormous, but
Save the Children is doing what it can to get people back on their feet. More funds are desperately needed to help us to do this."endNotes to editorsTo make a
donation to Save the Children's South East Asia Appeal please go to http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/ Save the Children's work also
includes distributing school kits and furniture, offering cash for work for repairing remote schools, health and hygiene promotion and water and sanitation work.For more information
and interviews please contact Tul Pinkaew +84 12 782 73474 tul@savethechildren.or.th
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Protesters hang their used clothes over a barricade with barbed wire during a protest outside the presidential palace in Manila October 29, 2009. The protesters condemned President Gloria Macapapagal Arroyo's government ...
