WESTPORT, Conn. (October 2, 2009) A category 5 storm, Typhoon Parma, is heading directly towards the
Philippines, less than a week after Tropical Storm Ketsana submerged much of Manila and the surrounding communities. Save the Children has been responding to the needs of displaced children and
families since the storm hit, distributing more than 5,000 kits of relief items, including clothing, blankets, hygiene supplies and temporary shelters. Now, Save the Children staff are working
to set up food distribution and Child Friendly Spaces in evacuation shelters, as thousands of families flee coastal communities for higher ground.Filipino authorities report that Tropical
Storm Ketsana affected nearly 2 million people and forced the evacuation of 567,000. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has placed the country under a “state of calamity” in
anticipation of Parma’s landfall this weekend. The typhoon currently has sustained winds of 138 mph and the government is preparing for mudslides and flooding. “Children and families are very fearful of the impending storm,” said Latha Caleb, Save the Children Country Office Director for the Philippines. “The shelves in our
stores are empty, roads have already been flooded out and thousands of people are heading into shelters, having lost everything they owned. Save the Children is preparing child friendly spaces
in the shelters, where parents know their children are safe and they can receive food, water and other supplies for their families.”Save the Children has been working in the
Philippines for 27 years.
More information
For more information and media interview, please contact Kate Conradt, ( +1 202 640 6631)
Director, Media and Communications, Save the Children US.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Soldiers help residents to get off from a military truck while they flee from their hometown, mountain village of Baolai, in Kaohsiung County, southern Taiwan, in preparation for the arrival of ...
