‘Build back safer for kids’

MANILA, Philippines - Global child welfare organization Plan International is urging government officials in charge of post-Typhoon Yolanda rehabilitation efforts in Eastern Visayas to consider children’s welfare as communities in Leyte and Samar arse rebuilt.

Carin Van der Hor, country director of Plan International Philippines, said the permanent houses that would be built for the thousands of families rendered homeless by Yolanda “should take into consideration the safety of children, especially in times of future calamities that will visit the Philippines.”

“The ‘new normal’ means that we have to integrate development and humanitarian work, ensuring that children and their communities are prepared for whatever comes their way no matter how rich or poor they are,” Der Hor told a media briefing on the group’s ongoing efforts in the rehabilitation of affected communities.

“This has brought us to the principle of ‘building back better and safer.’ It is not enough to simply address disaster recovery and rehabilitation, we need to make sure that the impact of future disasters is reduced through a strategic convergence of our various interventions and that communities emerge stronger and more resilient,” Der Hor added.

Plan International Philippines also cited the recent findings of government think tank Philippine Institute of Development Studies that showed that there were around 13.4 million young Filipinos, or more than a third of the country’s population, under 18 years old, who experience severe and overlapping deprivations in food, shelter, health and education.

“We have to ask ourselves why a 2009 United Nations global assessment on disaster risk put the possible mortality rate in the Philippines at 17 percent higher than Japan’s if both were to be hit by the same cyclone with the same intensity at the same time. Poverty plays a big part in this unacceptable discrepancy,” Der Hor said.

Plan International was among the first organizations to mobilize relief operations in Tacloban City and other areas in Eastern Visayas that were devastated by Yolanda in November last year. It continues to help typhoon survivors by conducting recovery and rehabilitation assistance in affected communities.