Plan acts as disease threatens
A health camp provides vital help to communities in Muzaffarpur, India.
PLAN STAFF
August 14, 2007
Plan has set up health camps to help children forced from their homes by the recent floods in South Asia.
Children have to not only endure terrible hardship, but face rapidly increasing risks to their lives from disease and hunger.
Donate now to Plan's Disaster Relief and Recovery fund and help provide immediate relief and longer-term assistance to children, families and communities affected by disasters.
Since the recent monsoon rains, Plan villages in the north Indian state of Bihar have been swamped by floodwater and isolated from the outside world for weeks.
Children are increasingly vulnerable to a variety of diseases such as malaria, cholera and dysentery — all killers — and the situation is likely to get worse in the coming weeks and months as basic sanitation systems crumble and the floods dry up, leaving behind stagnant ponds for even more mosquitoes to breed in.
Contaminated water
A third of the people in the village of Patchemi Parati have contracted diarrhea from contaminated water and poor sanitation caused by the floods. The condition, easily treated in the developed world, is often fatal to children and elderly people living in poverty.
According to Plan field worker, Jarina Khartoom: “Our biggest problem is sanitation. All the toilets are jam-packed. All together we have 25 in the village but they are now all full of floodwater. In the past, when they have been flooded, people went to the fields but now these are also flooded. The only open space is where people live.”
Help us assist those affected
To help stabilize the health situation, Plan has set up health camps in Parati and Devden to provide doctors, medicines and re-hydration salts.
Make a secure donation today to Plan's Disaster Relief and Recovery fund. Your support enables us to respond quickly and effectively to help children and families affected by disasters and crises. Thank you.
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Children have to not only endure terrible hardship, but face rapidly increasing risks to their lives from disease and hunger.
Donate now to Plan's Disaster Relief and Recovery fund and help provide immediate relief and longer-term assistance to children, families and communities affected by disasters.
Since the recent monsoon rains, Plan villages in the north Indian state of Bihar have been swamped by floodwater and isolated from the outside world for weeks.
Children are increasingly vulnerable to a variety of diseases such as malaria, cholera and dysentery — all killers — and the situation is likely to get worse in the coming weeks and months as basic sanitation systems crumble and the floods dry up, leaving behind stagnant ponds for even more mosquitoes to breed in.
Contaminated water
A third of the people in the village of Patchemi Parati have contracted diarrhea from contaminated water and poor sanitation caused by the floods. The condition, easily treated in the developed world, is often fatal to children and elderly people living in poverty.
According to Plan field worker, Jarina Khartoom: “Our biggest problem is sanitation. All the toilets are jam-packed. All together we have 25 in the village but they are now all full of floodwater. In the past, when they have been flooded, people went to the fields but now these are also flooded. The only open space is where people live.”
Help us assist those affected
To help stabilize the health situation, Plan has set up health camps in Parati and Devden to provide doctors, medicines and re-hydration salts.
Make a secure donation today to Plan's Disaster Relief and Recovery fund. Your support enables us to respond quickly and effectively to help children and families affected by disasters and crises. Thank you.
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