The Diplomat
The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) activated last Tuesday, for an amount of 148,000 euros, the humanitarian action agreement with the NGO Save the Children to help guarantee the right to education, psychosocial support and protection for children and adolescents and their families affected by floods and the overflowing of major rivers in the departments of Lambayeque and Piura, in northern Peru.
Heavy rains have been affecting Peru’s northern departments since March, and their destructive effects have been coupled with the formation of Cyclone Yaku off the coast. This has led the Peruvian government to issue a State of Emergency Declaration for damage that already covers 1,056 districts (55% of the national total) in the regions of Cajamarca, La Libertad, Lambayeque and Piura, already under emergency declaration for risk of dengue and zika.
According to the National Civil Defense Institute (INDECI), around 247,000 people have been affected by heavy rains, landslides and floods in Peru. The number of people killed by the floods is 83 and nine people are missing. Some 298 health centers and more than 240 kilometers of roads have been damaged and some 115,000 households have been affected in the regions of Lambayeque, Piura and Lima; 55% of the population of these departments is food insecure. The Peruvian Government’s weather forecasts for the affected districts indicate continued heavy rains until June.
INDECI has reported that 48% of the people affected by the effects of the floods are children and adolescents. Some 62,025 students -56%- in Lambayeque and 35,543 -8%- in Piura have not been able to resume their classes since a large part of the infrastructure has been damaged. All this, together with the separation of the family structure and the social environment -many families have abandoned their homes and are sheltering in shelters and relatives’ houses and, in many cases, adults have to look for livelihoods leaving children unattended-, causes great instability and emotional suffering in boys and girls, and increases the risk of physical, psychological and sexual violence.
The activation of this humanitarian action agreement by the Spanish Government will allow the NGO Save the Children to assist 3,240 people – 1,029 boys, 1,071 girls, 559 men and 581 women – in an emergency context focused on minors, in which it will use, among others, the child protection methodology “Child Friendly Spaces”, which allows the NGO to reduce the impact of the crisis on the development of children and adolescents, as well as to promote their resilience and recovery from the emergency context experienced.
In these spaces, inserted in centers for displaced persons and shelters, the NGO will deploy educational and recreational activities so that the children have access to education, supporting them to recover normality, reinforcing their well-being and facilitating their reincorporation in a formal education program in the near future. They will also have an impact on schools and teachers – some 80 teachers will participate in the initiative – who will see their pedagogical practice strengthened in response to the socioemotional learning and well-being needs of children and adolescents in times of crisis.
The beneficiary children will receive various kits with pedagogical material adapted to each age group, as well as kits with basic school supplies. They will also receive psychosocial support together with their families, and both they and the teachers in charge of their education will be provided with resources and knowledge to identify possible cases of gender-based violence or others. Families will also receive hygiene and cleaning kits and mosquito nets. Educational centers will also receive cleaning kits to try to prevent the proliferation of dermatological diseases, or those related to the lack of drinking water sources and adequate sanitation, especially in the case of people displaced from their homes.
