Why Children Can’t Wait: a Special Report on Children and Youth Displaced by Typhoon Yolanda

More than seven months ago, Typhoon Yolanda made landfall in Guiuan, Eastern Samar. It traversed more than nine provinces, affecting a total of 14 million people; six million of them were children.

In sudden-onset natural disasters, children and youth face immediate and obvious risks like death, injury, illness, and separation from families. Once initial life-saving activities have concluded, however, new and more insidious risks emerge if causal factors, like displacement, are not quickly addressed. These risks include increased poverty, interruption of education, exploitation and disruption to social safety nets and supportive family structures.

As of June 2014, more than 7 months after Yolanda, close to 6000 families remain displaced and this prolonged displacement is threatening to impede recovery. Accordingly, Save the Children is calling on:

1. 1. The Government of the Philippines (and local and provincial governments) to move more quickly to provide safe, permanent shelter solutions for displaced people; and
2. 2. All humanitarian actors and donors working in the Philippines to ensure children and youth displaced by Yolanda receive increased and specialized support.