~ Demands immediate life-saving aid and support to meet the needs of children ~

Report of immense damage are beginning to emerge from Assam as the state is reeling under floods followed by incessant rainfall and landslides across many districts. The floods have affected over 719,425 persons, including 141,050 children from 2095 villages across the 27 impacted districts of Assam. The state government till now has set up 421 Relief camps and centers to reach out to the affected population, data Source: Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA). There are reports of 8 lives lost by far in Cachar, Udalguri, Dima Hasao, Lakhimpur and Darrang and 5 persons missing from Cachar and Nagaon.

As the important task of assessing the damage begins, rapidly determining needs, Save the Children has mounted immediate relief operations to provide families with basic shelter, food, clean drinking water and other essential necessities across Nagaon, Darrang, Biswanath – three of the most affected districts. Eight embankment breaches have been reported in Barpeta, Biswanath, Goalpara, Nagaon, Nalbari and three damaged embankments reported in Tamulpur in the last 24 hours.

Save the Children India CEO, Sudarshan Suchi said: “The extent of damage due to floods in Assam are incredibly distressing and must be extremely frightening for the families. As we continue to provide an immediate upport to the community, we are particularly worried about how the floods re affecting children as they are amongst the most vulnerable. Besides an immediate relief support, ensuring children’s their wellbeing is an important part of our humanitarian response, and as we ensure the families have basic support, we have set up Child Friendly spaces to keep children safe and provide psycho-social support during such emergencies We are committed to ensure children are safe, can enjoy recreation and get informal education support until the schools reopen.”.

Meanwhile relief measures will continue to focus on providing shelter, food, health & hygiene, and nutrition support to families. The affected people have an immediate need of access to clean water, hygiene maintenance products like soaps, detergents, mosquito nets, sanitary cloth/napkins etc, shelter materials like Tarpaulins, Mats, Bedsheets, rope etc. along with educational and play materials for children who have lost it or has got damaged due to flood water in school buildings. Save the Children, is mounting their first response on 23rd May, at Darang district, one of the most impacted locales in the state.