Hurricane Sandy Program Response- Save the Children

We’re currently in 5 shelters -- 1 in Atlantic City, 1 in Nassau County, 1 in Brooklyn and 2 in Queens -- where we’re providing child friendly spaces and distributing food and non-food items.  In addition, now that many schools are back in operation, providing transportation from shelters to schools is something we’re also working on.  We anticipate being involved in the shelters over the next 2-3 weeks, though this is a very fluid situation.  We have many staff who have volunteered in the shelters already and are augmenting our staff plan now. 

The second part of our program strategy is focusing on child care and we’re currently undertaking assessments for what it will take to get child care centers that are out of commission up and running.  This is particularly important for poor children whose parents must go back to work.   We’re also going to be assisting at FEMA processing centers where people are applying for benefits to provide child friendly spaces and, over the longer term, we’re going to be helping set up psycho-social programs for children who have been affected by the storm and its after-effects. 

Finally, we’re gearing up our advocacy activities, especially as they relate to child protection issues in shelters, and we’re going to be using this as an opportunity to focus on our ‘disaster report card’ for states -- particularly the report card for those states that haven’t done that well in this emergency, such as New Jersey.  Recent visits from this past Sunday in the Atlantic City shelter can tell you that families and children there have been significantly impacted and there will be a long recovery for some.

We’re also going to be assisting at FEMA processing centers where people are applying for benefits to provide child friendly spaces and, over the longer term, we’re going to be helping set up psycho-social programs for children who have been affected by the storm and its after-effects.