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In 2020, South Asia witnessed one of the heaviest monsoon seasons in years, with two severe cyclons striking Bangladesh and India within just a few weeks of one another. In the Phillipines, multiple record-breaking disasters, including Typhoon Goni and the Taal volcano eruption, threatened the health and safety of children and families like never before.
While extreme events, including cyclones and typhoons, are not new to Asia, the strength and frequency of them continues to strains health care systems and disrupted infrastructure critical to children's well-being. With the COVID-19 pandemic revealing and exacerbating existing inequalities, millions of children living in fragile communities across Asia face an even greater risk.
Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, worsening shortages and rising prices of oxygen were reported in countries with some of highest numbers of child pneumonia deaths, such as India and Bangladesh. Meanwhile, COVID-related school closures have pushed more than 430 million children into remote learning, which is nearly impossible for children in rural areas lacking both internet access and electricity.
Girls in South Asia are disproportionately impacted by the risk of increased child marriage as a result of the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an estimated 191,000 being forced into child marriage or expected to become pregnant.
Save the Children has worked in Asia for more than 30 years. Already a world leader in child survival, health and nutrition, we are adapting and expanding our programs across Asia, as well as launching innovations, to address children's needs made worse by this pandemic. But we can't do any of this lifesaving work without your support.
Explore Our Work for Children in Asia
Home to the world's largest refugee camp, Cox's Bazar District in southeastern Bangladesh was dangeroulsy exposed to a potential COVID-10 outbreak at the start of the pandemic, and it remains so today.
To aid in the treatment and prevention of COVID-19, Save the Children built an isolation and treatment center in Cox's Bazar in April 2020.
In May 2020, Cyclone Amphan struck Bangladesh and India with 150-mph winds. Displaced families were left without shelter or clean water as the pandemic contined to spread.
In the coming months, the incessant rains that followed led to widespread flooding across the country, affecting some five million people, including 1.9 million children. Another one million homes were damaged by the floods with dozens of lives lost.
In India, issues such as child marriage, child labor, girls engaged in domestic work and financial constraints prevent too many children from attending school.
While the education system has made remarkable progress in enrolling children in schools, many schools lack basic facilities, including functional computers, appropriate WASH facilities.
When schools across the country closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 320 million learners were affected. Many students and teachers are still unable to access online learning, including the poorest most marginalized. Without access to learning, progress in education in India will be reversed.
A few months after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in India, Cyclone Amphan struck. Thousands of homes were completely destroyed. Displaced children and families unable to access clean water or adhere to social distancing guidelines were placed at grave risk.
The Philippines is prone to deadly natural disasters. In 2019, a series of deadly earthquakes struck Mindanao Island. At the start of 2020, the Taal volcano began spewing ash, prompting warnings of a possible explosive eruption.
When Typhoon Goni made landfall in the Philippines in October 2020 as the strongest tropical cyclone on record, one million people were evacuated while hundreds of thousands were displaced long term.
With each disaster, evacuated families and children were cramped in unsanitary shelters lacking access to clean water, toilets and basic healthcare. As the COVID-19 pandemic continued to spread, the immediate needs of families only grew.
As they have been in the past, Save the Children's teams were on the ground to distribute hygiene kits including facemasks and hand sanitiser and shelter kits to help weatherproof damaged homes.
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