CHILDREN ARE SUFFERING IN OVERCROWDED RELIEF CAMPS
(29 December 2004)

“She has had fever since the day we were hit by the sea,” says her father. Radhika knows that many of her friends were not able to run away. “I know she has been thinking about them all the time,” says her father. Hundreds of other children in the camp look cheerful and play in the sand, but their smiles are deceiving. They have not gotten over the trauma of running for their lives with the sea chasing them.

Currently, trauma is not being dealt with unless its manifestations are clear and obvious, says Dr. Kali Silvy who is treating patients at the relief camp at Nagarcoil. “We are referring patients for further treatment if we find they need it very badly. It is infections and epidemics that we are worried about,” she says.

With overcrowded living conditions in relief camps and dependence on a few sanitary toilets, camp organisers are trying hard to maintain good hygiene standards but are not confident that they are succeeding.

Balaji, a retired professor and an organizer of the Zionpuram camp in Kanyakumari, says the church complex that currently serves as the camp was not built for a disaster of this magnitude. There are only three toilets for the nearly 2,500 people living here. A lot of people are defecating in the open. “We are taking precautions in cooking, but face limitations in terms of providing sanitary toilets,” he said.

A doctor at the Nagaroil camp Dr. Sunil said on Tuesday that the team of doctors working at the camp was particularly fearful for children. “The conditions are very difficult for children. We do hope that an epidemic does not break out,” he said.

A UNICEF team camping in the area has made field visits with top district officials and is in preparing a plan for setting up temporary sanitary toilets in all the camps – more than 40 in number – where tens of thousand of people are staying. Toilets are needed urgently since people are not planning to go back to their homes in the near future.

With relief camps coming under increasing pressure, hygiene levels are declining and children particularly are at greater risk than anybody else.

UNICEF is currently in the process of working with the government and other partners to ensure a relief package that takes care of their immediate needs: sanitary living conditions in the camps and temporary shelter in their villages. That will be the beginning of healing that will take years – perhaps a lifetime – to complete.

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