By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 11 2005 (IPS)

The numbers describing children in the tsunami aftermath are staggering: an estimated 50,000 dead, some 30,000 left without parents, and over 1.5 million directly or indirectly affected by last month’s monumental tidal wave disaster.

Colleen Barton Sutton of Save the Children, a leading international relief agency, says the situation is “devastating”.

“The lives of children have been turned upside down – some of them without health care services, clean water and shelter,” she said.

In the tsunami-struck Indonesia’s Aceh province alone, some 1,500 teachers have been killed and over 500 schools damaged, Sutton told IPS. The only bright spot was the single school that was opened in Aceh on Monday and was working with children.

As of Tuesday, the total death toll in the tsunami tragedy has been estimated at over 155,000, with more than 500,000 injured.

Carolyn Bartholomew, executive director of the Washington-based Basic Education Coalition, says that throughout the Indian Ocean region, not only have teachers been killed but schools are also being used to house survivors or serve as morgues.

She said the coalition is focusing primarily on schools because they provide a safe place for children and allow them to start returning to some sense of normalcy.

The figures coming out of the region, she said, also indicate that about 150 schools have been damaged or destroyed in Sri Lanka and an additional 244 schools occupied by refugees.

In the Maldives, she said, hundreds of schools have been damaged by the tsunami or are now only debris. Furniture, equipment and books have been completely washed away, she added.

The 19-member coalition, which includes World Vision, Africare, the Christian Children’s Fund, CARE and Bread for the World, seeks greater priority for early childhood and primary education in U.S. foreign assistance programmes.

“Our main task is advocacy – to make sure that U.S. policy makers understand the importance of education as part of U.S. foreign policy,” Bartholomew said.

She said the coalition has already briefed members of the U.S. Congress and congressional staff urging them to focus on what the U.S. response should be in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster.

The U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is taking a lead role in protecting a new “tsunami generation” of children from exploitation, abuse and criminal trafficking.

“The good news is that most of the needed efforts are already underway,” says UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. “But we have to move fast. Those who would prey upon children in this chaotic environment are already at work.”

“The need for our efforts in child protection is acute,” Save the Children said in a statement released here. “There have been substantive reports of abductions and smuggling of children from Aceh.”

The government of Indonesia has already banned the transport of children out of the country without a parent. “Save the Children’s experience in anti-exploitation activities throughout Indonesia – working with street children and trafficked minors – will serve well to help identify risks and offer solutions for protection,” the relief agency said.

At a press conference in Geneva Tuesday, the U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland said he was confident that the second wave of destruction, death and disease he had predicted on the second day of the tragedy would probably not happen.

“Although children were certainly falling ill from respiratory disease and diarrhoea, we are not seeing epidemics and starvation because we are able to reach out faster than anyone could expect,” he told reporters.

Bellamy said there are five key steps essential to keeping vulnerable children safe from exploitation in the immediate term.

Register all displaced children: In India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, registration is currently underway.

Provide immediate safe care: Children identified as unaccompanied or lost are to be placed in the temporary care of adults accountable for their welfare.

Locate relatives: Registering children by name, address, community and birth date allows local and national authorities – working with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) – to trace and reunite family members.

Alert police and other authorities: In Sri Lanka, government and key partners, including UNICEF, have raised the issue in the media so that all Sri Lankans are aware of the need to look out for unaccompanied children.

Special national measures: Indonesia has not only put a moratorium on children traveling outside the country without a parent but also banned the adoption of children until they can be properly identified and a process of family tracing completed.

“The international standard in a crisis is to keep children as close to their family members and community as possible,” Bellamy said.

“We want to protect children as much as others want to exploit them,” she said. “Based on the quick response of governments to this threat, it’s clear they want to provide that protection. But we have to do it together.”

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