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Trying to keep children safe after Vietnam floods
Written by: Save the Children
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Flood survivors in Vietnam. SAVE THE CHILDREN
Sunday Oct 4 Gia Nguyen Van, head of emergencies for Save the Children in Vietnam, has shared this blog from Quang Tri, one of the worst affected areas. "Today (3 October) is mid-Autumn Moon Day, the festival for all children in the region, but many children in the Ketsana typhoon affected villages are living without food, without homes. Ordinary children today look at the moon with big dreams of good food, fancy toys and surprise presents from their loved ones." Saturday Oct 3 This blog comes from Phuong Dinh Thi Hong, emergency programme assistant, and describes the situation of Huy, a 10-month-old baby and Muoi, his mother, 30. They live in Nam Yen village in Da Nang province. "When the flood waters came they were right up to the roof of Huy's house. In her attempt to keep him safe, Huy's mother put him in a car tyre so that he would float and she pulled him to safety, through neck-deep water. Meanwhile, his father was taking the family's animals, a pig and some chickens to higher ground to try and save the family's livelihood. Once they reached higher ground, Muoi and some other women from the neighbourhood sheltered on the hillside under a plastic sheet, each holding down a corner of the sheet and their children sheltering in the middle. They stayed like this for 20 hours until the storm passed. Huy was cold wet and had nothing to eat from 7pm on the 29th September to 3pm the next day. Once the storm had passed Muoi took Huy back down the hillside. The flood water had receded but when they returned home they found their house had collapsed. There was still some flood water in the village and everywhere was covered foot-deep with mud. The house had been made of wood with iron sheets for the roof. Now it is just a pile of debris. Their cooking equipment had been swept away, along with all their furniture, clothes and the rice they had stored was destroyed. What little rice they could find had gone mouldy. Muoi went to find some food for Huy. She went to find other people living in the hills to ask for food and they were given some rice and instant noodles by their neighbours. Huy was so hungry that he fed himself rice for the first time, without needing help from his mother. Muoi has spent the whole time since the disaster trying to salvage whatever she could from the remains of her house. Cleaning mud from the timbers and trying to create a temporary shelter from what she could find.
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