DHAKA, 21 December 2007 (IRIN) - Hundreds of children, if not more, are now believed to have been orphaned by Cyclone Sidr, which devastated large parts of Bangladesh's southwestern coast on 15 November, killing more than 3,000 people and rendering millions more homeless.

"The trauma that these children suffered and the bleak future they face are nearly impossible for others to realise," Nazmul Huda of the local non-governmental organisation (NGO) Jagratra Juba Sangha (JJS) told IRIN from Sharankhola sub-district of cyclone-affected Bagerhat District.

"Their losses will never be replaced. But we need to do whatever we can to console and help these young people cope with reality," he said.

According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), of the 8.5 million people affected, about half were children and an estimated half a million of them were under the age of five.

"I lost everyone," Mohammad Hasan, 12, told IRIN in his village of Kanchonbaria in Patuakhali District after losing both his parents and his brother and two sisters in the cyclone. "I don't know what to do or where to go," he said outside his now empty family home.

But the exact number of children orphaned by Sidr has yet to be properly assessed, with many reportedly staying with relatives and friends.

To date, JJS has opened three shelters in Sharankhola - providing food, shelter, education and care for Sidr orphans.

Huda, superintendent of the Shishu Shurakkha Kendra or Child Protection Centre project said that in addition to being provided with food and medicine, the orphaned children are given books, toys and other forms of recreation during their stay.

Three more shelter houses are slated to open in Sharankhola as the number of orphans increases by the day, he added.

Need for child protection

Social Assistance and Rehabilitation for Physically Vulnerable People (SARPV), another NGO in the area, said 40 percent of the total lives lost to Sidr were children; many of those that survived were now orphans.

SARPV is particularly concerned about the plight of orphaned girls. Past experience shows that children, especially girls, in disaster-hit areas are highly vulnerable to trafficking and other forms of abuse, the NGO warned.

In a statement on 11 December, UNICEF noted similar concerns. It said initial assessments of the affected areas had revealed a crucial need for protection support for children.

Many children had lost their homes and were now displaced and feeling vulnerable; others may have also lost family members and friends.

Schools and health centres had been heavily damaged or destroyed and there was a strong need for protective environments, it said.

During emergencies, traditional care arrangements are not functional due to the breakdown of family and social structures which lead to serious child protection concerns as children become more vulnerable, UNICEF said. Key elements to promote the recovery of children, therefore, not only involve meeting basic needs but also building resilience, it said.

UNICEF's post-cyclone response in education and child protection is now taking place in nine Sidr-ravaged districts, including: Bagerhat, Barguna, Patuakhali, Pirojpur, Barisal, Bhola, Jhalokhati, Satkhira, and Khulna.

The child protection interventions will target 20,000 children, (at least a half of them are girls) in Child Friendly Spaces.

"This project intervention will help strengthen UNICEF's ongoing efforts to restore cyclone affected children's rights to quality education and ensure a protective environment to the children through provision of psycho-social support, as well as identification and reunification of separated children," UNICEF country representative Louis-Georges Arsenault, said.

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