The Chile Crece Contigo (“Chile Grows with You”) subsystem of the Chilean Ministry of Social Development has put a number of measures in place to support people who lose all their belongings in a catastrophe. Measures implemented since 2016 include the provision of a special emergency kit for children under 9 years old. This kit was developed in the light of lessons learned after the wildfires of April 2014 in Valparaiso, the March 2015 floods in Atacama and the Coquimbo earthquake in September that same year. It is meant to supplement initial psychological support measures and reduce children…
At the time of writing, Peru is suffering the effects of a natural disaster of unprecedented magnitude. What is known as the coastal El Niño has brought rain, flooding and landslides of mud and rock that have so far left 90 dead, around 20 missing and more than 120,000 other direct victims, with an estimated 800,000 people affected in total. With more than 160,000 homes affected and around 1,400 schools damaged, the human and economic costs of this phenomenon have been enormous. In fact, economic losses to date have been put at more than US$ 3 billion or the equivalent of 1.6% of Peruvian GDP.…
Al momento de escribir este artículo, el Perú está siendo afectado por un desastre natural de magnitud sin precedentes. “El Niño Costero” ha traído consigo lluvias, huaicos e inundaciones que, a la fecha, son responsables de 90 fallecidos, cerca de 20 desaparecidos y más de 120,000 damnificados directos, en tanto se estima que el número de afectados alcanza las 800,000 personas. Con más de 160,000 viviendas afectadas y cerca de 1,400 colegios dañados, el costo humano y económico de este fenómeno es altísimo. De hecho, a la fecha, las pérdidas económicas ascenderían a más de 3.000 millones de d…
Disasters are uncertain events that lead to death and injury, damage and disruption. The immediate exposure to a disaster seems almost egalitarian: it can strike seemingly anywhere, and it is frightening for anyone who experiences it. Surviving the initial disaster can be unifying: in the days following the 2010 Chilean earthquake, in which 80% of the country’s population were affected and 10% injured, strangers on the street shared stories of their moment-by-moment experiences, fears, losses and relief. Weeks after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, a man who had lost three children and his wife t…
Los desastres son eventos inciertos que causan muertes, lesiones y daños y alteran el orden cotidiano. Inmediatamente después de ocurrido un desastre parece que este afecta a todos por igual: puede ocurrir en cualquier lugar y atemoriza a todos quienes lo sufren. Sobrevivir al desastre inicial puede ser unificador: en los días posteriores al terremoto de 2010 en Chile, en el cual el 80% de la población se vio afectada y 10% sufrió lesiones, las personas desconocidas compartían relatos sobre lo que habían vivido, sus miedos, pérdidas y consuelos. Semanas después del terremoto en Haití, ese mism…
1. Children are highly vulnerable to disasters
Children in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly those living in poverty, are highly vulnerable to disasters and have been disproportionately and increasingly affected by their impacts. Disasters cause disease, injury, loss of life and damage to infrastructure. They also affect families’ livelihoods by destroying their adult members’ productive assets and jobs. People are traumatized by the panic and stress of the experience itself, family separation and the disruption to normal everyday life of having to move house and change schools an…
1. Los niños y las niñas son altamente vulnerables a los desastres
Los niños y las niñas en América Latina y el Caribe, particularmente los que viven en contextos de pobreza, son altamente vulnerables a los desastres y experimentan sus efectos en forma desproporcionada y creciente. Los desastres causan enfermedades, lesiones, pérdidas de vidas humanas y daños en la infraestructura. También afectan los medios de vida de las familias tales como los activos productivos y las fuentes de trabajo de los adultos. Asimismo, provocan traumas debido al pánico y el estrés de vivir una experiencia catast…
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