240,000 children forced from home as floods sweep Manila, Save the Children responds

International aid agency Save the Children estimates 240,000 children have been forced from their homes as floods sweep across the Philippine capital of Manila, where more than one million people have been affected.

“Our teams have been out in the floodwaters, assessing the needs of the families affected so that we can rapidly scale up our response to get help to children. Thousands have taken shelter at evacuation centres and desperately need warm clothes, blankets, clean water and soap, in particular for the youngest children who are especially vulnerable,” said Save the Children Philippines Country Director Anna Lindenfors in Manila.

The children’s aid agency has pre-made aid packages on standby for use in floods and other emergencies, and is launching a response to assist the most vulnerable children and families affected by the floods.

Save the Children has been working in the Philippines since 1981 and mounted a large-scale emergency response to typhoon Ketsana in 2009, and more recently, last year’s typhoon Washi.

In addition to Manila, the cities of Parañaque, Taguig, Makati, Marikina, Mandaluyong, San Juan, Pasay, Quezon, Valenzuela and Pasig are heavily flooded, while other provinces and cities such as Cavite, Bulacan, Laguna, Rizal, Las Pinas, Bataan, Pangasinan, La Union, Benguet, Pampanga, and Nueva Ecija are also experiencing intense rain and are severely flooded.