In recent days, an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 has hardly hit the province of Kunar, in Eastern Afghanistan, raining entire mountain villages on the ground and leaving thousands of families with nothing. NGOs launch the alarm: children are the most exposed and risk hunger, deep diseases and trauma.
According to local authorities, the provisional balance is already very heavy: over 1,400 deaths and 3,000 injured, numbers that unfortunately continue to grow. About 12,000 people, half of whom are children, were affected directly by the earthquake.
Rescue teams work in extreme conditions. The landslides areolated entire communities, forcing doctors to walk up to 20 kilometers on foot to reach the villages, transporting the life -saved equipment on the shoulders. Ambulances and emergency means are unable to reach the most remote areas.
People try to free their loved ones from the rubble without any help. There is no drinking water, there is no food: people drink from the river, but they are not sure. The situation of the children is dramatic: without immediate assistance, malnutrition, diseases and devastating consequences risk, tells Dr. Shaheer, at the head of one of the first medical furniture units arrived in Kunar.
The earthquake interrupted the water sources and destroyed the food supplies, feeding the risk of epidemics. Save the Children is distributing water, food and medical care and has started the creation of safe spaces for the psychological support of children.
It is a race against time. The villages, already difficult to reach, are now almost completely isolated. Families ask us to help them bury the dead, cure the wounded, give children to drink. In a few seconds they lost not only the house, but also clothes, food, tools: everything. The little ones are in immediate danger. Without a quick and continuous intervention, their health and their safety will be seriously compromised, warns Samira Sayed Rahman, Programs and Advocacy director of Save the Children Afghanistan, who asks for urgent funds and interventions from the international community.
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