Giving priority to child protection in emergency situations

When an emergency suddenly hits, children, both girls and boys, are usually the most affected and require special protection to guarantee their security and wellbeing.

In October 2011, the tropical depression 12-E affected various parts of the country including the department of Estelí. Rain and flooding endangered the lives of hundreds of families located along the banks of the Estelí river, mainly those living in the 29^th of October and Panamá Soberana neighbourhoods.

In response to this emergency, Save the Children, in coordination with FUNARTE (the Foundation for supporting creative children´s art) and Comupred-Estelí (the Municipal Committee for Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Attention), created a linked project initiative called “Giving priority to child protection-Emergency response to tropical depression 12E in Nicaragua”. Its aim was to promote children´s emotional recuperation through art and children´s recreational activities.

For Anabel García, Funarte´s Executive Director “the execution of this project focused on the children’s work to strengthen their own self-protection capacity in emergency situations. Many of them had faced having lost their toys, clothes, utensils, household appliances and even their pets”.