UNICEF provides supplies as typhoon Ruby batters Phl

UNITED NATIONS (Xinhua) - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Monday that it is providing lifesaving supplies and services for children and women in the Philippines as Typhoon Hagupit sweeps across the country.

UNICEF Philippines Representative Lotta Sylwander cautioned in a press release that despite its downgraded status, the storm continued to pose "a serious threat" as tens of thousands of children and their mothers remained in "urgent need of emergency aid."

UNICEF's Tacloban office, established after Super Typhoon Haiyan, activated its emergency response plan last week. Its 54 staff are on standby to deploy to affected areas to undertake expert assessments, and work with the government and partners to assist evacuees, said the press release.

The agency added that it had strategically prepositioned supplies in warehouses in Tacloban, Manila and Cotabato, including water kits, hygiene kits, water pumps, generators, water storage and treatment facilities as well as nutritional therapeutic food items to combat malnutrition, oral rehydration salts and tarpaulins power for at least 12,000 families.

Hagupit made landfall over the weekend, battering the Philippines' Dolores municipality with high winds and lashing rains, resurrecting fears of a repeat of the devastation caused by last year's Typhoon Haiyan.

Earlier in the day, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) said at least 21 people were killed in central Philippines due to Hagupit. Philippine agriculture sector has initially suffered an estimated damage of P1.02 billion ($22.8 million from the typhoon.

Latest government estimates indicate that more than a million people are affected, including over 400,000 children. Many of them are in evacuation sites.

".. there are still almost a million people - many still recovering from Haiyan - who have been driven from their homes," Sylwander said. "These people have made enormous progress in rebuilding their lives over the last 12 months, and they need our help to make sure these hard-won gains are not washed away by this new disaster."

UNICEF's efforts also focus on helping children overcome the effects of anxiety and extreme fear, including through the provision of psychosocial assistance.

School tents as well as education materials will also be provided so that children who are forced to evacuate, or whose schools have been closed or damaged by the storm, can continue learning.

Typhoon Hagupit, known locally as "Ruby", made landfall only 13 months after Super Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated parts of the Eastern Visayas.

The state weather forecasting agency said Hagupit has weakened and was downgraded to tropical storm. However, it is still on the move, bringing destructive winds, heavy rain, water surges and landslides. The full extent of the damage continues to remain unclear in certain provinces due to poor communication.