PRESS RELEASE

October 22, 2009

United States Provides More Emergency Assistance to Vietnam

HANOI, October 22, 2009 -- The U.S. government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing $150,000 to Save the Children to support relief efforts for victims of typhoon Ketsana.  Late last month, Ketsana slammed into Vietnam’s central highlands displacing nearly 200,000 people and claiming 163 lives.

This funding brings the total U.S. government support for typhoon victims in Vietnam this year to $750,000.

The funding, through USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), will allow Save the Children to deliver essential household and hygiene kits (blankets, water containers, kettles, cooking pots, mosquito nets and soap) to almost 35,000 people by the end of this week.

Save the Children will target U.S. assistance to those most affected by the typhoon in the remote and marginalized highland communities of Da Krong district in Quang Tri province.  

Over three million people have been affected by Typhoon Ketsana, which struck Vietnam on September 29, bringing winds of 150 kph and causing the worst flooding in decades. In the weeks following the typhoon, Save the Children provided immediate recovery relief items and food to almost 100,000 people, of which at least half are children, in the three most affected provinces -- Quang Tri, Hue, and Danang.

Beginning next week, Save the Children will move into the second phase of rehabilitation by providing livelihood support to families for recovery of agriculture and lost livestock, seeds, and tools.  Cash relief programs, linked to food security and livelihoods distribution, will target 400 households in Quang Tri province.