UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Region Humanitarian Situation Report No. 1 (Typhoon Yagi and Floods): 7 to 18 September 2024 – Vietnam

Highlights:

• Super Typhoon Yagi, one of the strongest typhoons to hit Southeast Asia in decades, has left a trail of destruction across several countries. The typhoon first made landfall in the Philippines on September 2, before moving across China and then Vietnam. Yagi’s remnants brought heavy rains to Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
• Nearly 6 million children have been affected by the floods and landslides caused by the typhoon in Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, threatening their access to clean water, education, healthcare, food and shelter.
• More than 5.5 million children live in the worst-affected provinces in Vietnam, and around 2.4 million children have lost access to education and protection, including school-based programs such as psychosocial support. UNICEF has provided 80,000 water purification tablets to the Thai Nguyen Disease Control Center and 8,000 liters of water to Lao Cai Provincial Hospital to support the delivery of essential services.
• In Myanmar, at least 630,000 people are estimated to be affected and UNICEF is working with partners to distribute essential hygiene items to 170,000 people.
• In Thailand, to complement the government’s ongoing response to meet the needs of approximately 68,000 affected children, UNICEF has so far delivered 1,000 hygiene kits, 1,000 baby kits and 1,000 Magic Bags containing educational and recreational materials.
• 28,000 families are in need of aid in Lao PDR following Typhoon Yagi and the flooding that followed. UNICEF, together with the government, is distributing 1.1 million chlorine tablets, 250 buckets of water, 4,000 bars of soap, 400 packs of sanitary towels and 150 bottles of water.
• UNICEF is appealing for US$22,530,000 to address the most urgent multisectoral needs of affected children and their families in the region.

FINANCING OVERVIEW AND PARTNERSHIPS

UNICEF is appealing for US$22,530,000 to meet the emergency needs of nearly 6 million children affected by floods and landslides caused by Super Typhoon Yagi and the ongoing heavy monsoon rains in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. This funding will enable UNICEF to support multisectoral interventions covering nutrition, health, water sanitation and hygiene (WASH), education, child protection, gender-based violence in emergencies, protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, social protection and cash-based programming, social behaviour change (SBC), accountability to affected populations (AAP), humanitarian leadership and sector/cluster coordination.

During the reporting period, UNICEF was able to quickly mobilise US$225,000 from existing regional humanitarian thematic funds, thanks to the generous support of the Government of Korea. Additional internal resources were mobilised by UNICEF Country Offices, including an internal UNICEF loan to UNICEF Vietnam from the Emergency Programme Fund (EPF) facility (for US$2,400,000) which is to be repaid. UNICEF Vietnam also received timely and generous support from the Embassy of Ireland in Vietnam (US$278,137) and the Korean National Committee for UNICEF (US$400,000).

Flexible thematic funding is essential to reach the most vulnerable children and families with life-saving support, as UNICEF in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam will continue to adapt and respond to critical humanitarian needs as they evolve. UNICEF is grateful to all its partners for their continued support and collaboration and appeals for further assistance to the most vulnerable children in the region affected by Typhoon Yagi and the ongoing monsoon rains.