“I hate earthquakes. Earthquakes took my mother and aunt,” Khin Yadanar, five -year -old, told the United Nations children (Unicef), after her mother and aunt were killed when a brick wall collapsed.
About 6.5 million children already needed humanitarian assistance before the earthquake, which aggravated the existing vulnerabilities resulting from the brutal civil war between several armed opposition groups and the military junta which seized the power during a coup of February 2021.
Families are now faced with another threat of floods and landslides with the arrival of the monsoon season.
Midwives are living lines
While the health services collapsed after the earthquake, “women, especially pregnant mothers, were seriously affected,” Yu Yu, a midwife in Mandalay, told the UN reproductive health agency, UNFPA.
In the middle of chaos, midwives have become front line heroes. Without being discouraged by replicas and confront both physical obstacles and emotional challenges, midwives have provided hope and vital support.
Yu Yu remembers in particular the case of one of his patients who suddenly became failed, unable to reach medical facilities when she started work after the earthquake.
Without hesitation, Yu Yu rushed to her side: “When I reached him, she was exhausted, overwhelmed by fear and financial insecurity after the earthquake,” she recalls.
That day, Yu Yu saved both the mother and the child, while the baby’s umbilical cord had rolled up around the infant’s neck.
UNFPA has deployed mobile clinics to ensure that women and girls continue to receive essential health and protection services.
A 10 -year -old boy with his parrot on his shoulder in a temporary camp settled after a devastating earthquake that struck myanmar.
Deep trauma
“She cries in her sleep, and I worry that something in her has broken,” said Thida, mother of Thiry, eight, addressing Unicef.
Under the visible devastation of the earthquake is a deeper crisis: the deep psychological trauma that young survivors carry.
“I was so afraid. My heart was beating so quickly – and everything I could think was my parrots and my cats at home,” said Thurein Oo, a ten -year -old boy who prayed in a mosque when the tremor struck.
In the areas affected by earthquakes, parents attend similar signs of distress in their children – sudden anxiety, emotional withdrawal and white nights, say the United Nations workers.
In response to this growing mental health crisis, UNICEF and its partners mobilized to provide critical psychological support to affected communities.
The implementation of spaces adapted to children, UNICEF aims to promote psychosocial well-being, to strengthen resilience and to restore a feeling of normality to children’s routines. Thanks to various activities such as drawing, children learn to face their trauma.
“I have colored a photo of my mother,” said Khin, who lost his mother in the earthquake. “I feel better when I draw.”
Although the physical reconstruction of houses and infrastructure will probably take years, the emotional and psychological assessment that the earthquake has had on children cannot be left untreated.
“I like to come here,” said Thurein, referring to one of these spaces. “I feel safe and I made a new friend who has also lost his house,” he added.
The survivors of the earthquake study the ruins of their houses in Pyinmana, Myanmar, after the earthquake there.
Proactive planning
While earthquakes are among the most deadly natural risks, it is the collapse of buildings that causes the most devastating effects. As such, the proactive reduction in disaster risks – such as carrying out structures resistant to earthquakes – is essential to reduce economic deaths and losses.
Focusing on rising urban development, the UN-Habitat and the United Nations Office for Risk Risk of Catastrophe (UNDR) also work through Myanmar to mitigate the risks that future earthquakes could lay.
Although few can be done to prevent natural risks such as earthquakes from occurring, it can be done a lot to alleviate their effects.
While reconstruction efforts are underway, the UN is devoted to “ensuring that each step we take makes the reconstructed and more resilient areas than before,” said Anacláudia Rossbach, executive director of the UN-Habitat.
