For all news enquiries please contact Karen on 04 815 9387 or email karen@unicef.org.nz
Haiti is a children’s emergency
More than anything, the Haiti quake is a children's emergency, writes Dennis McKinlay, Executive Director of Unicef NZ, in the Otago Daily Times.
New Zealanders have been generous in opening their hearts to the people of Haiti after that country's devastating earthquake.
Those first sketchy reports and horrifying images of absolute destruction in and around the capital, Port-au-Prince, started a tidal wave of charitable giving.
New Zealanders have given millions of dollars.
It is now believed there could be as many as 150,000 dead, with three million people injured, displaced or otherwise affected in what is the seventh most deadly quake in history and the worst ever in the western hemisphere.
The truly shocking reality, however, is that children have been hardest hit.
Close to half of those affected by the quake are likely to be children under the age of 18 - that's around 1.5 million children.
Read the full story in the Otago Daily Times
People can donate to UNICEF NZ's Haiti Emergency Appeal on 0800-800-194 or online at www.unicef.org.nz
