Save the Children India comes up with Child Friendly Spaces for the flood affected vulnerable children

Guwahati, July 08: The state of Assam is reeling under floods followed by incessant rainfall and landslides across many districts. As many as 32 districts out of 35 in the state are inundated affecting over 5.5 million people including 1.3 million children. Save the Children India has already mounted its humanitarian response with immediate support, both in the relief camps and communities. Its response work is in close coordination with the Government peer NGOs and CSO alliances in the state at all levels. Presently it is reaching out to the districts of Darrang, Nagaon, Dhemaji, Majuli and Morigaon.

Save the Children has set up two Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) in the villages of Bishnupur and Bogachola of Darrang district with an aim to ensure psycho-social wellbeing for every last child in these flood-affected districts since children cannot wait. These are safe spaces set up in emergency settings to help support and protect children like Jun and many others. The objective is to restore a sense of normality and continuity to children whose lives have been disrupted by a natural disasters like floods etc. or other emergencies.
Save the Children India's Field Teams have been on the ground identifying the families and children in distress, and setting up our supply chain mechanism to start the distribution.
The inaugural programme was attended by the representative from Save the Children, Sri Anindit Roy Chowdhury, Chief Programme Officer, NSO New Delhi, Sri Ranjan Kumar Borah, State lead and Sri Rupam Das, Asstt. Manager from Project Office-Assam along with the school management committee of Bonmojha HS Schools, PRI members, local community members and school children were present in the inaugural programme of Child Friendly Space (CFS).
Sri Anindit Roy Chowdhury highlighted the Save the Children initiatives for Assam Flood Response 2022 in the districts of Darrang and Nagaon. He mentioned that the work they are doing with the community and support of local Govt. with immediate relief support for the flood-affected communities through non-food items (NFI) i.e. Shelter kits, Hygiene kit, preventive WASH kits including educational & recreational kits. But, one of the longer-term –recovery like initiatives is developing a CFS, which was yesterday handed over to the community and children’s themselves and ideas are able to see that these spaces evolved into spaces, children owned, children can come, play, learn here, there will always be CFS facilitator, their learning and their protection is taken care. That is the idea, which they move forward with CFS. He also express gratitude’s to the donor’s for financial support that they have provided, to the community for their participation and children who have taken their ownership of this space, and to the local school authority who has given space for CFS construction.
We are aiming to support long-term recovery through climate-smart livelihood opportunities, enable children and their families to amplify concerns and participate in the gender-sensitive decision-making process and support the creation of an enabling environment (resilient family and resilient community) for children and families who are impacted by the floods of Assam 2022, to build back better.