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When a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti Jan 12 at 75,000 people died and about a million were left homeless. An estimated two million people were affected by this disaster.

“When something like happens, it’s always the children who suffer most,” says Vanessa Tobin, United Nations Children Fund (Unicef) country representative.

Miss Vanessa says that the biggest needs of Haitians right sanitation, emergency shelters clean water. Water purification tablets and oral rehydration salts are important to keep children and adults from getting diarrhea and other waterborne diseases.

Unicef is supplying the victims with high-energy biscuits containing high-protein cereals. These special biscuits are packed with vitamins and minerals.

“It is not a replacement for food. It is a supplement for the food provided by the World Food Programme,” she says.

According to Miss Vanessa, the children  will also given Plumpy’nut if they showed signs of malnutrition Plumpy’nut is a peanut-based paste which sweeter than peanut butter. It ca help kids gain weight tastes.

Although help been pouring in from different parts of the world, Miss Vanessa says that the United Nations is far from reaching the $500 billion needed to for the next six months.

It is very important for children in the Philippines to help out because they can relate better to the children of Haiti after all the recent disasters that they have faced,” she says.

She suggests that students can organize a collection in their school and ask their teachers to turn over the amount to Unicef by calling the donor hot- line, 758-1000.

Your teachers or guardians may also get in touch with the following organizations.