Third UpdateSH - April 14, 2011

C4D Plan for Response to the Libyan Crisis on the

Egyptian Boarders

I. Situation Update

Almost three weeks after the beginning of the Libya Crisis, the majority of those crossing the Egyptian boarders are mostly third nationality. The current situation remains to be providing support (WASH and Protection Sector) to third nationalities that mostly stay for a period between 1 to 10 days depending on the completion of their papers till they leave to their final destination. Most of those are men (workers) of different African nationalities as well as Bangladeshi. Around 20% of those crossing are families with children. About 50% of those children are below the age of 5.

Two days ago, some Libyan families started to cross the Egyptian boarders who are from the Bangazi area. Given the no visa policy between Egypt and Libya those families move fast through the immigration and hence don’t stay on the boarder’s area. Should GOE change its policy with more influx of Libyans.

According, to earlier joint UN assessment of the general needs of the boarder’s site interventions in the areas of WASH, Hygiene Education, Protection especially in terms of psychosocial support are the most needed. Water was available at most of the locations throughout the day. On the rare occasions when there was no water in the tanks of one of the major toilet blocks, the distribution team was alerted and corrective action was rapid.The sUNICEF Salloum Mission daily situation report No. 12 (March 13, 2011)
Overall situation for women and children
i. There are approximately 72 children and 88 women on site today;
ii. More than 1,700 Bangladeshis have been repatriated within the last two days;
iii. The number of arrivals remained close to 2,000 yesterday, with half from Egypt and Libya with the other half comprising third country nationals, mostly from Chad and Bangladesh at this time;
iv. 44 U5 children were vaccinated on-site by MoHP today.
WASH
i. Water was available at most of the locations throughout the day. On the rare occasions when there was no water in the tanks of one of the major toilet blocks, the distribution team was alerted and corrective action was rapid.The standard of cleaning has also improved significantly with the increase in water availability.
ii. A total of 54,000 litres of water for sanitation was delivered to the site today.
iii. UNICEF advocated for the cleaning contractor to use a garbage compressor truck, which was deployed on site for the first time today.
iv. UNICEF has procured an additional four water tanks to ensure adequate in-situ sanitation water storage; these tanks will be installed tomorrow.
v. The location of the additional mobile toilets (due to arrive on site tomorrow) have been agreed upon with the local authorities.
vi. A total of 20 large garbage bins (240 liters each) have been ordered and will be delivered on site on Wednesday.
Child Protection
i. As of 10:30 today there were 72 children and 88 women on-site.
ii. UNICEF has advocated with IOM to give priority to women and children for repatriation.
iii. All Malian families were repatriated yesterday.
iv. A Palestinian family with two children has not been allowed entry and has been sent back to Libya.
v. The Protection working group held its first meeting today (UNHCR, UNICEF and ECHO were represented).
Health
i. UNICEF with MoHP conducted an on-site immunization round for children U5, which resulted in 44 children receiving polio, DTP, BCG, and MMR vaccines.
Nutrition
i. Nothing significant to report.
Immediate actions
i. UNICEF to continue monitoring sanitation water supply (on-going);
ii. UNICEF to continue monitoring women and children on-site as well as leading on child-focused psychosocial support (on-going);
UNICEF Salloum Mission daily situation report No. 12 (March 13, 2011)
Overall situation for women and children
i. There are approximately 72 children and 88 women on site today;
ii. More than 1,700 Bangladeshis have been repatriated within the last two days;
iii. The number of arrivals remained close to 2,000 yesterday, with half from Egypt and Libya with the other half comprising third country nationals, mostly from Chad and Bangladesh at this time;
iv. 44 U5 children were vaccinated on-site by MoHP today.
WASH
i. Water was available at most of the locations throughout the day. On the rare occasions when there was no water in the tanks of one of the major toilet blocks, the distribution team was alerted and corrective action was rapid.The standard of cleaning has also improved significantly with the increase in water availability.
ii. A total of 54,000 litres of water for sanitation was delivered to the site today.
iii. UNICEF advocated for the cleaning contractor to use a garbage compressor truck, which was deployed on site for the first time today.
iv. UNICEF has procured an additional four water tanks to ensure adequate in-situ sanitation water storage; these tanks will be installed tomorrow.
v. The location of the additional mobile toilets (due to arrive on site tomorrow) have been agreed upon with the local authorities.
vi. A total of 20 large garbage bins (240 liters each) have been ordered and will be delivered on site on Wednesday.
Child Protection
i. As of 10:30 today there were 72 children and 88 women on-site.
ii. UNICEF has advocated with IOM to give priority to women and children for repatriation.
iii. All Malian families were repatriated yesterday.
iv. A Palestinian family with two children has not been allowed entry and has been sent back to Libya.
v. The Protection working group held its first meeting today (UNHCR, UNICEF and ECHO were represented).
Health
i. UNICEF with MoHP conducted an on-site immunization round for children U5, which resulted in 44 children receiving polio, DTP, BCG, and MMR vaccines.
Nutrition
i. Nothing significant to report.
Immediate actions
i. UNICEF to continue monitoring sanitation water supply (on-going);
ii. UNICEF to continue monitoring women and children on-site as well as leading on child-focused psychosocial support (on-going);
UNICEF Salloum Mission daily situation report No. 12 (March 13, 2011)
Overall situation for women and children
i. There are approximately 72 children and 88 women on site today;
ii. More than 1,700 Bangladeshis have been repatriated within the last two days;
iii. The number of arrivals remained close to 2,000 yesterday, with half from Egypt and Libya with the other half comprising third country nationals, mostly from Chad and Bangladesh at this time;
iv. 44 U5 children were vaccinated on-site by MoHP today.
WASH
i. Water was available at most of the locations throughout the day. On the rare occasions when there was no water in the tanks of one of the major toilet blocks, the distribution team was alerted and corrective action was rapid.The standard of cleaning has also improved significantly with the increase in water availability.
ii. A total of 54,000 litres of water for sanitation was delivered to the site today.
iii. UNICEF advocated for the cleaning contractor to use a garbage compressor truck, which was deployed on site for the first time today.
iv. UNICEF has procured an additional four water tanks to ensure adequate in-situ sanitation water storage; these tanks will be installed tomorrow.
v. The location of the additional mobile toilets (due to arrive on site tomorrow) have been agreed upon with the local authorities.
vi. A total of 20 large garbage bins (240 liters each) have been ordered and will be delivered on site on Wednesday.
Child Protection
i. As of 10:30 today there were 72 children and 88 women on-site.
ii. UNICEF has advocated with IOM to give priority to women and children for repatriation.
iii. All Malian families were repatriated yesterday.
iv. A Palestinian family with two children has not been allowed entry and has been sent back to Libya.
v. The Protection working group held its first meeting today (UNHCR, UNICEF and ECHO were represented).
Health
i. UNICEF with MoHP conducted an on-site immunization round for children U5, which resulted in 44 children receiving polio, DTP, BCG, and MMR vaccines.
Nutrition
i. Nothing significant to report.
Immediate actions
i. UNICEF to continue monitoring sanitation water supply (on-going);
ii. UNICEF to continue monitoring women and children on-site as well as leading on child-focused psychosocial support (on-going);

II. UNICEF Response

Through discussion with the Boarders’ authorities, UNICEF negotiated and it was approved to provide one of the travel halls to only families and children. A child friendly corner is now established and providing psychosocial, edutainment games and other animation support. In addition, UNICEF rehabilitated 40 bathrooms around the site and provided 17 movable latrines with a shower for only mothers and children. Given the need to promote positive hygiene and health practices as well as supportive psychological response, C4D is supporting the sectoral programs in the response to this crisis according to reach the below objectives.

III. C4D Objectives:

  1. Promote hygiene practices especially: no littering, hand washing and water preservation
  2. Support the psychosocial and educational activities provided to children on the site by presenting the positive practices in a friendly and entertaining way.
  3. Promote general nutrition practices especially breastfeeding
  4. Promote available site services (both psychosocial and medical)

IV. Prime Audience and their Profile

The largest majority of those crossing the boarders have been single men, who are mostly labor workers in Libya. Egyptians were among the early to cross the boarders at the onset of these crises followed by third nationalities who are crossing through Egypt to their countries. Families crossing the boarders were less than 20% of total public on the boarders. As of March 16 some Libyan families started to cross the boarders into Egypt.

Still, the focus of UNICEF during this crisis is on the following groups with the following order:

1. All Children crossing the boarders accompanied or unaccompanied

  • Around 50% of children who crossed the boarders were under 5 years
  • Another 20% to 30% are between and 10
  • Only two cases of unaccompanied / separated children were reported.

2. Mothers with children crossing the boarders

  • Majority of mothers crossing the boarders are in reproductive age and / or with children under 5 and lactating

3. Women including those who don’t have children

4. General public of persons crossing the boarders to their final destination

This group constitutes the majority of persons on the boarders.

V. Current Priority Messages

The situation on the ground and mandate of UNICEF as well as the comparative advantage require the focus of the messages to be of three clusters:

1. Hygiene:

  1. Flush toilet
  2. Wash hands with soap and water
  3. Close water tap
  4. Throw trash in garbage bin
  5. Don’t cook in closed areas

2. Psychosocial and Protection messages

  1. Reassure your children to make them feel safe
  2. Listen and talk to your children
  3. Play with your children to help them cope with stress
  4. Seek counselor’s help if you need support

3. Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition messages

  1. Breastfeed your child exclusively till 6-months of age.
  2. Drink a lot of fluids.
  3. Seek medical help if needed

VI. Strategies

Given the current phase three strategies are planned:

  1. Training of young volunteers from neighboring cities of the boarders who could be deployed should the situation demand
  2. Development of different packages of messages for different scenarios
  3. Production of IEC materials

VII. Activities

  1. As part of ECO assessment, C4D integrated a specific questions for prevailing practices that need to be considered to draft the relevant messages
  2. Training of 28 Egyptian Red CrescentVolunteers on C4D principles, Psychosocial support and maternal and child health
  3. Message development for different sectors (education, health and protection) as outlined above and pretesting of these messages.
  4. Production of different relevant materials in four languages including Arabic, English, French and Bengali. The IEC materials include:
  5. Hygiene Stickers for bathrooms
  6. Large billboards for outdoor areas to address no littering behavior
  7. Posters in family waiting hall and child friendly space
  8. Edutainment games in the child friendly space area
  9. Site map for all arriving into the site
  10. Special information sheet for volunteers undertaking the awareness sessions
  11. Compiled information / training package for volunteers (social workers and animators)
  12. Conducting one to one and small group “hygiene and psychosocial” reminders to public.
  13. Development of monitoring indicators as part of ECO monitoring system of UNICEF undertaken activities.

Immediate Tasks / Responsible Person
1. Develop a C4D checklist to support the planning with other sections. / Sahar
2. Get better understanding of messages from RO office. / Sahar
3. Review the other sectoral plans and revise messages based on data received. / Sahar
4. Recommend needed equipment and supplies for acquisition and possible supplies. / Samar
5. Review the M&E checklists, tools and post assessment questionnaires and integrate relevant information to be collected for C4D. / Sahar
6. Pre test of materials / Dalia
7. Produce messages for different sectors in different packages / Samar
8. Complete planning for upcoming scenario / Sahar
9. Update the roaster of NGOs, consultants and communication agencies who can be then recruited to undertake some of theC4D intervention / All C4D team
10. Admin. and supply steps completed for different activities / Heba

VIII. Timeline and Checklist for C4D Emergency Response to Libyan Crisis

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