Save the Children on Tuesday received a $500,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help thousands of families in Nepal and Bangladesh recovering from the recent monsoon-triggered flooding.
According to Save the Children website, Save the Children is currently reaching out to tens of thousands of children and their families in the area with critical supplies and providing ongoing support in the areas of health, emergency food and non-food supplies, and water and sanitation as the population works toward recovery.
"Besides providing badly needed resources, we hope that this decision by the Gates Foundation draws more public attention to a humanitarian crisis that is getting far too little attention in the United States but continues to imperil the lives of hundreds of thousands of families in South Asia," said Rudy Von Bernuth, who heads Save the Children's emergency response operations.
The grant will support Save the Children's emergency response efforts in Nepal and Bangladesh, with a focus on re-establishing health services.
"This humanitarian crisis in South Asia is underserved and requires immediate action," said Charles Lyons, director of special initiatives, Global Development Program at the Gates Foundation. "Save the Children's efforts will help tens of thousands of people — at least a third of them children — who face long months of rebuilding."
In Nepal, highly vulnerable groups, including children and pregnant and lactating mothers, are being prioritized for support. To protect children from starvation and the risk of spreading waterborne diseases, Save the Children also will organize health and sanitation sessions for affected communities.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, based in Seattle, focuses on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty.
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