Kids have unique needs that frequently aren’t taken into account during response and recovery. for instance, emergency-response vehicles are often not stocked with equipment and medicine that are fit for youngsters. Children are also especially susceptible to stress, uncertainty, and instability, felt either directly or through their parents, which is why timing is of the essence—the sooner families are brought back to a state of relative normalcy, the better kids fare.In the aftermath of Katrina, kids were a casualty of a disaster-management system that wasn’t even able to adequately handle adults, let alone children. It’s a situation of “benign neglect,” says Mark Shriver, who leads U.S. programs at Save the Children. “No one went out to shortchange kids, but they didn’t think of children’s needs. Unfortunately kids don’t vote, they don’t give money, and they are not a strong constituency, but they’re very much at risk.”
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