SOS Children's Villages provides humanitarian aid in earthquake-torn Algeria

Over the weekend, a team of SOS Children's Village co-workers handed out 115 humanitarian aid packages, containing food items, hygiene products and infant supplies, for more than 1,000 people severely affected by last Wednesday's earthquake. At 6.7 on the Richter scale, the earthquake is the North African country's most severe since 1980. Once again, the epicentre was in the northern coastal strip where most of Algeria's 32 million people live.

In co-operation with local authorities, the humanitarian aid packages were distributed in the quake-torn cities of Boudouaou and Thénia. Simultaneously, the team of SOS Children's Villages co-workers also assessed the humanitarian needs of a further 100 families in Thénia. The quake has left more than 2,000 dead, more than 9,000 injured and hundreds still unaccounted for.

SOS Children's Villages and other international non-governmental organisations and local associations, also made arrangements for the course of further humanitarian aid. Three action areas were set up, these will provide medical and psychological aid as well as supplies. SOS Children's Villages will co-ordinate the latter.

Fortunately, the earthquake did not affect the SOS Children's Village in Draria, a suburb of the capital Algiers. Representatives of SOS Children's Villages in Algeria, said all children and co-workers had remained unscathed and that no damage had been done to the infrastructure.