UNICEF has launched a special emergency kit to help meet the developmental needs of young children caught in emergencies.

In a press release UNICEF Executive Director Ann M Veneman said “The Early Childhood Developmental [ECD] kit is a tool for young children displaced or affected by war and natural disasters”. She also said it is the first of its kind within the humanitarian community.

Early childhood is the most critical period for brain development, making young children vulnerable to the stresses of war and natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods and earthquakes.

The idea of a special emergency kit containing materials to help young children affected by these types of disasters regain a sense of normalcy stemmed from a need UNICEF staff and partners responding to emergencies identified.

The kit is a box containing 37 different items for use by about 50 children up to six years of age, the release said. It costs about US$230 and makes possible a range of activities that encourage development and social interaction and promote playing, drawing, story telling and numeracy. The materials include dominoes, colouring pencils, construction blocks, hand puppets, puzzle blocks and memory games give children a sense of property, something which they own, the release said.

UNICEF said the kit was tested in seven countries: Chad, Liberia, Congo Brazzaville, Jamaica, Maldives, Iraq and Guyana, before being launched. UNICEF said the ECD kit complements the School-in-a-Box kit it developed jointly with UNESCO in 1994. The school kit has become a part of the UNICEF standard response in emergencies and has been used in many back-to-school operations. To date more than 600,000 school kits have been sent around the world, the release said.

UNICEF’s role in emergencies is to protect women and children and ensure the application of international standards covering their rights and provide them with assistance. Over the past three years it has responded to 829 emergencies. UNICEF said an estimated 175 million children are affected by disasters every year.