%0 Journal Article
%T The role of non-governmental organisations in the management of separated and unaccompanied children, following disasters in Iran
%A Farnaz Bazeghi
%A Hamid R Baradaran
%J BMC Research Notes
%D 2010
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1756-0500-3-256
%X The Iranian Red Crescent Organisation, Committee Emdad Imam Khomeini (a national organisation unique to Iran that is protected by the government and supported by public contributions) and Behzisti (the government welfare organisation in Iran) are the main figures involved in the management of separated and unaccompanied children, following disasters in Iran. NGOs are rarely responsible for caring for unaccompanied children, however they provide valuable support including financial assistance, arrangement of educational and extra-curricular activities and psychosocial support. Following the initial chaos after the Bam earthquake, international guidelines on separated and unaccompanied children were largely followed.Systems for managing separated and unaccompanied children following disasters in Iran, involving NGOs, are emerging. However, most are yet to be formalised.Disasters are inevitable, therefore disaster management warrants attention and is essential in disaster prone countries such as Iran [1-3]. Children who are unaccompanied, meaning they have do not have a responsible adult as their guardian, or separated from their usual care-givers are particularly vulnerable following disasters [4-9]. As disaster situations often breakdown existing social structures and services within a country [4], humanitarian organisations can provide valuable assistance. Therefore, such organisations have produced guidelines for the management of separated and unaccompanied children following disasters.There is a lack of experiential evidence on the management of separated and unaccompanied children following disasters, evidence that would be valuable in planning for and provision of future disasters. This study aims to contribute to the small number of published empirical reports [3,10,11] regarding disaster management, by interviewing personnel from relevant Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Tehran and Bam, in Iran. The main aim of this paper is to describe the role of NG
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/3/256