Haitian quake a children's emergency

More than anything, the Haiti quake is a children's emergency, writes Dennis McKinlay, executive director of Unicef NZ.

New Zealanders have been generous in opening their hearts to the people of Haiti after that country's devastating earthquake.

Those first sketchy reports and horrifying images of absolute destruction in and around the capital, Port-au-Prince, started a tidal wave of charitable giving.

New Zealanders have given millions of dollars.

It is now believed there could be as many as 150,000 dead, with three million people injured, displaced or otherwise affected in what is the seventh most deadly quake in history and the worst ever in the western hemisphere.

The truly shocking reality, however, is that children have been hardest hit.

Close to half of those affected by the quake are likely to be children under the age of 18 - that's around 1.5 million children.

Most are under 14.

The earthquake has been a double disaster for children.

Haiti was already one of the poorest countries on earth.

Four out of every 10 children live in homes with mud floors or in severely overcrowded conditions, with more than five people living in each room.

Haiti had the highest rates of infant, under-5 and maternal mortality in the western hemisphere.

Eight out of every 100 children die before they reach five years of age.

Years of violence and a string of recent natural disasters have weakened the country's infrastructure and boosted the number of orphans.

Pre-quake, there were an estimated 380,000 orphans, 50,000 of whom had lost both parents.

The total number of orphans is more than the population of the Otago, Southland, West Coast and Nelson regions combined.

The capital Port-au-Prince has about 300 orphanages, with a similar number around the rest of the country.

With each one home to 100-200 children, that's well over 30,000 children living in orphanages in Port-au-Prince alone.

The number of new orphans, along with separated and unaccompanied children, is expected to increase by several thousand.

Children who survived the quake are now at increased risk from a host of dangers, including disease, malnutrition, trafficking, sexual exploitation and serious emotional trauma.