国际英语新闻:UN agencies mount massive relief operation to help super typhoon victims in Philippines

"Children are the most vulnerable people when natural disasters hit. Children are going to be traumatized. They are going to have been separated from their parents. It's a real battle," he added.

De Bono also related the observations a UNICEF colleague in Tacloban City, who described people walking aimlessly along roads, saying that "I don't know where they are going -- there is nowhere to go. They are walking because their homes are gone and they have nowhere to go."

The International Labor Organization (ILO) is working with the government, businesses and workers in the Philippines to launch an emergency employment program to help the estimated three million people who have lost their livelihoods in the wake of the devastation.

"The loss of life and the scale of the destruction are heart- breaking, and there are millions of people in desperate conditions, " said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. "They need food, water, shelter, medical care -- and they need to start rebuilding their lives right away."

The ILO is helping put in place emergency employment and "cash- for-work" programs as part of the relief appeal launched on Tuesday.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has also begun to support the Philippine government in the reconstruction process in the agricultural, fisheries and forestry sectors with a 1 million U.S. dollars of its resources to cover immediate needs such as seeds and fertilizers, its Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said on Tuesday.

The typhoon hit just at the beginning of the main rice-planting season, and FAO estimates that over one million farmers have been affected and hundreds of thousands of hectares of rice destroyed.

Severe impacts on coconut production in affected areas are expected, and there has also been wide-scale destruction to storage facilities and rural infrastructure. Along the coast the storm surge wiped out many fishing communities, demolishing boats and gear.

Meanwhile, the head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Margareta Wahlstrom, on Tuesday called for a rethinking of the links between disasters and poverty and urged a dramatic scaling up of efforts to protect people and assets. "It is clear that the world is an unchartered territory when it comes to disaster events," Wahlstrom said.

Adding her voice to the chorus of senior UN officials who have extended their condolences to the government and people of the Philippines, Wahlstrom called the typhoon a "major setback for those of us who thought that the world was becoming more successful in reducing loss of life from major weather events."

In addition, the head of the UN World Tourism Organization ( UNWTO), Taleb Rifai, has expressed readiness to support the country in its tourism-related recovery program.

"We call upon all tourism companies, associations and tourisms from all around the world to contribute to the UN efforts being deployed," Rifai said, urging the sector to show solidarity with the Filipinos.