A/HRC/8/10 page 9 26. This lack of support is compounded by economic decline and the health problems that accompany emergencies. There is no reliable statistical data permitting a comparison of the impact of natural disasters and the impact of armed conflict. However, one fact can be identified: around 90 per cent of those affected by natural disasters live in States with limited capacity to cope with that impact.14 27. In 1998 hundreds of schools in Central America were damaged by Hurricane Mitch and many others were turned into shelters. In Aceh, Indonesia, 1,000 teachers were lost after the tsunami in 2004, and 50 per cent of schools were destroyed, leaving 140,000 elementary students and 20,000 junior high school students with nowhere to study. The tsunami destroyed 112 schools in Sri Lanka.15 28. Even though natural disasters are “statistically less lethal” than conflicts, causing one third the number of deaths, in the 1990s natural disasters affected seven times the number of people that conflicts did.16 An important point is that natural disasters are on the rise, occurring three times as often in the 1990s as they did in the 1950s. 29. Statistics are not always useful in showing the degradation and destruction of education systems when an emergency arises, particularly in the case of armed conflict. 30. During times of conflict schools can become recruitment centres for children, who are forced to become soldiers, which is in itself an attack on children’s education and lives. Teachers, students and parents become the targets of violence. Parents keep their children at home to avoid the risks involved in the trip to and from school and also to avoid falling victim to landmines. Few statistics record the impact of violence in schools themselves in times of conflict, despite reports that levels of teacher violence against students also intensify. B. Importance of education in emergencies 31. The Special Rapporteur strongly questions the way humanitarian aid focuses on the three classic areas of food, health and shelter, because it is clear that these days humanitarian assistance should be geared to people’s overall welfare. Aid that merely supplies calories for the stomach and water for the throat reduces people to things.17 14 Burde, D., Education in crisis situations: Mapping the field, Washington D.C., diciembre de 2005, pág. 8. Basic Education Policy Support activity (BEPS), Creative Associates, y CARE International. Texto disponible en www.beps.net/crisis_situations/crisis_situations.htm. 15 Ibíd., págs. 8 y 9. 16 Ibíd., pág. 9. 17 Vaux, T., The Selfish Altruist: Relief Work in Famine and War, Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2001.