Disaster Relief Archives - Page 11 of 16 - Humanitarian Aid & Relief

Preparing for Tomas to hit Haiti

The resounding question in everyone’s mind today is, how much more can Haiti take? With more than one million people still homeless after January’s quake, and a recent outbreak of deadly cholera that has now claimed the lives of more than 400 people, a tropical storm that could dump 10-15 inches of rain is the last thing Haiti needs.

tents in haiti — More than a million people are still living in tent camps in Haiti, many of which are at risk for severe flooding.

World Concern Haiti staff are preparing for the worst. During the storm, which is expected to move through the area early Friday, staff members have been instructed to take shelter, making sure their cell phones are charged, and to have a fresh supply of water, food and batteries on hand. In the hours leading up to the storm, they’ve been assembling emergency kits and tallying shelter materials for families in the areas we serve. Tarps and tents won’t provide much protection during the storm, but they will be needed immediately afterwards to replace damaged shelters. Tarps are among the items included in the emergency kits.

Getting emergency supplies to people will no doubt be a challenge, and coordinating this is a major effort. The practice of cutting trees in Haiti for firewood and charcoal has left the land vulnerable to mudslides. Heavy rain could wash out roads and make reaching people in need difficult.

Many of the areas where people are currently living in camps are low-lying and previously uninhabitable because of the flood risk. Flooding could also worsen the spread of water-borne disease, including cholera.

Some people take comfort in the fact the storm currently appears to be slowing and not strengthening much. However, forecasters note the danger of increased amounts of rainfall with a slower storm that lingers over Haiti.

We’ll keep you posted on our response in Haiti as we’re able to communicate with our staff there. Until then, we appreciate your prayers.

Click here to donate to help Haiti.

For more information, visit www.worldconcern.org

Getting ahead of the cholera outbreak in Haiti

Haiti staff are trained in proper handwashing. — Haiti field agents were trained this week in cholera prevention techniques, such as hand washing. They are sharing this information with people in their communities.

With several cases of cholera being reported in the city of Port-au-Prince, World Concern is stepping up our response to the disease spreading by collecting supplies for hygiene kits and preparing to distribute these to more than 30,000 people. The kits will be assembled and distributed within the next few days to people we serve through our HIV and AIDS programs in rural areas, and to the earthquake victims we’re working with in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.

World Concern President Dave Eller is concerned that if cholera becomes an epidemic in Port-au-Prince, it will be a problem for a very long time. He feels strongly that we need to help those we’re currently serving.

“It’s the responsible thing to do, to protect the people who God has given us to walk alongside,” he said. “This is one more tragedy they may have to endure. I wish that we were in a place to have a response beyond these people, but for now, they’ve been given into our care. They trust us.”

The hygiene kits will include:

Water purification tablets
Soap
Oral rehydration packets

We’re estimating we’ll need to spend a minimum of $45,000 to get these kits and information in the hands of Haitian families, but it could cost up to $80,000.

We know that cholera spreads easily in crowded conditions with poor sanitation, and that pretty much describes the situation in Port-au-Prince, where hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors are living in tent communities.

Supplies are being gathered to assemble hygiene kits that will be distributed to people we're working with in Haiti.

World Concern has responded with carefully planned prevention strategies: training our field staff about the disease, its symptoms, how it spreads, and ways to improve hygiene to stay healthy. They, in turn, are passing that information along to people we work with. Now, that information will come with supplies to help keep families healthy.

If you’d like to donate to the Haiti cholera response, please click here.

Latrines mean more than comfort and convenience

At least two bathrooms. That was the minimum we wanted for our 3 person family for a house we bought this year. I feel kind of silly that we have 2 and a half bathrooms after today, when I saw the joy families had of having one – in the form of an outhouse.

A latrine in Sri Lanka. — A woman stands with her baby outside a latrine built by World Concern in Sri Lanka.

I’m in Sri Lanka now, high in the tea-growing region – where poor tea pickers live in shanties on mountainsides. The average wage here is pretty terrible – and it’s part of the reason why these hard-working people can’t afford the basics of life – including a place to go to the bathroom.

Families I met today were so very happy. It’s like they were on the Oprah episode where, “Everybody gets a car! Wooo!” But no, they’re thrilled to have a toilet. Just think about it—to have a convenient place to go to the restroom is a pretty big deal. I met one mom who has six children, and up to this point, they have had to go to the bathroom off in the hills somewhere, or use one of only a few toilets at neighbors’ homes.

Aside from convenience – and pride – the health benefits of a latrine are enormous. Once we go into communities, install latrines, and teach how germs are spread, children are sick less. Disease is not spread at the same rate. Lives are improved – even saved – because of latrines.

Latrines in the Global Gift Guide

The Human Price of War

Signs warn of land mines in Sri Lanka. — Signs like this warn of land mines in Sri Lanka.

The explosion we heard tonight was powerful, rumbling, and – thankfully – not next door. We’re guessing it was a land mine on the outskirts of town.

I’m in Sri Lanka, a country that only last year ended a 26-year-long civil war. There remains tension between the warring ethnic groups – tension that World Concern is trying to help ease through economic opportunities and relationship building.

Land mines are a fact of life (and death) here in the part of the country last to see conflict. Mine clearance crews have picked up most of the mines, but not all. Caution tape and red skull and cross-bone signs mark the hazard zones. Some of these hazard zones are not very far from tents set up by families who have lost their homes in the war.

World Concern is working to bridge ethnic tensions to reduce the chance of war returning to this beautiful country.

A widown in Sri Lanka. — Kamaladarie, a widow in Sri Lanka, sits outside her home with her three children and holds a portrait of her husband who died in a mine blast.

Most importantly, though, we are assisting those civilians who have lost everything. I met a woman tonight whose late husband was almost exactly my age. She held a portrait of him, as she sat beside her mud and sticks home. She says a bomb blast killed him as he was working his field on his tractor.

Now – occasionally flashing a beautiful smile between looks of great sadness – she tells us she’s raising her three children alone. The smallest boy still doesn’t understand where daddy went. Seeing people who have lost everything – family, home, income, and sense of security – brings the reality of what war really is to the forefront of my mind. Really, what is worth this kind of pain?

I don’t want to get into a recap of the long conflict between the Tamil Tiger militants – identified as terrorists – and the Sri Lankan government, but I do want to say that it is incredibly painful to see the end result of this long-simmering angst.

I pray that I don’t meet many more widows in my life like I did today. Jesus, please bring your peace.

Suffering & Solace: Preparing to See Sri Lanka

Here are some thoughts from Mark Lamb, World Concern Ministry Development Coordinator, who is leaving tonight for Sri Lanka. He and other headquarters staff will be visiting areas of Sri Lanka where World Concern is helping victims of the country’s civil war rebuild their lives. They will be documenting their experiences on this blog.

I’m leaving for Sri Lanka tonight and I haven’t started packing. I’m not worried about it yet because my wife has worried enough for both of us. I probably shouldn’t take is so lightly, but I’m still wrapped up in the routine of American life. I got up this morning at the same time I always do, got ready in the same order and got to work at exactly 7:40 a.m. My days are governed by routine and the outcomes are almost always predictable.

A woman sheds tears after being released from a camp for displaced people following the violent end to Sri Lanka's civil war in 2009.

In 2009, a civil war which had affected an entire generation came to a close. More than 80,000 people lost their lives, entire villages were destroyed and countless children are now without fathers or mothers.

In two days I’ll be standing in these communities, among people who have experienced complete devastation. I know from the stories our Sri Lanka staff relays that I’ll meet children who lost limbs during the fighting. I know I’ll meet people who have watched as loved ones were maimed or killed, and I know I’ll be met by blank stares from people who have lost all hope for the future.

But right now I’m sitting at my desk, in my routine, and I know I don’t have the reaction I should.

– Mark

Learn more about World Concern’s work in Sri Lanka.

Thank you letter from Kenya

This letter arrived from Kenya the day before Teriano Soit reported to classes at a university in Kenya. What makes Teriano so special is that she is the first girl from her entire village to attend college. World Concern paid half her high school fees for four years to help make this possible. But it is Teriano’s hard work and dedication to her education that brought her this far.

Students in Kenya. — Teriano Soit (front row, second from left) is the first girl ever from her village to attend college.

Like Teriano, most of the students supported by our Nehemiah Project come from remote pastoralist villages with limited opportunities for education. Their families cannot afford tuition, uniforms or school supplies. Plus, they are often more valuable, short-term, if they are working on the family’s land.

Teriano, along with 15 other students from her village, not only receive tuition, but are trained in important life skills. Teriano says she hopes to pursue a career that will enable her to give back to her community.

As a testament to the education she received, her letter required no editing!

Dear World Concern,

I am sincerely grateful for the financial support you have been offering me for the four years I have been in secondary school. I promise to give back to society what you’ve given me. Just like you enabled me to have a smooth learning in school, I’ll do the same to fellow students who have financial difficulties in any way I can.

May God bless you all for your golden hearts and for the time you devoted to facilitate the seminars you organized for us. It is my prayer that God will continue giving you the strength and selfless hearts to help improve the education status of the Maasai community, hence their living standards.

Thank you also for the inspirational books you gave us. They had such great lessons that no other source could give. I even think they had been purposed by God. Books are the greatest source of knowledge too. I’d therefore request that you continue giving them to your students and for sure they will benefit.

Last but not least, I wish you all success in your endeavors and prosperous lives.

Teriano Soit

Learn more about World Concern’s education programs.

Tangible ways to change lives in the poorest places on earth

A few months back I saw a photograph of a boy sifting through garbage in a dump in Bangladesh, looking for something that wasn’t rotten to eat. My heart ached for him, and I felt compelled to help this young victim of extreme poverty in some way. Short of praying for him to receive help, there didn’t seem much I could do for that particular boy. But I can help others just like him, in some very tangible ways. And so can you.

Think about how buying a farm animal for a family goes so far beyond a temporary fix – it’s a source of lasting income and nutrition. Or, how sending a child like that boy in the dump to school for a year, or purchasing a uniform and school supplies, offer hope for a better future beyond a single meal or hand out.

World Concern’s Global Gift Guide literally allows you to “shop” for ways to transform lives with powerfully meaningful gifts. At the same time, you’re solving the dilemma of what to get friends and family members this holiday season.

The 2011 Global Gift Guide is hot off the press and in the mail this week, or you can also easily order online. Here’s what’s new this year:

A solar cooker for a Darfur war refugee in Chad. Imagine cooking in a crock pot, heated by the sun’s energy. But its benefits go far beyond a warm meal. A solar cooker means that women who usually gather firewood will no longer have to risk her safety gathering sticks – or spend her family’s meager income on fuel for cooking. Plus, her children can’t burn themselves on the solar cooker, and the family’s hut is safe from fire.

A profitable pig for a family in Myanmar. One sow can produce 20 piglets a year, and in six months, each piglet grows to 200 pounds. Pigs produce pigs – and in turn – help make an income. They also provide protein for undernourished girls and boys in this country recovering from a devastating cyclone.

Farm tools to share. A donkey or horse plow, automatic seeder, horse cart or peanut huller helps up to 25 families. This gear, including a horse plow, is shared or rented – making higher-yield production. The farm tools benefit families in Chad who are refugees or displaced because of the Darfur war.

haiti earthquake damage — A gift of "disaster response" from the Global Gift Guide helps communities rebuild after a disaster.

Disaster recovery for a community. With the one-year anniversary of the massive earthquake in Haiti approaching on Jan. 12, and an estimated one million people still homeless, your Christmas shopping money could mean a family is equipped to start their live over in a disaster-torn community. What could have more impact than shelter from a storm or being able to restart a business that was destroyed?

In addition to these new items, the guide is full of life-changing gifts: wells for villages in Kenya, schooling for a deaf child in Bangladesh, plus vegetable gardens, orchards, immunizations and business loans.

Please join us and share this with your friends. You can make a lasting difference in the lives of others – including your loved ones in whose names the gifts are given.

Merry Christmas!

Tornado-Like Haiti Storm Kills 5

A serious tornado-like storm tore through Port-au-Prince Friday night, killing five people, injuring 50, and ripping nearly 6,000 emergency tents to shreds, according to Reuters. World Concern Haiti emergency coordinator Alfred Mondiwa says makeshift shelters “were just overwhelmed and destroyed by the storm.”

Storms spell trouble for the more than 1 million left homeless from the Haiti earthquake. (2-27-10 REUTERS/Carlos Barria - www.alertnet.org)

“It was pretty scary,” said Mondiwa. “It came so unexpectedly. We had not heard any forecast for this.”

Mondiwa is assessing the damage and expects that World Concern will give tarps to families whose shelters were destroyed in the next few days. In addition, World Concern may provide other humanitarian aid for families, depending on need.

“We may give other items, like bedding, pots and pans, clothing,” said Nick Archer, senior director of disaster response. “We’re going to assess the damage and respond as needed.”

In the meantime, construction of semi-permanent transitional shelters will continue on Monday. Mondiwa expects that Haitian work crews will be able resume repairing damaged homes and building sturdy transitional shelters as they have been for the last several months.

The transitional shelters, built from metal, brick and plastic sheeting, are designed to last for 3-5 years or longer. So far, World Concern has built or repaired about 800 homes since the Jan. 12 earthquake.

The Atlantic hurricane season lasts through November, according to the National Weather Service. Most years, Haiti is hit by at least one hurricane. In 2008, Haitians endured three hurricanes and a strong tropical storm.

To learn more or donate to World Concern’s response in Haiti, visit www.worldconcern.org/haiti-earthquake

Will the Hunger Challenge be as “fun” as it seems?

Today was shopping day for some of our staff participating in the Hunger Challenge. The task: to figure out what to buy in order to eat on just $34.33 for the next week. The amount is equivalent to the $1.25 a day that many people in Haiti live on. Our adjusted amount will be $4.90 a day, which doesn’t sound too difficult, but our first eye opener was how much planning, calculating and creativity went into making $34 stretch for a week.

A week's worth of groceries. — Here's what Mark and Erin bought with their $34. Will it last them a week?

Mark and his wife Erin had a lot of fun planning their menu together for the week, then figuring out which things—like a hunk of cheese or a loaf of bread—could be used in more than one meal. They decided to spend only half of their combined $68 on groceries and save the rest for a few splurges, like Erin’s daily Dr. Pepper from the gas station soda fountain. They’re also planning dinner out on Friday night while shopping at Ikea. The store has a hot dog, chips and a drink for $1.99, which fits in their budget. Monday is their anniversary, so they’ll order pizza from Little Caesar’s for $5.

Other meals include taco soup, minus the meat (for three nights), grilled cheese sandwiches, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, and of course, some Top Ramen for snacks.

The hardest things to give up? “Soft drinks,” said Mark, who usually drinks soda with lunch and dinner, but will be drinking only water this week.

“We really realized that if you’re careful, you can save a whole bunch,” he said. “We were surprised at how much food we could get.” It may be a little monotonous, he admits, but they’ve got a bag of chocolate chip cookies dipped in milk to look forward to at the end of the day.

But the Hunger Challenge is not all about budgeting and careful shopping. It’s about experiencing—just an inkling—of what other people live with every day of their lives.

Think about the fact that we’re spending our entire $34 on food. What about all the other things families need to be healthy like soap and toothpaste? Here are just a few things I would normally include in my grocery budget, but won’t be buying this week or I’d starve:

Toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, cleaning products, cat food, cat litter, soap, shampoo, toothpaste, feminine hygiene products, over-the-counter medicines, staples (flour, sugar, spices, shortening, oil, etc.), condiments (salad dressing, mayo, ketchup, teriyaki sauce, etc.), soft drinks, juice, other beverages, light bulbs … I could go on and on.

The point is, when you’re faced with a small amount of money needing to stretch for a week, food alone becomes the priority.

Planning for this week might feel “fun” to those of us who don’t live this way every day, but I find it hard to imagine those living in constant poverty would even have the energy to plan a week’s worth of meals. For us, this is a week-long experiment. For millions of people, it’s a way of life.

Follow our team’s Hunger Challenge updates on Facebook and Twitter, as well as this blog.

Honoring humanitarian workers

Richard Johannessen surrounded by children in Bangladesh. — Richard Johannessen surrounded by children in rural Bangladesh.

For people like Richard Johannessen, the work day never really ends. Whether he’s responding to emails late into the night from his office in Bangkok, or visiting a remote village in Laos, figuring out how to improve access to clean water, his responsibilities weigh heavily on him every day. After all, people’s lives depend on him.

Rick is World Concern’s Asia Area Director, and his work is much more than a job. After a successful career in international business, Richard returned to a calling he’s had since he was young: serving the poor through humanitarian work.

Aug. 19 is World Humanitarian Day, founded in 2009 to honor and celebrate people like Richard who serve day in and day out in difficult places and often dangerous situations for the good of others.

But who are humanitarian workers? The answer is that they, their skills, and their backgrounds, are as diverse as the countries where they work. They respond to disasters and solve complex problems. They save lives and meet the most basic human needs: food, water, shelter, and medical care. Long term, they lead vulnerable people to a place where they have a self-sustaining, healthy future.

World Concern is blessed to have staff members who feel called to this line of work. Some have personally experienced tragedy, loss, war and famine and want to help end suffering for others.

Christon Domond distributes water after earthquake. — Christon Domond distributes bottled water after the earthquake in Haiti.

Christon Domond is one of those people. Christon has worked with World Concern in his homeland of Haiti for more than 20 years, despite offers for more prestigious and lucrative positions in the U.S. He grew up in Haiti in a family with nine children, and has chosen to serve those in his country who are close to his heart. After the earthquake, Christon immediately checked on the safety of his staff, then pulled everyone together and coordinated their response.

Selina Prem Kumar serves as a lifeline to vulnerable people as country director in war-torn Sri Lanka. As Selina helps victims of civil war, she also helps bridge peace between the Tamil and Sinhalese peoples—something she is uniquely qualified to do as a Tamil married to a Sinhalese man. In 2009 Selina helped evacuate 30,000 war-affected civilians who needed medical care and safe shelter. Today, she’s helping people rebuild their lives and heal the deep wounds caused by war.

Selina Prem Kumar with an injured child. — Selina Prem Kumar holds an injured child in Sri Lanka.

According to the UN, the danger for humanitarian workers is very real and it is increasing. Just this month, ten aid workers were murdered in Afghanistan—lined up and executed. Among those killed were Thomas Grams, a dentist from Colorado who gave up his private practice to do relief work, Karen Woo, a surgeon who left a comfortable life in London to pregnant mothers in remote regions, and Cheryl Beckett, the daughter of a pastor and student at Indiana Wesleyan University who had been working as a translator for female patients in Afghanistan since 2005. They sacrificed everything to serve the most desperate people.

World Concern President David Eller says it all goes back to the calling. “When it doesn’t make sense—when I have trouble explaining to my mother why I’m getting on a plane to Haiti right after an earthquake, all I can tell her is that this is the right thing, and I know in my heart of hearts that this is what God has given me to do. This is what God has given the organization to do. You’ll hear that from all the people throughout World Concern: This is what I’m called to do.”