Disaster Relief Archives - Page 13 of 16 - Humanitarian Aid & Relief

The Roof-top View On Haiti

A girl I met today who lives in a damaged home in Haiti.

I feel like I am roughing it, as I camp on a roof in Haiti. New York City has nothing on Port-au-Prince when it comes to the idea of a city that never sleeps. Chattering neighborhood dogs never quite rest, and when it seems they might be taking a break, the crow of roosters pierces through the sticky heat and blackness.

A few big differences here are apparent:

1. This is a short-term deal for me. One week. And I do have a home.

2. About 1 million people still need homes.

3. Most of them still don’t have a clear next step.

I’m here in Haiti to see what humanitarian aid organization World Concern is doing to rebuild lives. So far I have met a man named Widzer who has received a home, but elects not to live in it yet, as he wants to use it as a staging area for the construction of his neighbors’ homes. Though he is homeless, he wants to support his neighbors, though it comes at a personal inconvenience.

I’ve met women doing hard manual labor, moving rubble, to support their families. They fill buckets with chunks of concrete and put them on top of their heads. They walk them through alleys and dump them near the street for pick-up. By clearing the rubble, they are making space to rebuild.

I met many young men who were learning a skill as part of the rebuilding process. A couple of these guys are now trained as masons, building walls. Another group of guys are now carpenters. They have a skill. As the country rebuilds, I see that it is possible – even likely – that it will be rebuilt to higher standards than before. This can be a lifesaver in another earthquake or hurricane.

Pain is a way of life here – but it seems like most people just face it head-on. They are content with what they have today, as they know rebuilding lives does take time. It’s a reminder that frustrations I have today are small, given the rich blessings with which I have been entrusted. That’s also not to say that contentment with a tough situation should drive us toward apathy. They still need a partner in this world to believe in them and offer opportunities to help raise them up out of their current state.

Today I also met entrepreneurs and saw them receiving grants from World Concern to restart their businesses. After they get going their shop running again, they can apply for mircoloans to grow them further. We also met people who are affected by HIV and AIDS. The food, hygiene and emotional support they receive help get them through this difficult time.

Rebuilding from a disaster does not take one aspect, like homes, though shelter is a critical component. Instead, disaster recovery takes a community approach so that people can meet their own needs once we are called to do other work in the future.

Learn more

The Kind Gift Of Humanitarian Aid

World Concern's Susan Talbot recently traveled to Haiti to help bring in donated items for families suffering after the earthquake.

A lot can be done with a phone, email and good relationships. In the case of World Concern’s Susan Talbot, she’s been able to use her skills to generate $61 million worth of humanitarian aid for the poor in the last year. That’s $61,000,000 worth of in Gift-In-Kind (GIK) donations, which is anything donated that is not money.

$61 million is tough to put into perspective. But consider that this is helping nearly 5 million people. It’s 5 million people who have received a variety of resources, including medication for intestinal worms, a wheelchair to find mobility again, or a computer to become connected to the digital age for the very first time.

“All of our GIK is field driven,” Susan told me. “I don’t start collecting items until our staff tells me they need items. We don’t just hand out stuff in the field. It all has to have a function or collaborate with what we are doing. It needs to have a purpose rather than just giving out commodities.”

Where does Susan get these GIK humanitarian donations? They come from many sources, including schools, farmers, businesses – and medical supply companies.

Bringing in commodities is a tricky business, though, because when you are trying to help a community, you could end up hurting it instead. The way Susan and the rest of the World Concern team does it, though, is carefully considered.

“We provide supplies in a crisis, like food, when the marketplace is not functioning,” Susan says. “When commodities are available locally, we try to avoid giving away those things. It works against what we are doing. It makes no sense to support women in a microfinance shoe business, and then bring in a shipment of shoes.”

Building relationships with the people we serve is important. Skill-building is important. Teaching people is important. World Concern does that, equipping people to know how to stand on their own two feet once we are finished working with their community. Susan knows though that coming alongside people in need with a tangible good, though, can help change – or even save – a life.

Learn more about our Haiti response.

Contact Susan.

World Water Day – A Critical Humanitarian Need

High tension as communities in Haiti need clean water in the days after the 2010 earthquake. A reminder of the humanitarian aid needed for World Water Day.

In the hours after the Haiti earthquake, World Concern took an inventory of the basic needs facing people who had lost everything. Food, water and shelter were the top three. But when it came right down to it, water was the single greatest need. Within a few days, people would be fighting for their lives – desperate for a drink.

When I visited Port-au-Prince a week after the quake, one of the most tense moments I encountered was a fight about water. People wanted it, and we were trying to meet the need as best we can. But the need was too great. Water truly equals life and survival.

Today is World Water Day. If you have the opportunity to run the tap and receive clean water today, consider yourself privileged. One in six humans have to live using an unclean source for drinking water. It means they walk miles to get a drink, and waterborne diseases like typhoid and intestinal parasites become a part of their lives.

In post-earthquake Haiti, broken sewage lines intermingled with water lines, making the water dangerous to drink. In places where we work in Africa, poor sanitation leads to contaminated water sources. This contaminated water leads to disease and parasites, which slows learning, stunts growth and prematurely kills millions of people.

Only though community hygiene education and improved water sources are we able to change the equation. At first, it may be through an emergency supply of bottled water, like in Haiti after the earthquake. Longer-term, our humanitarian aid may include improving water systems, or even inventing them entirely, as we do in dozens of poor communities throughout the world.

For this World Water Day, you can change the life of someone in desperate need, by digging a hand-dug well for $300, to benefit several families, or investing in a machine-drilled well. A share is $100, the entire well is $3,000. It will will transform an entire village. (And with grants we get a 5:1 match on machine drilled wells in Kenya!)

So here’s to good health, and safe water – even to families in Haiti and in other hurting places around the world.

Water wells in Kenya installed by humanitarian organization World Concern provide hope to communities in Kenya suffering from water-borne disases. World Water Day brings awareness to the problem.

Kindergarten Humanitarian Raises $3,641 For Haiti Earthquake

Six-year-old Jonathon Kane gives World Concern President Dave Eller a handful of checks after a week and a half of Haiti fundraising.

When a disaster like the Haiti earthquake happens, it’s sometimes difficult for me to see an upside. But today, I saw an example of the something beautiful amidst the chaos. In this case, it took the form of a smart and outspoken 6-year old humanitarian named Jonathon Kane.

Shortly after the Haiti earthquake, Jonathon was captivated by television news coverage of the earthquake. He felt compassion for children in Haiti, telling his mom “their eyes look very sad.” He wanted to do something and asked his mom Susan how he could help. She said money would be the best thing, so Jonathon emptied his piggy bank of all $6.37.

“We couldn’t get there on a plane to help, but what we could do is donate money,” Susan told me. And that’s exactly what they did. But along with Jonathon were hundreds of other children at Cedar Wood Elementary in Mill Creek, Washington, who also decided to reach out to help children in Haiti.

In total, they raised $3,641.

I met Jonathon this afternoon when he, his mom and big sisters Melissa and Kristen brought by a fistful of checks for World Concern’s Haiti relief. What’s clear to me is that this amount of money, along with matching government grants for the relief, will make a real and significant impact on the lives of hundreds of people who are facing a life-and-death crisis. Not bad for a child who had $6.37 to offer.

Jonathan tells me that he feels sorry for people in Haiti and he cares about them. “I hope this money goes to replace stuff to make new homes,” he tells me. Many children acted like Jonathon, donating their birthday money, their piggy banks, their life savings – with no regard. On the first day, they raised $700.

One of Jonathan’s sisters, Melissa, told me something that seems to be painfully true. She says that she found it more difficult to collect money from students who are older. “It’s interesting to see how much more willing little kids were to give whatever they had.”

This compassion reminds me of the kind of compassion Jesus has called us to when facing a need like this one, a need that clearly we have been called to address. He calls us to a faith that knows that we will be taken care of if we step out and give, not to receive anything in return, but give because it is simply the right thing to do.

When we grow older, I believe our vision becomes clouded by the world. Jonathon sees hurting eyes and does not look from them, but instead acts on his instinct – knowing that his decision was the right one to make.

Kristen Kane helped her little brother collect donations for Haiti.

Jonathon points out Haiti on a globe as Heidi Williams with World Concern watches.

The Kane family dropped off checks to World Concern after a successful fundraiser for Haiti at Cedar Wood Elementary in Mill Creek, Washington.

World Concern’s Haiti Director: We Need Help Now

Children are vulnerable after the Haiti earthquake. World Concern humanitarians are trying to reconnect them with living family members.

The director of World Concern’s humanitarian operations in Haiti called this morning, after a mobile phone network was repaired. Christon Domond said they need our support immediately. The city of Port Au Prince is overwhelmed by dead bodies, and the critical needs for survivors include clean water, medicine, blankets, plastic sheeting – and now – food.

World Concern’s Senior Director of Technical Support (the disaster lady) Merry Fitzpatrick, expects she will be able to fly out of Miami today to assist with the logistics. If a hurricane, civil war or earthquake hit your community, she’s the person you’d want with you, guiding you through the process.

Christon has been able to contact most of the staff, but not all. His family survived. We are also hearing about relatives of staff members who were killed in the earthquake. The primary World Concern building in Haiti remains standing and it is likely that the staff and their families who have lost their homes will live there for the foreseeable future.

World Concern employs more than 100 people in Haiti, a staff of people native to the country, who are trained and ready to respond. Though they may have lost their own homes, and even relatives, they have begun their critical, life-saving work. In the past, they have successfully responded to many disasters, including three 2008 hurricanes.

Seattle-based World Concern has worked in Haiti since 1978 and currently provides hope to 125,000 people. Our work with the poor includes microfinance, agriculture, disaster response and small business development. World Concern works with the poor in 24 countries, with the goal of transforming the lives of those we touch, leading them on a path to self-sustainability.

Worldwide, World Concern offers life, opportunity and hope to more than six million people.

Give online: www.worldconcern.org, or call 1-866-530-5433

Average Cost of Disaster Supplies:

Blankets: $50 for a family of five

Plastic Sheeting: $20 per family. Good for shelter, lining latrines, other uses

Water purification: $10 for 100 gallons

Food: $1 per meal

1,000 Crosses For World AIDS Day

It’s tough to break through the noise. People have got places to go. They’re lost in thought as they walk, talking on the phone, worrying about their own lives.

That’s why it was so cool to see a moment in time where people could pause and reflect, even briefly, about the enormous human cost of a pandemic.

It’s tough to miss what amounts to a graveyard on a college campus.

Seattle Pacific University students helped me place 1,000 white crosses with red ribbons on their campus, for World AIDS Day 2009. 1,000 represents the number of people who die from AIDS worldwide in a four hour period.

Big numbers make my eyes glaze over. That’s why the crosses are so important.

Every cross represents a name. A life. A mom, dad, son or daughter. Someone with a smile, with hopes for the future, with interests and passions.

I was able to spend a day with children orphaned by AIDS in Kenya last year with Christian humanitarian organization World Concern. I was amazed at the way they played and horsed around and kicked around a soccer ball. I took They are children – and they find themselves with nobody to watch out for them.

It’s awesome what World Concern is doing to help people with AIDS, and those left behind, in Haiti, Zambia and Kenya. Such critical needs, of food, water, income, education.

It is the calling of Jesus to care for widows and orphans, and this is exactly what AIDS has caused: 15 million orphaned boys and girls. This is essential work. As one person said about this grassroots project to raise awareness for AIDS, “This looks like Christ.”

For more information and to see how you can protect one orphaned child: www.worldconcern.org/godparent

Good Humanitarian Aid: Talk To The Chief.

Humanitarians in rural areas must talk with village leaders, like this chief in a remote village in Laos. — Humanitarians in rural areas must work with local leaders. World Concern employees shared many meals with this chief (center) in a remote village in Laos.

In tribal villages, you don’t barge in and demand permission to install an outhouse, or provide an education to the children who cannot read. After exploring World Concern’s humanitarian projects in six countries in Southeast Asia, I see that if you want something done in a tribal village, you must first talk with the chief.

I used to think of a chief as a wise old Native American man with a feather headdress, looking off into the distance as he calmly plots the tribe’s next move. Instead, in these SE Asian tribal cultures, the chief might be in his mid-30s or 40s, and wear a polo shirt and Adidas track pants.

First, let me tell you about a chief I met in a village in Laos. World Concern provides humanitarian aid in some remote places, and this is sure one of them. No running water. No power. To get there, we drove for seven hours on dirt roads, crossing two rivers. We found ourselves in a region still pockmarked by craters, from bombs dropped on Vietnamese convoys as they traveled through the jungle during the war.

Rickety wooden fences surround the village, to hold in the livestock, and to keep out whatever creatures may lurk in the jungle. We drove in and everybody stopped to look at the vehicle, a novelty in an area where people measure distances in hours or days to walk.

We found the chief at one of the larger homes built on stilts. Dressed casual, but very business-like. No surprise, though, because working in his village has been a team effort. Since we began our humanitarian aid here five years ago, he’s come to see what we’re all about, and wants more and more aid for his village.

Although he has a very limited education, he sees the hope that education brings, whether it is to improve personal hygiene or to provide schooling for the children. He held a couple of meetings while we were there, and in the end, after seeing how our projects work, he was stumping for further humanitarian aid.

Another chief I met was a man somewhere close to 50 years old, the leader of a village in the Myanmar delta. On the day I visited, he was preparing to marry off his daughter. In his home, bright streamers stretched across the room. On the wall hung a photo of his wife and young son, both killed during the cyclone last year. He was pleased to see us, and invited us to take photos of his village. Without permission, though, the rest of the villagers would not be comfortable with us wandering around with cameras.

It’s just how it is. The chief is respected and considered the village visionary and protector, and he carries a lot of influence. And we listen, not only because it’s polite, but also because listening usually makes the project better.

Cyclone Nargis Inflicts Pain One Year Later

A Nu Mya looks out from her front door, reflecting on life one year after Cyclone Nargis killed her husband.

Every home along the main street of Myanmar‘s Aima fishing village has something in common.

It goes beyond the woven bamboo walls, metal roofs and identical 270 square foot floor plans.

You might see it in the eyes of a Burmese boy who is barely tall enough to peer out of his front window.

Or maybe you can sense it from the young mother crouched in her doorframe, hands on chin, looking out.

One year ago, 119 of the 940 people who lived in Aima lost their lives in Cyclone Nargis, often the husbands and fathers who were out for the day catching crabs or fishing.

The deaths here are a small part of the 140,000+ killed when Nargis ripped across the Ayeyarwady delta on May 2, 2008, an unforgiving wall of wind and water that leveled every structure that wasn’t steel reinforced concrete.

Among those who lost loved ones is A Nu Mya, a 30-year-old woman with four children.

Her husband was out catching crabs to sell in the marketplace when the storm hit.

He never came home.

A Nu Mya has known her husband since she was 15 years old.

The soft-spoken woman has a strong faith, though, and believes that it was simply an act of nature.

A Nu Mya told me, “God will help me rebuild my life.”

When World Concern began its humanitarian recovery work in Ai-ma and in other villages across the low, muddy plains of the delta, our work included distributing emergency supplies of food and water – as well as the formidable and grim task of finding and burying victims.

So many died, though, it’s still not unusual to discover human bones on the shoreline.

Many thousands of people will never be found.

Now in the next phase of humanitarian disaster response, World Concern has done amazing work, from building homes, water and sanitation systems, to distributing kitchen and bedding supplies.

World Concern is working with Habitat for Humanity to build the innovative homes, which use coconut wood frames and woven bamboo floors.

We’ve even replaced fishing boats and worked on schools.

Our aid has reached far into the community.

Much of it is to promote sustainable livelihoods, so that people there will be able to support themselves once we leave.

In many villages we’ve even worked with locals to built tall mounds of raised Earth, a place to go to escape rising flood waters of the next cyclone.

Walking the streets of the village, pain remains fresh.

I spoke with two fishermen and a woman. Interviewed separately, all told me that it seems like the storm just happened. It is often the first thought they have every morning.

I am proud of the way World Concern has helped thousands of people here rebuild their lives.

We’ve listened to their stories and are helping them create better lives.

But the hearts of these villagers remain fragile.

Say a prayer for the delta. It’s been a year, and people are still reeling.

Give to Cyclone Nargis disaster response.

humanitarian-myanmar-aima-village — Cyclone Nargis killed one out of 10 people in Aima village in Myanmar. World Concern humanitarians and Habitat for Humanity rebuilt 110 homes.

A Nu Mya holds her youngest son, age 2, inside their Myanmar home.

3,200 Children Will be Trafficked Today

This boy walking along the Cambodia border is at risk. The UN estimates 1.2 million children are trafficked annually.

It’s as if the boys and girls were set out to roam on a six-lane highway. Their lives are at risk. Over the last two days I have watched hundreds of children walk around the roads near Cambodia’s border with Thailand. Some sell trinkets to strangers, others just wander through the crowds for hours. Left alone, these children are in great danger of being trafficked to other countries, then becoming laborers or sex slaves.

I am writing this blog entry from Poi Pet, Cambodia, as I visit our humanitarian projects to prevent child trafficking. What I see here around the border is alarming.

Around here, men and women try to convince children to travel with them across the border in hopes of a job that may bring money back to their families. Instead, children trade their childhoods for months or years in misery. According to the UN, as many as 1.2 million children are trafficked every year. That’s more than 3,200 kids every day.

Public school is out of reach for many poor children near Poi Pet. They may not have a ride to school, or they may not be able to afford the required uniform. Without school, the kids do nothing all day. Parents may be at work, or gone entirely. So the children kill time by wandering near the border.

Humanitarian organization World Concern‘s working to stop the trafficking. Our work with a local non-profit agency, Cambodia Hope Organization, brings classrooms to villages.

Our 25 “School on a Mat” classrooms teach children the curriculum recommended by the government. It gives kids a chance a good education and a much better future. Beyond that, we teach children how to spot the lies of traffickers.

Because a lack of income often sparks risky behavior, we’re also giving young people opportunities for jobs. World Concern’s sewing and motorcycle repair programs give people real skills that they can use to find work or begin their own business. A stable family life often leads to better decisions.

So many children here have yet to find direction. They need the opportunity to attend a “School on a Mat” class, or need to learn life skills. I hope people you recognize the danger these children face, and are willing to do something to stop it.

Join World Concern’s “Free Them” 5K fun run to end human trafficking. It’s Saturday, May 7, 2011 at 9:30 am at World Concern’s headquarters in Seattle.

If you can’t attend, forward or re-post this story, and here’s where to give.

World Concern works with Cambodian Hope Organization to provide "School on a Mat," an education and child trafficking prevention class brought to villages.

"School on a Mat" helps villagers know the dangers of child trafficking, while providing children with an education that incudes health, language, science and math. — "School on a Mat" helps villagers know the dangers of child trafficking, while providing children with an education that includes health, language, science and math.

Young men learn how to repair motorbikes in Poi Pet, Cambodia, a border community at risk for Child Trafficking.

Girls learn how to sew in Poi Pet, Cambodia. Child Trafficking prevention must include opportunities for income.

Girls play with each other along the Cambodia/Thailand border, an area popular among those who traffick children.

Snapshots From A Bangladesh Slum

A boy wades through a festering trash pile in Bangladesh, looking for food. Humanitarian organization World Concern is working nearby, improving opportunities in the neighborhood with small business funding.

I knew we were on our way to a Dhaka slum, but on the way, the slum wafted into the car. The sour, stomach-turning odor matched what I began seeing: fly-covered piles of trash lining the sides of this Bangladeshi road. Crows and cows picked through the festering debris, hunting for food. Plastic bags and chicken bones emerged from the piles, all cooking in the sticky 100 degree heat. And on top of the mess: a couple of barefoot, shirtless kids.

The boys wandered through the piles, looking for something to eat. My van stopped nearby, and I popped open the door, holding my breath, which only works for so long. I watched one boy, maybe five years old, as he held a piece of scrap metal and poked at the garbage. He would head in one direction, then change routes, scanning the ground.

At one point, the tan, black-haired boy picked up what looked like half of a rotten melon. He brought it to his face, took a whiff, dropped it, then silently kept on moving. He eventually disappeared from view behind a shack, near where a woman (his mother?) was prodding at another pile of trash. It was almost as if they were thinking, “surely, this is not all there is for me.”

Across the street I saw row after row of ramshackle homes. Waterfront shanties, with front lawns of blowing trash. The nearby lake was red with pollution. Who knows what chemicals had been dumped in there to make that unnatural color. Later in my trip across Bangladesh, I saw a river that was black with grime, and saw a barge pump something grey directly into a lake. I am not sure if the fishermen nearby even noticed.

Without a doubt, this experience is depressing. Still, I know that World Concern is doing something to change this situation. A few minutes after we drove away from the slum, we visited a woman now able to provide for her family because of a small business loan. After that, I met another woman who has a growing screen-printing business because of World Concern.

We can’t take care of all of the problems in this slum, but we are doing what we can to change the picture of poverty here, one person at a time.

A woman picks through rotting trash in a slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Near a Bangladesh slum, heavy pollution near a turned this lake red. — Near a Bangladesh slum, heavy pollution turned this lake red.

A fly-covered melon is one of the treats to be found in a Bangladesh dump frequented by hungry children.