Disaster Relief Archives - Page 9 of 16 - Humanitarian Aid & Relief

A long way from home

“Some people don’t even have a home, mom!”

This was the response scribbled by my 19-year-old daughter on a note I left asking her to clean up the house. I had written, “This house has been such a mess, I’m starting to dread coming home,” scolding my family for not being tidier.

Hard to believe she had to remind her humanitarian-aid-writer mother that I should be thankful just to have a home. But she’s right. In fact, millions of people don’t have a home; many through no fault of their own.

Refugee mom and daughter. — A mom and her daughter wash dishes outside their hut in the Djabal Refugee Camp in Eastern Chad.

Today is World Refugee Day, and it’s an opportunity for all of us to think about those who had to leave everything behind and start over in a new place – usually in very dire circumstances.

World Concern works with thousands of refugees who are trying to begin a new life in a foreign land. They live in camps, often for years, before their lives are stabilized enough for them to think about the next step. We help provide food, access to clean water, health and hygiene training, education, income generation and more.

But what’s the ultimate goal?

“For them to be able to go home,” says Chris Sheach, deputy director of disaster response for World Concern.

Many of those who fled Darfur during the war, for example, are still living in camps in Chad, where World Concern works. Their homes and villages were burned. They would love nothing more than to go home, but there is nothing for them to return to.

“If they can’t go home, we help them integrate into a new society,” says Sheach. World Concern’s Cash for Work program in Chad has enabled families to earn income to support themselves and contribute to the local economy, thereby reducing the risk of creating conflict in their host community. We also assist them in obtaining land to farm, and provide seeds and farming tools to grow their own food and earn income.

In an ideal world, situations wouldn’t escalate to the point where people had to flee their homes for survival in the first place. Sometimes they do go home, such as in Somaliland (northern Somalia), where returnees from Ethiopia and other areas are settling in camps in their homeland. Their hope is that they’ll be able to find a new home. But 96% of them are dependent on food aid. We’re teaching them to plant vegetable gardens to feed their families, and hopefully improve their diet beyond the staple grains they receive from aid agencies.

A bricklayer in Chad. — Paying cash for labor is one way World Concern helps refugees support their families.

Nearly every parent’s desire is to provide a better life for their children. A home is the foundation that provides the stability kids need to pursue their dreams. I’m blessed to be able to provide that for my kids (despite it being a bit messy at times). The circumstances refugees find themselves in today is one of those things that makes me want to scream, “It’s not fair!” And it’s not. But we can stomp our feet, or we can do something about it. I’m proud to be a part of an organization that’s doing something about it.

Rather than fostering any hint of a global pity party, we’re empowering refugees by giving them the the tools to move forward. Whether or not they can return home, we can help them focus on the future and the hope of having place to call home.

For more information on World Concern’s work with Darfur war refugees in Chad, visit http://www.worldconcern.org/darfurcrisis

Seventeen and alone in South Sudan

Imagine being just a teenager and having to leave everything you’ve ever known behind. Fleeing violence in your home town, you and your family walk for days to find food, water and a place to stay. Now, imagine doing that with your 4-month-old in your arms.

Arual and her baby. — 17-year-old Arual and her 4-month-old son arrived in South Sudan with nothing but some baby clothes.

Arual told us her story as she arrived in Gogrial, an area of South Sudan where World Concern is distributing emergency rations to refugees and displaced families. It illustrates the extreme challenges faced by those who fled recent violence in Abyei.

I was in Khartoum but joined my mother with my brother and a sister in Abyei last year. My dad died a long time ago, so grew up with my mother who took care of us until she first came to the south leaving me in Khartoum. I was studying and had completed primary grade eight, and thus had to join our family in Abyei. It was there that I got married to an irresponsible man, but had to return home where I gave birth to my son named Chol.

It was May 19 when the incident intensified and thus we had to move out on foot just carrying with me a small bag containing some clothes for my baby boy. In the process, we were separated from our mother and I had to take care of my brother and sister. We moved for four days without food but only water and wild fruits, which made less breast milk for my baby. After four days we found a truck which was coming to Kuajok and we begged the driver who had mercy and gave us a lift to a place allocated for returnees from Khartoum.

We spent four days sharing food with others who had arrived earlier and received food and other items. On the fifth day, a returnee from Khartoum who happened to be our neighbor pitied my situation and my baby and took me and my sister and brother to his home where we are now living.

We have not heard anything about my mother, whether she is still alive or dead. Had it not been for this good person, I would not know how to feed these two children.

While the circumstances of each person’s story differ, they all tell of civilians caught in the crossfire of fighting armies. Panic, fear and loss are common threads throughout their stories.

We’re providing a month’s worth of food for people arriving in the areas where we work, and coordinating with other organizations to distribute cooking supplies, blankets and other necessities. But the strain on host communities is tremendous. They struggle on a good day to survive – they’re just not set up for a massive influx of people who are arriving with nothing.

15 months is a long time in a tent

The rebuilding efforts in Haiti may have faded from the headlines, but every week, we’re still handing over new homes to families in need. After 15 months in a tent in the yard, Fredine and her family are finally home.

Fredine proudly sweeps and cleans the new home in the Nazon area of Port au Prince. She’s certain, housework will never again feel like a chore. She’s thrilled to have a roof over their heads.

The family lived in a two-story home until the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake. Their home was destroyed, but they thank God the entire family survived.

They had no choice but to move into a tent in the backyard. The tent was so small the children often stayed with neighbors and friends. They couldn’t afford a new home because she and her husband rely on selling food and other items on the street for income.

World Concern partnered with CHF International to demolish their house and removed the rubble, clearing space to construct a transitional shelter. Fredine’s new home was constructed by World Concern, and she moved in with her family on May 14, 2011.

After being handed the keys, Fredine went right to work, making her new house a home. It’s a major step in the process of healing for this family.

Read more about our work in Haiti and help others like Fredine rebuild their lives.

From the field: Country director reports on the situation in South Sudan

Burning home in Abyei. REUTERS/Stuart Price — Smoke rises from burnt homes in Abyei town. REUTERS/Stuart Price

Independence Day is approaching for South Sudan, but the situation is far from the celebration millions had hoped for. Tension continues in and around the border region of Abyei. An estimated 80,000 people have fled the fighting.

Some of those who have fled homes that were burned in Abyei are beginning to arrive in the areas where we work. Others are returning from the north before the nation splits.

World Concern Sudan Country Director Peter Macharia says skyrocketing food and fuel prices are creating a humanitarian crisis, and if things don’t change soon, shipments from the north may stop all together.

Here’s more of Peter’s report from the field.

As you may have heard from the news, many people are coming out of Abyei but with very little. Some were only able to salvage and carry with them some of their household belongings. In their new destinations, some of these people are being forced to sell their belongings to survive. This crisis is complicating an already complex problem.

We are giving out food to people that have been displaced from Abyei. So far, we have provided food to almost 4,000 people who have moved to Western Bahr el Ghazal State. We are issuing them with a one month ration of food, which includes sorghum, beans, oil and salt. Other immediate support that these people need include mosquito nets, cooking sets, soap, blankets, buckets and jerrycans.

Those displaced from Abyei and those returning from the north require urgent help to start their lives once again. Some have vowed never to go back, but even those who may want to stay for a little while before they decide if they will go back, will also need help. They have no idea of when they will able to return to their former homes.

This crisis may run for long, bearing in mind that South Sudan is becoming a new country on July 9, and the Abyei contention seems like it has just began.

As agencies, we are also feeling the pain of the Abyei effects. Fuel is in great shortage. Currently in Wau where we have our Bahr el Ghazal office, we are buying petrol and diesel for $4.20 a liter. The main problem is even getting it. If things don’t change, we will be grounded and the greatest crisis will be lack of transport.

Food prices are on the increase. All these have been brought about by the closure of the road connecting the north and the south along the Abyei area. It is important to note that most of the food and products in the south are imported from the north.

This is a planting season and it will be unfortunate if the farmers fail to plant their farms. This may lead to serious famine next year.

The crisis in Sudan is escalating just as the hunger gap is beginning. This period of time between stored food running out and the next harvest typically requires additional aid. This year, the situation is much worse.

You can help us respond to this crisis by providing emergency food and supplies to families who have fled their homes. Click here to donate.

Saving for the future

Joyce holding her pen. — Joyce has a goal of learning to read and write, inspired by her business success and thanks to a savings group she participates in.

Joyce Awa Mavolo told her story with a pen in her hand, symbolic of her hopes for the future. The 30-year-old mother of six children owns a shop where she sells a variety of goods and handicrafts in Southern Sudan. For many years Joyce struggled to provide for her young family and keep them fed and clothed.

Things started to improve when Joyce joined a World Concern-sponsored women’s savings group. These groups of 15 to 25 women meet weekly, save $1 to $2 each week, then take turns loaning their collective savings out to individual members. This form of finance has virtually no overhead cost, providing a cheap form of credit to its members.

Joyce’s group provides her a safe place to store her money and access to small amounts of cash that she can use to buy items for her business in bulk, reducing her costs. It also saves her from having to make daily trips to suppliers, which for many women could take half the workday.

The opportunity has helped Joyce become more profitable in her business and be able to provide essential resources for her children. She can now make tuition payments for her oldest son who has recently started school.

“I like our group because the women respect each other. We help each other and we share activities and dream together,” said Joyce.

“I am still young, and all my life I had the desire to learn how to read and write. I watched others attend school, but I was not allowed to attend school while growing up because I was the only daughter and my family needed my help at home and in the fields,” recalled Joyce. “When I was alone I would pretend that I could write. I would hold a blade of grass between my fingers, and act as though I was writing with a pen in my hand. Now, I will be the first to enroll for adult literacy classes with World Concern.’’

To learn more about how World Concern helps women in business, please visit www.worldconcern.or/ignite.

Taking hope farther: reaching rural communities affected by Haiti’s earthquake

The epicenter of Haiti’s January 2010 earthquake struck near the most densely populated urban areas of Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital. Nevertheless, the effects of this disaster have rippled hundreds of miles out to rural areas such as Port-de-Paix, in the Northwest Department.

Many earthquake victims have taken shelter with family members living in rural areas, where they can at least be assured of meals and a roof over their heads. This migration has made life harder for rural communities that were already struggling and far from prepared for a population increase. In these areas, even a change in rain patterns can have devastating effects on daily life. Children are the first to be affected during tight times. School fees and uniforms are considered luxuries that often must be sacrificed.

We’re working with community volunteers to help kids like Angela stay in school. Her parents have taken in additional family members and are barely able to keep food on the table, let alone pay for school fees. Angela’s school fees are being covered, to ensure her parents can get back on their feet again. And these school fees, in turn, help the school get much needed upgrades.

We work with local committees to determine which families need help. The local benevolent committee identified Angela’s parents to receive a cash grant, enabling them to buy some goats and start a small business. This business will increase their cash flow, and allow them to repair their home and feed their family, while Angela gets an education.

The devastating effects of Haiti’s quake reach far beyond the city, but so does help for families like Angela’s.

From tents to transitional shelters – things are improving in Haiti

From tent to transitional shelter - what a difference!

One of the best parts of my job is the opportunity to return to disaster areas and see change. Yesterday I visited the Nazon neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I’m usually pretty good at recognizing landmarks and navigating in a place I’ve been before, but a lot has changed in the past three months – and that’s good to see. Countless times I stopped suddenly on our walk to exclaim, “This road was impassable before!” or “Where did that house come from?”

It’s interesting how, when you see the change gradually, like my Haitian colleagues, it seems unremarkable. For me, the difference was a pleasant surprise. Sure, you may hear that “little is being done” and “only 15% of the rubble has been removed,” but I can tell you, in the areas where World Concern works, the difference is huge.

Our walk was interrupted several times to stop and greet people. “This is one of our beneficiaries … this is one of our carpenters … this man is on the neighborhood committee.” I jokingly suggested that one of our community liaison officers should just move to Nazon, as she is more a member of this community than her own. Julie seemed to seriously consider the idea for a minute, before laughing and saying, “Only if I get a World Concern shelter to live in!”

Julie’s work, and that of the other liaison officers, is quite obvious. When I visited Nazon in the past, the community was distrustful of my motives. Yesterday, told me how great the work of our staff was, thanked me for our involvement in the community, and asked how World Concern will be involved in the next phase of reconstruction.

Another difference I noticed is the level of energy. Haitians have endured so much since the earthquake, with annual hurricanes, a deadly cholera outbreak, civil unrest and a disputed election process. Even so, streets that were formerly filled with rubble are now lined with merchants plying their trade, and people involved in the reconstruction process.

I met Serge and Sergio, fraternal twin brothers in their mid-20s. These men were eager to have secure housing before the imminent hurricane season, but the narrow alley to their property was inaccessible to World Concern delivery trucks. Rather than waiting for staff to transport all the building materials by hand, Serge and Sergio donned gloves and hard hats and joined the work team, moving truckloads of sand, gravel and rocks by wheelbarrow load themselves.

This kind of enthusiasm is contagious. All over Nazon, you can see posters youth have created encouraging people to take an active role in rebuilding their own community.

Now that’s progress!

For more on World Concern’s work in Haiti, visit www.worldconcern.org/haiti.

Grow Your Own Sack Garden

Our staff in Chad have been teaching people living in refugee camps there how to grow sack gardens. It’s a great way to improve a family’s diet by adding fresh vegetables with less water needed than a typical garden.

Since spring is a time many people are thinking about gardening, we thought we’d share these instructions for growing your own sack garden! If you do, please share it with us! We’ll be sure to share how things are growing in Chad, too.

Our agronomists first learned about sack gardens from Manor House Agricultural Centre in Kenya, and we learned more about various container and urban gardening methods at ECHO Global Farm. These instructions have been pulled from Gardens From Health.

Materials needed to grow your own sack garden:

A burlap or plastic sack (we use discarded food aid sacks, which make perfect sack gardens, especially for symbolic reasons)
Soil mixed with organic compost
Rocks for irrigation
A cylindrical bucket or tin, open on both ends (we use seed tins or vegetable oil tins, but a coffee can would work well too)

Instructions:

1. Fill the bottom of the sack with soil mixed with organic compost. Fill the tin with rocks. This will serve as an irrigation channel.

2. Surround the tin with more soil, and slowly lift it up, so that the rocks remain.

3. Fill the tin with more rocks, and surround it again with soil. Repeat this until the sack is filled with a tower of rocks surrounded by soil.

4. Poke holes into the side of the sack an even distance apart.

5. Transplant seedlings into the sides of the sack.

6. You can try direct seeding beets, carrots or other vegetables or herbs in the top of the sack.

7. Enjoy your harvest!

For more information on how World Concern is improving nutrition in impoverished countries, please visit worldconcern.org/myconcern/hunger

Facing the challenge of survival in Somalia

A nomadic family in Somalia. — A nomadic herder and his family move to find water in Somalia.

World Concern’s mission of reaching the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world means we work in some of the most challenging places on earth. A report I just received from our Somalia staff brought this reality to light afresh for me. It summarized the results of a survey of families in two areas where we’ve recently started working in Somaliland (northern Somalia). The figures indicate such dramatic need – it’s hard to fathom what these families face every day just to survive.

Here are a few of the most astonishing ones:

92% of the families do not use latrines
54% of people observed had noticeable eye infections
59.6% have never attended any school
Only 13% have attended secondary school
54.6% travel 1-2 hours a day to reach a water source with the largest percentage going three times a day
83.3% are drinking water that is not safe for human consumption
A main source of income is livestock, yet only 10% of the animals in households are producing milk

It’s impossible to dig wells in some of these areas because the water, even below the surface, is salty. Rainwater and groundwater runoff collected in berkads (underground reservoirs) are the only source of clean water. One of our projects is building more berkads in these areas.

Planting sack gardens in Somalia. — Teaching people to grow vegetables in sack gardens offers hope.

The soil is so dry and lifeless, nothing can grow here. People eat mostly bread, rice they buy from others. Even vegetable gardens wither. We’re teaching people to grow sack gardens, which hold moisture so things can grow.

Droughts are becoming more frequent and herds are shrinking. Their only hope for healthier herds may be to improve the land with rock lines that will direct rainwater into the soil. One goal is to improve livelihoods so families don’t have to be constantly moving in search of water.

In spite of the inhospitable environment, we know there are solutions: Collecting rainwater, growing food in sack gardens, sustaining herds. Even in Somalia, we see hope.

Join us in bringing hope to this dry and weary land.

Pond scum mustaches

Kenyan boys at pond. — Young boys drink from a murky pond in Kenya.

I will always think of the little boys with the pond scum mustaches when I consider the developing world’s water crisis. I met them in Kenya this week as the World Concern team was surveying an extremely remote village where we are planning further development.

We drove to a water pan – essentially a man-made pond for water collection. Water pans are usually reserved for livestock, but in this case, a couple of water pans were the community’s source of drinking water. After slipping through a fence made of gnarled branches and walking toward the muddy pond, I saw the water. It was green with algae, and moving with life. Over the surface of the water was a film of muck, essentially – pond scum.

As I was getting video and photos of this water pan, reality set in, as a group of five friends – thin and quiet little boys around 10 years old – came with filthy jugs, out to get a drink. They lined up alongside the pond, dipped their jugs in the water, brought the water to their mouths, and tipped the jugs back.

I knew at that moment that the boys were being infected, as they had been many times before, with parasites and bacteria that would make them sick. We scooped up some of this water in a clean, clear bottle – and with the naked eye could see worms and other creatures flex and swim through the opaque mess.

Dirty water from a pond in Kenya. — Filthy water is all that's available to drink in this Kenyan village. It doesn't have to be this way.

I could not believe the heartbreaking scene that I was witnessing. But for these little boys, there is no other source of water nearby. As they drank I noticed that around their small mouths was green pond scum.

In many cultures where World Concern works, there is a sense of fatalism. The tragic circumstances dealt to people are their fate, and they just need to accept them. Part of it is religious, part of it is cultural, part of it is just the fact that they haven’t seen anything better. Why would they hope for something they had not seen or heard about?

Here is the truth: God aches for these boys, as do we. What we know that the little boys don’t is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Working together, we are can bring the love of Christ in tangible ways to relieve the suffering that families have endured for generations. It just doesn’t have to be this way.

In communities where we have worked in a more significant way – communities that have seen the benefits of clean water, of sanitation, of education for children, of opportunities to work and save money – we have seen something happen. A spark of realization in the minds of hopeless people that the misery they’ve endured is not the final word. When they get it, mountains move. Children grow. Goals are set. Communities change – long term.

Water is one of the most important ways we can begin the process of this transformation, to show the light of Christ to people who have suffered for so long.

To learn more about World Concern’s water programs, or to help bring clean water to communities like this, visit www.worldconcern.org/water