The civil war in Syria has been raging for three years, causing a severe humanitarian crisis.

According to the UN, more than 4 million people have been displaced within the country and more than 2 million refugees have found their way to Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and countries further afield.

The death toll rose by 20,000 in just the three months from June to September 2013. ACT Alliance members have been providing humanitarian support from the onset of the crisis.

An ACT appeal in 2013 raised US$7.2m, and with it five of our members (working on health, food and essential non-food items, shelter, education and psychosocial work) came together as the ACT Jordan/ Syria/Lebanon Forum to coordinate the humanitarian response. They have been assisting conflict-affected families inside Syria, as well as refugees and host communities in Lebanon and Jordan.

Around 500,000 people in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey were beneficiaries of the 12-month appeal, and ACT continues to respond with humanitarian assistance.

The magnitude and complexity of the crisis, and the scale of the ACT humanitarian response, required an external evaluation of the appeal, which was carried out in late 2013. The evaluation commended the work members have done to provide an essential lifeline to the people affected by the conflict.

ACT continued to work in the Za’atari refugee camp, just south of the Syrian border in Jordan, where the population expanded from 60,000 in January to 120,000 in July. Our members helped prepare refugees for the winter through rehabilitation of dwellings and heating, and the distribution of winter clothes. Syrians had arrived unprepared for the harsh 2013 winter, which brought historic snowfall, reportedly the heaviest for 140 years.

Other programmes have included education, livelihoods, public health and shelter. Because so many refugees have emerged from deeply traumatic experiences and face conditions that tend to lead to conflict, our members have also put in place community-based psychosocial support, peace-building and conflict-mitigation programmes.

2013 saw many calls from foreign governments for military intervention. We called for a peaceful solution, urging all parties to adhere to international humanitarian law, protect civilians and to negotiate an end to the conflict.

When Aline was first diagnosed with HIV, she was ashamed and frightened. Now she provides support and advice to others and takes part in a radio show for people living with HIV that encourages people to talk openly about the virus.

Radio Ivyizigiro means Radio Hope – and hope is exactly what it provided for Aline when she was first diagnosed with HIV.

‘I was feeling weak but the programme gave me lots of information, which increased my knowledge and made me stronger,’ said the mother of three.

‘I heard that I was not the only one to have it; it was important to have that testimony. When you listen a lot, you lose your worries.’

Banishing stigma

Radio Ivyizigiro is run by ACT member Christian Aid’s partner, the World Outreach Initiative (WOI).

It broacasts HIV information, including advice on how to care for people with the condition, as well as information about counselling and advocacy programmes.

The radio station has the fourth highest listener figures in Burundi, reaching between 5 million and 7 million people.

‘Before the programme there was lots of stigma,’ Aline recalls. ‘People would point their finger but that has been reduced.

‘Now we have found a voice and we can talk openly. People call in live and we reply with advice.

‘I think this programme is very good – it helps HIV-positive people to understand that hiding is not the solution and that it can be normal to live with HIV.’

Support for HIV-positive people

WOI is part of the HUMURA Consortium, which brings together four religious partners working on HIV.

They implement health and HIV programmes, and conduct advocacy and lobbying for the rights of HIV positive people.

WOI also organises HIV tests and provides support for HIV-positive people, such as helping them set up small businesses.

In addition, WOI runs clinics and health centres supplying basic medicines and lab materials not provided by the Government of Burundi.

They also organise debates in schools and places frequented by young people.

The power of radio

‘The impact of speaking on the radio is very strong,’ explains Patrick Dushime of WOI. ‘Someone many kilometres away from Bujumbura, who can’t talk about it in church or take part in a meeting, can still hear.

‘People can listen in a secret way if they need to. Almost everyone has radios or phones, even the very poor.’

When they reported on a shortage of lab materials needed for HIV testing, the government put in place a commission to oversee supplies and there are now fewer shortages.

On another occasion, a Pentecostal leader featured on the programme said AIDS was a punishment. ‘But he’s now changed his mind, to the extent that he takes part in our counselling programmes,’ says Dushime.

For Aline, the key to overcoming stigma and spreading a message of hope is to keep talking: ‘There is a Burundian proverb that says, “If you want to cure an illness, you have to talk about it.”

‘If one day there is a cure, we will be the first to have it because our situation is known.’

Torrential rains swept eastern Romania in mid-September, wreaking devastation in towns and rural areas of the Moldova province.

Thousands of villagers fled as floodwaters rose and spread. Housing, bridges, roads and other infrastructure were destroyed. Farmers lost standing crops, farm buildings and livestock, and many had their soil washed away, incurring debts for the agriculturally dependent population in the region.

ACT response

ACT dispersed US$49,917 from its Rapid Response Fund to assist with the emergency relief work carried out in the immediate aftermath of the floods.

This meant our member in the country was able to respond quickly and effectively, distributing food parcels containing rations for a month to 400 families, as well as hygiene kits and clean drinking water.

Many families had lost winter clothes in the floods. As the cold weather closed in, our member provided those worst affected with 700 packs of winter clothing

Typhoons and unusually heavy rains caused severe flooding in Cambodia for the second year in a row. The Mekong and other major rivers broke their banks, ruining standing crops and washing away people’s houses and belongings. More than 1.7 million people were affected.

One hundred and thirty four people lost their lives, 119,000 were displaced and 244,000 hectares of rice crop were submerged. Financial losses were estimated at US$800m.

The poor were hit hardest. Small-scale subsistence farmers lost their rice harvest – their food supply for the next year. Agricultural day labourers had trouble finding work in the flooded areas.

And rice prices rose, causing extra hardship in the poorest households, who were already spending most of their income on food.

The coming together of ACT members in this emergency provided strength in numbers and a coordinated response. Part of the project involved distributing unconditional cash grants to villagers, equivalent to US$20 each, as well as detergent, water-purification tablets and plastic water-containers.

ACT focused on early recovery and on advocacy, aimed at ensuring the government fulfilled its responsibility to its people. We also supported communities to adapt and to take part in integrated climate-change planning.

Kristen Rasmussen, field director of an ACT member in Cambodia, related the flooding to climate change: “Cambodians are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as flooding. Eighty per cent of the population relies on subsistence crops in rural areas. The overwhelming majority of farmers – about 70 per cent – can only harvest one rice crop per year, and that leaves them extremely vulnerable.”

There is broad recognition that climate-change-related hazards must move up the political agenda, and that lack of finance is a barrier to adapting to climate change.

“There hasn’t been nearly enough progress in finance,” said Nop Polin, a member of the ACT delegation at the 2013 UN climate negotiations in Warsaw. “The developed countries have already pledged, but no money is forthcoming. What they have promised, they must deliver. It is the poor who have paid, and continue to pay, the cost of climate change.”

In 2013, a national drought emergency was declared in Namibia, with roughly 37 per cent of the population considered at high risk. In the Okarukoro area of north-eastern Namibia, for example, there has been no rain for three years.

Okarukoro is normally arid and the Himba people living there have, for generations, been relying on livestock – breeding and selling, and living off dairy produce. But, after these years of drought, the cattle have died. Only a few small goats remain.

The prolonged drought means that people in the area now  eat only one meal a day; children are suffering, and cases of malnutrition and starvation are increasing.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated in its fourth assessment report: “By 2020, some countries’ yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50 per cent. Agricultural production, including access to food, is projected to be severely compromised in many African countries. This would further adversely affect food security and exacerbate malnutrition.”

Sadly, Namibia is not the only country facing the challenges of severe drought. In Angola in 2013, 1.8 million people were estimated to be suffering severe food insecurity.

IPCC climate scientists map both countries as likely to suffer increasingly from heatwaves, disease-carrying vectors, drought and agricultural problems.

ACT response

The ACT response to this situation was based on assessments made with communities and local government representatives.

In Angola, ACT members distributed food rations in hard-hit communities.

In Namibia, unconditional cash grants were distributed, allowing those affected to make their own choices about what best met their dietary needs. Cash grants are known to give households fast access to the items they most need. They were given on a per capita basis through a cash card to every caregiver.

The response is being closely monitored to document impact. The benefits of cash grants include low administration and logistics costs.

In both countries, ACT members worked to train the affected communities on emergency preparedness and disaster risk reduction. And in Namibia, ACT trained community leaders on rights-based approaches and advocacy strategies for work with local governments

Climate change, coupled with urbanisation, rapid population growth and environmental degradation, is creating greater risks of disasters. How these are dealt with is largely defined by the frameworks for governmental and local disaster risk reduction (DRR) management and mechanisms.

ACT members in Indonesia have been involved in the consultations on the second Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA2). This will replace the current HFA, ending in 2015, which offers guiding principles and practical means for achieving disaster resilience.

Our members came together to press for a framework that will ensure lessons from the current framework have been learnt. Vulnerabilities are so often complex and depend on local hazards, local perceptions and capacities.

ACT, therefore, has emphasised the importance of giving a voice to grassroots priorities and incorporating these into the new framework. The global agreements that will guide and govern the HFA2 will be adopted in March 2015.

Thinking behind the first framework involved thematic field and stakeholder group discussions. This new phase will identify the principles, targets and indicators, as well as mechanisms for implementation and monitoring.

Based on grassroots and multi-stakeholder consultations, ACT, together with a local and national DRR forum, contributed recommendations on strategy and indicators for the next Hyogo Framework – particularly around operational issues of community resilience and the role of women. ACT has created a sub-group to work exclusively on its participation in the HFA2.

In August 2013, around the Amur River in the far east of Russia, water levels rose by more than 7.5m, causing severe flooding in 190 villages.

Twentyfour thousand people were evacuated and 9,500 houses were damaged. In total, 98,000 people were affected by water damage to their homes and farmlands.

One of our members in the region took an active role in the emergency work, providing victims with shelter, food, bedding and medicine. As well as delivering direct assistance, we appealed to government authorities across the region to help those affected by the flooding.

The use of our Rapid Response Fund included the provision of clean drinking water in an area where there were grave concerns about water-borne disease, because of the inundation of sewerage systems and damage to drinking-water systems.

Hygiene kits were provided, tailored to the needs of men, women and children. And basic medical care was given to injured people.

ACT was able to assist 1,200 people through the project, many of whom had been forced to evacuate leaving all of their belongings behind.

Violence in the Central African Republic since March 2013 has left millions of people in need of emergency assistance and remains a major hindrance to relief efforts. We have long advocated for security and humanitarian access, and are supporting refugees who are spilling into the neighbouring countries of Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Central African Republic is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 180th out of 187 countries listed in the UN Human Development Index. Therefore competition for resources and opportunities is fierce. Issues of land rights and poverty underpin the conflict, which erupted when the Séléka – a coalition of largely Muslim rebel groups – overthrew the government.

In response, Christian militias – the Anti-Balaka – formed to retaliate. Both sides are accused of gross human rights violations and massacres. There has been a complete breakdown of law and order, and the UN and France warned that the country was “at risk of spiralling into genocide”. The UN estimates that fighting has forced 935,000 people from their homes.

Almost half of the country’s population – nearly 2.2 million people – are seeking humanitarian assistance and their numbers continue to grow. Armed attacks and killings continue unabated, with violence and counter-violence now deeply rooted.

Nearly 700,000 people are displaced inside the Central African Republic and 250,000 have fled to neighbouring countries. Large areas of farmland are no longer being cultivated due to the displacement, and famine is developing as the food security situation grows critical.

The crisis will probably ruin more than one agricultural season, and many families have already lost their food reserves, not to mention their tools, seeds, livestock and revenue, as a result of looting and the prolonged emergency. Basic social services, such as schooling and medical care, are almost non-existent and it is increasingly challenging for people to make ends meet.

Sexual abuse has been widely reported and children have been recruited by militias as soldiers. Since the violence erupted, the African Union has sent in 4,000 troops, and France 1,600, as a peacekeeping force.

But despite an ongoing peace process and the creation of a transitional government, the security situation remains highly unstable.

ACT response

We have struggled to get relief into the Central African Republic. ACT members have therefore provided assistance to the waves of refugees who arrived in Chad in 2013, 20,000 of those from the Central African Republic.

Working with the UN and Chadian authorities, and with host communities, ACT members have provided emergency interventions on nutrition and carried out community-based psychosocial support and activities to address the extreme trauma many have suffered. Members are also working to improve livelihoods through agricultural support and income-generating activities.

Around 40 per cent of the Guatemalan population is indigenous – mainly Mayan. They suffered most of the 200,000 killings in the 1980s civil war.

In 2013, the ACT Guatemala Forum, made up of eight members, commissioned a study about violence against indigenous women, to raise awareness both socially and politically.

The study found that indigenous women were the particular target of human rights violations and that they are still institutionally victimised today. Such violence and discrimination, it reported, is normalised and often invisible. It is not measured – statistics are structured to avoid finding or showing it – and not discussed.

The forum circulated the document among state institutions and civil society groups, and trained indigenous female leaders in how to deal with violence in personal and institutional settings.

It also organised a public meeting in which representatives of 125 government departments took part, including the Guatemala Human Rights Commission and ombudsman, and civil society groups.

The meeting considered the findings of the study and discussed the strategic interventions recommended for changing the structural marginalisation of indigenous women.

The study data was collected across the country. It illustrated how indigenous women are more vulnerable to violence, hunger, disease and even death. It also showed a disturbing trend of racism, sexism and violence built into social norms and institutional attitudes.