During the last 20 years, the Czech Republic has been struck by extreme floods of great extent, numerous flash floods of local importance and uncommon natural disasters such as tornado in 2013.

Global climate change may contribute to more extreme weather events like these and communities need to be ready.

Dolni Berkovice, a village with 1.500 inhabitants in the Central Bohemia Region, has always been endangered by the river Elbe.

However, no one remembers the floods to be as destructive as in the last decade.

The village has been flooded three times in 11 years.

The first floods came in 2002, followed by flood in 2006 and lastly in 2013. Even though plenty of work on mitigation measures has been done and a functional and effective rescue system has been established, the protection of vulnerable inhabitants has still many gaps.

ACT member Diaconia ECCB – The Centre for Relief and Development has launched a project named “Resilient Municipality” with goal of promoting resilience of communities such as Dolni Berkovice to fill in these gaps. Since it is a community managed disaster risk reduction project, the inhabitants themselves identify the unresolved issues and they will achieve the positive change with our guidance and support.

It is not all about flood barriers, but more about accepting the responsibility of their own protection and also the safety of their neighbors.

So far, the project is being run in three communities – Dolni Berkovice, Terezin in Northern Bohemia and Sobeslav in Southern Bohemia. It is a pilot project and such activities had never been implemented in the context of the Czech Republic before.

ACT PRESS RELEASES

European advocacy network ACT Alliance EU has called on the EU member states to collectively respond to the refugee crisis impacting Europe with a fair and mandatory sharing of responsibility for receiving refugees and respecting their human rights.

In a statement the network urged EU member states to adhere to the international legal instruments that they have ratified for the protection of refugees, and make concerted efforts to assist those seeking refuge in Europe.

“These people are fleeing from conflict and are reaching out to Europe for help,” said Floris Faber, Director of ACT Alliance EU. “Certainly, the EU cannot deny them their rights, though perhaps most importantly we must support them with legal and practical responses that respect their rights and maintain their dignity.”

The majority of those taking the route to Europe are refugees coming from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq and Somalia and their numbers continue to rise.

While most people arriving are fleeing war, conflict or persecution in their home countries, the alliance highlighted that many are also fleeing deteriorating conditions in some refugee-hosting countries and countries of transit, which do not offer safety or the possibility to establish a new existence.

“As faith-based organisations we are deeply committed to the inviolable dignity of all individuals, as well as to the concepts of the common good, global solidarity and the promotion of a society that welcomes strangers,” said Faber. “It is our moral and faith imperative as human beings to reach out of our comfort zones and to offer a helping hand to the needy and the most vulnerable, such as the many who have taken arduous journeys to come here, looking for a better life for themselves and their families.”

ACT Alliance members are providing life-saving humanitarian aid in the countries of origin, including Syria and Iraq; in neighbouring countries including Turkey and Lebanon, and increasingly in transit countries including Greece, Serbia and Hungary.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1. ACT Alliance is a network of over 140 church and faith based organisations working together in 140 countries to achieve sustainable change in the lives of people affected by crisis, disasters, poverty and injustice.
2. ACT Alliance EU is the advocacy office to the EU of international humanitarian and development network ACT Alliance. Its purpose is to promote justice and peace and the eradication of poverty by influencing European Union decision-making processes as they affect developing countries.
3. The full ACT Alliance EU statement can be found here:
4. For more information contact Floris Faber, Faber@actalliance.eu, +32 2 2345660
5. For more information about ACT Alliance visit actalliance.org

ACT member International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is working to protect the health and well-being of more than 4,300 vulnerable Syrian refugees with improved access to safe water at two informal settlements in Lebanon.

At El Rahmeh, a northern Lebanon settlement of 350 Syrian refugee families, IOCC drilled water wells and installed pumps, storage tanks, and pipelines to channel clean water to communal kitchens, showers and latrines constructed by IOCC.

The newly installed sewer line serves the sanitation needs of both the camp and the neighboring community of 1,500 Lebanese residents.   In Lebanon’s Bekaa valley, around 450 Syrian families living at the Bar Elias refugee settlement also have access to safe water from communal water storage tanks as well as a newly constructed sanitation system that carries waste away from their homes to large capacity septic tanks.

Each day, thousands of Syrian refugees living in Lebanon’s informal settlements face a growing risk of getting sick each time they take a drink of water.  Contracting an illness from poor quality water sources increases sharply during hot summer months when the heat creates an ideal breeding ground for waterborne diseases.   The threat is especially deadly to children, who make up half of the 1.2 million refugees living in Lebanon.

“Lebanon is stretched to its limits with the addition of more than one million Syrian refugees now living here,” stated Ruba Khoury, IOCC Country Representative for Lebanon.  “In the absence of official camps, refugees have settled in more than 1,000 host communities throughout the country.  The increase in refugee numbers has overburdened national water and wastewater systems.  Without access to safe water or sewage systems, the refugees are continuously confronted with diseases related to poor hygiene.  IOCC’s efforts to bring safe water and sanitation to the refugees in these two settlements has improved their quality of life, and eased some of the burden on the country’s infrastructure.”

Muhal, a 28-year-old refugee from the Syrian city of Qusayr, stands under a scorching summer sun as she fills several plastic water buckets from a cluster of large storage tanks.   She doesn’t mind the heat as long as she has access to clean water close to her tent. “It has improved our condition a great deal,” said the former nurse.  “Before we got the tanks, we had to walk several miles to collect water, and it wasn’t even safe to drink.”  “We desperately needed water,” added Abdu, 33, a Syrian refugee from Homs and father of four children ages 18 months to 12 years.  “Now water is still precious to us, but we know it is safe.”

A team of IOCC hygiene educators regularly monitor the water supply to make sure it is safe, and provide hygiene promotion sessions where refugee mothers and children learn how to prevent disease by keeping their surroundings clean and properly washing their hands, food, and laundry.

The new water and sanitation system installation, implemented with support from ACT Alliance partner, Norwegian Church Aid, is part of a larger ongoing effort by IOCC to improve living conditions for Syria’s refugee families.  Since 2012, IOCC has provided humanitarian relief to 3.1 million Syrian people displaced in their own country or living as refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Armenia, Greece, and Serbia.

One month since ACT Alliance released its alert, ACT member Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA) continues to support children and mothers in reception centres in Hungary.

See our photo gallery here:

Photos from Daniel Fekete/HIA/ACT

At the launch of its secretariat presence in Amman, Jordan, on 31 August, ACT Alliance called for the protection and support of refugees in accordance with the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Refugee Protocol, regional laws and standards, United Nations resolutions and international human rights and humanitarian law.

ACT Alliance members are working with refugees and internally displaced people on all continents.

As the Syrian conflict enters its fifth year, the Alliance said the prevailing refugee situation in the Middle East has caught many governments in the north lacking the will or the capacity to address it.

Only decisive global response will adequately address the refugee crisis, the alliance has said.

“Granting support to refugees and ensuring their dignity is primarily a responsibility of governments,” said Gunilla Hallonsten, International Director of ACT member Church of Sweden, at the event. “This crisis of global proportions will not be addressed in the Middle East alone. It requires global action and above all willingness of all to help the affected people at their country of origin, in transit and wherever they would be seeking refuge.”

Average length of stay in a refugee camp is over 17 years

Members of the alliance highlighted that impacts of this global crisis are being felt in people`s lives and livelihoods, on local markets, in employment and social and power relations that determine people’s future opportunities, adding that the realities of aid are also changing while the international system is overwhelmed and under-resourced in responding to the crisis.

“A key task for churches and relief organisations is to offer the perspective of hope to the refugees and affected populations,” said Ramzi Zananiri, member of the Governing Board of ACT Alliance representing the Middle East.

In a panel discussion during the launch reception, panelists reminded the audience that the average length of stay in a refugee camp is over 17 years. ACT Alliance has been calling for a greater investment in resilience and accountability to disaster affected populations.

Speaking about the launch of the ACT secretariat presence in Amman, Gorden Simango, Regional Representative for the Middle East, said: “Together we are stronger,” explaining that ACT Alliance members would be intensifying their collaboration to meet the needs.

ACT Alliance General Secretary John Nduna, moved by his visit in the Zaatari refugee camp earlier the same day, congratulated and thanked ACT Alliance partners and members for their support of the alliance’s  work in the Middle East.

Six major Nordic aid and development organisations, and members of ACT Alliance, have called on governments in Europe to take immediate response to the refugee crisis on Europe’s doorstep.

“People are dying on our doorstep – Europe needs to act now,” was the call from the organisations, highlighting: “In Europe, we pride ourselves being leaders when it comes to values like democracy and human rights. As organisations based on Christian values, we believe that we need to act. Now is the time to bring our values into action.”

As hundreds of government officials from across the world return to Bonn in one of their last bids to hammer out components of a climate agreement in time for the Paris, ACT Alliance is cautiously optimistic that a meaningful agreement is still within reach.

“With barely three months before the Paris summit, we in ACT Alliance, like many other climate justice oriented networks and organisations, have increased our efforts towards raising awareness on the critical importance of ambitious climate action,” says John Nduna, ACT General Secretary.

The alliance has been engaging since the beginning of the year in advocacy for climate justice and has together with its members and partners launched the ‘act now for climate justice’ campaigns in all regions of the world.

“We have spoken with many governments who have indicated to us that they are making effort towards an agreement in Paris that will curb emissions and protect millions of people and communities already affected by the impacts of climate change,” says Nduna.

Since there already is a draft agreement on the table, it is expected that negotiators will do their utmost over the next few days in Bonn to move the negotiations forward. ACT Alliance will have a delegation in Bonn for the entire period.

“At the end of this session, we want to conclude that there has been progress. Even though every country has its own priorities, now is the time to look for shared solutions. Bonn must move the negotiations closer to an agreement,” says Mattias Soderberg, Chair of the ACT Alliance advisory group on climate change advocacy.

ACT Alliance, as one of the largest humanitarian networks in the word, has been giving humanitarian aid to communities affected by severe floods, droughts and other impacts of climate change. In Pakistan, for example, members of the alliance are assisting communities that have been suffering the impacts of flooding for the last 3 months due to unprecedented increase in precipitation.

‘We are increasingly receiving many requests for humanitarian support to respond to different impacts of climate change,” says Nduna.

Meanwhile a 6500km Pan Africa Cycling Caravan for Climate Justice will be launched in Mozambique, to coincide with the beginning of the Bonn session. The cyclists will go through South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania and finally Kenya. This is one of the initiatives of the ACT Alliance climate ‘act now for climate justice’ campaign, which will culminate in Paris, during COP 21.

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Notes:

For further information contact: Vitumbiko Chinoko (Vitumbiko.Chinoko@actalliance.org, Tel.: +41791063912)

The We Have Faith – Act Now for Climate Justice Pan Africa Cycling Caravan launches this Saturday 29^th August. Cyclists are setting off on a 6500km journey from Maputo to raise the voices of people at the forefront of a changing climate. The caravan will go through South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania to Kenya. Along the way the cyclists and activists will collect one million signatures demanding action on climate change.

“This is the first ever long-distance caravan on bicycles led by young men and women from faith communities and civil society organisations in Africa, in support of one of the most important yet challenging issues of our time,” says John Nduna, ACT Alliance General Secretary.

The launch is expected to be presided over by His Excellency the President of Mozambique, plus Government Officials, the ACT Global Ambassador Representative, Bishop Carlos Matshinhe, the Climate Justice National Ambassador in Mozambique Rev. Marcos Macamo among others.  After a weekend of action and mobilisation, the cyclists leave the city on 31^st August (to coincide with the first day of the UN Climate Talks in Bonn).

“We need an agreement that immediately recognises the need for protection of the millions of people affected by the impacts of climate change, through building their resilience and adaptation capabilities,” says Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, of the Anglican Church in South Africa, who is the global ambassador of the campaign.

We Have Faith – ACT Now for Climate Justice is a joint Pan African initiative of the We Have Faith, Act Alliance, PACJA and Oxfam in Africa. Cycling is part of the global campaign of ACT Alliance and churches all over the world demanding for just, equitable and ambitious climate agreement from COP 21 in Paris, France, later this year.

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Notes:

Campaign up-dates are available on Twitter at @ACTNowforCJ and Facebook.  The global petition is available at www.actclimate.org

For further information contact: Benson Ireri (BIreri@christian-aid.org) or Vitumbiko Chinoko (Vitumbiko.Chinoko@actalliance.org, Tel.: +41791063912)

People, mostly men of all ages, crowded around the narrow walkway between the shelters and the wire fence surrounding the refugee camp high on a mountainside on the eastern shore of Chios, Greece. The atmosphere was noisy and chaotic with many languages being spoken at once. Garbage overflowed from the few bins along the path where people stood, sat, and walked.

Since March, 10,000 refugees have landed on Chios. Local authorities on this small Greek island of only 35,000 residents have been overwhelmed by the hundreds of men, women, and children who arrive daily at Chios’ small and outdated immigrant reception center. They struggle to register the refugees and provide basic shelter and food.

ACT member International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) with a local partner, Apostoli, the humanitarian arm of the Church of Greece, is working to ease the burden on the island and improve poor hygiene and health conditions for refugees at the crowded reception centers. New portable showers have been installed, and plumbing and sewage systems upgraded to accommodate the influx of refugees with a place to take care of their personal hygiene in privacy and with dignity. IOCC is also providing hygiene kits customized to meet the needs of men, women, or infants, and promoting good hygiene practices with bilingual posters in English and Arabic.

During the distribution of hygiene kits, a young man not older than twenty emerged from his group of companions. His eyes were large and dark, his gaze unsettlingly serious. He held a necklace, a crucifix, in his hand, and offered it as a gift of gratitude for the assistance he had received on the Greek island. And just as quickly, he vanished into the throng of people.

This man is one of thousands of Syrians who have left their homes in recent months, crossing much of Turkey, often on foot, before navigating a narrow strip of the Aegean Sea in small boats to reach Chios. It is one of several Greek islands that lie closer to Turkey than to the Greek mainland. To the refugees, Greece is Europe, a place which offers the hope of a peaceful existence for those fleeing war and persecution. Chios and the neighboring islands Mytilini, Kos, Leros, and Samos are just one stop along the long, treacherous journey that the refugees hope will end with a new beginning.

IOCC is providing immediate and ongoing humanitarian assistance to families in need who have endured four years of Syria’s brutal civil war. Since 2012, IOCC has provided relief to 3.1 million people displaced inside Syria, or living as refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Armenia, Greece, and Serbia.

Young people from different Christian churches from remote areas and from major urban centers in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia will be connected via internet tomorrow, August 28, to participate in the first on-line session of the International Diploma in Culture of peace, equity and sustainability.

The Diploma, part of the project “Emprendemos Paz” carried out by CREAS (1), with the support and in partnership with Christian Aid (2), is an initiative to build capacity for the promotion of cultural peace in young adult leaders from different churches in Central America and Colombia. “With this project, we aim to make the young people have a positive social role and can make a difference in building peace projects with equity from the perspective of faith,” said Humberto Shikiya, General Director of CREAS.

Meanwhile, Mara Manzoni Luz, Deputy Head of the Division of Latin America and the Caribbean Christian Aid, welcomed the launch of the diploma, noting: “We are confident that this Diploma will  boost the renewal of the leadership of the churches. In times as complex as these, we live in a region that the faith-based organizations are called to give a deep testimony. This way, the young adults can express new energy and creativity in this process.”

The four-months diploma will take place through virtual and classroom sessions, and support the development of proposals that can be developed in the context of young adult participants. “Through the design and implementation of sustainable and replicable initiatives and projects, we look to strengthen the vocations of young adults in contributing to processes of social change,” said Humberto Shikiya.

“With this project, we aim to make the young people have a positive social role and can make a difference in building peace projects with equity from the perspective of faith,” said Humberto Shikiya, General Director of CREAS.

The pedagogical coordination of the Diploma will enable the use of ICT and social networks like Facebook and Twitter, to create a community of learning and practice, where the participants can exchange challenges and proposals online from a regional and inclusive perspective. It is noteworthy that 50% of young participants will be women.

With this training process, CREAS and its partners are committed to revitalize the action of church, broaden the approach of Christian youth, strengthen its leadership in the transformation of local communities and create opportunities to generate sustainable answers to face the challenging economic, political and social context of the region. (3)

This project is developed by CREAS in cooperation with universities and organizations in countries where the diploma will be implemented, including: University Corporation Reformed (Colombia),Mencoldes (Colombia), Justapaz (Colombia), Foundation University Baptist, University Maya Kaqchikel (Nicaragua), FUNVIPAZ of El Salvador, University Lutheran Salvadoran, Evangelic University Martin Luther King of Nicaragua and Honduras CASM.

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CREAS is a regional, ecumenical and multidisciplinary organization. Since 2000, carries out activities of cooperation, capacity building and knowledge production to generate and sustain processes of change in Latin America and the Caribbean. For more information about CREAS: http://www.creas.org / Follow us: www.facebook.com/CreasCentroEcumenico / https://twitter.com/CreasTwitt

Christian Aid is a global development organization based in the UK, as part of the movement for social justice, work for profound changes to eradicate the causes of poverty and achieve equality, dignity and freedom for all and all, regardless of their faith or nationality. For more information about Christian Aid visit http://www.christianaid.org.uk

CREAS and Christian Aid are members of the ACT Alliance, a global coalition of over 140 churches and church organizations, working together for humanitarian assistance, promotion and development. More details on https://stage.act.acw2.website