Heavy monsoon rains in September 2014, in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, led to unprecedented widespread flooding and landslides. The total cost of the damage was estimated at nearly US$10bn. Incessant rain caused 277 deaths in Jammu and Kashmir, and a further 280 deaths over the border in Pakistan.

Rescue operations were hindered when railway links and at least 60 roads became inaccessible due to the landslides.

In addition, 30 bridges were completely washed away, isolating stranded people even further. However, with the help of the Indian Army, the Indian Air Force and the National Disaster Response Force, 234,000 people were rescued.

ACT response

More than 230 relief camps were set up, and ACT members in India responded immediately, providing early recovery programmes.

This included the distribution of dry food rations and milk to more than 29,000 people in need. Blankets, ground sheets, tarpaulins, cooking pots and implements, hygiene kits, water purification tablets and buckets were distributed to 8,900 people.

Solar lanterns were given to 12,000 people. As winter set in, people were exposed to harsh rain, low temperatures and snow. Shelter became an immediate concern, with more than 120,000 houses uninhabitable.

ACT Alliance provided 3,300 families with roofing materials of galvanized corrugated iron, in addition to the temporary shelter kits provided earlier.

The early recovery work of the alliance was acknowledged by Sphere India – the largest network of humanitarian agencies in India.

On 3 August 2014, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 hit Zhaotong City in China’s southeastern Yunnan Province.

The epicentre of the quake was just 14 miles from the city, which suffered damage and experienced hundreds of aftershocks. China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs initiated the highest level of national disaster response, with 617 people reported killed, nearly 90,000 houses having collapsed and 129,000 houses damaged, leaving 65,000 families homeless.

Zhaotong City officials reported that, in total, the quake affected almost 1 million people.

ACT response

ACT Alliance responded with immediate relief supplies and a rapid assessment of needs. After the initial emergency assistance, concern moved to the reconstruction of water systems and earthquake-resistant housing, rebuilding of livestock pens, provision of seeds to help farmers start up their work again, assistance in livelihood recovery and community-based psychosocial support.

ACT has provided community-based psychosocial support in China for the last six years – after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, the 2010 Yushu earthquake, and the 2013 Yuan earthquake.

This work has included recovering a community centre from which to give support, and creating opportunities to mobilise local communities to organise and participate in events, entertainment, education and communication.

Floods in Pakistan that have affected over 1.12 million people, have also taken out large health care centres and hospitals, leaving survivors with little or no medical care.

The country’s national disaster management authority says that nearly 260 people have been killed by the torrential rainfall and at least twice that number of people left injured. The United Nations expects about 3 million people in total to be affected in the coming days.

ACT member Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan reports that most families lack enough food, shelter and drinking water – factors that increase the risk of waterborne diseases and other health concerns. While food, emergency shelter, immediate healthcare, clean water and other relief goods are priorities, access to clean water and adequate healthcare is essential to avoid mortality caused by waterborne diseases.

Making home visits in the wake of disaster

In Azad Kashmir, CWS-P/A’s health team has begun assisting affected families in Bagh district, where over 700 houses have been completely or partially damaged leaving 2334 people homeless. Some 2300 acres of land and 1200 acres of crop land have been destroyed, with livestock and property in commercial areas also left ruined.

To reach these remote spots, CWS-PA has sent out a mobile health unit. The well-equipped team includes a doctor, a ‘lady health visitor’ and a medical dispenser providing treatment and medicine. The unit is strategically based near a camp where survivors have taken shelter.

The unit has found that women and children were worst affected by the disaster. Common health issues among children include skin diseases and diarrhea, whereas among women the most commonly reported health problems are urinary tract infections and stomach ache. Survivors are also treated for acute respiratory infections. Eight antenatal cases and 159 consultations were achieved within the first day of the response.

In addition to medical care, CWS-P/A has begun distributing food and other relief to nearly 1300 people in Bagh district. This distribution is made possible through financial contributions from other ACT members Christian Aid and Primate’s Word Relief and Development Fund through the ACT appeal.

CWS-P/A says survivors worry about their lives now that they are faced with the prospect of being without homes or even having no land on which to rebuild. They worry about diminishing food supplies, lost livestock and crops, and about the challenging winter months ahead. It is essential survivors receive immediate relief to prevent an exacerbation of issues in the affected areas, CWS-PA reports.

At the same time, the southern provinces of Pakistan, including Sindh and Balochistan are bracing themselves as rainfall and floodwaters make their way throughout the country. According to local media, Chief Engineer Sukkur Barrage Ahmed Junaid Memon said that more than 150,000 residents from Khairpur, Kingri, Gambat and Sobho Dero talukas would be affected by the flood. With water levels rising in the Indus River, 500,000 people had been evacuated from low lying areas of Sindh, according to local media.

More help is urgently needed. The appeal aims to help 2000 families with food for three months, 1000 families with household relief goods, 400 shelter kits, and 3000 families with health care in Bagh, Haveli, and Poonch districts. Additionally, quality and accountability will be enhanced through capacity building initiatives for aid workers and for affected communities in accessing accountable aid services. CWS-P/A continues to monitor the situation in other parts of the country and subjected to the need, will expand its operations to other affected regions.

In the aftermath of the November 2013 typhoon that displaced 4 million people, destroyed 1 million homes, and damaged livelihoods across nine provinces in the central Philippines, ACT members overcame many challenges to reach an estimated 1 million survivors in recovery efforts this year.

As the strongest typhoon ever to make landfall, Haiyan left behind tons of debris and millions of fallen coconut trees. Six months later, the ACT response had shifted from emergency aid to recovery, focusing on shelter and livelihoods, education, psychosocial help and disaster preparedness.

The shelter response was particularly challenging due to the government-imposed 40 metre no-build zones, which left millions of people who had lived on the shoreline now homeless and internally displaced. This was further complicated by bureaucracy of land acquisition in safe locations, delaying the start of any construction.

Despite the difficulties, ACT provided 100,000 people with new shelters in 2014, either permanent or temporary. Construction of permanent housing was modest, as most families whose houses were destroyed lived on rental land or had only verbal agreements with the land owner. After a virtually ineffective land reform 20 years ago, 90 per cent of the land still remains in the hands of big land owners.

“Landlessness makes people vulnerable,” said ACT member Emergency Field Coordinator Joselito Sosmena. “Often people are not allowed to build other than transitional shelters (made of light materials such as bamboo and palm leaves), and these are not safe when a storm comes.”

To support livelihoods, new vegetable gardens have been planted using seeds and tools provided by ACT, and women’s groups have started fish processing in many communities. New boats and/or nets, to replace those broken or lost during the typhoon, have been given to 40,000 fishermen, and more than 75,000 farmers, whose crops were destroyed, have been given what they need to replant.

However, rehabilitation work in the Philippines will be long term, particularly in terms of livelihoods, as the millions of coconut trees destroyed will take seven to 10 years to grow back and provide people with livelihoods once again.

ACT members have been assisting communities to better assess their risks, vulnerabilities and capacities, and to develop disaster preparedness and response plans.

The Philippines is a disaster-prone nation with an average of 20 typhoons per year, around five of which cause serious damage.

A series of unexpected attacks in Kenya’s Lamu County left 5,574 people internally displaced. Terror inflicted by militant groups included arbitrary killings, sexual violence, looting of property and livestock, and other gross human rights violations.

Many women told the ACT Kenya Forum their stories of the extreme violence, describing how they had to watch their spouses and children killed in cold blood.

During the period of attacks, people were forced from their homes, unable to carry any food or essential items, which aggravated the resulting shelter, hunger and public health needs.

ACT response

ACT members identified these needs and set up initiatives in Mpeketoni, Lamu County, to support the most vulnerable people.

Members worked with a population of 5,000 affected people, providing food and water and essential items such as shelter, clothing and bedding, water treatment tablets, food and water containers, soap and mosquito nets.

ACT also promoted peace-building activities and set up psychosocial support and trauma-healing initiatives for the thousands affected by the violence. The alliance was able to provide health services where need outweighed existing capacity.

ChristianAid UK and Ireland:

PRESS RELEASE

Over 1.5 million people are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance in Iraq and the number is set to increase says international humanitarian and development network ACT Alliance, as the Islamic State continues its encroachment in the region.

Since the group’s violent take-over of large swaths of land in northern and western Iraq, the country according to OCHA is now contending with one of the largest internal displacements in the world.

“This is starting to become a runaway crisis, and the world must rise up quickly to save the lives of the people who have fallen victims to dangerously armed militant groups,” said John Nduna, ACT General Secretary.

ACT Alliance members, which are on the ground providing humanitarian aid to affected populations, are calling for continued life-saving aid as the conflict intensifies.

Through the ACT Alliance appeal the alliance is providing shelter, food, water, non-food items, hygiene kits, and carrying out protection initiatives particularly for women and children.

The alliance is also calling for human rights and international humanitarian law to be respected, and is urging governments and intergovernmental bodies to find a lasting solution to the crisis and to identify proactive actions to respond to early signs of conflicts.

“There are harrowing stories of decimation of minorities,”  said Nduna. “Humanitarian access is critical at this time to ensure that assistance reaches those who need it most, and to ensure those responding can continuously assess the needs and respond accordingly.”

“We cannot underestimate the need for protection of civilians especially women, children, the elderly, those living with disabilities, and minority populations,” he continued. “Deactivation of any humanitarian response and corridors that bring humanitarian aid to displaced populations would only hurt the people who are already suffering.”

ACT Alliance is currently involved in consultations with other international faith-based organisations in a bid to scale up global level humanitarian solidarity, advocacy and assistance to the affected population.

Ends

Notes to Editor:

1. ACT Alliance is a coalition of 146 churches and affiliated organisations working together in 140 countries to create positive and sustainable change in the lives of poor and marginalised people regardless of their religion, politics, gender, sexual orientation, race or nationality in keeping with the highest international codes and standards.
2. Through its member organisations ACT Alliance mobilises more than 25,000 staff and around $1.5 billion for its work each year in the areas of humanitarian aid; development; and advocacy.
3. ACT Alliance is a member of the International Council for Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response (SCHR) and the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP).
4. For more information on the ACT Appeal click here
5. For more information on this press release contact Gorden Simango at ACT Alliance at: gorden.simango@actalliance.org or +41 22 791 6319.
6. For more information about the ACT humanitarian response please visit our member websites:  http://www.christianaid.org.uk/emergencies/current/iraq-crisis-appeal/index.aspx,  www.lutheranworld.org, http://www.diakonie-katastrophenhilfe.de/hilfe-weltweit/uebersicht-aller-projekte/irak.html

Nearly 1 million people in Somalia were reported to be in need of life-saving help in 2014, 300,000 of whom were malnourished children.

Exacerbating the food situation, Somalia was also dealing with military offensives and threats from insurgents.

The UNHCR estimated that 50,000 people were internally displaced in the first quarter of 2014 alone, with the total figure standing at approximately 1.1 million. The crisis in Somalia is multi-faceted, with each region struggling with its own issues.

ACT response

ACT members undertook assessments in different areas to prioritise the specific needs of the regions. They found that decreased food security was being caused by conflict and the destruction of valuable resources; the erosion of livestock due to lack of water and unprecedented natural disasters, crop failures because of acute water shortages, and high food prices that made it impossible for people living in extreme poverty to eat properly.

It has been a challenge to assist those in need in Somalia. Attempts to aid people were hindered in areas of conflict, where initiatives were sabotaged. Despite the difficulties, there were real achievements in addressing basic food, water and sanitation needs of displaced people and vulnerable host households. These were thanks to well-organised efforts where ACT assisted drought-affected populations in the southern and central parts of Somalia and the Dadaab refugee camp.

Historical violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between 1994 and 2003 led to the loss of an estimated 5 million lives.

While violence has subsided to a large extent, in 2014 renewed conflict in the country displaced an estimated 150,000 households, many of them crossing the border to Uganda.

But the gradual restoration of security in the Kamango region of the DRC resulted in the spontaneous return of more than 60,000 people to the area, most coming back from Uganda.

Strongholds under the control of rebels were taken over by the regular army, and local authorities encouraged the return of displaced people.

Assistance from ACT

The focus of the ACT appeal was North Kivu province of the eastern DRC, including the Kamango refugee camp in the Beni territory, where members worked with 48,000 returned people; and in the Rutshuru territory with 24,000 returned people.

The ACT response revolved around food security, nutrition for 3,350 malnourished children, access to clean water, hygiene and sanitation, and psychosocial support.