Heavy monsoon rains hit 17 districts in the mid and western regions of Nepal in August 2014, causing the worst destruction Nepal has seen since flooding in 2008.

More than 12,000 houses were destroyed, another 13,695 partially damaged, and a massive 40,055 flooded. The extreme weather saw cattle, ducks, chicken and fish washed away or buried, and the destruction of crop supplies.

The result was mass displacement of people, with 12,276 families made homeless and left with nothing. Waterlogged farmland became useless to farmers, and the remaining yield was much lower than usual.

ACT response

ACT members provided immediate life-saving assistance and psychosocial support to around 2,000 severely affected and displaced families. Assistance included basic and supplementary food rations, non-food items, emergency shelter and other daily necessities.

Many of the areas affected were left inaccessible because of the rains, with some sections of road washed away or buried by landslides, and electrical supplies and telephone services cut off.

According to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IRFC), the floods and landslides claimed the lives of 202 people, with 248 still missing at the end of 2014.

Cyclone Hudhud hit India’s east coast in mid-October 2014, primarily affecting the state of Andhra Pradesh, most significantly the port city of Visakhapatnam. It also struck the state of Odisha, which experienced heavy rainfall.

The deafening winds of 190km/h claimed the lives of 41 people and injured many more. Hudhud caused extensive devastation to housing, electrical infrastructure, standing crops and livestock.

It affected 471 villages, and relief for more than 280,000 people had to be provided by the government with the support of the Indian Army, the National Disaster Response Force and various other organisations.

The National Highway and other important thoroughfares were cleared, but with limited resources they were unable to reach out to people in more rural villages.

ACT response

ACT members therefore had a significant presence in these areas, where the communities who depended mainly on farming as their livelihood source saw Hudhud devastate rice, banana, coconut and sugarcane plantations.

ACT provided immediate food assistance and worked with the community to establish a food security and livelihood restoration programme.

The districts of Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram were plunged into darkness after the electrical system completely collapsed: over 40,000 electricity cables snapped and 7,500 electrical transformers were damaged.

ACT therefore worked with communities to implement solar renewable energy sources to bring light to the affected areas.

In January 2014, the Government of Guinea in West Africa declared an outbreak of the Ebola virus. Since then, Ebola spread to the neighbouring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone, causing an epidemic that at the end of 2014 had caused 24,754 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

There had been 11,794 deaths in Sierra Leone, 9,555 in Liberia and 3,404 in Guinea. Because of a lack of knowledge about the disease, Ebola quickly became a source of stigma and terror.

ACT members responding to the epidemic identified two key issues:

• the need for more healthcare locations and resources, and
• a need to raise preventative awareness to stop the disease spreading.

As a first step, ACT members constructed an isolation segment in the compound of Liberia’s Phebe Hospital and School of Nursing, and made provisional plans to procure medical supplies.

In both Liberia and Sierra Leone, besides the high mortality rate, Ebola patients were often abandoned or rejected not only by healthcare workers fearing infection but by their families and friends due to fear and shame. Added to this, survivors had to deal with deaths of their colleagues, friends and family also in isolation.

Working on the premise that the best way to protect people was to prevent the spread of the disease and remove the social stigma attached to it, ACT members initiated educational projects with 5,830 people in Liberia to increase understanding of measures that can be taken to prevent contamination and spread of the disease. These projects were set up in the Bong and Lofa counties, and the subsequent decline in the number of new cases there was thought to be partly due to these interventions.

In addition, multiple meetings and workshops were set up to raise awareness and sensitisation among a further 14,270 people.

In Sierra Leone, sensitisation work was undertaken directly with 9,000 people, and food and non-food assistance was given to 100 families who had suffered deaths or survived infection. More than 400 families were given psychosocial support and 40 orphans given nutrition and health support.

When the Ebola epidemic was at its peak, fear meant that people refrained from leaving their homes to work, resulting in reduced food production and a consequent rise in malnutrition.

ACT members helped vulnerable families by providing them with rice and soup, and extended this service to specific hospitals to help reduce the risk of malnutrition among Ebola patients.

© Act Alliance / Paul Jeffrey

In September 2014, the United Protestant Church of Belgium received an urgent letter Protestant churches in Syria and Lebanon, telling the suffering experienced by the civilian population in this region. Nearly three million people have fled Syria to seek refuge in camps in neighboring countries. More than half of these refugees are children. We lack basic necessities such as food, water, shelter, blankets, clothing and medical assistance. Fighting make it difficult for aid to refugees difficult when the needs are only increasing with the approach of winter. A gathering is organized within the EPUB, whose fruit will be donated to ACT Alliance to support aid in Syria and neighboring countries.

To answer the cry of alarm coming from Syria, any gesture of support is welcome!

You can initiate supportive action or collection within your parish, or simply make a donation to the account of Solidarity with the Protestant “Emergency Syria” communication: IBAN BE37 0680 6690 1028 / BIC GKCCBEBB .

Donations from private individuals over 40 euros a year are entitled to a tax certificate. For more information, please contact Rob van Drimmelen, Secretary of the Church Committee in the Company / EPUB: vandrimmelen.krabbe@numericable.be.

Joani Santana, 17, was a star student but she was pulled out of school for the simple reason she doesn’t have a birth certificate.

New laws in the Dominican Republic require Joani to have identity papers in order to study.

“I don’t have the documents,” she explains. “I was born in the Dominican Republic but my parents came to the country from Haiti to cut sugar cane and the only ID they were given is a sugar plantation work card. My mother wasn’t given a birth certificate for me when I was born and even though I’ve now proved that I was born here I can’t get documents because of my parents’ immigration status.”

Her story is common. Ana Maria Velique, 28 was born in the Dominican Republic and had all her documents in perfect order including her Dominican ID card and passport when she turned up at university to enrol.

Years earlier, her parents came to the country under one of the many agreements with Haiti to bring in cheap labour. However, these agreements failed to confer legal status to those workers.

When Ana Maria went to enrol at university she found that under the new law her nationality had been withdrawn because of her parents’ status.

She was refused admission and with it, the hope of better prospects in life. Both Joani and Ana Maria, along with an estimated 200,000 other Dominicans of Haitian descent have become stateless — neither the Dominican nor the Haitian government recognises them.

Caught in this no-man’s land Ana Maria took her case to court where the judge found in her favour and instructed the Central Electoral Board (JCE) to furnish her with a birth certificate.

Not only did the JCE refuse to accept the ruling, it responded with its own legal counter-case requesting the court annul her birth certificate.

A window of opportunity to allow people disadvantaged by the law the chance to get their papers in order has a deadline this month, though after vigorous appeals by human rights groups this may be extended by 90 days.

“But for many of those affected it doesn’t matter if the window remains open for 1,000 days,” says Dominican economist Roque Felix. “Resolving the problem is extremely difficult, expensive and in many cases, simply impossible. Even when conditions are met, government departments often don’t apply the law.”

The Inter-American Human Rights Commission insists that law 168-13, which withdraws nationality from people born in the Dominican Republic, is illegal.

But the government uses language of sovereignty to argue its right to determine its own laws, Felix says. Other organisations, such as the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and several countries, including the US, have condemned the law and are pressuring the government to find a solution.

“The new law legalises what the Dominican state has been doing illegally since the 1990s — refusing to give Haitian immigrants the identity documents they need to work, register the birth of their children, get married, take national exams, attend public university, open bank accounts and many other civil activities. And now, despite government assurances that they would stop, deportations are continuing,” adds Felix.

President Danilo Medina is taking steps to solve the problem but two key institutions — the ministry of migration and the JCE — are held by nationalist party Fuerza Nacional Progresista (FNP), which is pushing hard for these discriminatory laws to be retained.

Ironically, Medina’s own party is in coalition with the FNP.

“A recent Gallup poll found that 87 per cent of people across the country do not support the extreme measures against Dominicans of Haitian descent but there is still no solution in sight,” says Felix.

ACT member SSID works with Dominicans of Haitian descent. At its general assembly, the ACT Alliance, has roundly condemned the ruling, saying Dominicans of Haitian descent have the right to citizenship.

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.