Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest nations, has seen a massive influx of Rohingya people fleeing violence in Myanmar in the last 4 weeks. The extent and implications remain uncertain. Close to half-a-million (429,000) Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh since Aug 25, escaping violent attacks carried out by Myanmar troops and Buddhist vigilantes.  There is very high fluidity and internal mobility, the majority of arrivals are still on the move, with more than 15,000 people coming in everyday.

As this is a cross-border crisis which impacts Myanmar and Bangladesh, a coordinated and complementary humanitarian response among ACT Alliance members in the countries is necessary. Consequently, ACTBangladesh Forum (Christian Aid, DanChurchAid, Diakonia Sweden, ICCO Cooperation) will assist over 6,600 households or 39,600 individuals in Bangladesh by providing Shelter/NFI s, Food Security, Protection/Psychosocial, Early Recovery/ Livelihoods, Unconditional Cash, Health/ Nutrition, and WASHprograms. The ACT Bangladesh Forum is requesting for 3,541,249 USD to run the activities. Any indication of funding or other support is encouraged to be made in the name of the ACT Bangladesh Forum, and allocations will be made according to agreed mechanisms among requesting members.

While in Myanmar side, ACT Myanmar Forum members (Christian Aid and LWF) will respond to this crisis by providing Shelter/NFI s, Food Security, Protection/Psychosocial, Early Recovery/ Livelihoods, Unconditional Cash and Community Resilience programs to over19,000 households and 12,500 individuals.

As part of the revision of the ACT Alliance Humanitarian Response Mechanism, the “Preliminary Appeal” is replaced by the “Concept Note”, a shorter more concise document which summarizes the proposed ACT response and emphasizes collaboration amongst the ACT members. For further information on the Revised Humanitarian Response Mechanism, please refer to its online toolkit : https://actlearn.org/course/view.php?id=236

Four countries (Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad) in the Lake Chad region are affected by the on-going, Boko Haram conflict. As the needs continue to increase, this slow-onset “forgotten” crisis is urgently requiring attention to save lives and maintain human dignity. Approximately 21 million people live in the conflict-affected areas, of which 2.6 million are displaced and in dire need of support. The conflict has had devastating effects on the region; visible not only through the widespread destruction of homes, livelihoods, infrastructure and large-scale displacements, but also in the conflict-induced trauma and fear in the affected communities. The situation in the region is deteriorating as humanitarian funding is decreasing as result of donor fatigue and States are unable to provide adequate services to the affected communities.

The ACT forum members in Nigeria (Christian Aid and Norwegian Church Aid), Chad( Lutheran World Federation) and Cameroon( Lutheran World Federation) are planning to respond to the crisis through the ACT Appeal by providing support to in Food Security, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Protection/ Gender Based Violence, Early recovery and Livelihoods restoration, Peace and Psychosocial Support sectors to the conflict affected population in the Lake Chad Region. The overall appeal target budget is US$2.6Million.

The conflict in Rakhine started in 2012 and displaced about 140,000 individuals. During the period 2015-16, about 25,000 IDPs were resettled near their original home by the government. On 9 October 2016 an armed group attack on border guards in Northern Rakhine and the retaliation by the Myanmar army caused severe unrest and affected the lives of thousands of people especially in Northern Rakhine. The violence intensified further on 25 August 2017. According to the Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) of the UN, 427,000 people are reported to have crossed the border since 25 August.

As this is a cross-border crisis which impacts Myanmar and Bangladesh, a coordinated and complementary humanitarian response among ACT Alliance members in the countries is necessary. Consequently, ACT Myanmar Forum members (Christian Aid and LWF) will respond to this crisis in Myanmar by providing Shelter/NFI s, Food Security, Protection/Psychosocial, Early Recovery/ Livelihoods, Unconditional Cash and Community Resilience programs. The ACT Myanmar Forum is now requesting for 1,500,000 USD to run the program. Over 19,000 households and 12,500 individuals will be benefited by this intervention. Any indication of funding or other support is encouraged to be made in the name of the ACT Myanmar Forum, and allocations will be made according to agreed mechanisms among requesting members.

ACT Bangladesh Forum (Christian Aid, DanChurchAid, Diakonia Sweden, ICCO Cooperation) will assist over 6,600 households or 39,600 individuals in Bangladesh.  ACT Secretariat will share the detailed Concept Note (Emergency Assistance to the Rohingya Community) from ACT Bangladesh Forum in the next email.

As part of the revision of the ACT Alliance Humanitarian Response Mechanism, the “Preliminary Appeal” is replaced by the “Concept Note”, a shorter more concise document which summarizes the proposed ACT response and emphasizes collaboration amongst the ACT members. For further information on the Revised Humanitarian Response Mechanism, please refer to its online toolkit : https://actlearn.org/course/view.php?id=236

Hurricane Irma, a category 5 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 295 km/hour, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic, made landfall in Haiti´s northern coastline on September 7, 2017.  The eye of the storm passed north of Haiti, yet heavy rains, winds and flooding have cause significant damages in the Nord-Est, Nord-Ouest, Nord, Artibonite and Centre departments, damaging homes, fruit trees, flooding crops such as rice, banana, corn, sweet potato, cassava, and peanut and killing livestock. On the night of the hurricane, 12,539 persons were evacuated to 81 shelters. To date, 6,494 persons remain in the 21 centers. One life was lost and a person was recorded missing in the Centre Department, while 17 people were injured in the Nord, Nord-Ouest and Ouest departments.   Flooding of rivers caused partial flooding in 22 communes in the departments of Artibonite, Centre, Nord, Nord-Est, Nord-Ouest and Ouest. 4,903 houses were flooded, 2,646 houses were badly damaged, while 466 houses were severely destroyed. Significant losses were also recorded in the agricultural sector in the departments of Centre, Nord-Est and Nord-Ouest.    In the commune of Bassin-Bleu, a church was reported to have been completely destroyed. The Institute of Social Welfare and Research and its partners supported 1,661 children from orphanages in the Nord and the Ouest, of whom 1,226 were moved to other non-flooding homes; In the Sud Department, approximately 300 people, the total population of the Dumont neighborhood, were moved to a temporary shelter in Port-Salut. They have returned home since the warning has been lifted.

SCH, a national member from the Haiti ACT Forum is the ACT requesting member for this response,  and had identify the following sectors as priorities: Food Security, non-food items and WASH. The ACT Secretariat has approved the use of USD 79,314.00 towards the budget from its Rapid Response Fund.

Since the beginning of August, heavy monsoon rains have caused intense flooding across more than one-third of Bangladesh. According to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR), these floods are the worst in the last four decades. As of 27 August 2017, 32 districts in the north, north-east and central districts of  Bangladesh have been flooded, affecting 8.2 million people  (2.3 million male, 2.4 million female, and 3.5 mln children under 18 years of age). 141 people, including children, are reported to have lost their lives. An estimated 55,383 houses are reported to have been damaged and 640,786 are believed to have been destroyed by the floods.

Massive floods and landslides triggered by incessant and torrential rains have killed 143 people, and 30 have gone missing since 13 August 2017 as of 20 August 2017, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of Nepal. Approximately 6 million people have been affected by the catastrophe. As per the initial findings till 15th of August, the number of displaced households have reached over 100,000 and is expected to rise when a complete assessment is carried out. Nepal Army alone has rescued 8,000 individuals and put them in safer places. Various I/NGOs and voluntary groups have started to respond the situation and help affected communities to meet their basic needs with various relief works.

The first revision of SYR171 is being issued as necessitated by the level of funding raised for the Appeal to
date, with priority for this revision given to livelihood and education interventions. Among the key
changes made under this revision is the inclusion of an early recovery livelihood program for issuing loans
to Syrian refugees in host communities to “(re-) start-ups of Small-Medium Enterprises” by the
Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees (DSPR). Government approval has already been granted
to start the implementation of this component.

The International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) Lebanon proposes to re-allocate resources to the
education sector owing to the relatively low level of funding for the different sectors of response; IOCC
therefore decided to reduce activities in other sectors, and prioritize education as a strategic priority.
Education and youth are main pillars to protect children and to contribute to build a better future for
them. IOCC Lebanon is not requesting an increased amount but just reducing the requested amount
under other sectors and moving it to the education sector.

Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) Jordan and Syria have not revised their appeal and/or budget.
The changes reflected in this revision are corrections due to formula errors in the original budget, resulting
in a change in their appeal budget. The Consolidated Revised Budget is on pages 38/39 of this document.

The main Appeal narrative and the intervention strategy remain largely the same, and the Secretariat
continues to raise member and donor awareness and support coordination for this Appeal to support the
complex needs of the Syria Crisis.

As of September 6, 2017, Hurricane Irma, a category 5 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 295 km/hour, strengthened significantly to become one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic. After wreaking havoc in the Eastern Caribbean, the devastating Hurricane Irma approached the eastern coast of Cuba in Guantánamo on Thursday, September 7 2017, initiating its passage through the north coast of the country, making landfall on September 8 in Cayo Romano, north of Camagüey. Irma battered the entire north coast for 4 days. At 8:00 p.m. on Monday, September 11, the hurricane finally left Cuban territory leaving a huge devastation and heading to Florida as the hurricane category 3 making also large damages. Approximately 2,000,000 persons were evacuated to the homes of relatives or neighbours, emergency shelters and local churches. In terms of damage caused by the sea coming inland, with waves of up to 9 meters, there has been considerable environmental, economic and social damage in the entire country: 10 deaths have been reported; there is inadequate supply of safe water for human consumption; significant loss of coastal dunes, forests, fruit trees, as well as seed granaries, banana and other crops; total or partial destruction of houses, health and educational centers, markets, bridges and access roads to those communities. Widespread flooding promoted unsanitary conditions which have resulted in health issues. Many communities remain without electricity and telecommunications, due to extensive infrastructural damage to the national network. The tourism industry, the main source of income for the Cuban economy, was seriously impacted, due to the destruction of hotel infrastructure. All this has seriously affected the psychosocial well being of vulnerable groups, especially elderly persons, children, teenagers, youth, women, persons with disability and persons with chronic illnesses.

The Cuban Council of Churches (CIC), an ACT Alliance Member in Cuba is responding to the emergency and had identified Shelter, WASH, Food Security, early recovery and livelihood as priority sectors, and are targeting in the response  20,000 households.

On September 2017, Hurricane Irma, a category 5 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 295 km/hour, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic, touched land in the Dominican Republic during the night of Wednesday September 7, 2017 affecting the region of East, Northeast, Northwest and Southwest in the Dominican Republic, causing unusual tides and strong waves of up to 20 feet. In the Dominican Republic, there are 24,000 displaced people, with half of them in shelters, 12, 829 persons are displaced at relative’s homes, 15 communities remain isolated. Food security assessments are underway and protection measures for vulnerable people in affected communities are being taken. Livelihoods in affected communities are anticipated to be an area of need when recovery efforts begin. The Emergency Operations Center continue to keep 18 to 24 provinces on red alert, due to the possibility of landslides and floods. No fatality was reported.

SSID an ACT Alliance local Member is going to provide humanitarian relief  for 200 Households from 10 communities with assistance in Food Security, hygiene kits, and Non food Items.

RRFs_Dominican Republic_Hurricanne Irma_No.RRF09_2017

Since 11 August 2017, heavy monsoon rains have caused intense flooding across more than one-third of Bangladesh. According to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR) this floods are the worst in the last four decades. As of 27 August 2017, the Government of Bangladesh reports that the floods have affected 32 districts in the northern, North-Eastern and Central parts of the country due to the overflowing of the Brahmaputra-Jamuna river. An estimated 55,383 houses are reported to have been damaged and 640,786 are believed to have been destroyed by the floods, while 140 people are known to have died. The Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR) has reported that as of 27 August, 335 shelters in flood-affected areas are sheltering more than 106,000 people.

As part of the revision of the ACT Alliance Humanitarian Response Mechanism, the “Preliminary Appeal” is replaced by the “Concept Note”, a shorter more concise document which summarizes the proposed ACT response and emphasizes collaboration amongst the ACT members. For further information on the Revised Humanitarian Response Mechanism, please refer to its online toolkit : https://actlearn.org/course/view.php?id=236

Concept Notes_Bangladesh_Floods_BGD171