Posts Tagged ‘Emergency Response’
Debbie DeVoe, CRS’ regional information officer for East Africa, is currently attending a Sphere training in Nairobi, Kenya. She briefly explains field challenges in this post.
Today was eye-opening. After learning about the minimum standards for each sector—water and sanitation, food, shelter and health—as well as measurable indicators to assess attainment, it was time to try to put the standards into practice.
Separate sanitation facilities for men and women are critical for health and security during emergencies. The facilities also allow for privacy, as in this camp in Eldoret at the Eldoret faigrounds in Kenya. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS.
Workshop leaders provided us with a real-world scenario: the current situation of a camp housing 2,700 people displaced by years of violence in Somalia. These displaced people live on private land. Unlike at other camps nearby, the residents don’t have to pay rent, but the land owner demands that they purchase household supplies from his shop. Water is trucked in, and four tents serve as UNICEF classrooms. The most pressing problem is a lack of toilets, as the landlord doesn’t want latrines built on his land.
We took on the roles of the displaced people, the landlord, government agents and aid workers trying to assist. Conversation was spirited as each group of stakeholders shared their opinions. Coming up with initial actions was far from easy—and this was in a classroom setting.
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Posted
November 19th, 2008 in
Emergency Response, Humanitarian Aid, Sphere by:
John Lindner |
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Debbie DeVoe, CRS’ regional information officer for East Africa, is currently attending a Sphere training in Nairobi, Kenya. She briefly explains the project in this post.
After the Rwandan genocide of 1994 resulted in approximately 1,000,000 deaths in 100 days, the aid industry took pause. Many agencies reassessed how they were implementing activities. The need for more universal standards of response to prevent additional tragedy also became chillingly clear.
Participation of affected communities is a core Sphere standard to be aimed for in all response activities. Here CRS’ emergency shelter advisor Isaac Boyd works with displaced Kenyans to demark temporary shelter locations. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS.
Launched in 1997, the Sphere Project introduced a core set of minimum standards for disaster assistance, as well as a framework for increasing agency accountability. These minimum standards—developed from the contributions of more than 400 organizations, including Catholic Relief Services, in 80 countries—now offer universal guidelines for water and sanitation, food, shelter and health interventions during emergencies.
A key aspect of the Sphere standards is the recognition that every emergency context is different. Local factors, such as climate, cultural and religious practices, or even how food is cooked, can make realization of all of the standards and corresponding indicators (or measurements) unattainable. For example, communities in arid areas like Darfur and eastern Chad will typically require less water than populations used to high rainfall or with close, easy access to a water source.
By providing standards to strive toward while acknowledging that each situation will demand a unique response, the Sphere Project and supporting agencies are helping to improve the quality of services provided to those in need.
- Debbie DeVoe
Posted
November 17th, 2008 in
Emergency Response by:
John Lindner |
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Our Caritas colleagues in DRC have requested your prayers at this time. We asked our colleague Fr Pierre Cibambo, who comes from Congo, to write a prayer for Caritas.
Here it is in French and English.
Find out more on the Caritas blog.
CRS today published a statement about our current response.
Posted
October 31st, 2008 in
Africa, Emergency Response, Violence by:
John Lindner |
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An earthquake of 6.5 magnitude struck major parts of Balochistan, Pakistan including the provincial capital Quetta at 5.09 this morning. Several sizeable aftershocks have followed.
Reports on damage vary, with the BBC noting an estimated 160 dead.
Two CRS rapid assessment teams have been deployed and more information is expected tomorrow.
Coordination is taking place with the UN in Quetta, Caritas Pakistan, and a CRS rep is being sent to the Pakistan Humanitarian Forum for coordination at the capital level.
CRS staff in the Quetta office in the field are safe and accounted for.
CRS Pakistan has deployed key emergency field staff to the earthquake-affected areas. They will assess the level of destruction and determine the role that CRS can assume for humanitarian assistance.
In Quetta year-round, CRS supports education and vocational training programs for Afghan refugee women. Since 1951, CRS has provided emergency and long-term development programs in Pakistan. Today those programs include the strengthening and building of education, agriculture, livelihoods and water engineering in some of the most isolated, impoverished areas of the country.
In its head office in Islamabad and field offices in Muzaffarabad, Menserha, Bisham and Quetta, CRS employs 229 staff, more than 90 percent of whom are Pakistani. CRS has responded to some of country’s largest natural disasters in recent memory, including the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir and the 2007 Cyclone Yemin in Balochistan.
Posted
October 29th, 2008 in
Disaster, Emergency Response, Middle East by:
John Lindner |
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The Vatican news service released the following statement from Pope Benedict XVI on this year’s World Food Day theme.
VATICAN CITY, 16 OCT 2008 (VIS) - Benedict XVI has written a Message to Jacques Diouf, director general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for the occasion of World Food Day, an annual event organised by the FAO every 16 October.
Commenting upon the theme chosen for this year’s Day - “World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy” - the Holy Father writes that it “enables reflection upon achievements in the fight against hunger and upon the obstacles facing the FAO in the new challenges threatening the life of the human family”.
Benedict XVI highlights how “above all we must undertake to illuminate the reasons that prevent authentic respect for human dignity. With the means and resources the world has at its disposal, it is possible to supply sufficient nourishment and to satisfy the growing needs of everyone”, he says.
“The incorrect management of food resources caused by corruption in public life and increasing investment in arms and sophisticated military technology, to the detriment of people’s primary needs, has great importance”, he adds.
The Pope also highlights how “an effective campaign against hunger, in order to confront climate change or to allocate agricultural production primarily to food, calls for much more than mere scientific studies. It is necessary, above all, to rediscover the significance of human beings in their individual and community dimensions”.
“This reflects the need to build relations between peoples based on real and constant openness, to ensure that each country is able to satisfy the requirements of those in need, and to transmit the idea of relations founded on the interchange of reciprocal knowledge, values, rapid assistance and respect”.
Benedict XVI underscores the importance of “commitment to promoting effective social justice in relations among peoples”, so that the economy may be oriented towards the distribution of the goods of the earth, “to their sustainable use and to the fair division of their benefits”.
“One essential condition to increase levels of production and guarantee the identity of indigenous communities, as well as peace and security in the world”, he concludes, “is to guarantee access to land, favouring agricultural workers and promoting their rights”.
Posted
October 16th, 2008 in
Emergency Response, global food crisis by:
John Lindner |
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Kai T. Hill is an associate web producer for CRS. She traveled to Miami to report on local parish efforts to assist storm survivors in Cuba and Haiti.
Upon entering the grounds of the Daughters of Charity in northwest Miami on Monday I quickly scanned the yard of busy nuns and other workers in search of Sister Hilda Alonso. I’d been told by a CRS veteran that she was about 90 years old, extremely petite and “a tough one.”
Sister Hilda Alonso has made a career of helping needy families in the islands of Cuba, Haiti and elsewhere. Her relationship with CRS dates back to the early 1970s. Photo by Kai Hill/CRS.
But identifying her out of the bunch of sisters proved difficult as all of them were petite and hard at work, perhaps “tough.” Once I was introduced to Alonso the handshake she extended to me was tender. Her eyes were soft.
For decades Alonso, 86, has dedicated herself to helping needy families in the islands of Cuba, Haiti and elsewhere. Her relationship with CRS dates back to the early 1970s when she was assigned to missions in Haiti and contacted the agency for its support. The agency’s relationship with Alonzo continued well after she came to Miami to serve with the Daughters of Charity.
So loved is she, that a group of her former students at a high school in Havana have been by her side during preparations for supply shipments.
“Everybody wanted to help out,” says Mirtha Davis, a former student and volunteer who graciously translated Alonzo’s Spanish. “Relatives are still calling who have family in Cuba who don’t have a roof over their head. Somehow they know [the goods] will get to them.”
My purpose for traveling to Miami, Florida is to capture the humanitarian effort for hurricane victims across Cuba and Haiti. When disaster strikes in any given country, Catholic Relief Services with support of its donors is often one of the first aid groups to reach victims and provide them with food and essentials they need to recover. But collection drives such as the ones taking place in South Florida and elsewhere throughout the United States are part of the same Church mission: giving the gift of charity and living in solidarity with the poor.
As Cuba faces the task of rebuilding and recovering from the most devastating storms to strike the island in 50 years, CRS is helping the Daughters of Charity ship containers of goods that keep pouring in from the community. Support to CRS’ Latin America and Caribbean Severe Weather Fund helps us do so.
Posted
October 8th, 2008 in
Emergency Response, Hurricanes by:
John Lindner |
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In late September, photojournalist David Snyder traveled to Haiti for CRS. His mission was to document what he found in the flood-ravaged country. The following is the third post in this series.
This photo from the second floor of a building in the bishop’s compound in Gonaives shows the extend of the damage caused by mud. This compound was flooded with about eight feet of water, and provided shelter for hundreds in the weeks after the storm. CRS supported the bishop with 150 family food kits for those living at the compound. Photo by David Snyder for CRS.
Sunday, September 28, 2008 Gonaives, Haiti: Took a trip over to the bishop’s house here in Gonaives. Since the night of the hurricane it has been a shelter for as many as 600 people who made their way, some during the peak of the storm, to the two-story residence – one of the few in Gonaives. There are still probably about 150 people living there – no one knows the exact figure because most people there travel out to their former homes during the day, working to clean what they can, then return at night. It’s a desperate scene, with people crowding into rooms, sleeping where they can. CRS provided 150 family food kits to the beneficiaries there. Later tonight CRS sent a truck out to a school to deliver tools for a cash-for-work project scheduled to start tomorrow. Because the streets are still flooded in many areas, the truck got stuck – its back wheel dropping into a submerged drainage ditch. It took two hours to get it out, and another two to get the tools off loaded and delivered safely to the school because the truck was damaged and wouldn’t run. Such things are typical in the midst of emergencies like this. Sometimes, improvisation is the key to getting things done.
Posted
October 5th, 2008 in
Emergency Response, Hurricane by:
John Lindner |
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In late September, photojournalist David Snyder traveled to Haiti for CRS. His mission was to document what he found in the flood-ravaged country. The following is the second of his Haiti diary entries.
Food and water distribution is among the first responses following the large scale storm disaster to hit Haiti. Photo by David Snyder for CRS.
Saturday, September 27, 2008 Gonaives, Haiti: Went out this morning to the Missionaries of Charity compound in the north end of the city. CRS has been distributing food kits through the site, because it is a secure location with walls and a single gate in and out. Today, the sisters there distributed CRS rations to 500 families – about 2,500 people – each designed to last one week. While the distribution was going on, several more trucks of CRS food and water were being off-loaded for a later distribution, so the compound was alive with activity. Though I have seen many such distributions in the past, I’m always amazed at how much coordination goes into each one. The sisters started this distribution at five in the morning, and finished around noon. All of the beneficiaries who came today were pre-registered days earlier, chosen from the most affected communities nearby. Distributions have been going on at the site nearly every day since Hurricane Ike, with food provided by CRS and other agencies.
Posted
October 4th, 2008 in
Emergency Response, Hurricanes by:
John Lindner |
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In late September, photojournalist David Snyder traveled to Haiti for CRS. His mission was to document what he found in the flood-ravaged country. The following is the first of his Haiti diary entries.
About three feet of mud remains in the compound of the Emmaus School, which CRS is supporting with cash-for-work teams to help remove the tons of mud left by Hurricane Ike. After weeks of providing emergency food and water to those affected by Ike, CRS began cash-for-work projects through Caritas Haiti, paying locals affected by Ike to clear mud from public buildings like schools, hospitals and clinics, so that the communities of Gonaives can begin to recover. Photo by David Snyder for CRS.
Friday, September 26, 2008 Gonaives, Haiti: Got into Port-au-Prince yesterday and drove up to Gonaives today. Hurricane Ike really devastated the city, affecting most, if not all, of the city’s 350,000 residents. I was here once before – in 2004, following Hurricane Jeanne – which also seriously damaged the city. Took a ride out tonight with CRS staff to conduct an assessment of the needs of the city. CRS has been providing emergency food rations through partner agencies Caritas Haiti and the Missionaries of Charity. Next week, they plan to start cash-for-work projects, using local labor to clear schools of the mud that now clogs every surface of the city. Today’s assessment was a chance to look around for suitable school sites. The people here in Gonaives have been tired and stressed since the nearly three weeks now since Ike struck. You have to be careful on such assessments not to build expectations, taking care as well to select schools whose rehabilitation can have the most impact in the quickest amount of time. It can be a delicate balance.
Posted
October 3rd, 2008 in
Emergency Response, Hurricane by:
John Lindner |
2 Comments »
Latrines. Maybe they don’t make your list of Things I Get Excited About. But for Katherine Westphal, water and sanitation technical advisor for CRS in India, latrines are all about delivering health, in this case to people driven from their homes by massive flooding.
The Q&A that follows is the third of three parts that give insight into living conditions for thousands of people forced to evacuate after floodwaters tore through Bihar, India in August. See part 1 here and part 2 here.
Caroline Brennan, CRS regional information officer in India for the past three years, provided the questions.
Why water and sanitation as a focus, as opposed to other needs?
As a water and sanitation engineer I am extremely biased, but I still consider water and sanitation as one of the most important components of human survival. In an emergency setting, safe and sufficient water is a critical determinant of health.
Locally available materials such as jute stem (reeds) and bamboo are used to create durable latrines. Photo by CRS staff
What would you say to people who can’t imagine working in such difficult conditions and so far from your family?
I would be honest and say that it can be really difficult and lonely at times. Around holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving and the 4th of July I especially miss home, but it is really incredible to feel like I am making a difference. I would also say that although the conditions can be really difficult at times (i.e. no electricity, running water or A/C) the job never gets dull. Every day in the “office” is a new day with exciting challenges.
What do you hope people understand about this emergency?
Floods in this area are not typical so the affected population were not in the least bit prepared. As the flood waters arrived, many fled from their homes with only the clothes on their backs. Not only have the floods severely impacted homes, but they have damaged crops and taken with them livestock. Recovery from this emergency is going to be a long and slow process. Breached river embankments must be patched, silt and sand carried by the flood waters removed from fields, and for many, entire communities rebuilt.
Are there any issues of concern that you think are especially important for reporters to cover with regard to the current stage of this disaster?
Now that we passed the initial response phase, I think it is important for reporters to cover how the flood-affected population is dealing with the disaster at individual level. We are only beginning to comprehend that magnitude of psychosocial trauma the floods have caused.
Posted
October 1st, 2008 in
Emergency Response, India, Trauma by:
John Lindner |
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