A man carries an injured girl after an earthquake in Tabanli village near the eastern Turkish city of Van. Photo by Reuters/Abdurrahman Antakyali, courtesy www.alertnet.org

Catholic Relief Services is supporting emergency rescue efforts underway in Turkey, where a devastating earthquake killed more than 200 people, injured hundreds more and led to the collapse of hundreds of buildings.

The 7.2 magnitude tremor struck Sunday afternoon in the eastern cities of Ercis and Van, located in a mountainous region near Turkey’s border with Iran. The death toll is expected to rise in the surrounding villages, where almost all of the mud-brick homes have been destroyed.
(more…)

The prayers of Catholic Relief Services are with those who have been killed and injured, and with their families. CRS will support the response of our partners in Turkey, including Caritas.

By Alsy Acevedo, CRS staff

Updated on October 19

Ongoing rains in Central America have caused severe flooding and affected thousands of people in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. All four countries have declared a state of national emergency.

In Honduras, more than 69,000 people were displaced and the majority of the damage was done in the southern departments of Choluteca and Valle. In Nicaragua, floods have affected more than 133,000 people. CRS, through partner Caritas, is distributing pre-positioned emergency kits in affected areas in Honduras and Nicaragua.

CRS is also working with our local Caritas partner in El Salvador to provide initial food and supplies to a total of 5,417 families housed in shelters managed by parishes and in homes in the dioceses of Sonsonate, Santiago de Maria and San Salvador, where groups of families have taken refuge.

In Guatemala, CRS is providing immediate assistance through local partners and has allocated emergency funds to transport readily available items such as hygiene kits, cleaning kits, safe water kits and water tanks to provide relief to up to 1,200 families in Retalhuleu, Santa Rosa and Escuintla.

A woman rows a boat in Sindh, Pakistan, where swollen rivers swept away homes and destroyed crops and bridges. Photo by Laura Sheahen/CRS

By Jennifer Hardy, CRS digital and new media communications officer

While 6 to 8 feet of water submerges homes in Orissa province in India, floodwaters are also packing a second punch to people in Sindh province, Pakistan. Still rebuilding their homes and farms after deadly flooding in 2010, half of the people Catholic Relief Services plans to assist in Sindh are losing ground in their recovery efforts.

In the four districts CRS is prioritizing in Pakistan—among the poorest in the country—flooding has damaged or destroyed more than 200,000 homes. Jack Byrne, country representative for Pakistan, says this is “a double blow for many of the families affected by the current flood. They lost so much in the 2010 floods, and were beginning to get back on their feet. They’ve lost their crops, homes and belongings for the second time in a year.”

Teams from CRS in India report that some people are waiting to be rescued from the tops of their houses, whereas others have made it safely to embankments but lack sufficient shelter.

CRS is responding in both countries.
(more…)

Balaneeshta, a widow, stands in the doorway of her new home. With funding from Caritas partners, CRS constructed warm, insulated shelters that could stand up to the mountain region’s winter cold. Photo by Laura Sheahen/CRS

“I was milking a cow when I heard about the flood,” says Balaneeshta, an elderly widow living in mountainous northern Pakistan. “People from far away were whistling loudly to us and saying ‘run!’”

As the rains of summer 2010 poured down and the river near their homes surged higher, Balaneeshta and her neighbors ran up the mountains to safety. “Because of the mud, it was hard to climb,” she says. “Our feet sank deep. Trees and rocks were sliding down.” Nearby, her relative Nizamullah carried his disabled mother up the hill.

Balaneeshta, her neighbors, and her many children and grandchildren escaped. But the flood days were only the beginning of their problems. With homes completely washed away, villagers slept outside for days. They received tents, but not always enough of them.
(more…)

By Patrick Carney

My last hours in Kenya are coming to a close. I’ve just finished my work, and I think it was a great success. I was able to assist in getting two grant proposals written for Catholic Relief Services’ work during the East Africa Famine.

Although I am excited to come home, there will be things I miss about Kenya and our CRS offices in Nairobi. Take it from me, when you support CRS and our work around the world, know that the staffers in our international offices are great stewards. Our staff here is friendly, welcoming, thorough, very hard-working and passionate about what they do. I’ve been very impressed.
(more…)

By Patrick Carney

I traveled 7,500 miles to get here. Door to door, it took just over 24 hours. I am on a different continent and hemisphere, and I am below the equator. I couldn’t be much farther from home.

Yet, I feel like I am nowhere near the people suffering and dying from a historic drought and famine throughout parts of East Africa, and I am in Nairobi, only about 300 miles from the camps. That’s about the distance between my hometown, Philadelphia, and Boston. It’s a day trip in a car.

How can I be so close to the suffering, and feel so far away?

I get to sit in an office, go to a restaurant for lunch, drink bottled water, and take a taxi back to my modest hotel at the end of the day. Meanwhile, just a few hours northeast of here, people are sleeping in refugee camps fighting for their lives.
(more…)

By Patrick Carney

The week started like any other.

I came into the office around 8 a.m., checked my e-mail, and got ready for the week ahead.

Thirty minutes later, one of my supervisors came in, and my week changed immediately.

“How do you feel about going to East Africa?” he asked.
(more…)

Dear Friend,

As you know, East Africa is in the grip of a horrible drought. We have all seen images of the hungry and malnourished arriving in refugee camps, many after walking for weeks or months, surviving not only the bleak landscape but also bandits and even wild animals. The perseverance of these people, of mothers sacrificing to save their children, is a tribute to the human spirit.

This is personal for me. I worked in this region in similar crises going back to the 1970s. Just before becoming CRS’ president in 1993, I was in Kenya as we helped Somalis who suffered through a drought made worse by political conditions. And now here we are again.
(more…)

As the food crisis across the Horn of Africa is intensifying, Catholic Relief Services will help thousands of Somali refugees in northeast Kenya by providing critical services in the soon-to-be opened Kambioos extension to the Dadaab refugee camp.

CRS is making a five-year commitment to work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to provide 25,000 people with water and sanitation infrastructure in Kambioos, while also aiding the surrounding communities affected by the influx of refugees.

“The vast majority of refugees are suffering from malnutrition, poor sanitation facilities, and live in crowded conditions with a lack of appropriate shelter,” said PM Jose, CRS’ Kenya country representative. “Getting life-saving assistance to the new arrivals is critical, but as we help refugees, we must not forget the impact that these arrivals will have on the host communities surrounding the camps.”
(more…)