Natural disasters: preparedness and response

The weather inflicted harsh blows in 2008. In Nepal, where the torrential rains of summer 2007 (on the southern plains) and September 2008 (in the eastern part of the country) caused severe flooding, CECI quickly went into action. “We immediately requisitioned our national team (30 people in total) and got to work with local partners.

These people had all been previously trained to deal with flooding,” says Nirmal Gyalang, based in Katmandu. In over twenty years of work with CECI Nepal, Mr. Gyalang has made contributions to a number of CECI’s rural development programs and projects. “The reaction of the affected localities, the government, and the District Disaster Relief Committee (DDRC) to CECI’s humanitarian aid project was tremendous! They were intimately involved with the design and implementation of our disaster relief program.”

By working closely with the DDRC, CECI was able to elicit the support of the government in identifying affected areas and assessing the extent of the damage. Coordination with international NGOs such as UNICEF, OXFAM, and Caritas served to facilitate the gathering of the information that was needed to provide effective aid. Local committees were formed by inviting villagers, local leaders, and schoolteachers to take charge of setting the eligibility criteria for families to receive the aid and distributing the aid to them.

 

As a first priority, blankets, kitchen utensils, mosquito nets, mattresses, and tarps were given out to the 3,000 families whose homes were destroyed, benefitting a total of 18,000 people. These families also received “family health kits” containing a water purification product and other items. Medical camps were set up in the affected areas and more than 9,000 patients were given care. A health risk prevention program was also put in place. The affected areas in Nepal are slowly bandaging their wounds. Thanks to CECI’s work at different levels, they are in a position to develop heightened preparedness in the face of extreme weather events.

Burma

Less than two weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit the Burmese coast in May, the terrible toll was known: more than 130,000 dead and some 1,500,000 homeless survivors. In a country where the military clamps down on freedom of information and puts up roadblocks to international aid, CECI decided to work closely with NGOs already well established in the country, including the French ACTED and the German Malteser International. An office was opened in the Burmese capital of Yangon and in the Laboota township. “We have a team of 70 people, 90% of them Burmese,” says Dilip Chinnakonda, Project Manager. “The project is making headway in four villages of Laboota, in the Ayeyarwady region. But since the roads have been destroyed, the only way to get to these villages is by boat.”

 

On the front lines of the crisis, aid workers distributed potable water, health and safety items, mosquito nets, kitchen utensils, and blankets. “We also gave out rice seed and fishing nets, and we cleaned the ponds that are used to store drinking water during the dry season. I was surprised to see people smiling in villages where up to a hundred residents were lost and all the houses were destroyed,” recalls Dilip.

 

As a second line of post-cyclone activity, CECI hired Burmese agronomists, trained villagers in vegetable production and, with CIDA’s help, distributed chickens and piglets to the families. Another priority was the implementation of a health risk prevention and nutrition information program.

Today, people cooperate more among themselves than they used to. The children go to school, and small businesses have opened in the villages,” says Mr. Chinnakonda with appreciation. “And the Burmese smilingly take part in all this work.

Haiti

Fay. Gustav. Hanna. Ike. A sequence of hurricanes have hit the island, destroying everything in their passage. In Artibonite, the 15-commune department that was hardest hit, CECI partnered with PALIH, an STI and HIV/AIDS project of the International Cooperation Center for Health and Development, to send reinforcement nurses to the Gonaives health centre. “When assessing the extent of the damage, we began to gather information from our field partners, especially around health issues. But when we saw the large number of makeshift shelters into which more and more people were packing, we realized we had to put our organizational, planning, and management capacities to work,” says Martine Bernier, Coordinator of PALIH.

 

The organization spontaneously adopted a liaison role between the different partners and the affected population. PALIH helped these partners deal with the problems inherent in the shelters, such as male/female separation, violence, and other issues arising from the situation of living at close quarters. “The teams worked very closely together. Some people found themselves working in areas beyond their usual field, and local committees were formed in every affected commune,” recalls Ms. Bernier.

 

But whereas in the Artibonite region all the affected people were relocated to schools, private dwellings, or offices, the situation is different in Gonaives. There, some 20,000 people are reportedly still sleeping in temporary shelters and the schools have not yet reopened.

 

A donation to CECI: your money at work

Once again, CECI relied on generous donations from the public to make these humanitarian aid projects a reality. In the case of Burma, contributions from individuals, foundations, and religious communities amounted to $607,300, while in the case of Haiti the total was $700,000. These donations enabled us to secure additional funding, as CIDA contributed $789,000 to CECI to support the cyclone victims in Burma and $292,000 for the hurricane victims in Haiti.