Humanitarian Assistance

Transcription

1 Humanitarian Assistance From natural disasters to armed conflicts, Global Communities provides humanitarian assistance to people in need. We partner with affected communities to provide immediate relief in ways that enable communities to quickly recover, build back more safely, and restart livelihoods sooner. In the process of providing immediate assistance, we develop innovative programs that consider the long-term recovery of a community. Our assistance focuses on restarting livelihoods, increasing access to financial services, rebuilding homes and neighborhoods, and providing psychosocial support to help families recover from the trauma of disaster and conflict. Our work focuses on four main areas: Shelter and Settlements Global Communities is a recognized international leader in providing shelter to families. Following disasters, Global Communities supports families living in a variety of contexts with relatives or host families, or in their own house which they rebuild one room at a time, or rented apartments. We are also widely known for our work in transitional shelters, or t-shelters. These are durable temporary homes that meet global standards and enable a family to live and thrive during the phase between tents and tarpaulins in the immediate aftermath of a disaster and permanent, fully constructed housing. Livelihoods Rebuilding livelihoods and restarting economic activity is a critical component for disasteraffected families as they restart their lives. Without support for livelihoods or widespread economic recovery, the economy of a community remains reliant on handouts and can stagnate for years following a disaster. Helping families rebuild their livelihoods through short-term employment or vocational training enables them to become proactive agents in control of their own recovery process. MEASURING OUR IMPACT IN ,279 people benefited from our livelihoods projects 1,985 people received a shelter solution through Global Communities 10,920 people in emergency situations received kits of essential items, including materials such as bedding, kitchen utensils, soap, and hygiene products 1

2 Risk Reduction We incorporate risk reduction into all our programs to help build safer, more resilient communities. Changes in climate, population growth, and environmental degradation lead to more and increasingly destructive disasters. By helping communities prepare for these crises now, by focusing on issues like food security and safe construction, we empower them to better cope and rebuild when the next disaster comes. Urban Disasters As the world becomes increasingly urbanized, disasters are striking cities more frequently, and 20th century predominantly rural-based responses are not always sufficient. Global Communities is an international leader in 21st century urban disaster response, including Haiti or Gaza, and continues to develop programs that address the unique challenges of densely populated urban environments. Global Communities is currently working with disaster-affected communities around the world. GAZA Immediate Assistance for Vulnerable and Displaced People Global Communities has worked continuously in Gaza for 20 years. Today we provide assistance to many of the 60% of the population that is food insecure, through the UN World Food Programme. In recent years we have developed kitchen gardens in partnership with the Palestinian Community Assistance Program, undertaken home repairs for vulnerable families, provided shelters, as well as running a microfinance program that supports home owners and entrepreneurs. Global Communities knows the communities well, and we work within all legal parameters, directly identifying and vetting beneficiaries to ensure that the most vulnerable receive the assistance they need. The escalating conflict in Gaza in the summer of 2014 caused a drastic deterioration of humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip. Between July 7 and 30, more than 6,000 people in Gaza were injured, more than 1,100 civilians were killed, and 240,000 people were displaced due to damage to their homes or through fleeing the bombing. There is a rapidly growing healthcare crisis, with the wounded and traumatized unable to get the help they need. During this conflict Global Communities is responding, as we did before in the and 2012 conflicts, to the needs of the most vulnerable people affected by the conflict in Gaza. We provided food assistance to internally displaced and vulnerable families, domestic and personal hygiene kits as well as other essential non-food items, shelter kits for homeless families, and psychosocial support for some of the 25,000 traumatized children in Gaza. Of the 1.8 million people in the densely packed Gaza Strip, 57% are under the age of 18. Prior to the 2014 conflict, 39% were unemployed and lived below the poverty line. Farming and fishing are heavily restricted, sewage is untreated and flows directly into the fishing grounds, and the whole strip has lived under a heavy blockade since 2007, restricting movement of people and goods. Global Communities will continue to support vulnerable people in Gaza to mitigate the short- and long-term consequences of the most recent conflict. 2

3 JORDAN Working with Host Communities Supporting Syrian Refugees With a domestic population of only 6.5 million, Jordan has received more than half a million registered Syrian refugees since that country s internal crisis began. Syrian families are moving in wherever they can, being absorbed into Jordanian host communities around them and putting pressure on already strained local economies, municipal services, and natural resources. While this is happening primarily in the north of Jordan, which has absorbed the majority of refugees, the southern region of the country faces development challenges of its own, including lack of employment opportunities, water scarcity, and rural poverty. In a massive refugee crisis like this one, it is essential to focus on refugee needs. But we must also address the needs of host communities, especially in light of so many new arrivals. Global Communities is working in partnership with USAID and Jordanian organizations Al Jidara and Jordan River Foundation to address host community challenges and strengthen their ability to cope with the demands they are facing. In April 2013, we launched the USAID Community Engagement Project (CEP) in Irbid and Mafraq, along the Syrian border, and in Tafileh, in the south, to help Jordanian communities meet pressing needs during this time of change. Knowing these communities were already under stress, our teams visited towns and villages in Jordan to talk with community leaders and members to quickly determine how rapid fixes could be found to meet community needs. Right away our teams started working with local residents, conducted grants meetings for organizations in each governorate, and approved and funded 29 different projects. Each project provided a solution, or support, for a need identified by the community. The projects reflect the priorities of each community and benefit longtime residents and refugees alike: better systems for trash collection, including formal services as well as community clean-ups; creation or improvement of youth recreational opportunities, including sports clubs; enhancing public spaces that had suffered neglect; and improvements to schools, especially for girls. Global Communities also took special measures to tap the strengths of women in improving their communities. Women who want to work are often limited by the lack of access to good childcare that would enable them to work outside their homes. Consequently, one project we supported was the opening of a licensed nursery. The nursery is fee-based so it will be sustainable and will employ licensed providers directly from the community. This will create jobs in the community and make it possible for others to work outside the home, increasing household income. 3

4 LEBANON Emergency Shelter Assistance for Syrian Refugees Global Communities partners with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to assess, select, and rehabilitate homes and distribute shelter materials to Syrian refugee families, as well as upgrade sanitation facilities, promote hygiene, and rehabilitate schools. Shelter is a major problem in Lebanon, which, to date, has received more than one million Syrian refugees. Limited housing options and high demand are causing a spike in cost both for Syrians and Lebanese communities. Refugee camps are declared illegal by the government of Lebanon, so Syrians rely on apartments, collective centers, and Lebanese host families for places to live. Those paying rent do so at an inflated cost, depleting their savings and struggling to make ends meet. Global Communities Shelter Assistance Program helped negotiate contracts with Lebanese landlords to repair and build extensions to homes for Syrian refugees. Agreements were made to have families live rent-free in the homes for one year, allowing families to save money as they coped with the rising cost of living and limited income opportunity in Lebanon. SOUTH SUDAN Returnee Reintegration and Host Community Support South Sudan s outbreak of civil and ethnic conflict in late 2013 left many people displaced and many communities devastated. Global Communities has been actively engaged in supporting the communities of South Sudan since independence in 2011, and prior to that in southern Sudan since With funding from USAID/Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, Global Communities is implementing the Returnee, Reintegration and Rehabilitation Program (3RP) to assist returnees, internally displaced people and host communities in the face of economic, infrastructure and food security challenges. The program focuses on the provision of shelter as a catalyst to recovery and resilience. Safe shelter reduces the risks associated with living in unhealthy and hazardous living conditions. Our work has focused on providing secure and structurally appropriate living space for returnees as well as hosting displaced populations. Global Communities is focused on the contested area of Abyei and is assisting more than 14,000 Sudanese. The program facilitates the establishment of viable, sustainable livelihoods sources for returning populations and internally displaced peoples while providing host communities with increased earning potential that allows for sustainable access to basic needs and services. 4

5 Humanitarian Assistance LIBERIA: Helping Communities Respond to and Prevent the Spread of Ebola As Ebola began affecting more communities and taking root in the capital city Monrovia, Global Communities built upon its years of experience in Liberia to provide critical support to people and organizations during the health crisis. The $32-million USAID Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA)-funded ALERT program reaches all 15 Liberia counties and delivers effective, accurate, and timely information to educate individuals, households and community leadership about safe and hygienic methods to reduce the risk of exposure to and contraction of Ebola. This program capitalizes on Global Communities long-standing relationships, resources, networks, and community trust within rural and urban Liberia. Through ALERT, Global Communities established the Disco Hill safe burial site in Montserrado County, replacing cremation, a technique that while safe did not reflect community traditions. As of August 2015, Global Communities has facilitated safe and dignified burials to over 5,000 deceased persons, with an average 94% of bodies buried within one day of notification. Global Communities has engaged over 1500 communities in outreach activities to improve health action planning, trained contact tracers and active case searchers, and mobilized 72 burial teams and 57 disinfection teams at the height of the outbreak. Global Communities also provides targeted financial support to health workers to ensure a continuity of critical and urgently-needed clinical expertise for the management of Ebola caseloads in the most affected communities. Recently Global Communities also launched border surveillance and CLTS activities to protect Liberia against cross-border reinfection. 5

6 Humanitarian Assistance ETHIOPIA Building the Resilience of Drought-Struck Communities Over the last five years, the people of the drought-stricken Somali Region of Ethiopia have experienced disastrous impacts upon their livelihoods, due to destruction of their herds and forced migration to urban centers following the devastating drought of These condition have had a significant impact for many pastoralists in the Shebelle and Dollo, who consequently lost their entire herds and migrated to urban and periurban areas in search of emergency food. Their lack of livelihoods placed them into an unskilled, dropout status. During a 2012 assessment, these pastoral dropouts reportedly had no assets, money or jobs. They lived in makeshift settlements with no opportunities for employment outside of towns some earned nominal income through occasional day labor activities or begging. Since the majority of these individuals indicated that they had no desire to return to their pastoralist livelihoods and that they plan to remain in urban centers, Global Communities with the support of USAID OFDA worked with 38,000 people in Shebelle and Dollo zones to help them adapt to new means of livelihoods through vocational training, providing basic assets livestock, solar powered chargers, and water transport carts pulled by donkeys and other methods to help them restart more resilient livelihoods. Working directly with members of the community, Global Communities helped create new streams of income to help diversify livelihood opportunities. Profitable industries such as masonry, water transport and mobile solar technology were identified, as well as gaps in the current market that could be filled by new enterprises. These linkages to wider markets help ensure sustained sources of income. Global Communities works to create cooperative groups to expand assets and build skills. With assistance from key stakeholders, these individuals are now earning money in urban centers in areas that are sustainable and feasible for these migrants. 6

7 YEMEN Sheltering, Food Security and Access to Water Global Communities has managed programs in several governorates throughout Yemen since 2004 and is currently serving conflict-affected communities through the OFDA-funded Emergency Assistance to Support Yemeni Communities (EASE) program, implementing assistance activities in four governorates. As the conflict in southern Yemen has diminished, there has been a marked shift in the humanitarian crisis in the region. A significant proportion of the displaced population has returned to their homes, while many remain with host communities, resulting in a greater need for assistance to returnees struggling to rebuild their livelihoods, while the internally displaced remain in need of assistance to deal with the acute impact of the crisis. In addition to displacement dynamics in country, Yemen remains beset by chronically high levels of food insecurity and inadequate access to water well above emergency thresholds in many districts. Food insecurity in Yemen doubled between 2010 and 2012 due to the compound effects of conflict, resulting in sharp increases in food and fuel prices. Our program improves household livelihood and food security by restocking livestock assets and promoting improved food production techniques, establishing kitchen garden demonstration plots and providing vegetable production training to 1,000 participants, training farmers in small-scale irrigation techniques, and providing additional employment opportunities for vulnerable households through vocational training. Where access to water is concerned, the situation is equally dire. It is estimated that over 13 million people in Yemen do not have access to adequate quantities of water and sanitation facilities, due in part to localized scarcity, dilapidated and damaged infrastructure and poor sanitation. In Yemen, poor behavior around the handling of water and general sanitation has been identified as one of the predominant causes of elevated rates of diarrheal disease, and by extension, negative nutritional health outcomes in the population, particularly among children. Global Communities is working closely with communities to help increase access to adequate potable water supply and improving awareness of good hygiene practices. Global Communities is an international non-profit organization that works closely with communities worldwide to bring about sustainable changes that improve the lives and livelihoods of the vulnerable. Development is not something we do for people; it is something we do with them. We believe that the people who understand their needs best are the people of the community itself. Please visit our website at for more information. FORMERLY 7