CARE Update May 2007
Emergency response ? and prevention - is an intrinsic part of CARE International?s overseas work. Read about some of CARE?s current initiatives ? including our Living on the Edge campaign, and our emergency response to recent natural disasters in Bolivia and Madagascar.
One example of how both these strands to CARE?s work go hand in hand is most evident in East Africa, a region suffering from the long-term effects of drought, and where CARE is currently calling for an urgent and long-term action to end the cycle of emergency. Last year, 12 million people were hit by the food crisis.
Our Living on the Edge campaign is demanding a dramatic overhaul of the system which is keeping these people trapped in poverty. The international community must give higher priority to recovery and prevention programmes such as seed distribution and improved veterinary services, so that families can pull themselves back from the edge and be in a stronger position to fight off the next emergency themselves.
In October 2006, the ITN news reporter Alastair Stewart visited the region to report on the launch of Living on the Edge, CARE?s work and why we must seize the opportunity for change. He said:
?With CARE?s support, communities are seizing the initiative to turn this situation around. I have not seen the like of CARE?s skill-set before. It has a commitment I have seen elsewhere, but it is a commitment that, wherever I see it, reminds me of man's humanity. CARE?s energy to drill wells, stock warehouses, train farmers, feed children and build tents, alongside communities, leaves us mere mortals breathless. In all that, it is the effort to help farmers adapt to new challenges that screams through in CARE?s work and Living on the Edge. Despite their resilience these people will face emergency again unless CARE's recommendations for long-term educational, structural and economic change is adopted. So much grain and water will sustain life, but more fundamental change is needed if we are to sustain not just life, but a way of life.?
To view his news report, or to find out more about our Living on the Edge campaign, click here.
CARE is also responding to two recent emergencies in two different continents:
i) the flooding in Bolivia in January 2007 ? the worst for 25 years, which killed 26 people, destroyed bridges, livestock and roads, and left thousands homeless. 450,000 people have been affected by the disaster. To help, we are repairing irrigation systems and providing much needed seeds, to replace vital crops the flooding completely destroyed. We are also providing safe drinking water to stem the spread of diseases such as malaria, and cash-for-work jobs to clear access roads and build retaining walls along river banks to prevent future flooding.
ii) Cyclone Indlala, which hit Madagascar in mid-March, is estimated to have affected up to a quarter of a million people. With winds of up to 143mph, it is the sixth cyclone to hit Madagascar in the last four months and potentially one of the most destructive cyclones in living memory. CARE is distributing emergency relief items to 175,000 people. This includes food, mainly rice and beans, to help counteract the possible food crisis as a result of a now devastated food harvest. CARE is also distributing tents, plastic sheeting, water purification solutions and water containers, and working to open road access in order to ensure rapid distribution of relief items.
CARE has worked in Bolivia since 1976 and Madagascar since 1992.
For more about either emergency, or CARE?s work in general, please visit www.careinternational.org.uk
