This year saw two of the worst natural disasters in
recent memory, as well as hurricanes in Haiti and conflict
in Kenya and Georgia. Wherever people needed help,
World Vision was there. We delivered vital emergency
assistance — and hope — to children and families in
40 emergencies worldwide.
Haiti: Help after the hurricane
Four successive hurricanes battered Haiti in September, killing at least 630 people and driving 650,000 more from their homes.
World Vision provided emergency food, hygiene kits and clothing to 6,000 storm survivors. Through
funding from CIDA, we also helped 1,500 displaced families to return
home by supplying them with basic household necessities,
such as drinking water, blankets, bedding, kitchen equipment and
mosquito
nets.
Myanmar: Aiding cyclone survivors
Nway, 7, was staying with her aunt and
uncle on the night Cyclone Nargis bore
down on her village. As their bamboo
hut disintegrated, the trio braved
ferocious winds to seek refuge in the
village chief's brick house. It was the only
house still standing the next morning.
Across Myanmar, the cyclone and its
aftermath killed an estimated 138,000
people — including Nway's entire family.
The disaster also affected an estimated
9,650 of the 42,000 Myanmar children
sponsored by World Vision donors.
Touched by stories like Nway's,
Canadian donors gave $5.1 million to
World Vision to aid cyclone survivors.
With 600 staff already on the ground in
Myanmar, our mergency team was able
to move immediately. We distributed
50,000 blankets, 45,000 clothing
packs, 32,000 cooking sets and 57,000
tarpaulins, which had been pre-positioned
in local warehouses.
To address children's unique needs,
World Vision opened 84 child-friendly
spaces — the most ever established in
a single country following a disaster.
More than 100,000 traumatized children
found a safe place to play, learn and
access psychosocial support at these
centres. Our staff also played a crucial
role in identifying children who had
been orphaned or separated from their
families so that they could receive special
assistance. Additional funding from the
Government of Canada through the
Canadian International Development
Agency (CIDA) enabled us to provide
interim shelter, potable water and
sanitation services to 6,500 of the
hardest-hit families in the first critical
months after the disaster.
Nway returned home when World
Vision began to distribute food and
basic supplies in her village. In October,
she resumed her studies in a temporary
classroom made from tin and bamboo.
Almost every family in her village also
had provisional housing built from
materials supplied by World Vision.
In all, World Vision directly helped
450,000 people in the wake of Cyclone
Nargis. Over the next three years, we
will continue working with communities
along Myanmar's coast to reconstruct
homes and schools, increase food security
and reclaim or develop viable livelihoods.
" We must accept finite disappointment,
but we must never lose infinite hope."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Prepared for the worst
Disaster preparedness is critical for the world's most vulnerable communities — especially with the rise in extreme weather events linked to climate change. World Vision recently published Planet Prepare, an in-depth report on the effects of climate change on coastal communities in Asia. We are also training communities to recognize disaster warning signs and to take precautionary measures. Following
the May 12 earthquake in
China, 1,000 children took part in workshops on disaster preparedness.
China: After the quake
On May 12, a powerful earthquake
rocked Li Gao's village in China's Sichuan
province. The disaster left 12-year-old Gao
and 4.8 million other Chinese homeless,
and claimed nearly 70,000 lives. It also
destroyed highways, reservoirs, bridges and
hundreds of schools.
Canadians responded to the
devastation with characteristic generosity.
World Vision raised $6.2 million
in disaster relief, with much of the
funding coming from the Chinese-
Canadian community.
CIDA matched these
donations with a
$3 million grant
for temporary
housing and school construction.
In Shaanxi province, we distributed
300,000 kilograms of rice to at-risk
families. In Sichuan, our emergency teams supplied 1,440 residential tents,
7,000 quilts and 3,395 cooking kits
to approximately 102,800 survivors.
Gao and his parents received their own
tent, providing them with a small but
meaningful measure of dignity and
stability.
Once survivors' immediate needs
were met, our recovery effort shifted
to education and health concerns. We
provided 213 school tents, 87 prefabricated
classrooms and thousands of
blackboards, desks, chairs and back-toschool
kits so that students could quickly
return to class. Emergency teams set up
100 temporary clinics, giving local health
workers a place to treat patients. World
Vision health workers also disseminated
disease-prevention information to 30,000
quake survivors and offered medical
treatment to 10,000 pregnant women
and mothers at risk of falling through the
cracks of the overstressed health system.
World Vision is now helping disasteraffected
communities to rebuild. Between
2008 and 2010, we plan to repair or
construct 6,300 homes, 72 schools
and 10 health clinics. We will also
provide agricultural assistance to 6,500
households. An estimated 711,920 people
are expected to benefit from these and
other long-term recovery initiatives.
Sri Lanka: Building
community capacity
The ripple effects of a major disaster
can continue for generations. But so too
can the impact of a successful recovery
program.
This is the hope behind World
Vision's Rural Integrated Water
Sanitation and Hygiene (RIWASH)
project. The CIDA-funded program aims
to improve water and sanitation in parts
of Sri Lanka still recovering from the
2004 tsunami and ongoing civil conflict.
It is also helping rural communities to
address many of the deep-
seated social
and economic issues that emerged
following the disaster. The project is
benefiting approximately 90,000 people.
Community-level response to
the tsunami revealed both a lack of
coordination and capacity to implement
Sri Lanka's official water policy. World
Vision has facilitated stronger linkages
between local authorities and central
and provincial governments so that
communities can better access funding
and services related to water and
sanitation. We are also working with
local partners to build their capacity
— enabling them to actually deliver
mandated services.
The RIWASH project seeks to strengthen
women's voices and participation in all
aspects of community decision-making.
World Vision staff train women community
leaders to assess their water needs
and help design a plan to meet them.
The RIWASH project also works
closely with schools to ensure that
students have access to safe water and
reliable sanitation. Six schools, whose
water and sanitation facilities were poor
or non-existent, received new latrines
and wells, giving 3,221 students clean
drinking water. Through awareness
events, we are educating students about
healthy hygiene practices.
