Extreme flooding in India’s coastal state of Orissa has affected more than two million people in 19 districts, claiming at least 22 lives. As a result, thousands of families have lost their homes, crops and livelihoods.
ChildFund India works in three of the affected districts, and approximately 20,000 people have now been evacuated from low lying areas to safer places. ChildFund is also providing communities with emergency food assistance with support from the Indian government.
Agricultural lands in the area have been submerged in floodwaters, resulting in a high loss of Kharif crop (crops planted in the rainy season) in the area. Rice, millet, maize, soybeans, vegetables and other staples have been ruined. Fish ponds are also submerged, and many fishermen lost their fishing nets, which are key to their livelihoods.
In the short-term, ChildFund and its partners will work with the government’s relief management authority and district administrations to ensure distribution of relief services. In particular, ChildFund will focus its sanitation interventions, and distribute bleaching powder, carbolic acid and lime to ensure the sanitation of water sources in the affected areas.
ChildFund will also provide a one-month supply of supplementary food for children, pregnant and nursing mothers and elders in the project areas.
Over the long-term, ChildFund will distributed vegetable seeds to families for the winter planting season and ensure that school buildings and Early Childhood Centres are cleaned and prepared to receive students when schools reopen.
ChildFund will also be convening a consultative flood preparedness meeting with disaster management experts and community members. The goal is to help communities become better prepared and less vulnerable to future flooding.
Despite global relief efforts, the humanitarian emergency in the Horn of Africa is continuing to worsen.
According to the United Nations, around 13.3 million people are now affected, and this number is likely to grow in the coming months. Around 30,000 children have already died in the last three months.
At a United Nations Horn of Africa mini-summit on 24 September, representatives from 13 countries, including Australia, pledged additional funds of $219 million. Overall, it has been estimated that $599 million is still needed to respond effectively to humanitarian needs.
As part of this commitment, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd today announced the launch of the Horn of Africa Dollar for Dollar Initiative. This means that any individual donation to a charity appeal by one of 17 organisations, including ChildFund Australia, will be matched by the Australia government, AusAID.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon remarked at the summit that international aid efforts to date have helped to ensure that, despite the worst drought in six decades, there is no famine in Kenya and Ethiopia.
However, the continued lack of rainfall in these countries, and civil upheaval in Somalia, has resulted in the food crisis reaching disastrous proportions.
Speaking at the summit, Executive Director of the UN World Food Program Josette Sheeran said: “While droughts may not be preventable, famines are,” she said. “In areas where the humanitarian community has access, millions of hungry are being reached with life-saving action and lasting hunger solutions are being deployed that cover the full spectrum of food security.”
ChildFund’s emergency response is focused on families living in drought-affected regions in Kenya and Ethiopia. This includes the following programs:
- Nutrition: Providing supplementary food at early childhood centres as well as nutrition education to parents.
- Water and sanitation: Improving access to water in the arid and semi-arid areas through trucking of potable water, providing water vessels and water treatment chemicals. To reduce the risk of disease, ChildFund is also providing hygiene education to all caregivers of children.
- Health: Continuously monitoring children’s nutritional status, providing vitamin A and iron supplements, deworming and treating minor illnesses. Referring cases that require further attention to the appropriate healthcare centres.
In particular, ChildFund offers specialised support for children under the age of five, who are most at risk. Victor Koyi, national director of ChildFund Kenya, explains: “Our constant concern is the well-being of children, especially those five and younger. They are at the highest risk of death and life-long development issues due to inadequate food intake at a young age.
