Tag Archives: Aid

Hurricane Sandy to Cause Food Shortages and Cholera in Haiti

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With the immediate aftermath from Hurricane Sandy passing for Haiti, the longterm effects on the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere begin to sink in.

Hurricane Sandy Heifer Haiti

Photo by Bryan Clifton, courtesy of Heifer International.

The two greatest concerns now: food shortages and cholera.

Hurricane Sandy Destroyed Crops

According to this BBC story, more than 70 percent of crops, including staples like bananas, plantains and maize, were destroyed in southern Haiti.

In a country with 80 percent of the population below the poverty line, a 40.6 percent unemployment rate and 18.9 percent of children under 5 years underweight, this is extraordinarily bad news.

Heifer Haiti project families were not exempt from the storm’s path. Hundreds of animals were killed or remain unaccounted for, including 361 goats, 183 fowl and 91 sheep. There was significant crop damage, one fishing boat was lost and nearly 300 homes in project communities were damaged and another 42 destroyed.

Hurricane Sandy will Likely Increase Cholera

Floods and unsanitary conditions will probably worsen the cholera epidemic that has already claimed the lives of more than 7,500 people since 2010. Haiti has the second-lowest life expectancy (62.51 years) outside the African continent, so an increase in cholera cases will only further devastate this island nation.

Haiti’s Hurricane Sandy Survivors Need Our Help

Unlike the United States, where Sandy’s victims can look to government, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state and local officials for help, as well as churches, community organizations and aid groups, Heifer’s Haitian project families depend on the generosity of Heifer donors to help them rebuild and recover.

Hurricane Sandy Heifer Haiti

Photo by Bryan Clifton, courtesy of Heifer International.

More assessments are needed to fully understand Sandy’s impact on Haiti and on Heifer project families, but the need is already apparent—families need help getting back on their feet, restocking livestock and replanting fields. Only through a dependable diet, income and assets can they begin to rebuild their and their family’s future—ensuring medical care against cholera, that their kids remain in school and they build back better and stronger against the next storm threat.

Heifer International has a Disaster Management Fund to provide life-supporting aid in the wake of a natural disaster or event. Families in Haiti need this help now.

You can contribute to Heifer’s Disaster Management Fund here. Our friends and neighbors in the Northeast need and are getting help. Let’s be sure that families in Haiti have the same chance for a better future.

Heifer Helps Flood Victims in Cambodia

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Heifer International helps its participants in many ways,but one thing we generally don’t take on is emergency aid. Groups like the RedCross are much more capable of organizing that kind of operation. But occasionally,when our projects are harmed by big natural disasters and we find ourselves inthe best position to assist, Heifer can help get people back on their feet.

Right now in Cambodia, Heifer International is bringingmuch-needed food aid to families affected by recent flooding. With funding fromthe World Food Program (WFP), Heifer is distributing food to 1,101 families,including many who were not current participants in Heifer projects.

Riem Kei and her children, from Kandol Village
The flooding in Southeast Asia during the rainy seasonkilled more than a thousand people and affected about 9 million more. Accordingto a rapid assessment in Cambodia, 967 Heifer project families were seriouslyaffected by the flood. They lost their animals, their rice paddies weredestroyed and 14 houses were damaged.

“Helping poor and vulnerable people is our priority. Wewere so sad to see the people whose living conditions had just beenimproved through our projects be devastated by the floods that almost washedaway their hope,” said Heifer Cambodia director Keang Keo. “Our staff is veryhappy to see their smiles return through this wonderful partnership with WFP.”

The first of several distributions was held in threeseparate locations in December and included education on hygiene andsanitation, so that flood victims can preserve their health after thefloodwaters recede. Each flood-affected family received rice, canned fish, vegetableoil, and high nutrition biscuits. The food will meet the immediate nutritionalneeds of vulnerable households.

36-year-old Heifer project participant Riem Kei saw herfamily’s tiny rice plot destroyed by the flooding, along with her home gardenand most of the family’s chickens. Kei has had to borrow money from herneighbor for food. Her family also has had flood-related health problems,including fever and diarrhea.

“I would like to express my gratitude to Heifer and the WFPfor providing me this food assistance,” Kei said. “I can feed my whole familyfor two weeks with this amount of food.”

The assistance, totaling about $165,000 in food aid, willcontinue to be distributed through February 2012.

Heifer Staff in Busan to Talk Aid Effectiveness

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The Fourth Level High Forum on Aid Effectiveness is taking place this week in Busan, Korea. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and delegates from non-governmental organizations around the globe are among the participants.

HLF-4: Building a new global partnership for effective development from BusanHLF4 on Vimeo.

Heifer International has been represented at the forum by our Senior Director of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Rienzzie Kern. Kern presented examples of Heifer’s work and outlined key lessons, opportunities and challenges.

Kern said:

Development professionals from around the world have gathered in Busan to consider ways and means to deliver development aid more effectively. The intent is to ensure that every dollar spent is yielding the desired results for the poor of the world. This is particularly important given the continued increase in the number of poor and hungry in our world. The group consists of ministers, heads of large donor agencies, delegates from nonprofit organizations and members of grassroots movements. Heifer was present to share its experiences in scaling up its program in partnership with the private sector. There is much thought now given to the potential that could arise if nonprofits partner with the private sector to more effectively build on synergies to feed the world.

Fostering Young Leaders in Armenia

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Steve Denne, Heifer International Chief Operating Officer, and Pietro Turilli, Vice President of Central and Eastern European programs, recently completed a trip to Armenia where they visited Heifer projects and laid the groundwork for the expansion of our anti-hunger initiatives there. 


by Liana Hayrapetyan- Communication and Public Relations Officer

On September 7, during their field visit to the  Vayots Dzor region, Steve and Pietro, along with Heifer Armenia staff ,visited the youth club established by Heifer Armenia in the Areni community. The Areni Youth Club was founded in 2006. Children here get an extracurricular education. As in all the other youth clubs established by Heifer Armenia, the Areni club focuses on seven key areas: agriculture, ecology, civic education and rights, journalism, healthy lifestyles, logical thinking, and business.


Youth club members welcomed the guests with high inspiration, and some of the club’s most active members made a presentation about the groups’ activities. Nelli, a dark-haired girl from the journalism group told the visitors in English about the articles that she wrote using journalism skills she learned through the club. Mamikon, a blue-eyed, tall boy who took business classes was enthusiastically telling about lessons on SWOT analyses and other marketing principles his group had learned.


Other members told about their regular ecological activities such as garbage removal, tree planting and schoolyard cleaning. As proof of their activities, they showed us the decorative trees they grew from the seeds that Heifer gave them a few years ago.There were also apple and pear trees planted in the school yard in the framework of the Polish Aid project implemented by Heifer Armenia and its NGO partner, “Development Principles.” 


The club members love it when Heifer Armenia staff and visitors from Heifer International headquarters come to their club, get acquainted with their activities and appreciate their work and social activism. They also love their favorite club, which gives them so many skills and so much knowledge.

In Armenia, It Takes a Village to Help a Village

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by Steve Denne, Chief Operating Officer


In concept, a Heifer project is simple: engage communities, mobilize smallholder farmers, train them and provide livestock. Next, we support them in a number of ways and monitor until the project is complete. In practice — in real places like the Armenian villages of Arpi, Areni, Norashen and Varser that we’ve visited on this trip — a Heifer Project is a complex mix of relationships, expert support, a variety of physical inputs, encouragement, troubleshooting, and management. Although the Heifer Armenia team is very talented, it cannot make a project happen on its own. No Heifer country program office can. Heifer works with many partners.


Thus Pietro (our VP of European programs) and I have joined with Heifer’s Armenia country director, Anahit, and her team to explore new opportunities with key partners. On Tuesday — the first full day of our visit — we met with Gagik Khachatryan, director of the Project Implementation Unit of the Government of Armenia/Ministry of Agriculture. We discussed an important collaboration in the context of a major World Bank-financed project (we’ll be sharing more about this soon). 


We also met with the director, Gagik Sardaryan, and deputy director, Sevak Manukyan, of the Center for Agribusiness and Rural Development (CARD). CARD provides services to small farmers that include small loans, sales of equipment and business development. CARD is a key partner in a new dairy value-chain project called, “Milk for Money.” Afterward, we met with the executive director of Ashtarak-Kat, Stepan Aslanyan. Ashtarak-Kat is the leading milk and dairy product processor and distributor in Armenia. It is a key partner in a dairy value chain project in a different part of the country. 


Finally, we concluded the day with dinner with Andrzej Szmidtke, the First Secretary for Economic Affairs for the Embassy of Poland. The Government of Poland finances foreign development work through Polish Aid, its development cooperation agency. Through the support of Heifer Poland, Polish Aid awarded some of its first grants to fund Heifer Armenia projects.


On Wednesday, we were honored with an audience with His Holiness the Catholicos of All Armenians, the spiritual leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Church is a major historical, cultural, spiritual and social force in Armenia. Heifer Armenia has collaborated with the Church in specific ways, but more generally, it shares a common mission to meet the needs of the hungry and the poor. The Church is also a founder and supporter of another partner, the Armenian National Ecumenical Church Loan Fund (ECLOF).  After the Catholicos, we met with the General Director, Tigran Hovhannisyan.


Our trip to Armenia so far has been a rich opportunity to help in the building of villages of partners to bring a greater impact to the villages of small farmers across Armenia.


To read more about Heifer’s work in Armenia, click here. You can also read about our Armenia team here.  

There’s a Deal, but There’s Still Time to Invest in Ending Hunger and Poverty

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Over the past five days we’ve written a series summarizing the poverty-focused development and humanitarian assistance programs InterAction recommends our government support.

While a deal has been reached to increase the nation’s debt ceiling, it’s still vague what and how much will be cut to reduce U.S. spending by $2.1 trillion over the next decade. But a post today by InterAction President and CEO Sam Worthington on the Poverty Matters blog, makes a persuasive case why the world cannot afford the cuts to foreign aid already approved by a House Appropriations subcommittee.

Read his post here.

As a member of InterAction, Heifer supports the recommendations and applauds Worthington’s post. But please, don’t give up. There’s still time to make your voice heard. Tell your representatives that cutting funding to these programs would be unacceptable.

We Must Vote for Peace and Child Survival

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It’s been reported that Congress will start voting today on a last-minute debt ceiling deal to reduce the U.S. deficit by at least $2.1 trillion over the next decade. The House must vote before the Senate and they don’t have a lot of time since the debt ceiling must be raised by Tuesday.
The exact cuts are still unknown, however, as a member of InterAction, we believe in their foreign assistance plan which will be put in front of the House on Wednesday.
Let’s break down some of the highlights of InterAction’s funding recommendations for child survival and peace grants.
Global Health and Child Survival (both USAID and State): $5. 64 billion request
Purpose: Supports PEPFAR which combats HIV/AIDS through prevention, treatment and strengthening health systems as part of the administration’s overall Global Health Initiative.
Justification:
  • UNAIDS recently issued a report noting that the global annual rate of new cases of HIV dropped by 25 percent in the last decade.
  • AIDS-related deaths have dropped and about 6.6 million people in low-and middle-income countries that were receiving treatment at the end of 2010
  • HIV prevalence among young people (15-24) is declining.
  • As of the end of 2010 the Global Fund has provided, 3 million people with HIV/AIDS treatment, 7.7 million people with tuberculosis treatment, and disbursed 160 million insecticide-treated nets.
Contributions to International Peacekeeping Activities: $2.145 billion request
Purpose: Provides voluntary U.S. contributions to support UN peacekeeping missions.
Justifications:
  • U.S. stands and leverages with the contributions of other countries to cost-effectively further U.S. foreign policy objectives in volatile regions around the world.
  • UN peacekeeping missions work to support and implement the terms of ceasefires and peace agreement.
  • Build government capacity and protect people from genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

P.L. 480 Title II Food for Peace Grants: $1.69 billion request
Purpose: The P.L. 480 Title food for Peace account provides for the donation of U.S. agriculture commodities to meet emergency and non-emergency food needs in other countries, reducing hunger and malnutrition and helping achieve food security. 

Justifications:

  • U.S. food assistance targets the world’s most vulnerable populations in times of urgent needs, whether provoked by natural disaster, conflict, or acute economic difficulties.
  • A mixture of cash- and commodity-based resources will ensure the U.S. has a flexible of emergency response options
  • Food assistance has played a critical role in southern Soudan over the last few years and has been key in supporting families returning home

McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition: $200.5 million request
Purpose: The McGovern-Dole account helps support education, child development, and food security for of the world’s poorest children. It provides for donations of U.S. agriculture products, as well as financial and technical assistance, for school feeding and maternal and child nutrition projects in low-income, food deficit countries that are committed to universal education.
Justification:
  • There are approximately 130 million school-age children in the world’s poorest countries who are undernourished and would be eligible for school feeding programs.
  • The US is currently able to reach approximately 5 million children a year with a school meal
  • School meals also help improve cognition and nutrition and act as a safety net by freeing up to 10 percent of a family’s income to be spent on other assets.

How do you feel about all of the recommendations listed above? If you want your voice to be heard, contact your local representatives.

Working Toward the World’s Prosperity

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As Donna said in her post yesterday, we’re highlighting key aspects of the US budget that fund poverty-focused development and humanitarian assistance. Heifer wishes to inform its supporters about the value of what could be lost in a flurry of cuts to meet the fast-approaching Aug. 2 deadline.

Heifer International is a member of InterAction, the largest alliance of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations that focus on the world’s most poor and vulnerable populations. InterAction recently released a set of recommendations for the US government’s FY 2012 budget, and Heifer supports these recommendations. Here’s a summary of the four recommendations dealing with disaster relief and recovery, and programs that aid refugees.

International Disaster Assistance: $1.3 billion (FY10 adjusted total)

Purpose: Enables quick and effective response by USAID’s Office for U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) to humanitarian emergencies caused by natural and man-made disasters like famines, floods and earthquakes.

Justification: Overall funding levels remain insufficient to meet the growing need. As the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti demonstrated, when unexpected emergencies strike, OFDA does not have adequate contingency funding on hand and must reduce its response to protracted crises elsewhere in order to respond to the unanticipated. InterAction is proposing an additional $300 million in this account to fund cash-based emergency food assistance. These additional resources are particularly important given the grim famine in the Horn of Africa.

Office of Transition Initiatives: $56 million (Request)

Purpose: The Transition Initiatives (TI) account bridges the gap between emergency aid and long-term development through quick-impact political and economic reconstruction programs.

Justification: The recommended amount would allow the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) to continue its work as a key civilian instrument on the ground providing fast, flexible, short-term assistance targeted at key political transition and stabilization needs worldwide. Since the weeks following the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake, OTI has played a significant role in providing assistance to the Government of Haiti. OTI’s role in Haiti is continuing in 2011 with cholera prevention and response activities and will likely extend through 2012 in the ongoing earthquake recovery.

Migration and Refugee Assistance: $1.85 billion (FY10 total)

Purpose: Funds protection and resettlement of refugees, displaced persons and victims of conflict.

Justification: This funding will enable the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) to provide basic life-saving assistance for refugees and to maintain the U.S. commitment to resettlement for some of the most vulnerable. Unfortunately, the number of refugees and internally displaced persons has risen in recent years and at the end of 2009, developing countries were home to four-fifths of the world’s refugees.

Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance: Full Replenishment

Purpose: A revolving fund established to ensure the availability of sufficient resources for refugee protection in unanticipated emergencies.

Justification: The ERMA account provides an important safety valve during times of emergency and the account should be fully funded at its authorized ceiling in FY 2012.The current ceiling of $100 million has not been raised since the mid-1990s despite increased costs of providing emergency assistance. Raising the ceiling would allow the Administration to respond more fully to unanticipated crises – like the 2011 crises in Libya and West Africa where ERMA funding was activated – and would help reduce reliance on supplemental funding.

This all may sound a bit abstract, but think of it this way – many of the terrible things that happen in this world trace their roots back to the unrest that comes when people’s basic needs of nutrition, health or shelter go unmet. Funding these initiatives is an investment in the stability, security, economic prosperity and continued democratic progress of the world.

We urge you to be part of the conversation and to contact your elected representatives if you have questions or concerns.

An Investment in Peace, Stability and Economic Prosperity

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As Congress looks for cuts to resolve its current budget crisis, foreign aid can easily begin to look like the low-hanging fruit that no one would object too much to losing. But as you study what each account targeted pays for, the negative consequences of a decision to cut funding to these accounts become more clear. A Washington Post article from Wednesday quotes a letter from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton objecting to budget legislation making its way through the House this week.
The bill “would be debilitating to my efforts to carry out a considered foreign policy and diplomacy, and to use foreign assistance strategically to that end,” Clinton wrote.
As a member of InterAction, the largest alliance of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations that focus on the world’s most poor and vulnerable populations, Heifer is also interested in informing our supporters about the value of what could be lost in a flurry of cuts to meet the fast-approaching Aug. 2 deadline. We urge you to be part of the conversation and to contact your representatives if you have questions or concerns.
Read InterAction’s case for robust foreign assistance here. We’ll be outlining key accounts today and Monday that affect our work around the world to bring peace, stability and economic prosperity to families we all care about as supporters of Heifer International.
The following information includes highlights from InterAction’s funding recommendations for poverty-focused development and humanitarian assistance accounts for Fiscal Year 2012.
Development Assistance: $3.3 billion request
Purpose: Builds the foundation for self-sufficiency through basic education, micro and small enterprise development, agricultural improvements, democracy and governance and protecting the environment.
Justifications:
  • Food price volatility and extreme weather such as the current drought in the Horn of Africa overburden the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, pushing more into extreme hunger. Sustaining the progress made in implementing Feed the Future is critical in ensuring the economic security and well-being of us all.
  • Quality basic education drives economic growth, enhances security, builds peace and respect for human rights and creates global trading partners around the world.
  • Biodiversity programs help protect some of the largest and most at-risk natural landscapes, ensure clean water, promote rural peace and security, boost health, secure environmental resources and reduce poverty for millions of people.
  • A World Health Organization study concluded that every dollar invested in clean water and sanitation yields $8 in increased productivity and decreased health costs.
International Organizations and Programs: $348.7 million request
Purpose: Provides voluntary U.S. contributions to United Nations-affiliated agencies such as the U.N. Development Program, UNICEF, the U.N. Population Fund and the World Food Program.
Justifications:
  • UNICEF funding helps save and improve the lives of children around the world.
  • United Nations Women helps promote women’s political participation and economic security in over 100 countries, particularly where they face the highest levels of insecurity.
  • United Nations Development Program works to encourage democratic governance, plays a lead role in coordinating international responses to disasters and conflict around the world and focuses on energy, environment and health issues as they relate to human development. UNDP strives to ensure that all of its programs support gender equality and respect for human rights.
Millennium Challenge Corporation: $1.125 billion request
Purpose: The Millennium Challenge Corporation partners with impoverished countries that are committed to good governance, economic freedom and investing in their people to fund projects that reduce poverty by removing obstacles to economic growth in sectors such as health, transportation, agriculture, power and fiscal transparency.
Justification: The model clearly works in two main ways. Through the incentive for better governance it creates: the record clearly shows sustainable and constructive policy changes in multiple countries seeking to qualify for MCC candidacy. Second, it works through country-owned and therefore sustainable projects it funds that are creating economic growth and raising incomes.
Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

Tell the U.S. Government to Invest in Ending Hunger and Poverty

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The time to act is now. Go read this from InterAction, and then come back.

Heifer’s Director of Governmental and Institutional Relations in Washington, D.C. wrote the following message.
The unprecedented din over the debt ceiling seems to overpower everything in Washington right now; but underneath it, a very real struggle over the FY2012 budget is underway, with very real consequences for the world’s poor and hungry, amid new humanitarian crises in East Africa that threaten to draw away already fragile development resources. Because this year is so politically out of the ordinary, InterAction’s senior legislative manager put a document together to augment the formal White House budget request to the joint Senate-Hose Foreign Operations Subcommittee. The introduction justifying the request for $5 billion includes the following language:

$5 billion is 0.03% of the U.S. GDP in 2014 or 0.14% of the total FY2012 federal budget request. This equals about what Americans spend on Halloween candy, costumes, and decorations each year, and a quarter of what we spend on sports tickets each year, 10 days of war-fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the cost of about one and a half of the Navy’s DDG-1000 destroyers.

Those of us who work in development in D.C. are painfully aware that, save for a few NGOs and private businesses, the field of international development (and USAID’s programs) have no other domestic political support base–unlike nearly every other issue in Washington. So in this world, we already have two strikes against us before we even open our mouths.

We must make our displeasure known loudly and clearly. We need to make it clear that these cuts have been noticed and are going to attract some negative attention. Members of the full Appropriations Committee especially need to hear that message.
Here’s what House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers had to say about the FY2012 State and Foreign Appropriations Bill for Subcommittee Markup: “Where necessary, we have cut funding for ineffective and unproven programs.” If you’re already up-to-date with this issue and know that many of the programs receiving cuts are proven and effective, go ahead and tell the House Committee on Appropriations that you disagree with this assessment.
If this sounds like a lot to swallow, we’ll be providing a series of summaries of the poverty-focused development and humanitarian assistance programs InterAction recommends our government support with our tax dollars (the same amount of money we spend on Halloween can make a world of difference with these programs).