Tag Archives: disaster relief

Heifer Philippines Staff Assess Typhoon Bopha Damage

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Heifer International sent a photographer to the Philippines over the weekend to document damage from and record existing state images in the wake of Typhoon Bopha, which struck the southern island of Mindanao last week with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains. The photographer will return to the area in late January, along with a World Ark writer to record the situation and report on long-term agriculture rehabilitation plans.

Update 12/12/12: The following photographs are preliminary photographs; images from the professional photographer will be shared as they are made available.

Heifer Philippines

Meanwhile, Heifer International country staff in the Philippines continues to assess damage in the south from last week’s typhoon strike, and to help prepare for the rehabilitation efforts that will be needed to help project families get back on their feet.

Hercules Paradiang, Heifer Philippines country director, and his team are also working and talking with other nonprofits that are experienced in disaster response, as well as a federation of eight Heifer-organized self-help groups that have been supporting relief efforts since last week and will play an important part in on-the-ground rehabilitation work.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development has also assumed direction of NGO efforts and is discussing longer-term rehabilitation partnerships.

Officials said 647 are confirmed dead, with another 780 missing. Total affected population is 487,364 families, or 5,412,140 people in 30 provinces in eight regions. Estimates of overall damage are as high as $173 million.

Specific to Heifer, at least 366 families in two projects in Sta. Josefa, Agusan del Sur, were significantly affected, with homes damaged or destroyed. More than 250 pigs were lost, as well as 90 goats. Rice, corn and banana crops were significantly damaged, and initial estimates from Heifer communities place damages at $550,000.

Heifer Philippines country staff is asking Heifer International for immediate $50,000 disaster rehabilitation funding to help provide short-term food relief and materials to repair homes and a feed mill, such as tin for the roofs and raw feed ingredients for surviving animals.

WATCH: Heifer Haiti Hurricane Sandy Relief

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As Annie reported yesterday, Heifer Haiti provided more than 400 relief packages to families affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Help Heifer provide emergency relief in times of great need by donating to our Disaster Rehabilitation Fund.

Heifer Haiti Distributes Food to Hurricane Sandy Victims

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Last Friday we posted about emergency efforts that were underway to help the people of Haiti affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Yesterday, Heifer Haiti’s Country Director, Hervil Cherubin, let us know that the food distribution was a success. More than 400 food packages were given out to families who needed help in the wake of the storm. Cherubin said Heifer Haiti also helped provide food to Haitians who are physically challenged.

The distribution took place in Solon (a community in Saint Louis du Sud) where Heifer Haiti has a rabbit project and various communities in Les Cayes where the office is located.

It was the first of Heifer Haiti’s planned efforts to provide emergency aid. While Heifer does not specialize in short-term relief but rather in long-term sustainable solutions, our Heifer Haiti colleagues and participants need your continued help. Please consider donating to our Disaster Rehabilitation Fund so we can provide the best assistance possible and help equip families with the means to help deal with future disasters.

Heifer Haiti Emergency Efforts Begin

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Editor’s note: The following update on Heifer Haiti’s Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts comes from Heifer Haiti Country Director Hervil Cherubin.

Today Heifer International’s Haiti country office team will be distributing emergency help to 400 families affected by Huricane Sandy. Each one will receive a kit (bag), containing rice, corn, sugar, milk, beans, flour and cooking oil. The distribution will be in Solon (a community in Saint Louis du Sud) where Heifer Haiti has a rabbit project and various communities in Les Cayes where the office is located.

Some of the kits will be distributed to a group of people with handicaps (many as consequences of the 2010 quake) in collaboration with the Haiti office for the Integration of the Handicap in Society. It is worth mentioning that being handicapped here in Haiti is very complicated and stigmatized. We will be helping 100 families.

Photo by Jason Woods, Heifer International

At 2:30 p.m. we will go to a very poor community named Sous Roche, which is close to the ocean and a river, to help 150 families. These people were hit hard by the storm because of their location. Their houses were flooded. Later we will go to small communities (Pelerin and Fond Fred) to distribute kits to 50 families each.

Tomorrow morning we will go to Solon to distribute kits to 100 families. This community was devastated by the storm. Many houses were flooded and crops destroyed. It is very sad to see all these plantain and pigeon bean plantations completely wiped out by the water.

All these activities are in coordination with the local emergency committee, Centre d’Operation d’Urgence (COU), on which Heifer is a sitting member. They work with partners to assist different communities. The communities Heifer Haiti is helping today and tomorrow have not yet received any help.

We started the process yesterday morning after receiving emergency funds from Heifer International headquarters. Yesterday afternoon we bought the goods, and with the help of some volunteers we put together the kits. We stopped at midnight, and this morning we started again to get them ready by noon.

These are the first of our emergency assistance plans. We will also assist many of our beneficiaries who lost their animals and crops with replacements and seed for the next planting season. These activities will happen in the coming days as things get back to some kind of normalcy.

Our Heifer Haiti colleagues and participants need your continued help. Please consider donating to our Disaster Rehabilitation Fund so we can provide the best assistance possible.

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.