In four days at the end of May, Altai Republic in Siberia got a month's rain. Floods swept away homes, livestock, agriculture, roads, bridges, and power, devastating subsistence farming villages in Russia's poorest region. Russian disaster recovery funding is nowhere near sufficient. Global humanitarian aid is their only hope.
Altai Republic, Russia's poorest region, has been devastated by floods that washed away 230 km of roads, 20 bridges, 1,000 homes, as well as countless livestock and the vegetable gardens which are villagers' only means of survival. More rain is expected. Russian federal disaster recovery funds are a pittance -- imagine trying to replace your home and livelihood with less than $3,000.
Svetlana Katynova, our long-time volunteer project leader in Altai, has been working for years to assist subsistence farmers in remote villages. Through her extensive network, money channeled through her consistently reaches the most destitute in a way that catalyzes and pulls together communities. This is an opportunity to act from a place of deep compassion with the awareness that we are all connected.
Summers are short in Siberia and villagers must grow their food for the long, bitterly cold winters. Their means to do this has been washed away. The extent of the damage is so great that impacted villages will only recover with external help. Your donation will literally enable the Altai people to remain on their traditional lands and maintain the ancient, sacred culture of their ancestors.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).
