Once again, heavy rainfall has caused flooding throughout Rio Grande do Sul, which has enforced a state of emergency. Our staff and volunteers are working to allocate resources to shelters and families affected by the floods. An initial share of donations is being allocated to urgent needs, such as packaging for lunch boxes, hygiene kits, and food. After this initial wave, there will still be a long road ahead to recovery, as cities are cleaned up and families return to their homes.
The floods caused by excessive rain in early May in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (the southest state of Brazil) have affected 468 cities, which represents 94% of 497 cities of the state. It means an affected population of 2.342.460 people who had to leave their houses and live in temporary shelters. The effects of floods are being compared to whar Katrina caused in the USA, despite the death toll being much lower.
Our role at this point is to act as a reliable integration agent between donors (from Brazil and abroad), volunteers, NGOs and government authorities. To this end, we articulate different social actors to best allocate resources to the people and communities that were most affected by the rains in Rio Grande do Sul. This project will help families to get back home with minimal conditions and we also are helping to reconstruct NGOs and schools so they can serve kids and elderly once again.
We have already helped more than 200.000 people with donations so they can go back home, reconstruct their houses. We are working with other NGOs and schools that have been affected so they can reestablish their activities
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
