The communities of Palu, Sigi, Donggala and other areas of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia are still recovering from the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake as they face the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is how CARE is dealing with humanitarian emergencies amid COVID-19.
As the world faces the unprecedented challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, international aid organization CARE commits to adapting its programming and scaling up its activities wherever possible. The increase in programming will mainly focus on support for clean water and sanitation services in countries with weak sanitation infrastructure.
“At the moment, the global aid community is not prepared for a major outbreak a COVID-19 in our most precarious humanitarian crises. This is the reality we need to face,” says Sally Austin, CARE International’s Head of Emergency Operations. “We need to do everything we can to support these communities immediately. Now is the time to show solidarity with countries yet to be critically affected and that have insufficient health services to cope with an outbreak of COVID-19. We are calling on international donors to coordinate more closely and make their funding flexible so we can help the world’s most vulnerable people before it is too late.”
CARE Iraq’s Country Director Wendy Barron adds, “In Iraq, many donors have continuously reduced their emergency funding. In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, CARE is one of only a few remaining aid organizations delivering water and sanitation services to camps and local communities We could scale this up if the health security situation permits, but there is simply not enough funding.”
Access problems for aid workers are worsening the already tense situation in many contexts: “For months we have been facing serious access issues in some of the humanitarian hotspots such as Yemen, Syria or Iraq”, says Austin. “If COVID-19 spreads in those hard-to-reach places, the consequences could be devastating. People here are already weakened by months and years of violence, lack of health services and malnourishment.”
While populations in developed worlds are relying on personal hygiene such as handwashing, disinfecting surfaces and using clean water to drink, to mitigate outbreaks. However, the situation looks vastly different in many parts of the world where tap water and soap are not readily accessible for the majority of the population.
The COVID-19 epidemic doesn’t simply pose a big threat to conflict hotspots as mentioned above. “We are also tremendously worried about big refugee camps such as in Bangladesh or Kenya and not least for local communities in regions that have suffered from chronic poverty and poor health, from Niger to Laos to Papua New Guinea”, continues CARE’s Sally Austin. “I’ve worked on many emergencies in the past 20 years but the scale and speed of the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented. We need to be very cautious not to lose sight of the most vulnerable populations.”
CARE is working in 23 countries to increasing water and sanitation support, 14 country teams are scaling up health and reproductive health services and a further 19 countries are working on needs such as income, shelter and education. In other countries, programs have been forced to close as national lockdowns are imposed; which is likely to have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable communities in the days and weeks to come.
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One year after Palu, Sigi, Donggala and other areas of Central Sulawesi were shaken by a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake, and inundated by tsunami waters, thousands of women and girls face challenges in accessing safe shelter, water and sanitation facilities, as well as uncertainty about their future. Together over the last year, CARE and partners have constructed latrines and sanitation facilities, distributed shelter and kitchen kits and provided multipurpose cash grants. CARE is working to implement more programs aimed at strengthening family enterprise and business through the provision of inputs, small grants and vocational training packages.
“CARE is committed to supporting the people of Central Sulawesi for the years to come and is increasingly shifting its focus to help restore economic livelihood activities, particularly for women,” said CEO CARE Indonesia/Yayasan CARE Peduli, Bonaria Siahaan. Ms. Siahaan further noted that thousands are still living in temporary shelters and they need help to move on from this difficult situation.
Since the emergency hit, Bonaria Siahaan said CARE has reached nearly 60,500 people through hygiene kits distribution and promotion, clean water rehabilitation and distribution, shelter repair materials and training, latrine rehabilitation and construction, and cash grants. To maximize the impacts of program implementation, CARE is working with local partners like PKPU, Dompet Dhuafa, Bina Swadaya, Solidaritas Perempuan, and IBU Foundation.
Aligned with CARE’s focus on women and girls’ empowerment, this reconstruction phase presents an opportunity for livelihoods recovery that challenges the inequalities women face in Central Sulawesi.“As we see through our work with communities, when women earn money for their family, everyone in the family benefits because women dedicate the vast majority of their income to the health, education and food security of their children, their family or their community,” said Bonaria Siahaan.
In Central Sulawesi, CARE will distribute agricultural inputs to help create eco-farms and provide grants to food producers while providing comprehensive training to enhance value Siaran Pers addition and marketing to food production. “Our target is to reach at least 5,400 families through this program,” said Bonaria Siahaan.
Due to the climate sensitivity of agricultural livelihoods, it is crucial to strengthen the resilience and mitigation strategies of communities by identifying related risks and adjusting existing livelihood activities to reduce these risks. “CARE and its partners will help to identify and sensitise communities on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change issues, especially the impact of climate change on livelihoods, and to develop adaptation and disaster risk reduction strategies,” said Bonaria Siahaan. CARE will also support the start-up of micro, small and medium enterprises to allow local community members to undertake activities that contribute to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and mitigation.
“This is not a situation that can be solved overnight. It will take years to recover from this. It is imperative that the government together with humanitarian and development agencies like CARE begin planning tomorrow’s permanent livelihood solutions today,” said Bonaria Siahaan.
SOURCE: https://www.care-international.org/news/press-releases/one-year-on-in-central-sulawesi-devastated-women-and-girls-continue-to-face-challenges
One year after Palu, Sigi, Donggala and other areas of Central Sulawesi were shaken by a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake, and inundated by tsunami waters, thousands of women and girls face challenges in accessing safe shelter, water and sanitation facilities, as well as uncertainty about their future. Together over the last year, CARE and partners have constructed latrines and sanitation facilities, distributed shelter and kitchen kits and provided multipurpose cash grants. CARE is working to implement more programs aimed at strengthening family enterprise and business through the provision of inputs, small grants and vocational training packages.
“CARE is committed to supporting the people of Central Sulawesi for the years to come and is increasingly shifting its focus to help restore economic livelihood activities, particularly for women,” said CEO CARE Indonesia/Yayasan CARE Peduli, Bonaria Siahaan. Ms. Siahaan further noted that thousands are still living in temporary shelters and they need help to move on from this difficult situation.
Since the emergency hit, Bonaria Siahaan said CARE has reached nearly 60,500 people through hygiene kits distribution and promotion, clean water rehabilitation and distribution, shelter repair materials and training, latrine rehabilitation and construction, and cash grants. To maximize the impacts of program implementation, CARE is working with local partners like PKPU, Dompet Dhuafa, Bina Swadaya, Solidaritas Perempuan, and IBU Foundation.
Aligned with CARE’s focus on women and girls’ empowerment, this reconstruction phase presents an opportunity for livelihoods recovery that challenges the inequalities women face in Central Sulawesi.“As we see through our work with communities, when women earn money for their family, everyone in the family benefits because women dedicate the vast majority of their income to the health, education and food security of their children, their family or their community,” said Bonaria Siahaan.
In Central Sulawesi, CARE will distribute agricultural inputs to help create eco-farms and provide grants to food producers while providing comprehensive training to enhance value Siaran Pers addition and marketing to food production. “Our target is to reach at least 5,400 families through this program,” said Bonaria Siahaan.
Due to the climate sensitivity of agricultural livelihoods, it is crucial to strengthen the resilience and mitigation strategies of communities by identifying related risks and adjusting existing livelihood activities to reduce these risks. “CARE and its partners will help to identify and sensitise communities on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change issues, especially the impact of climate change on livelihoods, and to develop adaptation and disaster risk reduction strategies,” said Bonaria Siahaan. CARE will also support the start-up of micro, small and medium enterprises to allow local community members to undertake activities that contribute to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and mitigation.
“This is not a situation that can be solved overnight. It will take years to recover from this. It is imperative that the government together with humanitarian and development agencies like CARE begin planning tomorrow’s permanent livelihood solutions today,” said Bonaria Siahaan.
Jupiter is a 60 year old man living in the Oekiu village in Indonesia. Each year, his village suffers from the long dry season. But Jupiter found an opportunity in this challenge: he found that you can achieve big results when you start small.
In preparation for the dry season, Jupiter took the initiative to dig a well next to his house to create a source of clean water. Oekiu village, where Jupiter lives, is located in the Regency of Timor Tengah Selatan, Province of East Nusa Tenggara, and suffers from drought each year.
When Jupiter’s well reached a depth of 24 meters and there was still no sign of water, he began to question if he should continue. Jupiter was afraid there would be a landslide as he lived up in the hills.
But Jupiter did not give up. He converted the failed well into a rainwater reservoir, coating the insides of the pit with cement and building a wall around the opening. He then diverted the rainwater to flow from the roof of his house directly into the reservoir. It worked.
One year after Jupiter started digging, the well was finished. Since then, he has been collecting water during the rainy season, and now has a water supply all year long. Jupiter is very proud of his well. He was able to address the impacts of the drought on his own. Jupiter uses the water for household needs and to feed his animals. During the dry season, his house became the only house with plants in the garden, while his neighbours struggled to obtain clean water.
In 2011, CARE’s Partners for Resilience (PfR) program began implementing activities in Oekiu. Inspired by the good practice of Jupiter, PfR encouraged the replication of his efforts through village development policies.
Together, CARE and Jupiter advocated for more wells in the village. As a former village head and chair of the group of indigenous leaders in Oekiu village, Jupiter has considerable influence.
In 2015, the procurement of materials to build wells using the Indonesian Village Fund was approved. Today, 97 wells have been built in the village. The government helps with the funding for cement, buckets, blocks, and ropes. But digging the wells is done by the villagers.
Although he has already achieved a lot, Jupiter is eager to do more. He is still advocating for the construction of more wells in the village and he is waiting for this year’s funding.
The wells in the village brought a lot of benefits for the community. For example, women no longer need to go far to gather clean water. Now, they can access clean water from their own village, usually from their own backyard.
Jupiter proved that just one person’s idea can have a big impact.
SOURCE: https://careclimatechange.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Bend-Not-Break-.pdf
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Most vulnerable are not left behind when their voices are included in decision-making
GENEVA. 15 May, 2019. In the advent of the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR), CARE releases a new publication, We Bend, We Do Not Break. The publication features some of the most poor and marginalized who have become leaders in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. This publication features inspirational stories of resilience from protagonists on the ground in Ethiopia, Indonesia, Guatemala, Mali, Philippines, and Uganda.
Annisa Srikandini, Country Lead Partners for Resilience Alliance, CARE Indonesia, said: “It is essential that efforts to address disaster risk reduction link local activities with global processes, such as the GPDRR. If we do not directly engage communities, then we fail. We must empower those most vulnerable to disasters and the climate crisis. The publication, ‘We Bend, We Do Not Break,’ personifies hope. We have the solutions and we have examples of success - now we must urgently increase the scale of these efforts.”
The poorest people in the most vulnerable countries suffer disproportionately from disasters and climate change impacts. Disasters wipe out hard-won reductions in poverty and communities are caught in a vicious circle where poverty creates vulnerability, and disasters and climate change impacts increase poverty.
Bart Weijs, Program Manager for Partners for Resilience Alliance, CARE Netherlands said: “Rather than continue to make empty and ill-conceived promises, governments must ensure resources are placed in the hands of those impacted on the ground. If we give the most vulnerable the resources and power to influence, then we can ensure decision-making at all levels is effective and inclusive - and that communities are truly resilient. It is time to stop speaking on behalf of those we’re trying to help, and let them speak for themselves.”
To read full report go to: http://bit.ly/WeBendNotBreak
These communities need the support from generous donors like you. Thank you for empowering them to bend not break in the wake of disasters.
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