ADRA-UK News Update

Responding to the worst flooding to affect southern India in a century, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has launched an emergency relief response, assisting survivors after heavy rains triggered severe flooding, killing an estimated 300 people and affecting approximately two to three million others.

On Thursday, October 8, ADRA began an emergency response to aid more than 700 families in flood-ravaged districts in the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh through the distribution of emergency supplies, such as blankets, cooking pots and utensils.

“People are very keen to go back and pick up the pieces of their lives,” said Paulo Lopes, country director for ADRA India. “They are ready to return to their homes and begin the recovery process.”

Torrential rains fell on the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and the border districts of Maharashtra, between September 29 and October 2, causing flash floods throughout the region and displacing at least 1.5 million people.

Funding this initial emergency response is ADRA International, the Southern Asia Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the South Central and East Central Unions of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in India.

ADRA is expecting to expand its response within the next few days, which will provide assistance to a greater number of people affected by the disaster.

“Given the extent of the floods, we want to be able to help between 5,000 to 10,000 families in the region,” said Lopes. “However, it has been a challenge to raise the necessary resources due to the other recent disasters in Indonesia, Samoa and the Philippines.”

As part of the response, ADRA is coordinating with the local government in each affected state, as well as other organizations, such as ActionAid, CARE India, Sphere India, the Southern Asia Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the East Central India Union of Seventh-day Adventist Church in Hyderabad, and the South Central Union of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Bangalore.

Although flooding has begun to subside in some regions, many roads have been severely damaged by the heavy rains and landslides, making access to the affected regions difficult and at times completely impassable. Electricity and communication lines were also damaged in the disaster. Officials expect the death toll to continue to rise, as flooded areas become more accessible.

Please donate to help!

(Source: ADRA International)

www.25000spins.com

The London to Paris charity cycle (21 July 2010 - 25 July 2010) is a great experience and a fabulous challenge. Cycling over 4 days you will cover 300km (186miles). A challenge like this is not just about the distance. The bike ride is about group effort, friendship and more importantly spirit.

Charity cycles bring together people from many different back grounds, each with their own reasons for taking up the challenge.

The physical side of the trip is sometimes a worry for people who may not have cycled much before signing up or who believe themselves to be out of shape. The ride is designed to ensure that everyone can take part and everyone completes what they started. With some training at home before the trip you will be more than capable of achieving the distances covered each day and the group spirit will certainly keep you going if times get hard.

En route a support vehicle is never far away to ensure you are never left behind and just to reiterate this is certainly not a race. Plenty of water and snack stops are provided to ensure your good health along the route.

Each night the group will stay in hotels and eat together. This gives you more time to socialise with the people who you are cycling with.

The route is planned to ensure that you see as much of the countryside as possible. You will see a side of both rural England and France that you may not have experienced before.

Arriving in Paris all wearing the same cycle jerseys is a fabulous feeling which is enhanced further by being able to see the end of the tour de France the day after we arrive.

Most importantly though you get the opportunity to help raise much needed funds to help out children in need. What makes this cycle unique to other London to Paris cycles is 100% of all money raised goes direct to the charity you choose (UNICEF, ADRA or Compassion).

If you wish to learn more about the 2010 trip or sign up for the trip then go to www.25000spins.com

Following its rapid assessment of the needs and capacities of residents in Indonesia’s West Sumatra Province who survived a powerful earthquake last week, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is launching an emergency response that will provide much needed assistance to residents and persons displaced by the earthquake.

“Both health supplies and non-food items are desperately needed,” said Hector Carpintero, country director for ADRA Indonesia. “We are coordinating with local government officials and other humanitarian organizations to intervene in the most affected areas, where people are most in need.”

ADRA is dispatching a medical team from the Bandar Lampung Adventist Hospital to the affected areas with two physicians and five nurses, and preparing to distribute food and other relief items among the earthquake-affected communities. To fund this response, ADRA is partnering with various donors, including the West Indonesia Union Mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Humanitarian Emergency Response Division (Welfare Services Department) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Padang in the province of West Sumatra on Wednesday, September 30. Early Thursday morning, another earthquake struck Jambi Province in Sumatra. As of October 6, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that 704 people had been confirmed dead, with at least 295 still missing. More than 100,000 homes have been severely damaged.

According to OCHA, Padang, and Pariaman are the worst affected areas, with 30 percent of homes in Pariaman suffering substantial damage.

“Electricity and internet are still a challenge,” said Carpintero. “Only 50 percent of the city of Padang has electricity.”

Please donate to our emergency response here!

(Source: ADRA International)

ADRA is responding to critical emergency situations around the world. Your donation to our Emergency Response Fund will help us continue to help the victims of these major disasters:

Indonesia
On September 30, an earthquake devastated the city of Padan. More than 1,000 people died, and that number is expected to climb. Many buildings have collapsed, including two hospitals and several schools. Thousands are displaced.

ADRA has mobilized to help the victims. Country Director for Indonesia Hector Carpintero says that ADRA is coordinating response activities with the United Nations and the Red Cross:

“We are fully committed to do our best, coordinating with the government authorities and all our partners. We will deliver our aid to those affected in the best way possible. Thank you for your support and prayers. We need them.”

Western and American Samoa
In the wake of a powerful earthquake and subsequent severe tsunami in which hundreds died and entire villages were washed away, ADRA is on the ground assessing the needs of the survivors, and is working with FEMA and the White House Office of Public Engagement to coordinate responses.

Chris Olafson, director of Emergency Management for ADRA Australia, describes ADRA’s response: “We are currently monitoring various reports out of Western Samoa to accurately assess the damage that has been done in communities. Currently information in regards to the situation is quite thin, due to the remoteness of the affected areas. However, we are working with networked ADRA offices, government bodies, and fellow humanitarian agencies across the region to determine how we can best support them. Our hearts go out to those affected.”

Philippines and Vietnam
More than a million children, women, and men have been forced to flee their homes because of the record rains of Typhoon Ketsana. In the hard-hit Philippines, the typhoon has destroyed more than $99 million worth of infrastructure and crops in the country.

ADRA is distributing food packs and meeting victims’ immediate needs. Once the water subsides, we will continue to help those affected rebuild their lives.

In addition to these recent critical emergencies, ADRA’s emergency response team is also helping in Guatemala, where thousands of children are severely malnourished due to famine, and in Yemen, where more than 150,000 have been displaced by the internal violent conflict between the government and Shia rebels.
ADRA urgently needs your help to respond immediately to these emergencies and disasters. Please give generously today.

ADRA-UK is a vital part of the ADRA network, present in over 120 countries, providing community development and emergency response without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, race, or ethnicity.

Donations to ADRA-UK’s Emergency Response Fund are used in collaboration with ADRA donor and implementing* offices to ensure the best response, maximized opportunities, and compliance with legal requirements.

You can donate here!

*Donor offices provide the funding and Implementing offices receive the funding and implement the community development or emergency response.

Indonesia

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is preparing to respond to the needs of survivors of the earthquake that hit Indonesia’s West Sumatra province on September 30th, 2009, killing at least 75 people, trapping thousands underneath damaged buildings, and displacing thousands more. Power and phone lines are severed throughout the region, making it difficult to communicate, or properly analyze the extent of the damage.

ADRA is assessing damages and will be attending a coordination meeting with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), on Thursday afternoon, October 1, 2009.

“We will be coordinating with our emergency coordinator on site as soon as possible, as well as OCHA, and the local government to plan our response, select the best area, etc.,” said Hector Carpintero of ADRA Indonesia, who compared it to a 6.3 earthquake that struck near the city of Padang in West Sumatra in 2007, killing more than 70 people, and injuring more than 200.
The 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck around 5 p.m. local time, and occurred about 33 miles (53 kilometers) from Padang, West Sumatra. Unofficial reports indicate that several buildings have collapsed.

As response efforts expand, follow ADRA on twitter (search for ADRAUK) and get the latest information as it happens.

ADRA urgently needs your help to respond immediately to these emergencies and disasters. Please give generously today.

(Source: ADRA International)

In its initial response to an appeal by the Philippine government to aid the hundreds of thousands of survivors of Tropical Storm Ketsana, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is distributing emergency food items for affected families, to help them recover from what is reportedly the worst flooding to hit the Philippines in more than 40 years.

Ketsana, which is also known locally as Ondoy, hit the northern Philippines over the weekend, bringing torrential rainfall, record flooding and deadly landslides, and displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

“The recent calamity brought by typhoon Ondoy was an extreme event not likely to happen again in our lifetimes,” said Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, “[It was] an extreme event whose record rainfall strained our response capabilities to the limit.”

The intervention will provide for the nutritional needs of 1,345 families currently residing in evacuation centers in the metropolitan Manila region.

To help these survivors, ADRA is distributing food packs for affected families in the greater Metro Manila area, starting with Quezon City, one of the worst affected areas in the region. Each pack will feed a family for one week, and is stocked with rice, sardines, noodles, fruits, beans, milk and essential food items, such as oil, salt, and sugar.

ADRA is coordinating with authorities from the local city/municipal Department of Social Welfare and Development offices, as well as the Adventist Community Services (ACS), in order to avoid duplication, and better prioritize those who are most in need.

This initial response is valued at $20,000, and is financed by the Southern Asia Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists, ADRA International, the ADRA Asia Regional Office, and ADRA Philippines.

As of September 29, the National Disaster Coordinating Council reported that more than 333,000 families were affected by the storm, with 246 people confirmed dead, and another 38 still missing. More than $99 million worth of infrastructure and crops were destroyed by the storm, with $66 million of that in the agricultural sector, and more than $32 million in infrastructure.

GMANews.TV, a website for the news department of the Philippine broadcaster GMA Network, Inc., reported that, according to Nathaniel Cruz, weather services bureau head of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), in the first six hours of the storm, total rainfall was approximately 13 inches (341 mm), greater than the highest number in recorded history of rainfall in one 24-hour period set in 1967. Cruz also added that in those six hours, it rained nearly as much as it normally rains in an entire month in Metro Manila.

On September 26, a State of National Calamity was declared for Metro Manila and 25 Luzon provinces in response to the storm, allowing officials to use emergency funds for relief and rescue.

Updates will be released as response efforts expand.

(ADRA International)