ADRA-UK News Update

A tenner (£10) will feed a hungry child in Niger for two months! A meal of millet porridge for breakfast followed by beans and rice for dinner will be live-savers for over 2,000 school children in famine hit Niger. Starting Monday the 23rd of August ADRA-UK, with its local partner ADRA Niger, will feed the most vulnerable of the children educated by ADRA in Niger along with their siblings for a period of two months. This will help them through the critical hunger months that are now hitting Niger.

With the current food crisis in Niger children are at high risk of malnutrition. Using one of the two Niamey ADRA schools that is in close proximity to one of the neediest populations, ADRA Niger will provide two meals a day to 2,000 of the most vulnerable children in Koira Tigi area at the edge of the capital.

The meals will consist of locally available staples. The first meal will be traditional Nigerien breakfast fare, millet porridge and the second meal will provide a balance of protein and carbohydrates incorporating as many vegetables as possible.

By preventing these children from becoming malnourished and ill as they prepare to go back to school not only is their immediate need for food being served, but their continued participation in education is encouraged.

The project, valued at £20,000, is funded by money raised by the 25,000spins’ London-Paris cycle ride and private donations.

To donate to this project and help children in Niger please visit our website at http://adra.org.uk

A serious famine is threatening the lives of tens of thousands of children in the world’s poorest country Niger. To help the survivors and bring a little hope in their lives, ADRA-UK is planning to send the 2010 Shoebox Appeal to Niger. Beneficiaries will include orphans and impoverished children, ages 5 to 12.

Because the shoeboxes are going to Niger we want to be more specific in what you can pack. When the shoeboxes arrive in January Niger will just have come out of the biggest famine it ever faced in its history. The surviving children will need encouragement and a little token of our care. We are asking you to pack school supplies and a personal hygiene kit.

School supplies can include items like pens, pencils, notebooks etc. Please include in each box soap, washcloths, toothbrush and toothpaste. Flip-flops are also a good item to include.

Please no food items or sweets and nothing that will melt e.g. crayons.

Any kind of small toy is fine, but secondary. No battery operated toys please.

ADRA-UK is working with its local partner ADRA Niger for the distribution of the shoeboxes.

More information about the 2010 Shoebox Appeal is available here!

Alternatively, contact Hilary on 01923-681723 or email her at info@adra.org.uk

ADRA will soon start the relief work to help victims of the recent floods in Nowshera. Located in the North West Frontier Province, Nowshera District borders on the Punjab province. and is approximately a 2-hour drive from Islamabad on the way to Peshawar. A base office will be established in Rawalpindi and which will accommodate the project management team.

Given the urgent need for medical attention and the likelihood of a sharp increase in the incidence of water-borne diseases, ADRA will be partnering with Karachi Adventist Hospital in providing medical services to the affected population. Medical services will be set up at the local schools, hospitals and community centres. Site locations will be selected in collaboration with local and tribal authorities as well as the army, which is also supporting the response efforts.

ADRA’s first response will focus around the three hospitals and health clinics that were destroyed in the Nowshera district. In addition, health education will be undertaken in the schools to raise awareness to different water-borne diseases and how to treat and/or attend to those who may be suffering from one of these diseases.

ADRA Trans Europe coordinates the project and the ADRA network partners and ADRA International provide funding. ADRA-UK is contributing US$10,000 towards this first response programme.

For donations please visit our website or follow this link to donate.

The governing body of south-central Somalia, Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (Movement of Warrior Youth), declared this week that ADRA, Wold Vision and Diakonia are organisations that can no longer operate inside the country because they are “acting as missionaries under the guise of humanitarian work.”

On Monday morning August 9 at around 8am in a very well coordinated action al-Shabaab took over the local ADRA offices in Beletweyne, Bulo Burti, Hudur and Baidoa. ADRA Somalia local staff were kept for almost one hour in their offices and their phones seized. All of them were released later and permitted to return home.

ADRA expects that the order to close its operations in the south-central part of Somalia will adversely affect more than 180,000 people living in the regions of Bakool, Bay, and Hiraan where the agency is working to build and rehabilitate wells, provide livelihoods, and increase access to education.

Since 1992, ADRA’s work in Somalia has focused solely on implementing emergency relief and development interventions through various sectors, including water, sanitation, food security, education, health, infrastructure, institutional capacity building, agricultural support, and economic development. In 2008 alone, more than 650,000 Somalis benefitted from ADRA’s humanitarian work, which is located in various regions in northern and south-central Somalia. ADRA remains committed to serving the people of Somalia as circumstances allow.

As a global international humanitarian organization, ADRA is a signatory of the Code of Conduct for The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief, which states that “aid will not be used to further a particular political or religious standpoint", that “aid is given regardless of the race, creed, or nationality", and that organizations “shall respect culture and custom.” Based on this code of conduct, ADRA implements programs that directly improve the long-term development of vulnerable people.

As waters begin to slowly recede in northern Pakistan following some of the worst flooding in the area in 80 years, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is assessing the immediate needs of affected communities, the agency reported.

Some of the most urgently needed relief aid, ADRA emergency response experts say, includes shelters for displaced families, blankets, hygiene kits, food, water, and medical assistance.

Since the flooding began in late July, more than 1,500 people have died, thousands have become homeless, and some three million people have been affected. The effect of the flooding on farmlands, crops, cattle, roads, buildings, and communication networks has been severe.

“The entire infrastructure we built in the last 50 years has been destroyed,” a spokesman for the provincial Disaster Management Authority in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa said.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 36 districts in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province, have reported flooding so far. In addition, the threat of water-borne diseases remains high in all affected areas, as the flooding has contaminated water sources.

“This is the worst ever calamity in our history,” said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

As more heavy monsoon rains are in the forecast, government authorities expect the number of dead to climb further. In addition, the vast amounts of water, which are now flowing south through Baluchistan, Punjab and Sindh provinces, have already caused flash flooding and are threatening low-lying areas.

ADRA Trans Europe is coordinating the planning of relief work in Pakistan. More information will follow.

Donations can be given to the ADRA-UK Disaster Relief fund here.

Source: ADRA International

A mix of light snow and rain combined with sub-zero temperatures has increased the urgency of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency’s (ADRA) response to the powerful earthquake that shook China’s Qinghai Province on April 14, killing more than 1,700 people, injuring tens of thousands of people and displacing hundreds of thousands more, according to Chinese officials.

To meet the needs of survivors in the affected city of Yushu, ADRA has dispatched a relief team from Chengdu in Sichuan province with two trucks carrying 1,000 heavy blankets and 1,000 mattresses for displaced survivors. Due to the remote location and treacherous mountain roads, the supplies are expected to arrive in three days. Upon their arrival an additional assessment will be made to determine the urgent needs of the affected population.

ADRA China is working with the Chinese Civil Affairs Bureau and the Sichuan Provincial Ethnic Minority Health Promotion Association to coordinate relief efforts with responding agencies. According to the Qinghai Province Yushu Earthquake Response Headquarters the affected area still lacks drinking water, food, and cold-proof goods and materials.

Updates on ADRA’s response to the recent earthquake in China will be released as the response efforts expand.

The quake was measured at a 6.9 magnitude by the U. S. Geological Survey, (USGS) and the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS), with a depth of 6.2 miles (10 km).

According to government officials, 85 percent of all residential houses have collapsed, while a series of aftershocks have made still standing buildings, such as schools and hospitals, a danger for the more than 100,000 displaced survivors.

Located on a plateau 3,700 meters above sea level, the cold weather is quickly becoming a major concern for the hundreds of thousands of survivors in Yushu whose homes have been destroyed.

To support ADRA’s immediate response send your contribution to the Emergency Response Fund here!

Source: ADRA International