As of Dec 20, 2011, reports from their national disaster agency confirm 957 people have lost their lives as a result of the flashfloods and mudslides, and 49 were missing, with most of the casualties in the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in the Mindanao region, the target communities of ADRA’s efforts. The disaster agency has stated that 338,000 people have been affected by floods and landslides and that 45,000 are currently seeking shelter in temporary evacuations centers. There are estimates that 10,000 homes in the region have been damaged. Many schools, roads and bridges have also been reported as severely damaged as a result of flooding and mudslides.

ADRA is responding in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, the two hardest hit communities, conducting assessments in cooperation with Adventist Community Services and the regional office of The Department of Social Welfare and Development, both of the Philippines.

As the government prepares mass graves for the victims, ADRA is focused on assisting the survivors. ADRA-UK has committed an initial emergency contribution to the $100,000 ADRA Network response that will address the immediate response needs of survivors; providing drinking water, food and non-food essentials like bedding, eating utensils, clean water, and hygiene kits.

To support the survivors of Typhoon Washi donations can be given to the ADRA-UK Disaster Relief fund here. or visit our website to donate online.

The project focuses on building the capacity of 7 national civil society organisations to deliver Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) programmes to 16,800 adult learners (80% vulnerable people including widows, people living with HIV & Aids and rural women). This 3 year project (2011 – 2014) is being implemented in 7 Districts of Rwanda’s Eastern Province with the support of the Ministry f Education, Parliamentary Forum for Women, UNESCO, UNICEF, DFID, IRDP, Rwanda women’s network, Pro-femme Twese Hamwe, Action Aid, ADEPER, African Evangelical Enterprise (AEE), ASOFERWA, Women’s Ministry of Seventh Day Adventists (MIFEM) and the Catholic Education Council. The overall aim is to increase adult literacy rates to 90% by the year 2015.

In July 2011, in order to prepare the new project staff, ADRA-UK organized a start up workshop that centered on reviewing what the project was planning to achieve, ensuring that everyone had a full understanding of this and what needed to be done in order to accomplish the objectives of the project. The workshop was facilitated by Tom Pignon, ADRA-UK’s programmes officer and supported by Howa Avan-Nomayo the team leader for ADRA-UK Programmes department.
By November 2011, the project is fully underway with it’s implementation and is working with a consultant on the baseline to secure better results in the Eastern Province. Similar projects have been implemented in some sectors of Nyagatare and Karongi districts and have brought about positive change in the social, political and economic aspects of people’s lives. It is hoped that this project will achieve similar results.

ADRA has been working in Rwanda for more than 30 years. During that period the agency has contributed to the development of the country by implementing different activities in Education, Health, Food Security, Economic Empowerment and Relief and Disaster Management.

For more information please see our website at www.adra.org.uk

The 20-month project implemented by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) UK in collaboration with ADRA Ghana benefitted about 130 communities in the Upper West and Northern Regions of Ghana with specific objectives of providing the farmers with improved strategies for dealing with soaring food prices.

The EUR 1.3 million-project ended in August 2011 and saw a drastic reduction in post harvest losses from 34 – 40 % to about 2% with up to 400% crop yield increases per acre over baseline figures for project beneficiaries and most supported households, while providing enough food for households to eat throughout the year and technology transfer.

In a keynote address at a workshop to evaluate lessons learnt during the project, the Charge d’Affaires at the Delegation of the EU to Ghana, Mr. Kurt Cornelis said the EU will continue to support financially Ghana in line with its commitment to respect international protocols. “Due to the presence of improved governance systems, the current focus of the EU’s aid financial support / aid delivery is budget support instead of the project approach. Thus under the 10th European Development Fund (EDF), nearly 48% of the available funding under the A-envelope is devoted to budget support with special attention to continued progress on poverty reduction and economic growth.”

He stressed the need for the gains achieved under the NGFSRP to be linked to the wider agricultural sector to ensure their sustainability and asked for concerted efforts to address the major constraints facing agricultural sector amongst which are improved access to markets, agricultural financial services and improved rural infrastructure as well as enhances human resource and institutional capacity.

The Country Director of ADRA Ghana, Dr. W. Y. K. Brown, in a welcome address said ADRA had always been involved in collaborations to ensure food security in Ghana since food insecurity was a big challenge to most developing countries including Ghana. He said ADRA Ghana partnered with ADRA UK which was given the grant to implement the food security project in the northern part of Ghana stressing that it had enjoyed good collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to implement impactful food security projects in Ghana.

Mr. Samuel Asante-Mensah, Agricultural and Food Security Programmes Director of MOFA and Mr. Isaac Kankam-Boadu, Project Manager, NGFSRP, in a presentation on the lessons learnt, told workshop participants that the project had increased the capacity of farmer-based organizations in the communities with increased crop yields and reduced post harvest losses, reduction in household food shortages, the involvement of the vulnerable, especially more women, the youth and some blind farmers to engage in maize cultivation. The farmers’ capacities were improved in marketing of agro-based products. He concluded that the project has made positive contributions towards addressing food insecurity in the identified communities.

The European Union in 2009 launched the “EUR 1 billion Food Facility” instrument as its rapid response and immense support to tackle the soaring food prices and disturbingly increasing hunger in the world. The instrument provided support to fifty vulnerable developing countries to help them cope with worsening food insecurity caused by volatile food prices by improving availability of and access to food. Under the instrument, Ghana benefited from three food facility projects totaling EUR 5,710,000.

Source: European Commission website

In responding to the crisis, ADRA’s strategy is to reach the unreached and provide immediate life saving help. Additional information on the Agency’s response will be provided as programs expand.

Updates will continue to be posted as additional information is received from the ongoing response in the region.

Please give now. Together we can save lives throughout the Horn of Africa and around the world.

With approximately 4 million people in a state of food-insecurity, NGO’s in Somalia have made providing adequate food a top priority. At present, ADRA is distributing food throughout the Central Somalia region. Recently, a Network funded project for more than $350,000 was launched in the Banadir region of the country. The project will be carried out in three phases and will come to a close by January 2012.

“There are many IDP’s (internally displaced persons) coming to this region. We (ADRA Somalia) have coordinated with other organizations and established which area in the IDP camp ADRA will carryout the distribution,” Said ADRA Somalia Country Director, Joel Echevarria. “The coordination process has been completed with local authorities, and in days we will start our food distribution with a local partner.”

ADRA’s work is also reaching primary-aged school children through a school-feeding program carried out in the Galmudug and Banadir regions of Central Somalia. Funded by ADRA Germany, the program provides hot meals for children when at school, ensuring they are given the nourishment needed. In addition, ADRA is using the school-feeding program to encourage parents to continue sending their children to school. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Afairs (OCHA) report an estimated 1.8 million children are out of school, largely due to internal displacement.

“In Somalia, ADRA is currently implementing 30 development projects related to education. Although this is an emergency response, we are using a programmatic approach. Due to the drought, the dropout rate amongst students is normally very high. Through this activity, we are trying to reduce that rate,” Echevarria explained.

As water remains scarce, ADRA continues to provide Somali’s with safe drinking water through emergency water trucking and rehabilitation of water points, which include boreholes and large water preservation structures referred to as a ‘berkads.’

“It is [a berkad] like a building built in the middle of the desert, and is a last resort for areas with no access to a water source. In some places you cannot dig wells or boreholes because you will get salty and contaminated water, however the water stored in a berkad is collected by rain,” Echevarria said.

Through June 2012, ADRA is implementing water-related projects, providing clean water from protected water sources for tens of thousands of beneficiaries and their livestock, in addition to constructing and/or rehabilitating boreholes, wells, and berkads.

In Somaliland, ADRA is working with communities to help strengthen their self-dependency on food. As regions there have not been as severely affected by the drought, this Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) project is teaching dwellers techniques in growing vegetable gardens for family use, and for small income generating purposes.

In responding to the crisis, ADRA’s strategy is to reach the unreached and provide immediate life saving help. Additional information on the Agency’s response will be provided as programs expand.

Updates will continue to be posted as additional information is received from the ongoing response in the region.

Please give now. Together we can save lives throughout the Horn of Africa and around the world.

Source: ADRA International

On the 14th of October ADRA Thailand in partnership with Thailand Adventist Mission, Bangkok Adventist Hospital and Mission Health Foods began procurement of emergency supplies. The supplies (rice, drinking water, noodles, tinned fish and basic medical provisions) were packed into family packages at the Ekamai International School and loaded on trucks in Bangkok. The trucks transported the supplies to the Nakhon Luang District of Ayutthaya province which is an area affected severely by the floods. Here 600 families cut off by flooding were given the family packs using trucks and boats. ADRA Thailand is planning further distribution to about 600 more families in Nakhon Luang. This phase of the emergency response, funding provided by the ADRA network, will assist about 2000 families or roughly 8000 direct beneficiaries.

Donations can be given to the ADRA-UK Disaster Relief fund here. or visit our website to donate online.

Source: ADRA Thailand