The latest news from the field

This week, the World Hunger Fund generously approved a grant of CDN $20,000 to help World Accord's partners accompany communities devastated by floods in Central America to reconstruct. 

In October we reported that parts of Central America had experienced unprecedented rain storms; storms that at one point covered 90% of El Salvador with flood waters. 

Our partners in that country as well as in Honduras and Guatemala have continued to assist some of the thousands of people who lost their homes and livelihoods to these storms. These new funds will help Mujeres en Accion (Guatemala) and ADCASMUS in (El Salvador) assist 350 farming families.  The corn and bean crops these families lost, were their main source of food and income.  This assistance will help them stay on the farm and begin to grow food again. Our partner in Honduras, PAG, will use a share of the funds to help isolated families with start-up kits, and to assist communities in to rebuild essential infrastructure. 

World Accord and its partners gratefully aknowledge the generous support of the World Hunger Fund and all of the other friends who expressed their solidarity with the people of Central America. 

Two weeks of torrential rains, 700,000 affected, and 90 dead.  That is part of the story coming from Central America today.

Since October 11, most of the small land bridge connecting North and South America has been covered by unrelenting rains.  Parts of the most afflicted countries, Guatemala and El Salvador, have seen more than 4 feet of rain fall in less than a week. This is more than three times the normal monthly average.

As in all humanitarian crises, the toll has a human face. That is the other part of the story  “Several families in Chipoton lost their homes, and most of those in Chirijuyú their crops” reports Felipa Xico, director of MeA, our partner in Guatemala.  "These are our friends.  They had struggled for years to improve their lives." She continues, “it will take days until the roads are cleared and we can know how people are.  We have offered the MeA offices as emergency shelter." 

Our partners in El Salvador and Honduras are likewise taking stock of the damage to homes and crops.  World Accord’s best equipped partner in the region, PAG, began trucking food, blankets, and building materials last week. “We really need some help to purchase food for these families,” wrote Chet Thomas of PAG.  “This situation is quite serious and it will continue for a long time as everything has been lost, food supply, jobs, homes and in some cases, hope!”

Many fear the lost corn and bean harvests in will mean hunger for hundreds of thousands in a region where food insecurity is already widespread.

Check back here for more news, and visit our Hot Topics blog for a discussion coming soon on the connection between Climate Change and the Floods in Central America. 

World Accord deeply thanks the many friends and supporters who responded to our East Africa emergency appeal.  Thanks to your solidarity we raised $3,581.50.  This money is helping the effort to provide essential food and emergency supplies to families in Southern Ethiopia and Somalia affected by the crisis.

In Ethiopia, our partner Hope International Development Agency, is working to feed severely acutely malnourished children in Gewada district. Hope is working to provide 15,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition with ready-to-use therapeutic food to help them survive for the next several months.  These activities are going as planned.  With the help of other funders, Hope is also providing food rations and mosquito nets to 1,350 vulnerable families.

In Somalia, Hope and its local partners are providing rations of dry rations to families in a refugee camp in Hodan District, at the outskirts of Mogadishu.  Until this work began, the 670 families living in “Camp K” had been receiving little help, leaving most adults to walk to other camps to seek cooked food for their children. Families are now receiving supplies of rice, maize, flour, sugar and oil. 

World Accord partnered with Hope International Development Agency to respond to the worst drought in East Africa in 50 years. Hope International has decades of experience working in the region, and a strong knowledge of local communities and conditions.  All of the donations received by World Accord were matched by the Canadian Government through its East Africa Drought Relief Fund.  At the time of this posting, Canadians had donated a total of $70 million to help the the 13 million people in East Africa severely affected by drought and conflict.

After the earthquake struck Nepal and northern India, we asked for an update from Shobha Shresta, the director general of our partner organization in Kathmandu - Women for Peace and Democracy.  What follows is her response. 

Dear David and Nelson,

Namaste,

Yes, it is very sad news that that eleven people have died due to the earthquake in Jhapa and Bara, the eastern region. Its been said that the eastern hilly districts took the burnt of 6.8 quake which is the biggest the country witnessed in 78 years. About 80 others injured in several districts in east including Taplejung, the district closed to the epicenter in Sikkim state of India. Its been said that hundreds of houses in Taplejung, Panchthar, Bhojpur and Sankhuwasabha have collapsed. Schools in the affected districts have also been damaged in the quake, halting classes. More than 500 families in Ilam (east) were displaced in the quake and around 1,000 houses were destroyed.

Thank you David, Nelson and everyone at World Accord for remembering us.

With best regards from everyone at WPD

Best regards,
Shobha

If you went to Haiti to look for signs of a brighter future, where would you go?  A few days ago I found myself in the mountain district of Fon Batis, a 100 km north of Port-au-Prince, being inspired by farmers.

I was there with FIDA-PcH (Productive Cooperatives of Haiti), World Accord’s partner in that country. FIDA-PcH has worked with farmers in Fon Batis for years: helping to organize cooperatives, providing credits, and offering literacy classes and training on sustainable farming.

Fon Batis sits atop a rugged, rocky, dry mountain chain. Years of producing coffee and charcoal have left very few trees, and growing food there is difficult, even with FIDA-PcH’s help.  Following the massive earthquake that struck Haiti last year, thousands of the families who lost their homes moved to the countryside.  Some came to Fon Batis looking for safety, shelter and food.  Local people accommodated them, but food is scarce, and now there is even more pressure on the land.  

In February, World Accord and FIDA-PcH began a project to help Fon Batis and nearby Saint Marc to respond.  Since then, FIDA-PcH has been helping 120 farmers from 6 coops learn to grow garden crops in the dry season.  With training in organic growing, seeds and ongoing technical advice, these farmers will be able to produce more food for themselves and for local markets.  Farmers improve their incomes, but everyone benefits from having better access to local, healthy food during the “hunger months.”  

At Fon Batis I observed a training workshop, where about 20 farmers – all but two of them women – learned to produce compost and grow leeks during the dry season.  One technique involved protecting seeds with ash and banana leaves until they become strong enough to stand the sun.  FIDA-PcH estimates that each farming family will improve their income by at least $150 with that crop alone.