Climate change at the heart of Tdh projects
20 Jan 2011 Humanitarian crisesKenya, Pakistan, Brazil, Colombia, Myanmar, Mozambique, Benin and Nigeria, Haiti
The year 2010 was marked by the many climatic changes which today worry our society. Visions which may be contested or considered too far in the future for many people, they are still present, visible, and have long passed the mark of disturbing us. During the year, projects, beneficiaries and employees of Tdh have realised these changes and now have to face them. And the scourge continues today with the serious flooding in Brazil and Sri Lanka.
Flooding, seismic movement, earthquakes, cyclones… in 2010, the death toll was nearly 350,000 from natural disasters, with millions of sufferers. In Haiti, Chile, Pakistan, Colombia, Benin, Myanmar, Brazil, Sri Lanka, the Terre des hommes teams did not escape. Even though the ‘emergency plans’, making provision for the best ways of reacting to possible disasters (organisation of the work, stocks of material like food and medicines, etc.) are set up in the regions most exposed to danger, a large number of countries of intervention and Tdh teams have been hit. The only advantage was that the teams were able to set up emergency activities very quickly, whilst waiting for funding, with responses for their own protection and that of the children and families affected.
The first emergency response is being made at this very moment in Brazil, where floods have hit regions adjacent to our areas of action. On the other hand, in Sri Lanka, flooding has hit districts where Tdh intervenes: Batticaloa and Ampara. Our employees are among the million people affected and they are trying to bring first aid to the families and children who they already look after in their projects.
In Haiti and in Chile, struck by earthquakes; in Pakistan, in Colombia and in Benin, victims of serious flooding; in Myanmar, hit by a violent tropical storm in 2010, now is the time for reconstruction and for helping the families to find a certain stability.
But the climate is not quietening down: in Mozambique, another country where Terre des hommes intervenes, heavy rains now threaten to produce the worst floods the country has known for ten years.
