Emergency interventions
Terre des hommes (Tdh) intervenes in the context of natural disasters or civil war when the situation and the objective needs of the population require emergency action. Our target is to ensure psychosocial protection for children or to help communities with measures of hygiene.

Terre des hommes sets up projects in the following countries:

Haiti
Tdh comes to the aid of victims of the 12th January earthquake.
Active for the past 20 years in the region of Les Cayes (southern department), the Tdh delegation, backed up by expatriates sent as reinforcements, is continuing its current projects for health and nutrition, on top of its emergency activities in the region of Léogâne, Petit and Grand Goâve (west of Port au Prince).
• You can regularly find updated information in News.
• Flyer Emergency Haiti (in French or Deutch)


Gaza Strip (Occupied Palestinian Territories)
Terre des hommes (Tdh) has stepped up its intervention for mothers and children in the Gaza Strip, in close collaboration with the Ard El Insan organization. Tdh has prepared an emergency shipment specifically intended for children, containing, for example, warm clothing, babies' nappies, games etc. and articles for hygiene. Tdh will be sending in its teams to support our partners and to help them give, as quickly as possible, a response to the traumas suffered by the children and their families.


Syria/Jordan/Lebanon
A project of regional scope was started up in September 2008, financed by ECHO, Unicef Jordan and Unicef Syria. Its targets are to bring protection and psychosocial aid to Iraqi refugee children and their families in Syria, in Jordan and in Lebanon. The United Nations estimates two million Iraqis dislocated to the interior of the country and a further two million displaced abroad since the war started in Iraq in 2003, the majority of the refugees now being in these three countries. They are faced with great difficulty to access adequate services, particularly psychological; and yet the need for this is greater than ever owing to the severe trauma to which they were subjected in their home country.


Georgia
Terre des hommes intervened in Georgia following the conflict with Russia in Summer 2008, when over 100,000 people were displaced. In Tbilissi and Gori, Tdh has also opened four reception centers to give psychosocial aid to 500 children, with appropriate supervision for their parents. Tdh intervenes as well with recreational activities in six villages in the buffer zone between South Ossetia and Georgia. Financed by the DDC, Swiss Solidarity and the Geneva Republic, the project is planned to last one year.


Myanmar (Burma)
Following the cyclone Nargis which swept over Burma in May, 2008, Terre des hommes distributed first aid material and set up work to purify drinking water in the region of Rangoon. About 5,000 people, half of them children, received first aid kits as well as had consultations with a doctor and other specialists on the hygiene precautions needed to avoid epidemics. A project for the renovation of nine schools and for building sanitary structures in twelve schools started in December 2008.


Bangladesh
Emergency medical and material aid was set up after the cyclone Sidr hit the coast of Barishal in Spring 2008. A large project for sanitary renovation and rebuilding to benefit 6,000 children is under way until the end of 2009, with the support of Swiss Solidarity.


Peru
After the earthquake which hit Peru on 15th August, 2007, Terre des hommes was one of the first organizations to be active on behalf of the stricken people of Pisco. It is one of the only organizations still working there. A drinking-water supply was made accessible to families and psychosocial activities were organized for the children, badly traumatized by the loss of their families or homes. The project will come to an end in May 2009.
The August 2007 earthquake (in French)
Psychosocial activities (in French)
Distribution of drinking water (in French)


India
Terre des hommes implemented various post-tsunami projects for rehabilitation in villages on the Andaman Islands and in Andhra Pradesh in India. The projects aimed at improving access to schooling and at improving the earning capacity of the poorest families. Centers for development and for recreational activities made it possible for the children to reduce their great psychological tension. At present the projects now running are in the field of health and renovation of sanitary structures so as to improve access to drinking water and to hygiene services.


Sudan
Away from natural disasters, we intervene in the Sudan in the area of civil war in Darfur. We manage the coordination of services and the upkeep of shelters, helping 50,000 people in three refugee camps near El Geneina. We also run specific psychosocial activities with over 1,200 children in fourteen centers.


Terre des hommes informs and alerts the media on its emergency interventions:
Read all our press releases