Charities are providing life-saving supplies to people in desperate situations across the world. One organisation that is involved in multiple projects is aid and development charity Human Appeal UK. Here are three of its emergency relief initiatives that you should know about.
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Providing aid in Haiti after Hurricane Matthew
Just six years after a devastating earthquake hit the island, Haiti was struck by a violent hurricane in October last year. The extreme weather event killed more than 500 people and left 1.4 million in urgent need of food assistance. The hurricane damaged infrastructure too, affecting at least 300 schools.
In response to the crisis, Human Appeal sent an emergency team to Haiti to assess the needs of the people living in the worst hit areas. It identified the province of Grand’Anse as the most severely impacted and made it the primary focus of its relief effort. The charity provided food packs and water purification tablets to tens of thousands of families over a period of three months. It also plans to rebuild more than 30 homes and regenerate the mosque in the city of Jérémie. In addition, it intends to construct a bore hole water well that will serve 1,000 people.
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Helping the people of Aleppo
Human Appeal is working on a range of projects in Syria, including initiatives focussing on food security, water and sanitation, livelihoods, health and shelter. In 2016 alone, it delivered £28 million in humanitarian assistance to the country’s most vulnerable people.
Near Aleppo, which has witnessed some of the most intense conflict, the charity has constructed a high-quality camp catering for 2,500 people who have fled the city. It has also distributed thousands of food packs and hygiene parcels to people in rural Aleppo and has provided temporary shelters for 80,000 displaced people in the area. It’s delivered emergency kits containing essentials like blankets and mattresses to people fleeing the city as well.
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Assisting families fleeing conflict in Mosul
Iraq continues to suffer a major humanitarian crisis, with more than three million of its people having lost their homes and 2.9 million people currently suffering food insecurity as a result of the ongoing conflict there. It is predicted that as many as 1.2 million more civilians may be forced to leave their homes in 2017. Mosul is one of the worst affected parts of the country and military sources suggests that as many as 700,000 civilians are still living in the western part of the city, while 500,000 remain in central and eastern districts.
Human Appeal delivered 1,500 food parcels to people in the Khazer camp on the outskirts of the city in November 2016 and it has also provided blankets and arranged food distributions at another camp. This year, it plans to set up a bakery near the camps outside Mosul that will supply food to 50,000 people every day. It will also provide sanitation facilities and clean water to a number of camps across the country and create learning centres for displaced children.
If you want to support projects like these, you can find out more about them on the Human Appeal website.