Disaster survivors need long term community regeneration, not just aid

This is a re-print of the blog I just wrote on NewStart Magazine’s page. Read the original here. In late September and early October, Asia and the Pacific were struck by a nearly simultaneous string of natural disasters. These events have killed thousands and affected over 4 million residents across Asia and the Pacific. All [...]

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Asia-Pacific Disaster Developments

Our official recognition as a registered charity couldn’t have come at a better time. The situation in Asia and the Pacific continues to evolve, and we are looking forward to launching our fundraising campaign in the coming weeks with an eye to deployment early next year. The dates are still tentative and will largely depend [...]

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Complex Aid

Most of us are aware of the reports out of Sri Lanka in the wake of the recent war.  The conflict forced 250,000 civilians to leave their homes, and many of them are now housed in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. These tent cities house tens of thousands in heat exceeding 35 degrees Celsius. The [...]

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Catholic Adoption Charity Controversy

The Catholic Church has taken some hits of late. First there was the fiasco of the Pope’s declaration on condom’s in Africa. “You can’t resolve it with the distribution of condoms,” the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane heading to Yaounde. “On the contrary, it increases the problem.” His comments sparked fierce responses from [...]

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UN fielding Questions on Global Disaster Risk

A couple of interesting notices from Alertnet. YOUR TURN TO ASK: This Sunday, the United Nations will launch an important new report looking at how, where and why disaster risk is increasing globally. AlertNet has asked Margareta Wahlstrom, the United Nations’ top official on disaster risk reduction, to field questions from readers ahead of the [...]

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Dangerous Aid

In 2008, 260 humanitarian aid workers were killed, kidnapped or seriously injured in violent attacks – the highest yearly toll on record…The fatality rate of aid workers from malicious acts alone surpassed that of United Nations peacekeeping soldiers in 2008. In the most violent contexts for aid workers, politically motivated attacks have risen relative to [...]

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L’Aquila: The Deployment that Wasn’t

We went into Italy to see if the affected population needed our help, and they don’t. So there won’t be an EDV deployment in Italy.Part of me is sad, but I keep shushing that part as one hushes a child asking slightly embarrassing questions. This is the ambulance chasing, adrenaline junky that I suspect exists [...]

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Italy

Unless you live under a rock, you know that there was a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in the Abruzzo Region of Italy. The city of L’Aquila was especially hard hit, as many of its buildings were hundreds of years old, and were obviously not up to modern, ant-seismic regulations. The figures are remarkable. Over 12,000 volunteers [...]

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