From Trickle to Torrent

A blog by Action Against Hunger’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Advisor, Nick Radin


"The road to Hombo is a muddy mess. When it rains in D.R. Congo, driving a few miles, even in a four-by-four vehicle, can take hours. I’m travelling to see our water installations in Hombo with Mamady Camara, who began working with Action Against Hunger seven years ago in his native Guinea, and now manages our water, sanitation and hygiene programmes in the zone. We’re also accompanied by two national staff, Congolese water technicians named André and Bonaventure, who grew up in the area and know it inside and out.

Over the last six months, the people of Hombo have taken in a wave of new arrivals coming to escape violence and seeking refuge with local families. Compared to surrounding villages, Hombo is perceived as relatively safe because of its close proximity to a base of U.N. Peacekeepers. This recent influx of displaced people has increased the village’s population by nearly 40 percent and put enormous pressure on local resources.

Before Action Against Hunger arrived, the only clean water source for all of Hombo was an unprotected spring - barely more than a trickle, really. You had to stand there for more than two minutes just to fill one 20-litre jerry can with water. This may not seem like a long time, but because there were 5,000 people that needed water every single day, they would sometimes have to wait in line for hours to get it.

Since each family was only permitted to fill one jerry can of water per day, not nearly enough for all their daily needs and far below minimum humanitarian standards, they were forced to draw much of their water from a nearby river.
This is the same river where people bathe, mothers wash their families’ laundry and animals drink and defecate. You can get a whole host of illnesses from drinking dirty water like this, including cholera, diarrhea and dysentery, which kill thousands of children in D.R. Congo every year.

We get out of our vehicle by the river in Hombo and are greeted by a group of women ecstatically whooping and hollering. They are gathering clean water from the tanks Action Against Hunger has installed by the river, and the joy on their faces is contagious.

In June, our teams set up a series of tanks to treat and fully decontaminate water that’s drawn from the river. The clean water from these tanks is then fed directly into a row of taps, where the women and children of Hombo now come to collect water each day. These taps provide more than enough water for the whole village, including the 2,000 newcomers that have arrived over the last few months, which means that all families now have access to as much safe water as they need.

I’m introduced to Bashige Dorcase, who, full of relief, no longer worries about having enough clean drinking water for all her children. Mamaday shows me the place near the river where our hygiene promoters are conducting sessions on practices like hand-washing, safe water handling and latrine usage. These are crucial steps in stopping the spread of water-borne illnesses that have ravaged communities across Congo, and they’re part of our integrated approach to fighting hunger and disease.

In addition to caring for her own children, Bashige has taken in her three young nephews. Full of relief, she tells me how she no longer worries about having enough clean drinking water for all her children. She also says that the residents of Hombo are getting along much better since they don’t argue any more over access to the limited water supply.

Bashige and her family aren’t the only ones whose lives have been changed. Two months after Action Against Hunger came to Hombo, the number of people seeking treatment for diarrhea at the local health centre was cut by more than half. There’s been a dramatic 95 percent drop in reported cholera cases, too.

My job takes me to villages across East and Central Africa just like Hombo. But seeing hope and gratitude on the faces of women like Bashige never gets old for me. At home in New York, it’s sometimes easy to forget how something as simple as a glass of clean water can make a world of difference. But today, it’s obvious. I hear it in the joyous shouts of the people of Hombo”

Action Against Hunger | ACF International is an international humanitarian organisation committed to ending child hunger. For more information, please visit: www.actionagainsthunger.org.uk and become a fan at http://acf-uk-facebook.tk/

Haiti - Two Months On

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — Two months on from the earthquake that devastated Haiti, Action Against Hunger| ACF International continues to ensure that survivors have the basics for survival. Already providing food and water to tens of thousands of survivors, our teams are racing against time to prepare for yet another challenge – the rainy season. Sanitation and the distribution of shelter are now paramount to ensure the humanitarian situation does not deteriorate further.

Update from Port-au-Prince



Action Against Hunger is providing services in clean water, nutrition, sanitation and hygiene to more than 100,000 people in some 40 camps in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas including Leogane, Mergie and Gressier.

* Clean Water: Action Against Hunger has installed 49 large water reservoirs and seven water stations that are providing 740,000 litres of safe drinking water to over 75,000 people daily

* Sanitation: 600 latrines equipped with hand-washing stations have been installed, and 100 staff members are conducting public awareness campaigns on best hygiene practices in emergency settings



* Nutrition Services: A dozen makeshift tents are now operational providing nearly 750 mothers and their young children with a safe setting for breastfeeding, as well as counselling and psycho-social support. The large majority of women are repeat visitors and have received vital support either through group discussions, or in individual sessions. Action Against Hunger is also providing 40 infants whose mothers were killed or injured in the earthquake with nutritional support

* Distribution: Action Against Hunger has distributed 62 tons of high-protein biscuits benefiting some 60,000 people. Action Against Hunger has also distributed kits containing blankets, tarps, buckets, soap, toothbrushes and other basic hygiene materials to more than 30,000 people sheltering in the temporary camps.

* Boosting the Local Economy: Action Against Hunger launched a “cash-for-work” programmr to benefit some 2,400 Port-au-Prince residents, who are clearing roads and doing other critical recovery jobs in anticipation of the rainy season.


Sanitation Critical as Rainy Season Approaches





At the onset of seasonal rains in Haiti, Action Against Hunger is ramping up its emergency sanitation and hygiene programems as the risk of disease outbreaks grows. The organisation is rushing to build latrines and conduct public awareness campaigns in displacement camps where sanitary conditions will likely deteriorate in the coming weeks due to flooding that typically arrives in the early spring.





“Many Port-au-Prince neighborhoods lack drainage systems to handle unsanitary debris deposited by flooding and are extremely vulnerable to mudslides because they’re located on steep hillsides,” says Lucile Grosjean of Action Against Hunger. “It’s a race against time to get sanitation infrastructure in place and train residents to take health precautions during this critical period.”



The raised-platform latrines, managed by local residents recruited by ACF in the camps, are equipped with hand-washing stations and a hundred ACF staff members are providing instruction in best hygiene and sanitation practices in vulnerable areas across the city.



Strengthening programmes in the cities of Port-de-Paix and Gonaives



More than 500,000 people affected by the quake have left Port-au-Prince to take refuge with their families in other regions of Haiti. This has increased the number of those in need of help across the rest of the island. Action Against Hunger’s teams, already present in Gonaives and Port-de-Paix since 2001, have reinforced the programmes that were in place before the earthquake struck. This includes the treatment of severely malnourished children, waste management, building latrines, providing access to drinking water, and the technical and logistical support of hospitals and health centres.





Support received



The budget for Action Against Hunger's Haiti operation currently amasses €16.5 million. These funds have been designated to the emergency phase of our operation and long-term recovery programmes.



30% of all funds, €5.4 million, have come from private donors, with the remainder from institutional donors and trusts. On 10th March, nearly €2.5 million had been spent.



Call 08456 003618 or click here to make a donation to Action Against Hunger's Haiti emergency appeal

Hunger and Malnutrition Crisis Resurfaces in Niger

Niger
11/03/10

In response to massive food shortages and staggering acute malnutrition rates in Niger, international humanitarian organisation Action Against Hunger | ACF International launched an emergency response to provide nutritional support to children, increase the income of vulnerable families and bolster a national initiative to dampen the impact of the crisis. These interventions come on the heel of an announcement by the government of Niger that the rate of severe food insecurity in the country has tripled since last year.

Government authorities estimate that nearly a million children in Niger are moderately malnourished and another 200,000 have severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition. Over 58% of Niger’s population is deemed food insecure, according to recent surveys. Assessments conducted in December showed that some 7.8 million people will be forced to cope without food reserves for at least six months before the October harvest; food stocks for severely insecure households — approximately 20% of the population — have already been depleted. These severe food shortages result from a number of factors, including drought-like conditions, high staple food prices and a sharp drop in the market price of cattle.



“The food situation in Niger has reached a critical stage,” says Lauren Taylor, Niger Desk Officer for Action Against Hunger, which has implemented humanitarian programmes in Niger since 1997. “Families with no other options are going days without eating or are resorting to begging and borrowing to cope with massive shortfalls.”



Action Against Hunger is providing logistical and technical support for the Nigerien government’s response, which includes cash-for-work programmes to create 800 new village grain banks and reinforce another 1,000 existing banks, food and seed distributions to vulnerable households during the planting season, bolstering national grain reserves and nutritional care for children under five. The national plan covers approximately 30% of the food insecure population for three months.



With support from the UK Department for International Development, Action Against Hunger is also launching an emergency intervention in the Mayahi region of southern Niger to provide nutritional support to roughly 18,000 acutely malnourished children under five and cash-based grants to 1,900 vulnerable people to boost purchasing power at local food markets.



Despite these programs, the population’s needs far outstrip available resources. Action Against Hunger is calling on donors to curb the impact of the crisis through immediate funding for nutrition, food security, and livelihoods.