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Africa floods

Countries
Burkina Faso
+ 4 more
Sources
Christian Aid
Publication date

Flooding across Africa in August and September washed away homes, crops and livestock, leaving hundreds of thousands in urgent need of food and shelter.

Thanks to the generous support of Christian Aid's supporters we raised £153,000/€210,000. This, in addition to our general emergency funds, enabled us to provide immediate assistance to those most in need in the countries worst affected by the floods.

Whilst the rains have ceased and the waters have now subsided many people are still in need of assistance because the rains washed away the first crops of the harvest, leaving people without enough food to see themselves through the hungry season.

In Uganda...

Christian Aid sent £85,738/€117,683, split between two partners in the east of Uganda working in the Katakwi and Amuria districts, the worst affected regions of the country.

The flooding in eastern Uganda was reportedly the worst in living memory. 400,000 people were affected and more than 150,000 people's homes were either destroyed or seriously damaged.

The Church of Uganda TEDDO received £51,000/€70,000. This was used to fund the distribution of blankets, mosquito nets, jerry cans, soap and tarpaulin to 5,000 households to help them cope in the immediate aftermath to the floods.

TEDDO is also providing health and sanitation training as the floods contaminated water sources and swept away pit latrines. Extra measures such as boiling and filtering water are needed in order to make the water safe to drink, and toilets must be rebuilt. TEDDO has trained over 100 health promoters and distributed 100 latrine digging tool kits, water filtering equipment and Jeri cans.

Youth with a Mission (YWAM) received £35,738/€49,000. This money provided:

- water purifications systems to 17 primary schools, enabling school children to return to school after they were closed because of water contamination;

- a mobile health clinic, providing health care for more than 3,000 people including people living with HIV who, because of the floods, could not access basic health care to treat opportunistic infections;

- 10kgs of maize flour, 5kgs of soya flour and 2kgs of sugar to 800 households identified to be particularly vulnerable on the basis of food availability and the number of children per household under five.

In Ghana...

Christian Aid sent £101,000/€139,000 to two partners working in the Northern and Upper Eastern regions of Ghana.

The floods destroyed people's homes and washed away harvests. Agencies have predicted severe food shortages in the north in 2008 because of the extent of the damage caused by the floods.

Christian Aid sent £51,000/€73,000 to the Northern Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and £50,000/€69,000 to CENSUDI to fund the distribution of:

- 2,024 bags of maize and millet to 3,024 households;

- 200 bags of zinc, cement and housing materials to help families rebuild their homes;

- onion, tomato, cowpea, okra and leafy vegetable seeds and livestock for farmers so they can replant their crops for harvests next year and restock lost animals.

In Sudan...

Flooding began in July in seventeen of the country's 25 states.

Christian Aid responded to the situation in northern Upper Nile where 10,000 families were affected, 2,000 of which lost their homes. Christian Aid sent £75,000/€103,000 to an NGO consortium of local and international organisations including Christian Aid partner the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS).

As well as distributing food, plastic sheeting, mosquito nets and buckets and providing health, water and sanitation services the project also began work to help people to resettle once the waters had subsided and find safer places to live.

The camps established following the floods closed at the end of November and ECS used the displacement as an opportunity to raise the issue of safer resettlement sites with the local authorities and communities. As a result of these discussions the communities and authorities have allocated land in sites better protected from natural disasters for the families displaced by floods.

In Ethiopia...

Heavy rains caused serious, localised flooding across the country. Christian Aid focused its response on the regions where little help was getting through and sent £50,000 to support projects in Gambella, in south-western Ethiopia, and in the North Shoa and North Wollo zones of Amhara.

The projects were jointly managed by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) and the Evangelical Church of Mekane Yesus (EECMY) and the funds enabled the distribution of 22,000 blankets, mattresses, Jeri cans and cooking pots to the worst affected families.

In Burkina Faso...

More than 40,000 people have been affected, with over 7,000 people homeless and vast areas of farmland crops destroyed by flood waters.

The situation threatens an impending food crisis. Christian Aid has sent £60,000/€86,000 to partner organisation ODE to fund distribution of cereal crops, oil, fish and flour to more than 18,500 people affected by the floods.

ODE will receive a further £30,000/€43,000 in January to fund longer term work to enable communities to identify areas prone to flooding and to adopt farming strategies to protect themselves from the effects of floods.