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South East Asia Appeal No. 05AA057 Programme Update No. 2

Countries
Sri Lanka
+ 6 more
Sources
IFRC
Publication date

The Federation's mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity. It is the world's largest humanitarian organization and its millions of volunteers are a ctive in over 183 countries. For more information: www.ifrc.org
In Brief
Appeal No. 05AA057; Programme Update no. 2, Period covered: 30 April-30 August 2005; Appeal coverage: 66.9%

The appeal budget has been revised from CHF 3,899,022 to CHF 3,362,723 (EUR 2,173,004 or USD 2,563,051). The revision is mainly because of the removal of infrastructure budgets that are now funded by programme support recovery (PSR) and do not require voluntary donor support .

Related Emergency or Annual Appeals:

Tsunami Emergency & Recovery Plan of Action 2005-2010 (28/04), Cambodia Appeal 2005 (05AA052), Timor-Leste Appeal 2005 (05AA053), Myanmar Appeal 2005 (05AA055), Viet Nam Appeal 2005 (05AA056)

Programme summary: Over the reporting period, the Federation's Southeast Asia regional delegation continued to move ahead with tsunami recovery activities including supporting the establishment of the Thailand tsunami operation's centre in Phuket. At the same time, however, programme managers were once again able to focus their attention on working with the national societies on moving forward with longer-term initiatives in the four core areas .

Operational developments

The reporting period commenced with a relative calm , allowing countries in Southeast Asia to address pending matters besides the pressing immediate needs created by the tsunami operations. This respite, however, proved to be short as typhoons, and severe flood ing in Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Myanmar, fires in Indonesia

and the accompanying haze that shrouded Kuala Lumpur once again demanded the immediate attention of public health and disaster management agencies and organizations.

Concern over the threat of avian influenza (subtype H5N1) continues to rise. In July, Indonesia reported the country's first human fatalities due to the disease, while the disease has moved across the globe infecting bird populations in Siberia and Kazakhstan. According to Vietnam's health ministry, since the start of 2005, 64 people from 25 localities have been infected by the disease and there have been 21 deaths in Vietnam alone. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 112 confirmed cases and 25 deaths worldwide over the period 26 December to 5 August.

One of the largest contributing factors to the spread of the disease, as identified by WHO, is the reluctance of poor Asian poultry farmers to report bird flu outbreaks. Millions of poultry have been culled in Asia, destroying the livelihood of many poor farmers; there is, however, insufficient capacity for surveillance of the disease in rural villages, while the lack of education at the community level about the disease puts farmers and market operators at risk.

At the same time, 240 polio cases were reported in Indonesia since May, although it was thought the disease had been eradicated from the country ten years ago. Response has been swift, with the country targeting some 24 million children for a massive vaccination campaign. Nevertheless, WHO has expressed concern that the virus could spread to other parts of Southeast Asia and turn into an epidemic during the rainy season, which began in October.

For further information specifically related to this operation please contact:

In Bangkok: Bekele Geleta, Head of Regional Delegation; email: bekele.geleta@ifrc.org; Phone: +66.2.661.8201; Fax: +66.2.661.9322

In Geneva: Charles Evans or Sabine Feuglet, Southeast Asia Desk, Asia Pacific Department; email: charles.evans@ifrc.org or sabine.feuglet@ifrc.org; Phone: +41.22.730.4320/4349; Fax: +41.22.733.0395

This Programme Update reflects activities to be implemented over a one-year period. This forms part of, and is based on, longer -term, multi-year planning . All International Federation assistance seeks to adhere to the Code of Conduct and is committed to the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response in delivering assistance to the most vulnerable. For support to or for further information concerning Federation programmes or operations in this or other countries, or for a full description of the national society profile, please access the Federation's website at http://www.ifrc.org

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