GENEVA (August 8, 2007) – CARE is launching an appeal for more than US$5 million to provide relief in South Asia, where floods are affecting an estimated 35 million people. CARE is currently providing emergency relief in Pakistan, Nepal, India, and Bangladesh, where millions of people in flood affected areas across the region are suffering from a lack of shelter, safe drinking water and food. In cooperation with local partners, CARE has been providing high energy nutritional food to women and children, and is also helping install emergency water facilities. In many areas, CARE has been active in helping evacuate people stranded for days by floods.
CARE is also distributing emergency packages, designed to provide a family with basic necessities to live for at least a week.
"These floods have been devastating for millions of people," says Jonathan Mitchell, CARE International's Emergency Response Director, "Many of those affected were already poor, and now they have lost their homes, crops and other possessions. It is going to take sustained support to help them get back on their feet."
CARE is now appealing for funding to help an estimated 239,000 people across the region. In India, CARE is providing relief to people in West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. In Pakistan, CARE has been working through partners in Sindh and Belochistan and the North West Frontier Province. In Nepal, CARE has been active throughout the flood stricken plains of the south, and CARE is deeply involved in providing relief to the worst hit areas of Bangladesh.
Even after the flood waters recede, the region will be faced with a monumental humanitarian catastrophe. Millions of people have not only lost their possessions as well as their houses, but they have also lost the means of earning a livelihood. The floods have destroyed crops, killed livestock and damaged local infrastructure, including buildings, water systems, roads and bridges, most of which will have to be rebuilt before the region's economy can return to normal.
CARE needs to raise at least $5 million to cover immediate relief efforts, as well as the recovery and rehabilitation work that will follow.
In Switzerland, donations can be made to CCP 17-586625-0.
Please mention "Asia Floods."
For more information contact:
William Dowell at CARE International's secretariat in Geneva
email: [email protected] tel: +41 79 590 3047