Crisis watch

Nepal

In Nepal, thousands of houses have been destroyed or submerged by the floods, and many families remain in temporary camps or in makeshift tents on the roadside. The risk of waterborne disease is increasing and mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever are a concern. The majority of wells have been inundated with mud leaving communities without access to clean drinking water.

CARE is working with partners in four districts in Nepal – Dang, Bardiya, Banke and Kailali – to distribute relief supplies including food, household items, water purification tablets, mosquito nets, shelter materials and supplies for mothers of new-born babies.

Sarita Mallaha (above) from Majhdiya village in Bardiya district told us:

During times of hunger we drank the flood waters and would salvage sodden rice from our kitchen to feed the children. I am nine months pregnant. My deepest fear was the thought of drowning and putting my unborn child at risk.

Democratic Republic of Congo

CARE teams in the Kasai regions of the DRC report pressing needs in the areas of sexual and reproductive health (SRH), and protection from sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). During CARE’s recent assessment, 100% of interviewees (889 participants) said that they know someone who had experienced sexual violence or that they had witnessed sexual violence during this conflict.

Women and girls are the most likely to be displaced with CARE’s assessment showing that up to 60% of internally displaced people are women and girls, while access to SRH services is extremely difficult. CARE is implementing SRH/SGBV emergency activities in Kasai Oriental funded by our own Emergency Response Fund, and we are looking for additional funding to scale up our response.

Men and boys are also extremely vulnerable as they are likely to either join armed groups, be forced to join armed groups, or targeted as a combatant even if they are not in any armed groups.

Read an update from Kasai by Aaron Brent, CARE Humanitarian Team Leader

Bangladesh

30 districts of Bangladesh have been flooded and 6.9 million people are affected. CARE Bangladesh is the lead of the Needs Assessment Working Group and has coordinated a rapid assessment report. CARE Bangladesh is focusing its response on Kurigram, Jamalpur, and Sirajganj districts with multi-purpose cash grants targeting around 50,000 people.

The first distribution, funded by UK Aid and the START Bangladesh Fund, was in Kurigram district in northern Bangladesh on 24 August. In one day, a total of 500 households received a one-time multi-purpose cash grant of Taka 4,000 (US$50) - meaning they can choose how they spend the money to meet their immediate household needs.

Sierra Leone

CARE is continuing to distribute relief items such as clothing, hygiene supplies, household items, blankets and food, including to women and children who have gathered at the Don Bosco Centre in Freetown, many of them now sheltering in tents pitched on the centre's grounds.

Read the story of Aminata, a young woman who lost 21 family members in the floods.

Lake Chad Region

The food security and nutrition situation remains very critical in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. Across the region, one in three families is food insecure, and one in every two people needs urgent humanitarian assistance. In the affected areas the insecurity and conflict has disrupted livelihoods and agricultural production, and the number of displaced people in the region has now reached 2.4 million.

CARE’s response includes rehabilitating boreholes, hygiene kit distribution, and cash for work programmes in Cameroon; cash for work, distribution of seeds and agricultural inputs, hygiene kit distribution, and cash for shelter, in Chad; and multiple interventions in the Diffa region of Niger, including cash assistance, water/hygiene support, and gender-based violence protection. A project to provide sexual, reproductive and maternal health support in Maiduguri, Jere and Konduga in Nigeria is due to start in late August 2017.