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Haiti Earthquake Appeal

Haiti Earthquake Appeal – 13 Jan 2010

Massive earthquake strikes Haiti on 12th January

Hundreds of people are missing feared dead after a quake measuring seven on the Richter Scale struck the Caribbean island yesterday.
Many buildings have been destroyed or badly damaged in the capital Port-au-Prince, including the presidential palace and the five-storey UN offices. As darkness fell last night, fear of after-shocks led many people to spend the evening sleeping out in the open.

Jean-Claude Cerin, Tearfund’s Country Representative for Haiti, who is based in Port-au-Prince is among thousands of people whose homes have been damaged or destroyed. Tearfund has been working with it’s partners to provide immediate relief to the injured and homeless.

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Rescue efforts to dig people from the rubble of smashed homes, shops and offices are being hampered by blocked roads, power cuts, disrupted communications and a lack of equipment.

As Tearfund partners in Haiti assess emergency aid needs, Jennie Evans, Tearfund’s Head of Region for Latin America and the Caribbean said, ‘Although detailed information about the number of people needing help is proving hard to come by, it’s clear that we are facing a very serious disaster.
‘With so many buildings destroyed and so many people made homeless, the need for shelter and basic essentials such as food and water is extremely urgent.’

The UN has an 11,000-strong peacekeeping force in Haiti which is gathering information about the extent of the devastation.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, ‘My heart goes out to the people of Haiti after this devastating earthquake. At this time of tragedy, I am very concerned for the people of Haiti and also for the many United Nations staff who serve there.’

Immediate needs to that Tearfund partner’s are supplying are:
· access to clean water
· food aid and basic items
· shelter provision
· medical supplies and counselling support for the grieving and distressed

Please give today

Only €31 can provide a tarpaulin for shelter for a family and €55 can provide a family of with emergency household items,water containers and blankets.

Donate now online here or by credit card by contacting Christine in our office – 01 497 5285 or enquiries@tearfund.ie or post a cheque to; Tearfund Ireland, Ulysses House, 22-24 Foley Street, Dublin 1

Christmas dinner & traditional healers

Christmas dinner & traditional healers – 23 Dec 2009

Tearfund has been operating in Darfur since 2004. The staff are preparing for Christmas in the refugee camps but the work is relentless. A Tearfund nutritionist reports on how training traditional healers and using a high-energy peanut paste is dramatically reducing malnutrition rates.

Sakina, a traditional healer

The wind lifts the plastic sheet covering Sakina’s roof blowing dust into her small dwelling as she busies herself with her herbal remedies treating patients that come to her for healthcare. Sakina is a traditional healer. One man waiting for his turn, has burnt his foot in a fire. A teenager comes in with a stomach upset. As Sakina treats these members of her community she notices a woman approaching with a small lifeless body in her arms. She beckons the lady in expecting the child to start crying but there is only silence. She looks at the child who struggles to sit up on her mothers lap and whose breathing is almost non existent.

Sakina has seen this before. She has seen it countless times. She is glad that she has recently had training from Tearfund on how to check whether the child is truly malnourished and how to then refer the child to a Tearfund feeding centre. She had a traditional way of dealing with children who are malnourished but it often didn’t work and children died. Sakina learnt about traditional healing through her grandmother who was a traditional healer. When she was a young girl she used to watch her grandmother treat patients and she then took on the practice herself.

She still uses one of the methods of traditional healing with these children but has discontinued the other. She used to take sugar and rub it into the child’s palette until the palette would bleed, believing that this would help to remove any toxins making the child malnourished. She no longer uses this method but she still takes the bark from a tree believed to have healing properties and ties it around the child’s wrists, ankles and waist.

Since receiving the Tearfund training she now also uses the coloured MUAC tape placing it on the mid upper arm of the child checking to see if it is within the referral criteria (red in colour). When she finds the arm is in that bracket she refers the mother to the Tearfund nutrition centre. If the child is not malnourished, she still gives the mother advice on feeding practices and on how to prevent the child from becoming malnourished.

Sakina says; ‘Before I never knew about nutrition and could not give advice to the mothers apart from the traditional healing that I used on the child. Now Tearfund have taught me about nutrition and I feel that I can really help these children. It is good that the child not only receives help from my traditional healing, but is also able to receive medication and food from the Tearfund nutrition centre. Through these two methods the child is healed much quicker. I am grateful to Tearfund for the training they have given me’.

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In Darfur the first option that mothers turn to when their child is sick is to take them to a traditional healer. By training these healers, Tearfund is now able to reach malnourished children quicker as they are referred by the healers to the nutrition centres and therefore Tearfund can assist them before their situation gets too desperate. The traditional healers themselves are grateful to Tearfund for the training they have received and feel that this has increased their knowledge and understanding on nutrition which they previously knew little about. Because of the strong belief in traditional healing in Darfur, Tearfund does not try to influence the healers into giving up all their traditional methods of healing, but rather encourages them to integrate internationally recognised methods of diagnosis and treatment into their traditional practise.

Peanut paste, a Christmas dinner

Christmas dinner for the malnourished children is a simple affair. At the Tearfund feeding centres the children receive plumpynut (a peanut paste with micronutrients, high protein and high energy) or a premix consisting of a corn soya blend, with sugar and oil. This is dependant on whether the children are moderately malnourished or severely malnourished. It doesn’t taste great but it has a miraculous effect on the children and helps them regain a healthy weight quickly.

Tearfund’s Disaster Management Team (DMT) has been operating in Darfur since 2004. Last year, Tearfund’s teams provided over 137,000 people with access to clean water, and constructed sanitation facilities for around 50,000 people. Almost 100,000 women and children attended weekly health clubs, over 19,000 farmers received seeds and tools, over 6000 children were treated for malnutrition through Tearfund’s feeding centres and more than 26,000 at risk children were given food to prevent malnutrition.

An unwanted gift - Christmas Appeal

An unwanted gift - Christmas Appeal – 23 Nov 2009

Happy Christmas! There are two children who I’ve spent time with over the past year. One is my nephew Noah, who has just celebrated his second birthday this week. And the other is Peah –whom I met in Cambodia in February.

Noah couldn’t be more loved or wanted. My sister and brother-in-law have albums of photos of almost his every waking hour! My parents love showing him off to all their friends!

In contrast, Peah had a very different start to life. He was an unwanted gift. There are more than 100 million children around the world without a family, living in the harshest circumstances. But there is hope. Tearfund’s amazing church partners reach children like Peah every day, and place them in loving families.

Can we count on you for a Christmas gift of €32, €86 or €125? Donate here

Help us to support Little Conquerors in Cambodia and IMCAREs in India to continue their work next year. Tearfund’s church partners work tirelessly to address immediate needs, while also dealing with the underlying issues that cause children to be vulnerable, that means our work is sustainable and has a lasting impact.

Little Conquerors, Cambodia – €27,300 to fully fund this project in 2010

The Little Conquerors project helps children with disabilities to reach their God-given potential in all areas of their lives: physically, emotionally, spiritually, educationally and socially. This ensures these children get vital physiotherapy, specialised equipment and access to basic education. Read more about their work here

IMCARES, India – €29,500 to fully fund this project in 2010

IMCares works with local churches to care for vulnerable people, including children orphaned by AIDS, in the poorest slums of Mumbai. They provide food, clothing and education, and search for loving foster families to take in the orphaned children. IMCares also supports AIDS-affected families with counselling, home visits, nutritional support and other material help, and helps teach children in the slums about the reality of HIV and AIDS.Read more about their work here

Kidnapped Irish aid worker set free

Kidnapped Irish aid worker set free – 17 Oct 2009

Two kidnapped aid workers from the Irish aid agency GOAL were released this morning in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region after more than 100 days in captivity, a government official said.

Sharon Commins (32), from Clontarf, and her colleague Hilda Kawuki (42), a nutritionist from Uganda, were abducted at gunpoint after armed men stormed their compound in the north Darfur town of Kutum on July 3rd last.

“They were released earlier this morning,” Sudan’s state minister for humanitarian affairs, Abdel Baqi al-Jailani, said.

‘It is a real relief to know that Sharon and Hilda are free’ says Reuben Coulter, Chief Executive of Tearfund Ireland ‘Our prayers have been answered’

Sharon was a colleague of Reuben during the 2 years he worked with GOAL as operations manager for North Sudan.

Tearfund in Darfur

Reuben Coulter, Chief Executive of Tearfund Ireland, worked with Tearfund’s Disaster Management Team (DMT) in Darfur for almost 2 years as a public health manager. ‘Two of my Sudanese staff were killed in a riot in the displaced-people’s camps in 2005’ says Reuben ‘Darfur is an extremely dangerous place and aid workers face daily risks to bring relief to the people.’

Tearfund’s Disaster Management Team (DMT) has been operating in Darfur since 2004. Last year, Tearfund’s teams provided over 137,000 people with access to clean water, and constructed sanitation facilities for around 50,000 people. Almost 100,000 women and children attended weekly health clubs, over 19,000 farmers received seeds and tools, over 6000 children were treated for malnutrition through Tearfund’s feeding centres and more than 26,000 at risk children were given food to prevent malnutrition.

2009 marks the sixth year of the recent conflict in Darfur. An estimated 200,000 people have been killed and over 2 million displaced. Two thirds of the population is dependent on aid for basic survival. There are about 250,000 refugees from Darfur currently living in Chad.

‘But for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my saviour; my God will hear me’ Micah 7: 7

Please pray for:

  • Recovery from the ordeal and peace for the families of both women .
  • The political will among the UN and other major governments to move the peace process forward in Darfur, for the establishment of justice and for the cessation of hostilities.
  • The protection of Tearfund and partner staff as they go about their daily work in a very insecure environment.
  • That Tearfund and other organisations would have the finances and resources to fill the gaps created by recently expelled aid organisations

Hope – churches respond to Asia disasters

Hope – churches respond to Asia disasters – 16 Oct 2009

The images of stranded families and flood-stricken streets in the Philippines shown on BBC were terrible, but as I watched this scene I was filled with great hope. Local volunteers from churches were handing out emergency food and water and a tired looking pastor smiled as he said ‘we are showing compassion like Jesus did.’ Jesus says to us to have peace, as the Father sent Him, he also sends us (John 20:21). This is the church in action.

Muh Nasir grabbed his daughter and ran as the first earthquake tremors hit his house in Indonesia.

As the first tremors shuddered the building, the father-of-five quickly gathered up his four-year-old daughter Ifah and took her into the garden. Panic-stricken, he realised another daughter, eight year-old Mia, was missing and screamed for her to get out of the house.

Flattened image

Just as she emerged into the safety of the outdoors, the property collapsed: ‘Everything happened so fast and suddenly,’ recalls Muh Nasir. Thankfully his wife and other children, who were elsewhere in the village of Cubadak Palak, were also safe. But ten others in the area didn’t survive as some 970 homes were flattened. While Muh Nasir and his family escaped with their lives, the quality of those lives has been shattered. I have to earn money over the next 20 years to build my house from the beginning and it will be hard for me especially in this economic crisis.’

Food Aid

Tearfund partner Kotib is helping keep the family going, providing material help and encouragement. ‘Thanks to Kotib, we’ve got 10 kilos of rice, 40 packs of noodles and 24 litres of mineral water, so at least we can still eat and drink for the next few days,’ says Muh Nasir. But the family still needs new clothes, blankets and mattresses and they are not alone. Across West Sumatra, more than 1,000 died and about 100,000 homes were destroyed, with another 100,000 damaged. Tearfund is supporting Kotib as it provides emergency aid and runs food kitchens and first aid centres in villages outside Padang.

You can help support our continuing relief efforts by giving to our Emergency Fund .

Asia Disaster Response

Asia Disaster Response – 7 Oct 2009

Millions of people across South East Asia are struggling to cope after a series of natural disasters struck the region. The Indonesian island of Sumatra has been hit by a major earthquake killing at least 1,100 people. The Philippines is reeling after a typhoon caused massive flooding that has made more than a million people homeless and claimed hundreds of lives. Tearfund is working with partners and local churches to respond to the disasters.

It has been a week of horrific disasters in South East Asia and our resources are being stretched to the limit. We are calling Christians and churches to prayer for all the people facing loss and trauma following these calamitous events.

A few days ago in the South Pacific, Samoa and Tonga were flattened by a tsunami triggered from an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, which has left some 130 people dead. The following day, another earthquake hit the Indonesian city of Padang on Sumatra’s west coast. More than a thousand people have been killed and, with rescuers searching the rubble for thousands still missing, the death toll is likely to be far greater. Aftershocks and the fear of tsunamis is compounding the trauma as the region vividly recalls the disaster of December 2004. See BBC video footage here

A week before Typhoon Ketsana ripped though Luzon, the northern island of The Philippines, leaving – in Metro Manila alone – well over a million people in need of rescue, relief or support. News and film reports showed people wading waist deep through even the main highways that connect the sprawling cities. Other images showed furniture suspended in overhead cables. The poorest people in the slum areas have been acutely hit, with their fragile homes and their possessions washed away in the flood water. Mudslides in rural provinces have brought further loss of life and logistic chaos. A second storm, being forecast as a ‘super typhoon’ is expected to hit the Philippines this weekend.

‘The needs are enormous and after the initial loss there comes the sense of devastation and shock. People – many of whom are already desperately poor – are left with nothing,’ says Reuben Coulter, Tearfund Ireland Chief Executive. ‘Homes and livelihoods are destroyed; loved ones are lost or missing – the disorientation and trauma is unimaginable. The relief effort is being built up daily. Our partner relief teams in Sumatra and in Metro Manila are assessing the need and responding, but we can also surround the crises and the families affected in prayer.’

Immediate needs to that Tearfund partner’s are supplying are:
• access to clean water
• food aid and basic items
• shelter provision
• medical supplies and counselling support for the grieving and distressed

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