Category Archives: Disaster Relief

Japan quake, one year later: Quiet persistence amid long recovery

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Hideaki Nakagawa in Disaster Relief

On March 11, 2011, the day of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan, Hideaki Nakagawa was being interviewed for a role at World Vision. Now an employee, he was a team leader for the meal preparation spaces established at evacuation centers for the disaster’s survivors. Here, he shares his thoughts and memories regarding the emergency response efforts of one year ago. * * * What I experienced on the afternoon of March 11, 2011, and in the days that followed, vividly come to mind as I write this — images of young students crying, while clinging to each other on the shaking patio of the World Vision office in downtown Tokyo; scenes of television news footage that showed...

“Without your help, we are hopeless”

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Adel Sarkozi in Disaster Relief

Imagine yourself in a dry, hot, dusty landscape, where water sources are scarce, and where parents don’t know whether they have enough food for their children for the day — or where tomorrow’s food will even come from. This is a glimpse into the West African country of Mali, where the regional drought and food crisis is intensifying quickly....

FAQs about the West Africa food crisis

Posted on March 5, 2012 by James Addis in Disaster Relief

The deepening food crisis in West Africa has sparked fears of a major famine. Unless urgent action is taken, events in the region might easily mirror the kind of devastation seen recently in the Horn of Africa. With our ongoing coverage of this escalating emergency, you may have a variety of questions about what’s going on in West Africa. Here’s a quick guide to understanding the crisis and how World Vision is responding. * * * What went wrong? Poor rains have led to poor harvests. Crop yields have been nonexistent in some areas — and severely reduced in others. In addition, recent conflicts, the return of hundreds of migrant workers, and a flow of refugees from Mali into one...

Hunger and drought creep across northern Africa

Posted on March 1, 2012 by World Vision social media team in Disaster Relief

In Africa, there is often a period of time between when a family’s stores from their last harvest runs out and when their new crop is ready to eat. These are known as the “hungry months.” Expensive, store-bought food is purchased and carefully rationed. Those who can’t buy food depend on neighbors, relatives, churches, and food distributions. And if there’s a drought, crops fail, or rains are late, those hungry months can turn into a hungry year. This is the case for communities in the Horn of Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Somalia), which is recovering from a historic drought and food crisis, and communities in West Africa (Niger, Mauritania, Mali, Chad, and Senegal), where drought is just settling in....

Going into debt — just to stay warm

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Laura Reinhardt in Disaster Relief, Stories

Romanians are used to winter weather. But the record-breaking storms that have pounded Europe over the past several weeks haven’t been normal snow. They’ve left many communities isolated and without basic supplies, especially rural areas where people were just barely getting by before the storms. World Vision’s Laura Reinhardt was on assignment in Romania for two weeks. Some of the families she met there talked about the additional burden....