Disaster Fund

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A disaster can be defined as “any situation involving the severe disruption, distress, and suffering of large numbers of people … that demands a humanitarian response.[1]” This can include any natural disaster such as floods, earthquakes or prolonged droughts as well as health epidemics, political unrest or wars.


World Neighbors responds to massive earthquake in Haiti

On Tuesday, January 12, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Port-au-Prince, Haiti and World Neighbors Haiti offices. All eight World Neighbors Haiti employees have been accounted for, however, the office suffered damage making daily operations impossible.  

Our immediate plan is to ensure the safety of our staff, families and partners, then relocating the office outside of Port-au-Prince. In the program areas, the immediate needs will be adequate supplies of food, clean water, sanitation and health services.

You can help in this urgent situation by making a special gift to World Neighbors Haiti Response Fund. 

As with any of our disaster responses, the money will first be used for basic needs such as temporary shelter, safe food, clean water and medical supplies with future funding being used to transition our programs as quickly as possible back to long term development goals. Any funds that exceed the level needed to provide relief in this recovery effort will support World Neighbors ongoing work to help those around the world lift themselves out of poverty.  

Learn more about our future plans for Haiti. 

 

Humphreys Munai's journey home after Haiti Earthquake

Humphreys Munai, international finance coordinator, returned home to Oklahoma City two days after the devastating earthquake. Munai and Conrado Vargas, World Neighbors regional finance officer from Guatemala, were both visiting the Haiti office during the quake. 

Learn more about their journey:   

KFOR - Channel 4, Oklahoma City

KOCO - Channel 5, Oklahoma City

Telemundo - Channel 22, Oklahoma City

CNN Transcript

NewsOK

Tulsa World 

 

How does World Neighbors respond to disasters?

World Neighbors is a long-term development agency and typically does not assist with disaster relief and rehabilitation efforts.  Under certain circumstances, however, World Neighbors will respond to disasters, frequently working in partnership with other agencies. We will always seek to respond to affected people’s expressed needs and to build upon their capacities, organizational structures and coping mechanisms, addressing the immediate crisis in a way that returns them as quickly as possible towards a long-term development process. 

World Neighbors long-term programs seek to improve local capacity for development, and by doing so, the programs also contribute to reducing participants’ vulnerability to disasters. This happens, for example, when farmers adopt more sustainable agricultural and environmental management approaches; community-based organizations gain increased capacity to address new challenges that inevitably arise; or particularly vulnerable communities develop contingency plans to respond in the event of a disaster.

When disasters strike and World Neighbors determines that it will respond, we use financial resources raised for the disaster response to achieve the following goals:

  • To help the affected communities meet their emergency needs for survival and recovery; and
  • To transition as quickly as possible back to long-term development objectives.

Donate to the Haiti Disaster Fund and start helping today.

 [1] The Oxfam Handbook of Development and Relief, Deborah Eade and Suzanne Williams, Oxfam (UK and Ireland), 1995. p. 811.