Help our local partners realise their vision of hope for their communities
4 August 2021
Whilst many of HART’s projects aim to create sustainable, long lasting change for their communities, HART is proud to work with our partners to provide emergency relief to some of the most vulnerable people in the world. Much like with our long-term projects, our relationships with trusted, exceptional partners allows us to maximise the emergency relief we can provide and reach isolated communities that many others can’t.
It is a sad reality however that in 2020, 39% of HART’s financial support was spent on emergency relief as many of our partner countries were afflicted by war, violence, political turbulence and natural disasters.
In 2020 alone, HART’s emergency relief work helped support vulnerable communities in Sudan, Nigeria and Burma:
In July 2020, HART helped provide emergency relief to Blue Nile State in partnership with the Guernsey Overseas Aid and Development Commission. The arrival of COVID-19 saw inflation soar as border closures cut off access to goods from Ethiopia and South Sudan, resulting in staple food prices increasing by more than 50%. Emergency assistance was required to combat the dire impact of COVID-19, as well as severe flooding and the locust infestation that swept the region in 2019. In total, HART’s partners provided 3 months of emergency food to 4,500 IDPs in Blue Nile, distributing 500 kgs of salt, 5,000 kgs of beans and 2700 kgs of sorghum (common grain).
In early 2020, HART secured £25,000 in emergency funding from the Guernsey Overseas Aid and Development Commission to support 5,000 conflict-affected internally displaced persons in Plateau State, central Nigeria. The funds were needed to facilitate the procurement and distribution of emergency food, education and medical assistance to citizens who had fled radical Islamist Fulani herdsmen attacks on their villages.
The emergency relief helped provide 20 tonnes of corn, 15 tonnes of beans, 12.5 tonnes of rice, 2 tonnes of sugar 1.25 tonnes of dried okra and 0.5 tonnes of salt. The funding also supported the Elsie Healthcare Facility in Jos by providing 6 new hospital beds, a new security gate, anti-malarials, antibiotics and wound dressings to support 420 people.
HART’s partner in Jos, Rev Canon Hassan John told us, “the funds that HART sent were a life saver for many families who couldn’t get food due to lockdown and for militia victims who could not access proper medical care.”
On 30th September 2020, the Burma Army deployed more troops in Kyaukme township and went into villages, shelling and shooting indiscriminately. More than 1,000 Burma Army troops, supported by helicopter gunships, launched the offensive until 15th October 2020. The fighting caused more than 4,500 villagers to flee from their homes and take shelter at 14 local temples. More than 80% of those displaced were women and children under 18. Therefore, our partner the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) approached HART to help provide emergency support the women and children.
With the support provided by HART, SWAN was able to provide blankets, rice, cooking oil, eggs, noodles, soaps, sanitary napkin, nutrition powders, and milks to the displaced villagers. Moreover, there were six pregnant women and new mothers living in the camps. One mother had only given birth a week before she had been forced to flee to shelter due to extensive shelling in her village.
Since 15th October 2020 and more than 80% of those displaced have returned to their villages, however more than 100 children are facing malnutrition so SWAN has been distributing milk powder and nutrition powder to women and children wherever possible.
