DanChurchAid
Congo (DRC)
Assistance given to 1.500 homeless families
The fires went largely unnoticed to the outside world due to the isolated location of these jungle villages and some 10.000 people are estimated to be homeless.
The causes of the fires were varied, some were ordinary bushfires and some suspected to be arson.
The houses in most of the villages were built very closely together spreading the fires quickly. The villagers have since the fires been forced to sleep in the open and in churches and schools that survived the fires. They have been surviving on the very few things that were salvaged from the blaze.
Acute shortage of shelters, blankets, cooking equipment and clothes
It was while being out on a survey mission to search for areas that could be mined, on the road from north Katanga, the neighbouring province, to Salamabila that a team from ECC/MERU (Eglise du Christ au Congo/Ministère des Réfugiés et des Urgences) partner organization of DanChurchAid, working with Humanitarian Mine Action in the DRC, came upon this disaster. This was mid September. As the surrounding communities are impoverished only a very insignificant assistance had reached villages. There was an acute shortage of shelters, blankets, cooking equipment, clothes and tools when the state of the villages was discovered:
“When we arrived people were sleeping in the open, they had lost their houses and most of their belongings,” reports King Kilema, teamleader for the mine survey teams who was first on the spot and is now in charge of the distribution of assistance in the area.
Rapid response through ACT network
After an assessment of the situation, DanChurchAid sent a request for rapid response to the ACT network in Génève (Action by Churches Together). The ACT network responded positively and funding was provided within two days to cover the distribution costs for Non Food Item kits (NFIs). NFIs consist of canvas covers, pots and pans.
A request of assistance was also sent to UNICEF who announced on the same day that they would provide the necessary NFI kits and very efficiently launched the process of sending the kits to Salamabila. A total assistance of 1500 non food item kits (NFI) was provided.
On the 4th of October the last NFI kits arrived and are now being distributed. The whole operation has been a complicated logistic project depending on planes being flown in to a landing strip 2 km from Salamabila normally used for the export of gold as Salamabila is a gold mining area. The roads in the area are in a very poor condition and hiring trucks is expensive. The fires had reached as far as 130 km from Salamabila.
The president for ECC and the representative of MERU both took the road on motorbikes to inspect and assist the distribution. Until now the distribution has been going well and the affected villagers have received a minimum of utensils for shelter and survival, King Kilema reports.
“The most severely affected people were extremely happy to receive assistance as they were not expecting any help from the outside,” he sais from Salamabila where he is now ensuring that the very last of the kits reaches its targets.
HMA news
RSS feed
