When disaster strikes

Together with the ACT Alliance, DanChurchAid has much experience with helping people in need after a disaster. This is true for large natural disasters, like the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, as well as the quiet hunger disasters in Africa.

When disasters strike, the emergency aid is activated and a quick evaluation of the situation is conducted. Subsequently, the logistics are established so that the help will be able to reach the people who are the worst affected.

DanChurchAid is a part of the ACT Alliance which is an alliance of 100 Protestant relief organisations from all over the world. This means that a local member organisation almost always is present when a country is struck by disaster. Local knowledge helps relief aid move quickly.

This collaboration also entails that the individual ACT members are able to raise money quickly to help those in need and coordinate the work.

DanChurchAid pursues an integrated approach to relief and long-term development interventions, ensuring that emergency response operations provide a smooth transition to sustainable development activities and reinforce local capacities to prepare for and respond to disasters.

Disaster risk reduction

In areas that are frequently exposed to disasters, such as annual floods or regular draughts, the poor receive help that makes it easier for them to resist these disasters, for instance by building dams, establishing rice fields and getting better at managing pastures in pastoral areas.

What we do

DanChurchAid works with humanitarian assistance and long-term development by focusing on the following:

Initially, it is a matter of saving lives. The distressed are moved to “secure” locations, like churches or schools. The distressed are provided with temporary accommodation and emergency packages which include food and kitchen utensils and other useful items.
If possible, the distressed are moved to more permanent accommodation. Schools for the children are established and psycho-social help is offered. Local collaborators provide self-help courses and help people get organised.
The reconstruction phase takes several years and is the essential in order for the distressed to become independent from relief aid and make it on their own.

Furthermore, we focus on:

Advocacy for increased humanitarian space and access to assistance/protection
Partner/ACT implemented assistance based on local community needs and capacities
Gender issues addressed at all stages of DCA-supported emergency interventions
Conflict sensitivity is an integrated part DCA humanitarian assistance
A strong focus on accountability towards beneficiaries

29/09/2011 Pakistan - A Mother Worries What Lies Ahead

Twenty-eight year old, Thezu has not only lost her house, livestock, and everything she had in the floods but is also coping with the loss of her twenty-two year old sister. Thezu’s sister drowned in the village’s water pond during evacuation.

22/09/2011 Pakistan – What’s Happened Since the Last Disaster

What has DanChurchAid and partners done in Pakistan since the last major floods in August 2010

08/11/2010 Cholera Outbreak Looms in Haiti

After Hurricane Tomas moved away from Haiti on Friday, it left the centre of the city of Léogâne flooded, with the depth of water as high as 1 metre in places. The storm appears to have spared the hundreds of thousands of people who rode it out in makeshift tent camps. However, the conditions may result in spread of cholera.

25/10/2010 Quality and Accountability in Haiti

DCA’s Head of Humanitarian Response, Erik Johnson, is the co-author of a new article on the improvement in quality and accountability of the humanitarian response in Haiti by INGOs, NNGOs, UN and local government, through the promotion of Sphere and HAP standards.

14/10/2010 Money for Nothing

After almost a century of professional emergency assistance, with over a hundred years and thousands of organisations gaining experience in the best way to deliver food, water, and medicine in emergencies, it may come as a shock to learn that the newest, most advanced way to improve food security is really quite straightforward: hand out money.

17/09/2010 A cry for help

”We need building materials!” ”We need medical attention!” The cry for help following the massive devastation is loud. Since severe floods hit Pakistan DanChurchAid’s local partner, Church World Service, has worked hard to reach those in distress with humanitarian aid.

24/08/2010 Pakistan - aid is getting through to flood victims

65-year-old Sabho Bhai is just one of the women who have received help from DanChurchAid’s partners in disaster-struck Pakistan. Read here how aid is getting through to the people who need it the most.

09/08/2010 Three million DKK to disaster-struck Pakistan

DanChurchAid supports the Pakistan flood response with an additional three million DKK.

03/08/2010 750.000 Danish kroner for flood relief aid in Pakistan

DanChurchAid gives 750.000 Danish kroner to flood-affected Pakistan.

21/07/2010 Kyrgyzstan in Turmoil

DCA, as part of ACT Alliance, responded immediately to the humanitarian crisis in Kyrgyzstan, having the advantage of its presence through long-term development programmes. While responding to the humanitarian needs, ACT Alliance conducted one more round of rapid assessment during July 13-14. Observations from the visits to affected families and IDP (internally displaced persons) camps are summarized here

09/06/2010 Shelter for the many homeless

Five months after the earthquake in Haiti the ACT Alliance is evaluating the work so far in order to be able to streamline and coordinate the continued effort even better. Secretary General, Henrik Stubkjær, writes from Haiti.

01/06/2010 Help for Victims of Storm in Central America

The tropical storm Agatha marks the beginning of the hurricane season in Central America. Thousands have fled their homes and more than 100.000 people have been evacuated

28/04/2010 HAP and Sphere expertise to Haiti

New project aims at improved accountability and quality of the humanitarian response in Haiti.

30/03/2010 Will the donors' 'business as usual' be enough to save Haiti?

Donors, UN, and Haitian government as well as Civil Society representatives will converge in New York on March 31st for the Haiti Donor Conference to make pledges and begin the planning for Haiti’s long road to reconstruction.

05/03/2010 Safe at last

The Humanitarian Response Unit of DanChurchAid met with beneficiaries of combined DCA/RDRS activities during a workshop in Northern Bangladesh

12/02/2010 Where can we live?

Just outside of Port-au-Prince, community leader Altenor Ronald expressed a mixture of frustration, anger and disorientation as he tried to coordinate the relocation of the displaced into a roadside displacement site. “We have no food, no stoves, people are hungry. I’m in charge and I don’t know what to do,” he said.

11/02/2010 Haiti - One month later

On January 12th, a month ago this friday, a massive earthquake measuring 7.0 on the richter scale struck Haiti. The quake lasted about 35 seconds, but left the capital Port-Au-Pince and the surrounding inhabited areas in ruins, killing more than 200.000 and leaving 1.2 million people homeless.

05/02/2010 Born in the rubble

Marie Sylsalve cradled her 10-day-old son, McAnley, and reflected on three weeks that have taken an almost incomprehensible toll. She last saw her husband in the moments immediately following the 12 January earthquake. The family’s home was destroyed and Sylsalve saw a wall fall on Andre. She presumes he is dead – it has been three weeks now. And twelve days later she gave birth in the ruins.

03/02/2010 The battle for food

At an ACT Alliance distribution of food and goods, workers set about allocating relief to the most vulnerable. Pregnant women and families with young children come first. Then things go horribly wrong.

27/01/2010 Caring for Haiti's kids

With Haiti’s healthcare services in worse shape than before the earthquake, ACT Alliance members in Port-au-Prince continue to support medical care for Haiti’s most vulnerable. As it had done long before January 12, ACT is caring for the children. Traumatized, ill and suffering loss of limbs, hundreds of children need round-the-clock care.

18/01/2010 ACT Alliance support reaching Haiti

In the chaos of aid distribution, ACT Alliance members are managing to get food, temporary shelter, water cleaning materials and expertise to the Haitian capital.

15/01/2010 Port-au-Prince “looks like a war zone”

More than a million people in Haiti’s capital will this evening be without shelter and no immediate prospect of accommodation in camps. Between 60 and 80 percent of the houses in Port-au-Prince were brought down or are uninhabitable by Tuesday’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

02/09/2009 Resilience in Darfur

The refugee camps in Darfur are alive with conversations and activities, where men and women are busy with daily chores, literacy classes, meetings and income-generating activities. Gathered in a community center, the women talk about their fears of being attacked and their desire to go back home. Although Sudan's president al-Bashir ordered 16 humanitarian organisations out of the country in March 2009, the huma...

09/01/2009 ACT: Gaza situation report

The situation in Gaza remains to be difficult and dangerous. ACT situation report from Gaza.

08/01/2009 Food, medicine, blankets and trauma therapists headed for Gaza

Food, medicine, blankets and trauma counselors are being loaded into trucks by ACT International and are headed for Gaza. In cooperation with UN agencies, ACT has prepared the much needed assistance and is awaiting permission from the Israeli army for the trucks to enter the blockaded area.

06/01/2009 Mobile clinics bombed

Three mobile health clinics, run by DanChurchAids partner organisation, have been destroyed in an Israeli air strike.

05/01/2009 Gaza: They kill our children

Bombs continue to fall while the population in Gaza sits by their open windows in the cold, holding their kids and telling lies to the youngest: “It is just new year fire crackers!”

30/12/2008 Gaza is out of food and medicine

Very little aid reaches the population in Gaza.

29/12/2008 ACT warns of further Gaza humanitarian crisis without ceasefire

ACT International warns of a dramatic escalation of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, if Israel, Hamas and other militant groups do not cease the current hostilities and avert a new military conflict.

06/11/2008 "People fled in all directions"

The security situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo remains precarious and aid groups do not yet know what effect the most recent violence will have on the latest cease fire or humanitarian situation. First hand report from ACT aid worker in DR Congo.

05/11/2008 Tutu nominates DanChurchAid

Archbishop Desmond Tutu nominates DanChurchAid for the Hilton Humanitarian Prize. The nomination is backed by the 10 bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark and former Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Uffe Elleman-Jensen

30/10/2008 A deadly calm in Goma

After panic and lootings by retreating troops a deadly calm has fallen over Goma in Eastern Congo.

16/10/2008 Global credit crisis threatens the poorest

The global credit crisis will have dramatic consequences for the poorest, because those who fund them are hit by the breakdown," says John Nduna, director of ACT International.

18/08/2008 Help for Georgian refugees

DanChurchAid prepares a Material Aid support of 750.000 DKK for foodstuffs, sanitary and household packages for the 30.000 refugees, that fled to Russian North Ossetia from Georgian South Ossetia in early august

14/08/2008 First the Storm, and then a Plague

‘The flies are unbearable.’ When asked how things are in the Cylone-affected Irrawaddy delta of Myanmar, the first thing that they describe is the flies. Thick clouds of biting flies fill the air around the villages, having bred in the bloated carcasses of the buffalo killed by the storm. ‘There are so many, that some of the remaining buffaloes have even been killed from the bites.’

14/07/2008 DanChurchAid volunteers at Roskilde Festival

Roskilde Festival could not exist without the help of its many volunteers. Around 23.000 out of Roskildes maximum of 105.000 guests are volunteering as security, chefs, parking guards, sanitation workers and last but not least; refund collectors. While the volunteer refund collectors of DanChurchAid are an equal part of this essential festival element, the work they do and the information they share will travel fa...

14/07/2008 Disaster response to the cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh

Dushtha Shasthya Kendra and DanChurchAid's disaster response to the cyclone Sidr that hit Bangladesh in November 2007.

01/07/2008 Floods in Assam, West Bengal and Orissa states

Heavy and incessant rainfall since June 16, 2008 has flooded many areas in the eastern states of Assam, Orissa and West Bengal leaving some 93 people dead and close to 2.7 million people affected.

26/06/2008 Self help groups along Asia's forgotten Old Silk Road

If the main bridge across the Rhone River in central Geneva collapsed and was not repaired, or attended to within days, or even hours, residents of the Swiss city would be up in arms, lobbying and harassing local, regional or federal authorities to act. Action would likely soon be taken.

20/06/2008 Multimedia - Prepared for the next disaster

Farmers in Cambodias Kompong Speu province are working to make their villages more resilient to the recurring natural disasters, such as drought or floods, hitting the area as a result of changes in the climate. Meet them in our audioslideshows and videos.

17/06/2008 Myanmar Emergency Response Operation

An ACT situation report on the response to the disaster in Burma.

05/06/2008 Young volunteers dedicated to help survivors

“I felt that I had to help,” says one of ten dedicated young Burmese volunteers. These young people are supporting the survivors of Cyclone Nargis in the severely devastated Irrawaddy Delta region and their task is increasingly demanding.

03/06/2008 Hunger on the agenda

Millions of poor people are in danger of being affected by hunger and famine as prices on food will remain on a high level during the next ten years. This is predicted in a new report ahead of the summit in Rome where the only item on the agenda is the global food crisis

02/06/2008 Community-based organisations provide ongoing relief in Burma

"Aid is going out everyday, and local organisations are reaching thousands of people,” says an ACT member representative.

19/05/2008 Survivors are reaching relief camps

Survivors are still arriving at relief camps in the Irrawaddy Delta nearly two weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma according to Christian Aid partners.

19/05/2008 ACT launches appeal for cyclone survivors in Burma

Responding to the increasingly critical need for humanitarian relief in Myanmar (Burma), ACT International launched a preliminary appeal today for US $5,156,215 to provide emergency assistance for up to 1.3 million cyclone-affected people.

14/05/2008 ACT members mobilise support for cyclone-affected in Burma

In the aftermath of the worst Asian cyclone since 1991, members of the global alliance, Action by Churches Together (ACT)International, are mobilising support to assist affected populations in Myanmar. DanChurchAid is a member of ACT International.

14/05/2008 Relief is reaching the neglected

Thousands of people have been killed or are missing in Burma in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, which pushed ashore on May 2. Villages in the Irrawaddy Delta have been completely flattened. Overall one million people may be homeless. Through 21 relief centres, DanChurchAid’s local partners are reaching 100.000 people.

14/05/2008 Trucks with aid is reaching the cyclone-affected

Despite roadblocks and bad weather conditions DanChurchAid’s partners are able to gain access to some of the worst hit areas in Burma.

08/05/2008 Chaos and a fight for life

The destructions after the cyclone Nargis are huge. DanChurchAid’s representative reports from the delta area which was hit most severely and where no one has received any help and where dead people and animals are floating in the rivers

07/05/2008 Horror stories from Burma are pouring in

Bodies are floating in the rivers; desperate survivors are plundering the rice stores; these are some of the stories that are pouring in from disaster struck areas in Burma. So far DanChurchAid has earmarked 750.000 DKK to arrange for food supplies for the disaster in Burma.

05/05/2008 The worst disaster within living memory

Smashed up houses, broken masts, giant trees strewn across the roads. The damages from the cyclone Nagris are visible everywhere in and around Rangoon, the capital of Burma, where almost 50 percent of all houses are overturned.

05/05/2008 Humanitarian assistance

Accelerating climate changes, war, armed conflict, shrinking of humanitarian space, 9.9 million refugees and 24 million internally displaced. The environment where humanitarian action takes place is evolving rapidly and continuously, posing new challenges for the delivery of humanitarian assistance, disaster risk reduction and protection for affected communities.

01/05/2008 Partner nominated for award

DanChurchAid is pleased to nominate Executive Director Jack Dunford and the staff of Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) for the 2008 Nansen Refugee Award.

04/02/2008 Joy of living returns after tsunami disaster

“The memory is still very painful to me,” G. Raju recounts in a faltering vice. Yet, there was nothing he could do. The flood waves were six or seven meters high and he could not reach his house and his family. He still vividly remembers the horrible scenes of devastation the tsunami left in its wake three years ago as it swept through his coastal village in southern India.

03/02/2008 Three years after tsunami, Sri Lanka rebuilds amid worsening war

Three years ago, Susantha Jayalath survived the tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean and devastated the coast of Sri Lanka. He lost his fishing boat and nets, but within weeks he sold his wife’s jewelry to make the down payment on a new boat. Then a war got in the way of earning a living, and life for Jayalath remains stalled long after the waves receded.

24/01/2008 A country and people hanging in the balance

While political parties and outside mediators struggle to find a peaceful solution to Kenya’s election dispute, young people find a different challenge as they wrestle with crisis in a once peaceful country.

14/01/2008 After the storm

The destruction and lost of livelihoods after cyclone Sidr is still evident in Southern Bangladesh

08/01/2008 Displaced in their own country

Millions of Kenyans went to the polls to choose their president in the national elections after Christmas. But for Benta Nyipolo and hundreds of thousands of Kenyans like her, being forced from their homes in the violence sparked by the election dispute was something they did not choose.

04/01/2008 Rehabilitation of livelihood structures

DanChurchAid (DCA) has received Euro 250.000 from the European Commission Humanitarian Aid department in response to the situation in Bangladesh after the Cyclone SIDR.

03/01/2008 Political tensions in Kenya

Rising tensions and violence in Kenya following a disputed election has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people with tens of thousands fleeing their homes.

07/12/2007 Families have received relief items

Around 2000 families, who have been hit by cyclone Sidr, have received relief items.

28/09/2007 A goat means hope for tomorrow

A group of 100 marginalized women have this summer been selected to participate in a goat husbandry project in order to ensure sustainable livelihoods. They are all from an area of Ethiopia that has struggled with drought for the last six years.

08/08/2007 ACT members continue flood responses in Asia

Members of the global alliance, Action by Churches Together (ACT) International of which DanChurchAid is a member, continue to respond to multiple floods crises across vast regions of Asia. Reuters reports that 35 million people are affected by the crisis in India, Bangladesh and Nepal alone. China and Pakistan have also suffered torrential rains and floods in the past month.

07/08/2007 Emergency aid to flood affected people in Asia

DanChurchAid has sent one million DKK to the relief work for the survivors of the floods in Asia, and more money is on its way.

28/04/2007 Tsunami recovery in Tamil Nadu

A string of recent dedications of newly constructed post-tsunami housing in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu was reason to celebrate. But it was also an opportunity to take stock and explore ways to respond to future disasters.

05/02/2007 Firewood and protection

Firewood collection: A threat to women and a threat to the environment. ACT/Caritas’s Darfur Emergency Response Operation is working on initiatives to protect both.

05/02/2007 Engendering gender justice

With support from DanChurchAid, Lutheran World Service/India (LWSI) has initiated a livelihood support and a community based disaster preparedness (CBDP) programme in 50 tsunami affected non-ocean fishing and dalit communities of Cuddalore and Nagapattinam districts of Tamil Nadu state. As part of the project, women will receive special attention by way of getting vocational training for alternative livelihood opt...

02/02/2007 Floods in Angola

Recent flooding in Luanda, Benguela and other western Angolan provinces have resulted in the deaths of some 90 people and have contributed to a worsening cholera outbreak.

22/01/2007 Emergency relief and rehabilitation support

17/01/2007 Disaster preparedness

DanChurchAid's disaster preparedness and emergency interventions are carried out from a rights perspective. Community organisation and mobilisation are becoming increasingly important features of DanChurchAid's Relief Aid programme.

15/01/2007 Internally displaced persons

DanChurchAid supports marginalised groups affected by conflict and disaster, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees with emergency relief combined with efforts to obtain 'fair' conditions.

11/01/2007 Saab Denmark wins Disaster Competition

New technology from Saab’s Danish branch may improve working conditions and stabilise communication in disaster areas. On Friday, 5 January 2007, Saab Denmark won the innovation competition ‘Communication in Disasters’.

11/11/2006 Material and mental healing get underway

Scan the faces of children gathered for a break outside Souane Elementary School and you see that life is slowly returning after the traumatic 34-day Israeli-Hezbollah conflict that left Lebanese villages bombed, roads destroyed and thousands injured and dead. DanChurchAid is currently clearing mines and unexploded ammunition in Lebanon.

31/10/2006 Forgotten refugees

Burmese minorities are being given shelter in the border region between Burma and Thailand since 1984. Their situation is difficult: they are not allowed to work in Thailand and it is impossible for them to live in Burma because of the aggressive Junta regime there. DanChurchAid has a long history of offering support to TBBC, the organisation that has been responsible for the reception of the ever-increasing influ...

Where we work

Guatemala

Sudan

India

Angola

Congo (DCR)

Ethiopia

Malawi

Uganda

Zambia

Bangladesh

Burma/Myanmar

Cambodia

Nepal

Pakistan

Haiti

Honduras

West Bank/Gaza

Kazakhstan

Kyrgyzstan

Lebanon

Together we change the world

What we do

DanChurchAid believes

Henrik Stubkjær, Secretary General

Work with us

Ripples

When disaster strikes

Disaster risk reduction

What we do

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