Emergency Response and Disaster Relief
AmeriCares organizes emergency response teams to deliver urgently needed aid to survivors of disasters. Such aid includes medicines, hospital supplies, water or water purification treatments, shelter and other critically needed resources. In 2009, AmeriCares responded to 32 emergencies in 22 countries. Recent relief efforts have included:
• AmeriCares delivered more than $5 million in aid to the Philippines after Typhoon Ketsana produced more than 16 inches of rainfall in a 24-hour period over Manila and surrounding areas. This massive amount of concentrated rainfall triggered mudslides and massive flooding, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless. AmeriCares provided emergency aid included antibiotics to fight infections and treat waterborne diseases, pain relievers, medical supplies and personal hygiene items.
• Hurricane Ida caused disastrous flooding and mudslides in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Mexico. An emergency airlift and AmeriCares relief workers dispatched to El Salvador coordinated the distribution of critical relief throughout the region.
• AmeriCares responded to the deadly cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe with vital medicines, water purifiers to provide over 3 million US gallons (11,000 m3) of clean drinking water, and 20,000 units of lifesaving IV solutions and IV supplies, more than half of which were specifically designed to treat children.
• When Cyclone Aila left more than 5 million people homeless in India, the AmeriCares India division coordinated the provision of medicines, medical supplies and disaster relief experts to rural villages in West Bengal. AmeriCares India also dispatched medical services to treat patients suffering from injuries, infections and other health problems.
• In 2009, AmeriCares delivered its eleventh airlift for Darfur refugees, a region in which 2.7 million people rely on humanitarian aid to survive. In neighboring Chad, where thousands of Sudanese refugees seek asylum, AmeriCares mobilized additional shipments of medicine and medical supplies, bringing the total aid delivered to the region since 2004 to $11 million.
• In the United States, AmeriCares dispatched its mobile medical unit to the Gulf Coast to treat survivors of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. AmeriCares also sent truckloads of potable water, provided portable generators to keep home-based medical equipment operating, and repaired, equipped and funded health care facilities damaged by the storms.
• In 2010, AmeriCares responded to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, that destroyed most of Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince and effected surrounding areas. Within two weeks of the earthquake, AmeriCares had delivered $12.5 million in medicines and health care products, including anesthetics, antibiotics, pain relievers and basic medical supplies, such as gauze, sutures and syringes. Additionally, AmeriCares long-term commitment to Haiti includings pledging to deliver $50 million in aid to help rebuild the country's health care system.
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