Used once and then discarded, 40% of the world’s plastic waste comes from packaging. In light of this fact, many in the humanitarian community are taking a hard look at their own use of packaging and the waste it creates. On World Environment Day, learn how USAID and other humanitarian organizations are working together to create sustainable change.
When a disaster or crisis strikes anywhere around the world, tons of food and other critical relief supplies needed to provide shelter and protection are transported to far-flung locations. These items are carefully packaged so they reach the people who need them rapidly and in good condition. But after urgent assistance has been provided, the packaging produces unintended waste in communities that do not always have the means to dispose of it.
The physical and mental damage caused by malnutrition can be irreversible, especially in children. The United States is the largest donor of food assistance around the world. Today, on World Hunger Day, see how USAID and our partners are working to fight hunger every day and save lives.
Globally, almost 33 million children have been forcibly displaced by conflict or natural disaster, according to UNICEF. With limited access to adequate, safe, and nutritious food, displaced children are especially vulnerable to malnutrition. Poor nutrition in early childhood can compromise cognitive and physical development — lasting consequences that jeopardize the health of future generations.
USAID has spent decades working with scientists, public health experts and partners to tailor our critical food assistance to meet the nutrition needs of affected people, especially those fully dependent on this assistance like the more than 26 million refugees around the world.
But we don’t…
It surprised most people when Saint Vincent island’s La Soufrière volcano erupted April 9, shooting ash clouds miles into the air. But disaster experts in USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance were expecting — and preparing for — La Soufrière‘s eruptions for months, providing early warning systems and support for the local emergency authorities.
After the eruptions, USAID worked with partners in the Caribbean to help people in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines stay safe and healthy through evacuations, and help them recover and rebuild after.
Here are 5 ways we responded:
1. Early Warning: U.S. Science & Tech for Monitoring Volcanoes
When hurricanes barrel close to communities, many people’s first instincts are to protect themselves from the high winds that threaten to flatten homes and snap trees in half. But, in fact, storm surges — or rising coastal waters created by the storm — pose a far more dangerous and deadly threat.
What is Storm Surge?
It wasn’t so long ago — September 2019 — when Hurricane Dorian made landfall in The Bahamas as a Category 5 storm, making it the strongest hurricane in modern history to hit the island nation and only the fifth Atlantic hurricane on record to achieve such an intensity. The storm destroyed infrastructure and affected more than 76,000 people.
While the 180+ mph winds caused damage, it was the storm surge, or rising water, that rose more than 20 feet above tide level and devastated most communities. That’s equivalent to reaching the top of a two story house! …
Tim Callaghan, USAID’s Senior Humanitarian Advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean, has led numerous hurricane responses for the Agency, including Hurricanes Iota and Eta in 2020 and Hurricane Dorian in 2019. He explains how USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance prepares year-round for Atlantic hurricane season.
As another Atlantic hurricane season approaches, we are reminded that it takes just one bad storm to wreak havoc, kill and injure thousands, and inflict billions of dollars in damage. That’s why USAID works year-round to help our neighbors in Latin America and the Caribbean to be ready for and more resilient to natural…
John Grabowski, Regional Advisor for Southern Africa with USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, takes us on his recent trip to the town of Marupa in Cabo Delgado.
Since 2017, ongoing fighting in northern Mozambique has forced nearly 700,000 people to flee their homes in search of safety. Over the last year, the violence has skyrocketed to unprecedented levels, fueled by attacks from armed groups — quadrupling the number of internally displaced persons, especially in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Province. Now, humanitarian groups are scrambling to meet rapidly growing needs.
The crisis in Syria has now lasted approximately as long as World War I and II combined. But USAID is not forgetting the people at the heart of the crisis who are struggling to cope with 10 years lost to civil war.
It has been ten years since fighting broke out in Syria, leading to what has become one of the largest and most complex humanitarian emergencies of our time. As we reach this somber milestone, the numbers look even more grim. Syria’s prolonged conflict has left two-thirds of the country’s population in need. …
Ten years ago, the tectonic plates off the eastern coast of Japan shifted with a force so great, it moved the coastline of the country and changed the balance of the planet. The earthquake also set into motion a tsunami with waves several stories high that engulfed entire towns, took the lives of more than 20,000 people, and caused a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. See how USAID responded.
When the magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit Japan, Sarah Potts was actually in a plane over the Pacific Ocean, flying home from Christchurch, New Zealand, where she had been…
On November 16, 2020, Hurricane Iota slammed into Central America’s coast as a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of nearly 155 mph. This came just two weeks after Hurricane Eta brought heavy rains, severe flooding, and landslides to many of the same areas.
An estimated nine million people across Central America were affected as these back-to-back hurricanes flooded vast areas, damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of homes, and forced hundreds of thousands of people to seek the safety of evacuation shelters. …
On November 3, Eta — the 28th named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season — made landfall in Central America, unleashing heavy winds, rain, and severe flooding and landslides across the region. Thousands of people have been evacuated, and tens of thousands have been affected by the devastation.
Here are three ways we are responding to help communities across Central America affected by Tropical Storm Eta:
1. Activating disaster specialists across Central America
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