As AVSI, we express our sorrow for all the victims and great concern about the war that has broken out in the Middle East, where we have been working since 1993 with development cooperation projects, particularly in education, protection, health, and economic development.
When the rain comes, so does the fear. For hundreds of children living near the city of Petropolis, in Southeastern Brazil, such a normal, natural phenomenon recalls a traumatic experience.
After providing aid in the immediate aftermath of the emergency, AVSI continues working in Aleppo to provide psycho-social support and essential items to people affected by the Turkey-Syria earthquake.
“The worst thing that could happen to Syria, on top of the many other adversities, is to be forgotten” says Italian Cardinal Mario Zenari, Apostolic Nuncio in Syria.
Since 2016, more than 6 million people have fled Venezuela. About 5 million of them have found refuge in other countries of Latin America. The country’s oppressive political climate and worsening economic conditions has made the Venezuelan crisis one of the largest migration events in modern history.
Amid the crisis, AVSI has stepped up its work with refugees and migrants in the region, leveraging the little money available to create pathways for long-term integration and development for Venezuelans in host countries. Through the project Integrados, funded by the US Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, AVSI provides legal protection, housing, and livelihoods assistance for Venezuelan refugees and migrants in three regions of Ecuador: Pichincha, Manabi, and El Oro.
AVSI is ready: we are on the ground and helping the thousands of injured and displaced people in Aleppo, just over 100 km from the epicenter of the Turkey-Syria earthquake. This emergency is said to be “the most devastating one the region has seen in over 24 years.”
Retreat from the challenging environment in Port au Prince is a short-sighted solution that will only exacerbate the problem, with potentially severe consequences for the Haitian people and the region. AVSI is a strategic partner that 1) keeps open humanitarian access to the most hazardous neighborhoods; 2) focuses on place-based strategies with a high degree of community buy-in and support, employing local staff; and 3) brings proven, context-specific strategies that integrate across sectors for holistic care and greater impact. AVSI is ready to work with donor agencies and partners to expand and strengthen this programmatic approach.
An intense week of discussion, meetings with donor agencies, lots of hard questions and even more painful answers culminated in a panel discussion held in the forum of The New York Encounter. At that event, titled “Haiti’s Open Wounds: Is there Hope?“, Fiammetta and journalist Joe Parkin Daniels from The Guardian dove into the questions which have been burning for so many throughout the terribly painful year of 2021, which for Haiti was a living hell.
AVSI-USA received a grant of $160,000 from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s (CDP) Haiti Earthquake Recovery Fund to mitigate the harmful effects of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on August 14, leaving more than 650,000 people in need of emergency humanitarian assistance. Funds will be used to provide physical and psychosocial protection, promote child development, and reactivate child protection networks. As part of the project, AVSI will render fully functional 8 child-friendly spaces with programming serving at least 800 children and their families living in underserved urban slums in Les Cayes and Torbeck and remote coastal villages, including Roche a Bateau, Coteaux, Port-a-Piment, and Chardonnieres.
Three month after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit the country, we have distributed plastic sheets to 5,301 people and created 12 child-friendly spaces to help children and adolescents cope with the trauma.
