30 July 2003

Bonn, Germany: Floods in Sri Lanka
More than 250 people die in May 2003 as a result of Sri Lanka's worst flooding in 50 years. A team of UN Volunteers from India deploy rapidly to the worst affected districts in south-central Sri Lanka where landslides have driven more than 100,000 people from their homes. They help officials, the national army and non-governmental organizations identify immediate needs of the most vulnerable families, women and the disabled. Assisting the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) and UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR), they post information on flood relief operations on a web site and compile an emergency telephone directory for government officials. In the camps where people take refuge, they work with local volunteers to distribute water, shelter material, clothes and medicine.

Cyclone in Assam, India
In April 2003, high winds destroy 1, 350 houses and a bridge serving the 4,900 people living in India’s north-eastern Assam region. Some 1,500 people are injured, 150 seriously. UN Volunteers travel immediately from Assam and others from Orissa to assess damage after the powerful cyclone. The UN Volunteers are doctors and IT specialists with experience in disaster mitigation. They dress wounds, administer antibiotics to prevent infection and splint broken limbs in the camps. In the village of Hatsingimari, they set up a control room and coordinate field relief operations. In the state capital, Guwahati, another UNV team monitors relief activities and with local NGOs cleans polluted ponds and clears debris. For 12 days they help shift the injured patients to ambulances and spray bleaching powder in and around the temporary camps set up for the villagers to ensure sanitation.

Earthquake in El Salvador
On 16 January 2001, UN Volunteers are among the first relief workers to assist victims after an earthquake shook the Caribbean region just two days earlier. They set up an emergency database to assess and meet WFP needs for relief supplies. They coordinate relief support from UN Volunteers coming in from Nicaragua, Guatemala and Argentina to join forces with disaster experts and medical doctors on the ground. UN Volunteers with UNICEF provide psychological support to children while a further team of UN Volunteers coordinates the overall relief support to the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination agency (UNDAC), making sure that food, water, shelters and medicines reach people in time. Providing long-term assistance to the victims, UN Volunteers help municipalities carry out reconstruction.

Floods in Mozambique
In February 2000, a cyclone pounds southern Africa and floods cover large parts of Mozambique. Some 100,000 people need to be evacuated, including thousands from treetops. UN Volunteers respond quickly to the emergency, leaving their normal activities and travelling by helicopter to Macia district south of the Limpopo River. They arrive within hours to help distribute food to refugees in the camps where up to 20,000 people are sheltered. Meanwhile, another team of UN Volunteers helps coordinate relief operations for the World Food Programme (WFP) and for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). UN Volunteers under the White Helmets* initiative help provide food and shelter. Later, the UN Volunteers conduct a relief survey with the Government preparing the road to resettlement. Currently 50 UN Volunteers carry out food monitoring tasks for WFP in response to floods and drought in Mozambique.

*The White Helmets initiative, originating in Argentina, provides the United Nations, through UNV, with a pre-identified, standby corps of trained volunteers for immediate relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction activities.

Cyclone in Orissa, India
A "super" cyclone 10 times more devastating than Hurricane Mitch crashes through India’s State of Orissa on 29 October 1999. Flooding affects 13 million people, and 600,000 are left homeless. A team of national UN Volunteers evacuate victims from collapsed buildings and bring them to relief shelters. Using the Internet, they track weather patterns and power an effective early warning network. Taking on a coordination function, they also set up a damage assessment database and inform the Government and UN agencies about required relief supplies to ensure that pressing needs are met.

Volcano eruption on Montserrat
Montserrat’s Soufrière Hills Volcano comes back to life on 18 July 1995. Its eruption in July 1997 is devastating and forces two thirds of islanders to evacuate to neighbouring Caribbean islands and further afield. Many have never returned to Montserrat and most of those who stayed on the island live in temporary shelters. In 1999, three UN Volunteers join the Government’s efforts to resettle Montserrat. They map land and plots endangered by volcanic activity, recover information on land ownership and design new roads. In the following years, another team of UN Volunteers sets up a database to keep records on land property and new infrastructures. The UN Volunteers work with communities to build sturdy homes in safe areas, rehabilitate health centres and the hospital and set up care services for the disabled and elderly traumatized by the volcanic activity. Computer-savvy UN Volunteers also assist in volcano surveillance with the staff of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory.

Hurricane Mitch in Central America
On 26 October 1998, Hurricane Mitch destroys 18,000 villages in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, killing 5,000 people and injuring another two million in one night. Mobilized at short notice by the UNV teams in Honduras and Nicaragua, more than 100 volunteers help distribute water and food to refugees in hundreds of relief shelters. In Honduras, 36 UN Volunteers take a census of women, children and older people sheltering in camps and a dozen UN Volunteers distribute medicines to victims in Guatemala. In El Salvador, 10 UN Volunteers join efforts with local relief brigades to rescue people trapped under collapsed buildings while a further group of UN Volunteers in Costa Rica works with UNICEF to care for traumatized children.

In 1999, the UNV country team in Nicaragua engage 50 volunteer students under the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Project to help reconstruct settlements damaged by Hurricane Mitch. The ongoing initiative conducted under the University Volunteer Service fosters solidarity and volunteer spirit among students of two national universities.

Hurricane George in the Caribbean
In September 1998 in the Caribbean, Hurricane George sweeps through the Leeward Islands, leaving widespread destruction in its wake. In just a few days, four UN Volunteers under the White Helmets initiative arrive in St. Kitts to assist the national emergency task force in assessing damage and in setting up a database. In the following two months, they give medical treatment to hurricane victims and design an overall rehabilitation plan that builds on the house reconstruction work carried out by UN Volunteers under a similar initiative in Antigua.

Desertification and drought in Africa
In 1997, shortly after the UN Convention to Combat Desertification enters into force, UNV sends UN Volunteers to Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cap Verde, Chad, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zwimbabwe to develop, with these Governments, National Desertification Action Plans. The UN Volunteers hold forums with women’s groups, farmer associations and local governments to discuss the national policies. They encourage the participation of these groups and community members at-large in activities such as planting drought-resistant saplings and building ponds to store rainwater. Women also receive training on environmental issues related to the supply of food, water and wood for domestic needs.