November/December 2018 GLOBAL EMERGENCY UPDATE Read the latest report on Catholic Relief Services’ ongoing emergency response and recovery activities around the world. Our work is possible thanks to the generous support of private and public donors, the dedication of local partners, and the unwavering presence of Caritas and the local Catholic Church. LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN A Honduran migrant family travels through Chiapas, Mexico. Photo by Miguel Juarez Lugo/Alamy HONDURAS, GUATEMALA, HONDURAS, GUATEMALA VENEZUELA An economic and EL SALVADOR AND MEXICO AND EL SALVADOR social crisis in Venezuela has seen Families from Honduras are fleeing Families living across the Dry thousands of citizens leave the gang violence and chronic poverty Corridor of Central America country amid food shortages, fueled by climate change. They are are facing long‑term drought, hyperinflation, currency devaluation, traveling across Guatemala and exacerbated by climate change and the collapse of the health system El Salvador toward Mexico and environmental degradation. Almost and social unrest. CRS focuses on the United States. CRS is working 3.5 million people need emergency the needs of the most vulnerable, closely with our partners to supply assistance. CRS is providing supporting our partners to help shelter, food, basic health services cash‑for‑work and livelihoods struggling people in Venezuela, and and legal advice to ensure their support, and helping build migrants in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, dignity and human rights. communities’ drought resilience. and Trinidad and Tobago. EAST AND SOUTH ASIA INDIA Tropical Cyclone Titli struck on October 11, bringing strong winds and heavy flooding. It is estimated that 7.3 million people have been affected across the states of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, where homes have been damaged or destroyed, and roads submerged. CRS and our partners are responding with shelter kits, and living and hygiene supplies. On the island of Sulawesi, an earthquake triggered a deadly tsunami. Photo by Mohammed Hafiz/CRS INDONESIA A 7.5‑magnitude PHILIPPINES Close to 100 people BANGLADESH Cox’s Bazar district earthquake struck the island died when Typhoon Mangkhut hit the is at the center of a pressing of Sulawesi on September 28, Philippines on September 15. More humanitarian crisis. Since August triggering a tsunami. The disaster than 200,000 homes were reported 2017, widespread violence in caused more than 2,000 deaths. damaged or destroyed, thousands Myanmar’s Rakhine State has Homes, shops, mosques and hotels of people have been displaced, caused 700,000 Rohingya people collapsed, were swept away or and farmers and fishermen have to flee to Bangladesh, bringing the suffered extensive damage. Most been severely affected.CRS and total Rohingya refugee population homes have structural damage. our partners’ response includes in Bangladesh to nearly 1 million. As Potentially, 2 million people have cash assistance to help families of October 2018, CRS had assisted been affected. Relief operations buy essential household, shelter Caritas Bangladesh to support are well underway as CRS and our and hygiene supplies. We are also more than 263,000 Rohingya partners access hard‑to‑reach areas providing key messages to help refugees with shelter, water and and meet the urgent needs of the people rebuild their homes using sanitation, disaster risk reduction most vulnerable. disaster‑resilient techniques. and protection programming. EUROPE, THE MIDDLE EAST AND CENTRAL ASIA SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS Now IRAQ Iraqi forces have retaken YEMEN Fear of famine looms in its seventh year, Syria’s internal most ISIS‑held areas, since it as fighting and air strikes have armed conflict has displaced nearly first captured Mosul 4 years escalated drastically, including in 700,000 people in the first half of ago. Now, 4 million Iraqis—many the main port of Hudaydah. Eight this year alone, while 5.6 million of whom lost everything—have million people are dependent have sought refuge in neighboring returned home to areas in urgent on food aid for survival, and the countries. CRS and our partners need of restored education, United Nations has warned that provide comprehensive support to housing repair and livelihoods an estimated 14 million are on the communities and families across recovery. CRS and Caritas Iraq brink of starvation. CRS is working the Middle East, with education have helped more than 300,000 with its local partner Islamic and counselling assistance, shelter, people with a range of support, Relief Yemen to provide urgent, living supplies, food, medical including education, livelihoods, life‑saving nutrition, water assistance, and hygiene and shelter and essential living and sanitation, hygiene, health sanitation. supplies. care and cholera prevention. AFRICA UGANDA Ongoing violence where over 287,000 people live, between South Sudan’s CRS is supporting the most government and opposition vulnerable families with shelter, forces has caused more than infrastructure improvements, water 1 million South Sudanese people and sanitation, and livelihoods to flee into neighboring Uganda, recovery. CRS programming also where resources are stretched. In assists the local Ugandan host the Bidi Bidi refugee settlement community. 2 GLOBAL EMERGENCY UPDATE | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN HONDURAS, GUATEMALA AND EL SALVADOR CRS AND PARTNER RESPONSE DROUGHT CRS has a long history of working in countries across the Dry Corridor— Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador—and we work with local partners and communities in the areas severely affected by the drought. In Honduras, CRS’ Water‑Smart Agriculture and Blue Harvest are the two primary agricultural projects, with a focus on water and soil conservation for about 1,300 corn, bean and coffee farmers. CRS also works across Intibucá through the McGovern‑Dole Food for Education Program, providing daily school meals to about 54,000 children. In El Salvador, CRS and Caritas help farmers cope with ongoing challenges Much of Honduras’ staple corn crop has been lost to drought. Photo by Rafael Ochoa/Xinhua/Alamy related to climate change and degraded agricultural areas, and have CONTEXT trained staff in soil fertility and drought Families living across the Dry mitigation practices to help farmers Corridor of Central America are improve their overall resilience. facing a long‑term drought that 70 percent has parched agricultural land and In Guatemala, CRS is uniquely PRICE RISE IN CORN, THE MAIN withered crops. With the area positioned to respond with a huge SUBSISTENCE CROP prone to drought or extreme presence across the affected precipitation, people living there areas, and extensive agricultural are among the region’s most Key CRS findings in Honduras: programming over more than a impoverished and chronically ¡ Farmers reported losses decade. undernourished. of 75 percent for corn and 76 percent for bean crops in the CRS will expand its response to this The area has experienced year’s main crop cycle. crisis in the following ways: several severe droughts over ¡ The primary income sources are ¡ Providing cash‑for‑work the past 10 years, and almost agriculture, and manual labor in opportunities as a source of 3.5 million people are in need of agriculture and construction. income for these families as the emergency assistance. Average ¡ Subsistence farming families November‑December harvest annual temperatures in Central depend on their harvest, and season begins. These activities America have risen by 1.8 degrees on wages earned from local will focus on natural resource Fahrenheit in the past 50 years, agricultural work or temporary restoration in critical watershed while rainfall patterns have become labor during the coffee harvest. areas, soil conservation (terracing, more erratic and total rainfall has contour lines, drainage) and decreased. Most people in the ¡ Prices for corn, the primary reforestation around local water region rely on rainfed agriculture, subsistence crop, have risen sources. and the drought has exhausted dramatically. their food reserves. ¡ Food is urgently needed, ¡ Restoring livelihoods through especially for vulnerable groups livestock and seed fairs, which help According to the government such as children, breastfeeding people access agricultural assets of Honduras, 65,500 families— women and the elderly. and means for earning an income. or about 327,000 people—are ¡ Strengthening livestock—often affected across 74 municipalities. a family’s most valuable asset— The hardest‑hit departments through key interventions including include Lempira, Francisco vaccination services, veterinary Morazán, La Paz, Choluteca, El care and livestock fairs. Paraiso, Intibucá and Valle. An ¡ Building increased drought estimated 53,000 families need resilience for the next planting humanitarian assistance. season in January. 3 GLOBAL EMERGENCY UPDATE | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN HONDURAS | GUATEMALA | EL SALVADOR | MEXICO ‘MIGRANT CARAVAN’ CRISIS Desperate families travel across Mexico as part of a caravan of thousands fleeing violence and poverty. Photo by Lexie Harrison‑Cripps/Alamy CONTEXT CRS AND PARTNER RESPONSE In Honduras, Guatemala and The Catholic Church has played a CRS has outlined a strategy El Salvador, gang violence and critical role in supporting migrants to raise awareness about the drug cartels are escalating, causing during this humanitarian crisis humanitarian crisis so that key thousands of families to flee north. and has served more