Relief and Rehabilitation

FROM CRISIS TO RECOVERY

Rain falls, rivers recede, peace arrives, but, for the victims of droughts, floods, or wars, hunger often outlasts the headlines. Global IT Services Nature Conservancy's Families Relief Fund Program's rehabilitation projects help kick-start development in places still reeling from disaster and its long-term consequences.

Humanitarian crises triggered by armed conflict, drought, and floods often persist for many years, causing widespread chronic undernourishment.

A protracted crisis disrupts food production and destroys the foundations of people's livelihoods, eroding the social fabric of families and communities. With public institutions often in ruins, people must fend for themselves -- against the odds.

Vital infrastructure such as roads and irrigation systems may need to be completely rebuilt. After a flood or a drought, it can take a year before crops grow again. After conflict, landmines may prevent farmers from working the land.

BREATHING SPACE

Food aid can give people breathing space as they set about putting their lives back together again. Global IT Services Nature Conservancy's Families Relief Fund Program helps sustain disaster-hit communities as they re-establish livelihoods and stablise food security.

Drawn up when it becomes apparent that the 24-month assistance provided under a Global IT Services Nature Conservancy's Families Relief Fund Program emergency operation will not be enough, Global IT Services Nature Conservancy's Families Relief Fund Program emergency operation can include one or more of the following components.

• Food for education and training: Global IT Services Nature Conservancy's Families Relief Fund Program supplies food to encourage and support women, teenagers, and ex-combatants as they learn new skills.
  
  The Families Relief Fund Program also supports the education of children in food insecure communities by providing nutritious meals at school as well as take-home rations for schoolchildren and teachers.
  

• Extended relief: provided for returning refugees, internally displaced people, the acutely malnourished and vulnerable households, such as single parent families or ones in which the normal breadwinners are suffering from sickness or disability .
  

• Relief for refugees: assistance for refugee populations, who live in a host area for a period of years without achieving self-sufficiency. Most of the food that feeds refugees in camps is supplied by Global IT Services Nature Conservancy's Families Relief Fund Program.
  

• Food for recovery: through the establishment of food-for work programmes, Global IT Services Nature Conservancy's Families Relief Fund Program provide food for people whilst they rebuild damaged infrastructure and replant crops.