Malteser International

Tsunami warning issued for the Indian Ocean

Malteser International on standby for emergency relief

Cologne. A tsunami warning has been issued after a strong earthquake off the coast of the Indonesian Island of Sumatra sent tremors throughout the entire Indian Ocean region. The Malteser International teams in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Myanmar are on standby and ready to provide emergency assistance when needed.

The staff members at Malteser International’s offices in the region have evacuated their offices and are waiting in safety further inland. “In Aceh, in north-eastern Sumatra, no extensive damages can be observed”, says Julia Brunner, Malteser International’s senior desk officer for Indonesia, after talking to the team on the ground. So far, Malteser International has not received any reports of damages in the countries affected by the earthquake. The organisation will remain in contact with its teams in Lhokseumawe/Indonesia, Batticaloa/Sri Lanka, and Sittwe/Myanmar, as well as with its partners in Tamil Nadu, southern India.

World Water Day 2012

Access to clean water still marked by extreme inequality

Cologne. The recent news that a target under the seventh Millennium Development Goal – to halve the proportion of the global population without access to safe drinking water – has been reached is a reason for celebration on World Water Day. However, Malteser International, the relief service of the Order of Malta for humanitarian aid, calls for going beyond the statistics and focusing on reaching the nearly 800 million people worldwide who are still without a source of clean water.

“The gap between rich and poor is increasing, and this manifests itself also in disparity in access to clean water”, says Arno Coerver, Malteser International’s regional Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) coordinator in Asia. “Without a change in policy in how investments are made in the water sector, a large group of people is likely to be left out of receiving the necessary services for the foreseeable future”.

According to a recent report by UNICEF and the World Health Organization, over 2 billion people gained access to improved water sources from 1990 to 2010 – currently, 89% of the global population has access to safe drinking water. The rapid economic growth in countries like India and China has contributed to this trend. However, this development has been extremely unequal in different regions, with only 61% of the Sub-Saharan population having access to improved water sources.

Malteser International has successfully supported water projects for marginalised communities in 11 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The organisation’s approach is to provide safe water and sanitation in simple, cost-effective ways to as many people as possible and where the need is greatest.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for instance, where only 50% of the population has access to an improved water source, Malteser International provides safe drinking water at health centres and hospitals in South Kivu – that way, the risks of waterborne infections among those who are most vulnerable to diseases can be reduced. “In the region, cholera is still endemic – even in areas with supposedly safe access to water”, says Dr. Lothar Winkler, medical coordinator for Malteser International in DR Congo.

In order to prevent unequal access to safe drinking water, governments and organisations in the water sector should improve their targeting of water and sanitation resources. “It is important to favour a pro-poor approach while planning projects in this sector”, Coerver says.

Cologne. On International Women’s Day, Malteser International, the Order of Malta’s relief service for humanitarian aid, honours the Dalit women of Rajasthan, who are making a difference in their communities through mobilisation and active participation in the political process.

Enabling women to develop their leadership skills and demand their rights is the goal of a women-centred project conducted by Malteser International and its partner organisation, Unnati, in north-eastern India. It allows women from a group of people known as the Dalits, who belong to the lowest ranks of India’s traditionally caste-based society, to petition their government and assert their claims by giving them the knowledge and the tools they need to gain access to vital social services.

One of these women is Khamma Devi, who is the leader of her village’s women’s collective. Together with her group, she has successfully demanded local authorities to provide temporary work for 75 women, and helped identify all of the people in her village eligible for social security, linking them to the appropriate pension scheme.

Khamma Devi is very proud of her accomplishments. “I think I might have had some leadership qualities in me, but I did not have any way of using them”, she says. “After joining the village collective and receiving orientations, I have developed as a leader. My confidence has increased, and I can present my case in front of any state official.  I feel that all women should have this opportunity”.

Many Dalits live in a semi-arid area bordering the Great Indian Desert in western Rajasthan. Water there has always been scarce; with the threat of climate change, it could get worse. As if that alone were not difficult enough, Dalits have to deal with another issue: because of discrimination, they lack access to public amenities such as fountains or wells. This creates a vicious cycle of poverty and exclusion.

But Malteser International and Unnati are now helping the women break out of this cycle. In the village of Kolu Pabuji, for instance, none of the women in the village had ever owned any property until recently. “Now, with the support of the project facilitators, and an enabling environment developed over numerous discussions with the men of the households, the husbands of four of the women agreed to transfer two plots of land to their name”, says Swapni Shah, the project’s chief operations officer for Malteser International’s partner NGO Unnati. “They feel that they own something for the first time in their lives.”

The project has already reached 500 families in 50 villages, and a total of 152 women have been trained to serve as voluntary leaders in their villages. The work is supported by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Cologne. In remembrance of the day a devastating earthquake hit Japan, the children and staff of the children’s home Fujinosono will eat only emergency food rations on 11 March. “In this way, the children and youth will commemorate the victims and, at the same time, express their gratitude for the help they received”, says Sister Caelina Mauer, director of the children’s home located in the city of Ichinoseki in north-eastern Japan, which was heavily damaged and made uninhabitable by the earthquake. The children will be served a lunch of instant soup, and dinner will consist of rice prepared with cold water and canned fish – the same meal eaten on the evening of 11 March 2011.

Malteser International, the Order of Malta’s relief service for humanitarian aid, is supporting the construction of a new home for Fujinosono with five million euros.  This sum includes donations from the international Caritas network as well as private and corporate donations worldwide. The old children’s home is currently being demolished, and the children have lived in a temporary container home since last Christmas. The new energy-efficient home will be built according to the latest earthquake resistance standards, will rely on renewable energies for a large part of its electricity supply, and will function as an evacuation centre for Ichinoseki residents in case of disaster.

The construction plans for the new building are currently still under negotiation. Despite a foreseen delay in the construction schedule due to a drastic increase in costs since the earthquake, the children should be able to move into their new home in 2013. 

In the morning of 11 March, a church service will be held to remember the dead and missing. In the afternoon, the 60 children and their caretakers will participate in a national minute of silence, scheduled for 2:46 p.m. local time. They will then light candles and proceed to the place where they sought shelter in the previous year: the home’s gymnasium. “This day is important as a reminder that we should never forget what happened”, Sister Caelina says. “But it is also a day that brings us together. In suffering, one is never alone”.