COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AlertNet) - As vegetable prices keep rising, accelerated by twin floods earlier this year, Sri Lanka's government is pushing a country-wide home-garden programme to encourage Sri Lankans to grow what they might otherwise struggle to afford.

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Note: The last fact sheet was dated May 5, 2010.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

- On September 25, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) announced that the Ministry of Resettlement had returned or released approximately 265,000 of 280,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) temporarily residing in welfare centers. These individuals had fled conflict areas in the months leading up to the May 19, 2009, GoSL declaration

Pakistan has been hit by the worst floods in decades with over 20 million affected-people in the country, outnumbering those of the 2004 Tsunami or of this year earthquake in Haiti. In the North West as well as in the South of the country, the torrential rains have wrecked entire villages, swallowed up by rivers in spate that have turned into wrenching torrents sweeping away houses, crops and livestock. Thanks to its presence in both Swat and Dir, ACTED was able to launch emergency activities as early as August 3rd, that is as soon as floods started to retreat.

In brief

Programme outcome: The aim of the International Federation is to coordinate and support efforts at country and regional level to assist South Asian national societies to scale up their work to improve the lives of vulnerable people.

Programme(s) summary: The focus of the South Asia regional programmes continues to be to work towards and integrated programming approach to cross-cutting issues. In disaster management, the programme continued to scale up disaster management/disaster risk reduction

•  As of 7 July, 41 662 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) remain in the five operating zones ofMenik Farm, according to data from the Ministry of Health (MOH). A fifth of this population is out of the camps at any given time due to the "pass system".
• Three referral hospitals and three primary health care centres now function at Menik Farm,with the primary health care centre in zone 0 also acting as referral hospital. The former MSFhospital located in Cheddikulum Coordination center continues to serve as the referralhospital

In brief

This programme update focuses on the work of the Asia Pacific zone office in the first six months of 2010 to provide leadership and guidance to the International Federation efforts to increase the impact of Asia Pacific national societies' humanitarian activities. Many societies across the zone have maintained a high level of programming in several new disaster response operations and continued comprehensive post-disaster recovery activities, while others have started

The kits were provided in response to a general request from the government for assistance for those affected by the recent floods. The distributions were carried out directly by NRC staff in coordination with the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) in designated locations at Gurukula College, Kelaniya and a flood affected community area in Kiribathgoda.

The NFRI kits contained sleeping mats,

According to the Ministry of Health's Epidemiology Unit, 1,806 dengue cases were reported in the city of more than half a million people in May, resulting in nine deaths, for a total 95 deaths this year.

In 2009, 4,813 cases were reported, with 42 deaths, in Colombo.

"We are taking this situation seriously," chief medical officer for the Colombo Municipal Council, Pradeep Kariyawasam,