Attachments
Period covered by this Final Report: 26 March 2012 to 26 February, 2013.
Appeal target (current): CHF 1,238,922.
Appeal coverage: 65%;
Appeal history:
• CHF 95,607 was initially allocated from the Federation’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the national society in responding by delivering assistance.
• The Emergency Appeal was launched on 26 March, 2012 for CHF 1,238,922 for 8 months to assist 13,800 beneficiaries.
• Operations update No 1 was published on 30 May, 2012 to highlight the achievements of the operation then.
Summary: Since 4 March, 2012, the Congolese Red Cross (CRC), with technical and financial support from IFRC, participated in the operation to assist people affected by the Mpila explosions. With the objective of “contributing to the improvement of living conditions of affected families,” CRC intervened in areas like emergency assistance to the affected, construction/installation of emergency shelter on temporary sites, preparation of transit sites according to SPHERE standards, distribution of food and non-food items (NFIs) to the affected, water, hygiene and sanitation, health promotion, psychosocial support, early recovery of affected families, strengthening the capacity of National Society officials and volunteers in various areas of assistance (Knowledge of RC/RC Movement, site setting-up and management, community-based health and first aid, psychosocial support, logistics, management of income-generating activities, planning-monitoring-evaluation-reporting (PMER), etc.).
Specifically, CRC built/set up emergency shelters on temporary sites, brought drinking water to the affected by water trucking, organized health promotion and advocacy sessions and mobilization campaigns on diseases such as cholera and measles, hygiene and sanitation promotion campaigns. Others included the identification and training of 200 affected families, in the management of income-generating activities (IGAs) and allocation of kits to start IGAs. However, activities to rehabilitate some selected houses destroyed by the explosion were not finalized because of the reluctance of beneficiaries who were hoping that the government would build new houses for them.
At the beginning of the operation, some cases of cholera were reported in displaced persons sites, but were quickly responded to and brought under control. In general, beneficiaries have expressed satisfaction with the Red Cross intervention. Moreover, during a meeting to review Red Cross action, attended by representatives of the Congolese government and beneficiaries, the latter expressed the wish that the Congolese Red Cross should continue to cater for them, until the government built new houses for them.
Among the major challenges was the fact that government officials were regularly slow in granting partners access to various sites, including the Red Cross, while some actors failed to fulfill their commitments vis-à-vis the Red Cross. Consequently, CRC decided that henceforth, a memorandum of understanding must be signed between the national society and any given actor requiring the services of volunteers, prior to the deployment of any Red Cross volunteer to the sites.
In a bid to ensure more efficient and sustainable intervention, CRC will continue to carrying out serious advocacy on public authorities in order to seek broad based solutions, with the participation of all stakeholders. However, additional technical and financial support will be needed to carry out its activities.
Considering that lack of warehouses meeting the standards and the high cost for renting them in Brazzaville was also a major challenge, Red Cross is looking out for partners to support the renting or construction and management of a warehouse in Brazzaville.
The IFRC is thankful to the following Partner National Societies and governments for their kind support to the Appeal: European Commission-DG ECHO, Japanese Red Cross Society, Red Cross of Monaco and The Canadian Red Cross Society.