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GLIDE: DR-2008-000043-ETH
Period covered by this Ops Update: 12 June to 6 October 2008;
Appeal target (current): CHF 8,157,607 (USD 7,920,006 or EUR 5,035,560);
Appeal coverage: 20 to 76% multilaterally; 56% bilaterally from ECHO and Austrian Development Agency (ADA) through Finnish and Austrian Red Cross.
Appeal history:
- This Emergency Appeal was initially launched on a preliminary basis on 14 May 2008 for CHF 1,847,444 (USD 1,776,388 or EUR 1,143,928) for 4 months to assist 40,000 beneficiaries.
- A Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) of CHF 300,000 was initially allocated from the Federation's DREF to support the National Society to respond to the situation.
- The revised appeal seeking CHF 8,157,607 was launched on 19 August 2008 to assist 76,075 beneficiaries for 6 months.
Summary: The Federation, on behalf of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS), launched a preliminary emergency appeal on 14 May 2008 to assist 40,000 beneficiaries in Damot Pulasa district, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional (SNNPR) state for a period of 4 months. After consultations with the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency (DPPA), the local government and the ERCS branch, the ERCS began the relief operation with the collaboration of the Federation, using items available on the local market. Following the findings of the emergency need assessments conducted by the National Society, ERCS was obliged to revise the initial appeal to reach a larger population affected by the food insecurity. The total number of beneficiaries in the revised appeal was 76,075 people living in both Damot Pulasa and Damot Gale districts of SNNPR state. In order to produce longer term benefits for the local community, the food distribution was accompanied by recovery activities such as seed distribution for the farmers who have enough land to cultivate and provision of livestock for families with poor or no access to agricultural land. Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) training and water point rehabilitation was carried out to mitigate the health impacts of the food shortages.
To date, three rounds of food distribution have been carried out in Damot Pulasa. Beneficiaries in Damot Gale district received their first round in September, at the same time as the third distribution in Damot Pulasa. Anecdotal evidence indicates that the nutritional status of the beneficiary populations is improving (though it has not been possible to obtain numerical nutrition status data for the districts or SNNPR state for the period covered by this Operations Update), and the rate of admissions to Therapeutic Feeding Programmes in SNNPR state, though still high, is reducing. There have been no major disease outbreaks to this point.
The long rainy season which ends in mid September has largely provided adequate rainfall in the area. Bean seeds and sweet potato vines distributed to replace livelihoods assets lost in earlier adverse weather are growing well.
EUR 2,700,000 (CHF 4,239,000 ) was pledged bilaterally by ECHO through the Austrian Red Cross and Finnish Red Cross, with an additional EUR 200,000 (CHF 314,000) pledged bilaterally by the Austrian Development Agency towards the Emergency Appeal. Ethiopiaid contributed GBP 200,000 (CHF 394,000) towards the Emergency Appeal.