It is now two and half months since the
appeal for the North Caucasus was issued to assist the displaced who fled
Chechnya mainly to Ingushetia due to the fighting between the Russian forces
and the Chechen rebels in the region. Over 250,000 people had fled Chechnya
into Ingushetia although the population figure could not be fully relied
on due to the high mobility of the people in the region. Currently, the
number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Ingushetia according to
the UNHCR figures is between 150,000 and 185,000. Again these figures are
questionable as the registration by the Ingush authorities is perceived
inaccurate.
About 60% of the displaced people are
staying with host families and the rest are in the 5 IDP camps and in the
spontaneous settlements. The ACT members, Norwegian Church AID and Dutch
Inter Church AID working through their local partners on the ground are
responding in the fields of medical aid, food aid, shelter and providing
psychological support to traumatized women and children. The precarious
security situation in the area does however, have an adverse effect on
the implementation plans.
ACT - Dutch Inter Church Aid with local partners have done considerable work in psychological counseling to mostly women and children in the camps. The counseling activities are mostly accompanied with medical and material assistance for both the clients and their families. ACT - DIA has also distributed over 10,000 food parcels in the five camps. The distributions have been highly commended as being well organized and reaching the intended beneficiaries.
ACT - DIA has also provided coal for heating in some of the tents that lacked heating facilities. Medicines have also been supplied and distributed to medical centers both in Chechnya and Ingushetia. It has however, become very difficult for supplies to continue to get into Chechnya due to the intense fighting. But still a limited supply is getting through. While focussing on the needs of the IDPs in the camps, ACT - DIA with its partners is also looking into assisting IDPs with host families and those not being reached by other AID agencies.
ACT - Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and local partners are working in the Nazran and Sunzh regions in Ingushetia. Currently they are doing a second round of food and hygiene parcels distribution with the third distribution envisaged at the beginning of February. A new bakery obtained from Moscow is being installed in their operational area and this will go along way in providing bread to the people as it will be the only operational bakery in the area.
The appeal coverage has so far been 47% receiving US$385,124 out of the total appeal amount of US$749,529.
Thank you for your attention.
ACT Web Site address: http://www.act-intl.org
ACT is a worldwide network of churches and related agencies meeting human need through coordinated emergency response.
The ACT Coordinating Office is based with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Switzerland.