GLIDE n° FL-2011-000137-VNM
This revised emergency appeal seeks CHF 1,107,186 in cash, kind, or services to support the Viet Nam Red Cross (VNRC) to assist 10,000 households (42,000 beneficiaries) for 12 months, and will be completed by the end of October 2012. A final report will be made available by 31 January 2013, three months after the end of the operation.
Appeal history:
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9 November 2011: This emergency appeal was launched for CHF 1,107,185 to assist 10,000 households for 12 months.
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18 October 2011: Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) was initially allocated from the Federation’s DREF.
Summary:
During the end of September 2011, floods in the Mekong delta swept through seven provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap, Long An, Can Tho, Vinh Long, Hau Giang and Kien Giang, causing significant losses and damages, especially to the first three provinces on the list. Unlike the floods that Viet Nam faces every year in the central region of the country, the Mekong Delta experienced slow onset floods, with water covering large areas for more than 3 months, paralyzing the everyday life of affected communities and threatened their livelihoods.
In response to the disaster, VNRC, with support from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and partner national societies had been involved in carrying out key activities as part of the relief phase of the Mekong Delta Floods operation. Under the original emergency appeal, VNRC had successfully reached out to the most vulnerable people with immediate relief supplies such as household items, tarpaulins as well as provided them with safe drinking water and health messages to prevent outbreak of both infectious and water-borne diseases.
In March, VNRC, with IFRC support, completed the gathering of secondary quantitative data in the three provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap and Long An, while an additional team from VNRC and three partner national societies focused on gathering the qualitative data as a means to identify and prioritize areas to be focused on in the three provinces under the recovery components. In May, VNRC staff and volunteers along with government authorities received training in needs assessment in order to scale up the skills and competencies. Following the needs assessment training, all participants were mobilized to carry out the needs assessment in the selected locations in order to ascertain that the recovery needs in shelter and livelihoods identified in the relief phase were in fact still a priority six months later, and verification of selected beneficiaries.
The findings showed that many communities had already recovered to a great extent either from the relief support provided by the Viet Nam government, VNRC, partner national socieities, other agencies or through their own existing capacities in meeting their liveihood needs. It also showed that shelter still continued to remain a need for many who were affected by the floods. Based on this, VNRC decided to re-direct its support originally allocated under the livelihoods programme towards shelter and disaster preparedness which remains a need.
This revised emergency appeal reflects the current existing recovery needs of communities post relief phase, as highlighted from recent analysis and findings identified in the needs assessment carried out by VNRC with the support by IFRC. Such findings will complement the efforts of the VNRC moving into the recovery phase of the operation. It has been prepared in close cooperation with VNRC to ensure that the needs of the vulnerable population are met accordingly.
Contributions have been received from partner national societies including American Red Cross, Australian Red Cross/Australian government, British Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross/Canadian government, Japanese Red Cross Society, Norwegian Red Cross, Red Cross of Monaco, Singapore Red Cross Society, Swedish Red Cross/Swedish government, Swiss Red Cross, and The Netherlands Red Cross. Funding has also been received from the CocaCola Foundation and the Voluntary Emergency Relief Fund (VERF/WHO).
On behalf of Viet Nam Red Cross, IFRC would like to thank all partners and donors for their invaluable support of this operation.