Written by Ahmed Abdi (New Ways Organization) and Jane Kiiru (OCHA) “Now, we have a trusted neighbor who brings the clinic to our houses” – Feysal Abdow, an internally displaced woman in Diinsoor,...
Pooled Fund Impact Stories
Introduction
The Pooled Funds StoryHub is a collection of stories that show the impact of the OCHA-managed pooled funds: the global Central Emergency Response Fund, the Country-based Pooled Funds, and regional funds for West and Central Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
OCHA’s pooled funds help provide the world’s most vulnerable people with life-saving assistance to, thanks to contributions from national governments, foundations, and private individuals.
From emergency water for communities affected by El Niño floods in Somalia, to safe spaces for people at risk in Colombia; to helping humanitarian organizations respond to millions of people in dire need in Gaza; these human stories help illustrate how pooled fund support makes a real difference – to the lives of real people when they are dealing with severe crises.
OCHA’s Pooled Funds help our partners clear land of remnants of war in Ukraine; provide children with the resources needed to stay in school in Lebanon; and many other life-saving interventions around the world.
Afghanistan
A young mine survivor’s journey to recovery
Afghanistan | 2024 | CBPF Afghanistan, Qalat district. It only took seconds to turn Nasibullah’s life upside down. In 2021, the 8-year-old was on his way to his father’s workplace in Niazian village,...
Cash helps returning families when they need it most
Afghanistan | 2025 | CBPF Afghanistan, Kabul. When Leila and her family returned to Afghanistan from Iran, they had few ties to their home country. Months before, the family had to leave Iran. It was...
Cash assistance gets families the help they need
Afghanistan | 2024 | CBPF Afghanistan, Kabul. Gulpari*, 35, lives with her brother, Amingul* and their extended family in a modest home in Kabul’s Bagrami district. Originally from Aryoub Zazi in...
Bangladesh
Bangladesh + 1 more
Turning the tide: How CERF-funded anticipatory action helped families navigate floods in Bangladesh and Nepal
Bangladesh | 2024 | CERF In 2024, severe monsoon floods threatened thousands of families in Bangladesh. In the Jamuna Basin, five districts—Bogra, Jamalpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram and Sirajganj—braced...
In Bangladesh, CERF helped people prepare for the worst
Bangladesh | 2024 | CERF Bangladesh, Sirajganj. “Every year, our area experiences severe flooding,” says Salma Khatun. “Water floods our home, and snakes also find their way inside. This forces us to...
Ensuring dignity kits are inclusive
Bangladesh | 2021 | CERF Bangladesh. Anticipatory action — helping people before disaster strikes — saves lives and resources. Mobilizing early also allows people to prepare with dignity and on their...
Burkina Faso
CERF support helps restore dignity and hope for displaced women in Burkina Faso
In Dédougou, 235 km west of Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, displaced women are cultivating more than vegetables. They are rebuilding hope. Honorine, a mother of five, fled insecurity in her...
Burkina Faso + 1 more
In West and Central Africa, the Regional Humanitarian Fund supports displaced women and girls
Burkina Faso and Niger | 2023 | CBPF Burkina Faso and Niger. “Our garden used to provide us with enough food. But we lost everything,” says Roukietou, a mother of two in Banwa province, Burkina Faso,...
Women’s livelihoods and changing social attitudes
Burkina Faso | 2023 | CBPF Burkina Faso, Kaya. Kadi (not photographed) a mother of three, left her village when armed men killed some of her family. She came to Kaya with no belongings and no money. ...
Central African Republic
Enhancing climate-smart livelihoods for women and youth in CAR
When conflict broke out in the Central African Republic (CAR), Mbolifouni Diane* hastily left her village of Mboki with her children, fleeing to Obo for safety. Sadly, the long journey to safety also...
Mental and physical health care for survivors of violence
Central African Republic. Last year, Elizabeth*, 17, lost both her parents when armed groups came to her hometown. They took her and held her prisoner for months. Elizabeth escaped and sought shelter...
CAR + 1 more
Helping children return to school
Central African Republic, Baoro. Fadimatou is seven years old. Her family fled to Cameroon to escape persistent violence in their hometown. Now, Fadimatou and her family are among the Central African...
Colombia
In Colombia, CERF fosters women community leaders
Colombia | CERF | 2024 Colombia, Chocó. The presence of armed groups in Chocó, Valle del Cauca, and Nariño regions has made life very uncertain and driven many people from their homes. Growing up in...
Working together to respond to crisis and build resilience
Colombia | 2024 | CERF Colombia, Nariño. The people of Sanquianga are severely affected by conflict. Families have to flee their homes because of violent clashes, or find it difficult to access...
Midwifery training saves lives in remote communities
Colombia | 2023 | CERF Colombia, Chocó region. Visitación Perea has been a midwife for nearly fifty years. As a young girl, she joined her grandmother – also a midwife – on her daily visits. In those...
DR Congo
Preventing and treating cholera in Goma
CERF | DRC | 2025 DR Congo. North Kivu province. Kishala Mwamedi, headteacher at Kihindo Primary School, addressed his pupils one morning this June. His message: how to keep healthy in the midst of a...
Helping to stop the spread of cholera
CERF | DRC | 2025 DR Congo, South Kivu. High in the green hills of Idjwi island, in the middle of Lake Kivu, Rachel’s life was turned upside down by an invisible enemy. The 7-year-old and three of...
Communal farming helps families start again
DRC | 2024 | CBPF Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kwamouth. Tantine and her family had no choice but to flee their village one evening in August 2022, when their peaceful life turned into a...
Ethiopia
Supporting early warning in Ethiopia’s Somali region
Ethiopia | 2024 | CERF Ethiopia, Somali region. Ade Muktar walks through Ayun village with a megaphone in hand, calling his neighbours to a community meeting. Ayun is a small town in Ethiopia’s...
Planting drought-resistant crops to feed her family
Ethiopia | 2024 | CBPF Ethiopia, Oromia district. Alemitu Abraham Fayisa is a mother of five, including one child living with disability. She survives by farming. Over the last few years, drought has...
Ethiopia + 1 more
A lifeline for people fleeing conflict
Ethiopia, Matema. Abdi, who is Ethiopian, went to Sudan for work nearly two decades ago. He and his wife made a decent living, saving what they could and sending money back home to Ethiopia to help...
Guinea
Working with communities to contain Ebola
Guinea | 2021 | CERF Guinea,N'Zerekore. A few days after he referred one of his patients to the regional hospital, Dr. Emmanuel Goepogui, a private practitioner in N’Zerekore prefecture in...
Haiti
Haiti + 2 more
How acting early helped people prepare for Hurricane Melissa
When Hurricane Melissa intensified to Category 5, threatening Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti, OCHA and partners activated anticipatory action (AA) frameworks to mitigate its impact. Using early forecasts,...
Helping a school leader support her most vulnerable students
Haiti | 2025 | CBPF Haiti, Corail. At just 27 years old, Ruthe Darline Pierre is headmistress as well as a teacher at “Tipa Tipa” school in Tiplaine, in Corail commune in Haiti’s southwestern...
Vital health and protection for displaced women in Haiti
Haiti | 2024 | CERF Haiti, Port-au-Prince. Marie is 67 years old. She used to sell goods at the market to get by, but since the gang violence in Haiti has escalated she is living in the Colbert...
Honduras
Taking action: With CERF support, Honduras opens new Humanitarian “Contact line"
Honduras. “One moment that stayed with me was assisting a family who had returned to the country after being deported,” Oscar, a humanitarian worker recounts. Oscar works on the hotline of a new...
CERF improves rural health centers damaged by hurricanes Eta and Iota in Honduras
Honduras| 2023 | CERF Honduras, Puerto Cortés. Dr. Alba Rita Sámbula heads the Bajamar Health Centre, which serves about 11,000 people. In November 2020, the devastating storms Eta and Iota that hit...
New life after the storms
CERF in underfunded emergencies: Honduras In January 2022, CERF allocated $5 million from its Underfunded Emergencies (UFE) window to support relief operations in Honduras. Honduras, San Pedro Sula...
Iraq
Cash assistance transforms Mishan’s workshop
Pooled Fund impact stories #2023, #CBPF, #Iraq
Mental and physical therapy in the aftermath of violence
Iraq | 2021 | CBPF Iraq, Mosul. Hamid is 30 years old. He used to live with his family in a village outside of Mosul before fighting started. The family had their own house and sheep, that provided...
Jordan
Teenaged boys reflect on child labour
Jordan | 2021 | CBPF Jordan, Marka-Amman. Child labour is a major problem in Jordan. A recent report found 32 per cent of children experienced harassment at work, and many of them work under...
Kyrgyzstan
Helping conflict affected families in Kyrgyzstan face the coldest winter in years
Kyrgyzstan | 2023 | CERF Kyrgyzstan, Batken – Hundreds of families displaced by the violence that broke out in the remote Kyrgyz-Tajik border areas of Batken and Osh last September are facing the...
Lebanon
Lebanon: Supporting mental and physical recovery
Lebanon, Tripoli. Abdel Rahman Qadro, aged 17, was shot by a stray bullet during a dispute on the street. The wound severely damaged his lungs and spinal cord. After three months in bed recovering,...
Lebanon: ‘For families like ours, this place means survival’
Lebanon, Bekaa. Khadija tenderly cradles her five-year-old daughter’s head as she walks into Al Ward Primary Health Centre – a modest building that has become a lifeline for families navigating the...
Help for newborn twins and their mother in Saida, Lebanon
Lebanon | CBPF | 2025 Lebanon, Saida. Lebanon, Saida. “[This] help came at exactly the right time,” says Taline, a mother of twins. At 35 weeks pregnant with twins, 41-year-old Taline faced a...
Madagascar
Empowering women to speak up and prevent Gender-Based Violence
CERF | Madagascar | 2024 Sambava, Madagascar – Angèle has emerged as a powerful voice advocating for women's rights and against gender-based violence (GBV). In the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone...
Mobile clinics provide vital support after cyclones and help people prepare for future weather events
Madagascar | 2023 | CERF Madagascar, Antananarivo. “A year ago, getting health care would have been a luxury,” explains Toky Rabemaharo, a leader from Marokarima commune. “After the two cyclones hit,...
Malawi
Clean water helps patients in rural, drought-stricken Malawi
Malawi | CERF | 2024 Malawi, Liwonde. "The arrival of clean, reliable water has been a blessing for us," says Dyman Saidi, chairperson of the water system here. "Before, we had to fetch water from...
Fighting child abuse by raising the awareness of community leaders
Malawi | 2023 | CERF Malawi, Chikwawa. “We couldn’t keep quiet,” says Mary (not her real name), a camp leader at a site that shelters 450 people displaced by the Tropical Cyclone Freddy. “Here was a...
Malawi + 2 more
El Niño 2015-2016, CERF saved lives: Emergency livelihoods and food support for people affected by drought and flooding
In 2015-2016, the El Niño event was one of the strongest since 1950, affecting over 60 million people. Its effects – drought, floods, harsh winters and poor food security - lasted for two years. The...
Mali
Mali + 2 more
Cash assistance, livelihoods and water help women affected by conflict
Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger | 2024 | CBPF Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. Agnomate, in her seventies and blind, was struggling to afford food in southeastern Mali. In Niger, members of a women’s...
Helping displaced people access quality health care
Mali | CERF | 2024 Mali, Ménaka. Aissata (not her real name), remembers the day she fell ill. "My stomach hurt that day, I was weak and I had no appetite. Worst of all, I had no money and my husband...
In Mali, regional fund helps provide access to health and education for communities recovering from conflict
Mali | 2024 | Regional Fund Mali, Tidinbawene. “Seeing my son go to school every morning is a privilege I never thought possible,” says Ahmed. In Mali, over half of a million school-aged children do...
Myanmar
How CERF-supported solar power is transforming life and dignity in Myanmar’s Dry Zone
For years, 43-year-old Daw Pyae Yee shaped her days around the sound of a diesel engine. Every morning before sunrise, she queued with her children at her village’s tall, ageing borehole in Kin Mon...
Myanmar: A CERF-supported project that brought clean water and dignity to a village
“This project didn’t just bring water. It brought dignity. It brought strength. It brought a future.” – Daw Win Kyi, resident of Chaung Wa, Myanmar. For years, families in Chaung Wa village in...
Myanmar Humanitarian Fund provides essential support to landmine survivors
Myanmar | 2025 | CBPF Myanmar, Pekon. Banyar* was 25 when he lost a leg in a landmine explosion. Dependent on crutches to get around, he felt cut off from daily life. In Myanmar, explosive ordnance...
Nepal
Anticipatory action helps households weather severe floods
Pooled Fund impact stories #2022, #CERF, #Climate, #Natural Disasters, #Nepal
Niger
Niger: Breaking the cycle of negative coping strategies
Niger | 2024 | CERF A pilot project in south-west Niger has shown that acting before people experienced a drought’s impact enabled them to preserve land, save livestock and avoid negative coping...
Cash support provides welcome relief after disastrous harvest
CERF in underfunded emergencies: Niger In January 2022 CERF allocated $10 million from its Underfunded Emergencies (UFE) window. Bambeye commune, Tahoua Region, Niger. 2021 was a disastrous year for...
Responding to floods in Niger
Niger | 2021 | CERF Niger, Niamey. When Hama Sorka, a 75-year-old fisherman from Saguia in Niamey, Niger, lost his house and livelihood this past October because of flooding in his neighbourhood, he...
Nigeria
A mother’s gratitude: ‘Their appetite came back … they started playing again’
Fatima Mohammed once aspired to be a doctor. The 24-year-old mother from Nigeria's Borno State recalls how her family had enough food and stability before violence forced them to flee. With no stable...
Providing opportunities and hope
Nigeria | 2024 | CBPF Nigeria, Borno. When 19-year-old Lydia Enoch lost her left leg in a devastating house fire, her life changed forever. Learning to walk again was very difficult, but it was the...
Reproductive health care helps women affected by conflict
Nigeria | 2024 | CBPF Nigeria, Adamawa state. Uwani was worried when she found out she was pregnant with twins. “I always suffered during my previous pregnancies,” she explained. A friend advised her...
occupied Palestinian territory
‘I transformed from a hesitant mother into a strong mother’: Enhancing positive parenting and children’s wellbeing in Gaza
Mrs. Nour*, a 31-year-old mother of two, struggled with her children’s behaviour, especially in situations that required patience and discipline. “I used to feel powerless and overwhelmed,” she said. ...
Enhancing children’s safety, resilience and wellbeing in Gaza
“I’ve started to enjoy being a leader and helping others” – 13-year-old Duha Duha*, aged 13, has been thrust into a challenging social environment by the war in Gaza. Scarce resources, destruction of...
A child’s joy in Gaza: ‘I am overjoyed that I can walk again’
Six-year-old Malak Khaled Abu Hamra can dream again. But it has not been easy to do so. She and her 11-year-old brother, Mohammad Abu Hamra were at home with their parents when the family was struck...
Pakistan
Sharing accurate information about COVID-19 and the vaccine
Pakistan | 2021 | CERF Pakistan, Kohat refugee camps. As part of the maternal, newborn, and child health and psychological services provided to Afghan refugee communities, free medical camps were...
Somalia
Health awareness saves lives in Somalia's Diinsoor
Written by Ahmed Abdi (New Ways Organization) and Jane Kiiru (OCHA) “Now, we have a trusted neighbor who brings the clinic to our houses” – Feysal Abdow, an internally displaced woman in Diinsoor,...
‘It was small, but it was mine’: A Somali woman's journey from surviving to thriving
After losing everything to Somalia’s worst drought in four decades, 33-year-old Xaawo was thrust into destitution with her eight children. “I lived in debt and had no support from anyone, including...
Anticipatory Action: Securing clean water before crisis strikes
Somalia | 2024 | SHF Somalia, Jamaame district. For Amina Ali, a mother of five in Farwaamo village, a rural area in Somalia, daily life was defined by the arduous trip to secure safe water. The...
South Sudan
CERF funding a lifeline for newly displaced families in South Sudan
A recent allocation of US $10,000,000 from the OCHA-managed UN Global Emergency Fund (CERF) has been described as a lifeline for thousands of families who have been displaced by recent fighting in...
South Sudan + 1 more
South Sudanese need help after a harrowing journey from Sudan
South Sudan | 2024 | CBPF South Sudan, Renk, elsewhere. “When conflict broke out in my hometown in Bentiu, South Sudan, in 2015, we lost everything. I struggled to get my family out of the country...
Learning new farming skills to support the family
South Sudan | 2023 | CBPF South Sudan, Fangak County. Dak Biliu lives in Kuerkan village, South Sudan, where, like most of the population, people are dealing with a complex humanitarian crisis driven...
Sudan
OCHA-managed funds help displaced communities get clean water in North Darfur
For 47-year-old Ali Adam Mohammed, life in Daba Naira camp, Tawila, North Darfur, has been shaped by scarce water. He arrived two years ago, joining tens of thousands of displaced people living in...
OCHA funding helps bring free health services and hope to displaced families in East Darfur
When Shadia Yousif Bakheit fled her home in Khartoum State due to the ongoing Sudan conflict, she arrived in Lagawa camp in East Darfur State’s capital, Al Daein, exhausted and unwell. “My child and...
IDPs in North Darfur: supporting a Ramadan harvest
Sudan | 2024 | CBPF Sudan, North Darfur. Al-Fateh Al-Kenzi, a 55-year-old teacher who fled El Fasher in June 2023 because of the war, found shelter at the Ketab Shakara School in Mellit. Life isn’t...
Syrian Arab Republic
Getting Syrian students access to education
Syria | 2024 | CBPF Syria. Growing up, Yassin watched other children rush off to school each morning, their backpacks swinging as they laughed and played. He longed to join them, to sit in a...
A second chance for Yahia
Syria | 2024 | CERF Syria, Rural Damascus. After nearly 14 years of conflict, thousands of children in the Syrian Arab Republic have grown up in a reality marked by violence, displacement and...
Clearing debris to save and improve lives
Syria | 2025 | CBPF Syria, Idleb and region. Displaced from his town by fighting several years ago, Khalid and his family settled on a small piece of land, where his farming provides them with a...
Türkiye
Pooled funds work together to deliver aid after earthquakes in Syria, Türkiye
Syria and Türkiye| 2023|CBPF and CERF Syria and Türkiye. On 6 February 2023, a series of major earthquakes rocked Syria and Türkiye. Nearly 5,900 people died and over 12,800 were injured. People...
Ukraine
Ukraine Humanitarian Fund: Pooled Fund support helps local Ukrainian NGO reach millions of evacuees
Ukraine. When war broke out in Ukraine, Dmytro Myshenin’s life changed overnight. A successful businessman exporting furniture and solid fuels, he suddenly found himself at the epicentre of a...
Ukraine Humanitarian Fund: Local Ukrainian partners help people on the move
Ukraine | 2025 | CBPF Ukraine, Sumy region. Olena never imagined she would have to leave her home in Druzhba, a quiet town in Ukraine’s Sumy region, just 5 km from the Russian Federation border. Life...
Ukraine Humanitarian Fund: Access to safe water for rural communities
Ukraine | 2024 | CBPF Ukraine, Vysokopillia. “I live alone here. The only water I had was not drinkable – it was very salty. I would go and collect it from my neighbour’s wells instead, carrying two...
Venezuela
Venezuelan organizations providing frontline services
Venezuela | 2024 | CBPF Venezuela, Apure. The Venezuela Humanitarian Fund has always put Venezuelan organizations at the centre of its funding and outreach strategy. In 2024, 75% of its funding was...
Building skills in communities devastated by economic crisis
Venezuela, El Rincón. “Fishing is for men,” is the saying around these parts. In remote communities like this one in Sucre state, ensuring people have enough quality, nutritious food can be a...
Yemen
Supporting girls’ education in the Raymah mountains
Yemen | 2024 | CBPF Yemen, Raymah Mountains. Naama village is high in the Raymah mountains of western Yemen. Here, Al-Siddiq school needed repairs – but getting those repairs done was no simple...
Integrated health and nutrition in rural areas
Yemen | 2024 | YHF Yemen, Abyan governorate. Aisha was worried about her son. He was malnourished but she didn’t know where she could get the treatment and medication he needed, or if she could even...
Expanding water and hygiene best practices in vulnerable districts
Yemen | 2024| YHF Yemen, Amran governorate. Fatima, a 36-year-old midwife who works in the village of Al Aridah in As Sawd District, was worried about the health of the mothers and children she...
Zimbabwe
In Zimbabwe, supporting food security now and in the future
Zimbabwe | 2024 | CERF Zimbabwe, Chredzi. Chredzi district in south-east Zimbabwe is semi-arid – and that’s in a good year. Poor rains at the end of 2023 meant the harvest was only about half its...