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Assisting families after a disaster gets a community back on its feet and is often the entry point for our work in a new area. We meet immediate needs in a disaster and help rebuild lives, helping families to recover from floods, hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes, drought or war. Part of recovery is building resilience to future disasters, which is done by training and empowering communities to plan and prepare.
Your gift provides a family with the essentials they need to survive, including shelter materials, safe, clean water, and food rations.
After emergency needs are met, your gift helps families and villages rebuild what they have lost. This includes many things such as new seeds and equipment to farm again, materials for construction of homes, animals to replenish livestock, and training to prepare for future disasters.
Hurricane Matthew wreaked havoc on the southern part of Haiti and left countless victims who already had a hard time making ends meet. One of those people was Loretide.
Prior to the hurricane, Loretide exclusively relied on her crops to meet the needs of her granddaughter, Sofia Jules. When Hurricane Matthew hit, Loretide’s degenerative joint disease kept her from running. She was struck with fear when she heard the violent winds and rain destroying her house because she was inside and unable to move due to the pain in her joints.
“I thought it was my last day, I closed my eyes and started praying,” Loretide said. Then she suddenly felt her granddaughter’s arms around her waist, and she was helped to the safety of their neighbor’s concrete house. Their house totally collapsed after they ran out.
Loretide and Sofia received shelter kits from World Concern to fix the shelter they built from salvaged material and World Concern volunteers helped them cover their roof with a tarp. This provided a dry and safe place for them to live and rebuild their lives from, as well as something intangible, but essential for life: Hope.
“I’ve lost my house, I’ve lost my farm, but I’m extremely grateful to God because Sofia and I are safe,” Loretide said. “I want to say thank you to World Concern for helping me and those who are in need in my community.”
The context in each village is unique. We start with the most critical, urgent needs: water, food, and safety. Long-term, families are equipped to earn income and support themselves. They become healthier, and begin to save and plan for the future. And through it all, they experience the transformative power of God’s love.
Learn more about World Concern’s focus areas by clicking the buttons to the right.