The newly arrived ADRA Malawi Country Director, Emanuel da Costa, was recently interviewed by the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation and the Newspaper “The Nation”. From the several questions the highlight was on the plans of the new administration.(more)

A challenging initiation

Paulo received a baptism of fire on his very first day on the job in 1992, when he joined ADRA Angola as its finance director. With a civil war churning and foreigners fleeing, the country was an extremely difficult place to live. “I remember my very first night in Luanda, the capital city, like it was yesterday,” he says. “Seven kilometers away from where I was staying, a huge blast woke me up in the middle of the night. The blast was so strong that the house trembled as it would during an earthquake. Later on, I learned an ammunition storehouse had exploded.” (more)

Silver Spring, Maryland [January 24, 2008]–In response to massive flooding in the central and southern regions of Mozambique, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is providing emergency shelter kits to an estimated 1,000 flood-displaced individuals in the Govuro district of Ihambane province.

ADRA is working with the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC) in Mozambique and the local government of Govuro in order to meet the needs of survivors displaced by the disaster. In ADRA’s initial response, shelter kits will be distributed to nearly 200 families, (approximately 1,000 individuals). Each kit consists of one tent and three bottles of water-purifying liquid.

Heavy rainfall in Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe has caused widespread flooding throughout the southern Africa region. In Mozambique, the INGC reports that more than 87,000 have been relocated to 89 resettlement centers. Tens of thousands have lost their homes, as well as their livelihoods, livestock, and crops to the floodwaters.(more)

$6 million project will benefit 30,000 farmers in central Ghana

Silver Spring, Maryland—On Monday, March 3, 2008, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) signed an agreement with the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), a Ghana government agency that implements development contracts funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a United States government agency that funds efforts to advance sustainable economic growth in poorer countries. With the multi-million dollar, four-year agricultural project, ADRA will expand its ongoing efforts to reduce poverty in central Ghana.

The contract was signed in Ghana Monday morning at the Novotel Accra City Centre Hotel, with media coverage provided by national and private television, radio, and print media outlets. The country director for MCC Ghana, the country director for ADRA Ghana, and the chief executive officer of MiDA spoke at the event, emphasizing the importance of the agreement and the high expectations of MCC, the Ghanaian government, and MiDA.(more)

Silver Spring, Maryland [February 14, 2008]—The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) continues working with its partners to expand its emergency response for those displaced or affected by the ongoing post-election violence in Nairobi and Kenya’s western provinces. With a three-month project launching next week, ADRA Kenya will further expand its assistance to 24,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), providing essential supplies and services. The project complements ADRA Kenya’s other expanded responses to distribute additional shipments of pharmaceuticals, provide medical care in affected communities, and construct water and sanitation facilities for dozens of orphanages.

In coordination with its partners, ADRA Kenya is set to launch a three-month intervention in the Rift Valley to assist more than 24,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) sheltering in temporary camps in Navaisha, Kipkelion, and Nakuru. ADRA Kenya will distribute non-food items such as kitchen sets, blankets, mosquito nets, clothing, and soap; help approximately 1,000 IDPs return home; and provide an estimated 2,000 IDPs with medical treatment. The project is scheduled to begin February 20 and will continue through April 20, 2008.

Additionally, at the request of ADRA Kenya, ADRA International has shipped containers of donated clothing and medical supplies donated by partner organizations. In addition, ADRA International has airlifted donated pharmaceuticals into Kenya for distribution at local clinics. A portion of the medical supplies and pharmaceuticals is being directed to Kendu Adventist Hospital, located in the Rift Valley near Lake Victoria. Medical teams mobilized by ADRA are providing treatment in dozens of affected communities, including Naivasha and Nakuru in the Rift Valley, and are working with the Ministry of Health to treat displaced persons sheltering at the Moi Stadium in Kisumu in Nyanza province.(more)

Watford, England – Windmills, solar powered water systems and 10,000 cook stoves are among the schemes that will make a difference to people living in poverty in Somalia. The innovative project will benefit the states of Puntland and Somaliland in this country, where re-development has started after a long civil conflict.

With this project ADRA-UK has secured its largest project co-funded with European Commission to date. The ‘Somalia Energy and Livelihood project’ will start in Somalia on November 1 2007 and will last for three years. Valued at €2,000,000 (£1,370,000), 75% of the funding is furnished by the European Commission.

Somalia is classified as a ‘least developed country’. It is one of the poorest countries in the world with per capita income of less than £100 a year. 53% of the population live below the poverty line. The situation has been exacerbated by the effects of war and lack of state authorities. This has led to the total collapse of social services. (more)

One thousand chaka hoes*, 1,000 farmer tool kits and 50 treadle pumps for simple irrigation are just a sample of what ADRA will distribute in the project. Co-funded with the European Commission, the initiative starts on the Friday, 1 February and aims to provide three meals a day for the poor in the Senaga District of Zambia.

Pansi Katenga, ADRA-UK Programmes Officer, is in Zambia this week to help the local ADRA office launch a new poverty alleviation project.

Mrs Katenga reported, “This project will make a significant difference in the lives of many of the poorest people here. Just imagine what it is like to have only enough food for just half of the year. Most people have to survive on one meal of maize a day.”(more)

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is responding to the humanitarian needs of thousands of Chadians who have fled to Kousseri, Cameroon, after rebels laid siege to the Chadian capital N’Djamena earlier this month.

At the request of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), ADRA is providing 100 pit latrines, 25 showers, and four waste disposal pits to serve as many as 8,000 refugees who may move into the newly established Maltam 1 Refugee Camp, 22 miles from the border town of Kousseri. UN news agency IRIN reports that an estimated 2,400 individuals have already been registered there. ADRA is also providing psychosocial counseling for refugees and camp staff, the only provider of such services in Maltam 1.(more)

1,200 people displaced by continued heavy rains receive aid

Silver Spring, Maryland—The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is providing emergency food packages for 1,200 flood survivors in Zambia after heavy rains and flooding washed away homes, crops, and livelihoods and displaced more than 334,000 people in Zambia as well as Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.

ADRA Zambia will distribute maize meal, vegetable oil, salt, and Kapenta—a sardine-like fish—to 150 households, or approximately 1,200 flood survivors in the heavily affected Monze district, where more than 3,200 people have been displaced after flooding destroyed their homes.(more)