WER launches emergency appeal for victims of Burundi flooding
Alex Haxton
Website: http://www.wer-uk.org
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WER is shipping urgently requested emergency aid to Burundi in response to the needs of thousands of people who have been displaced by severe flooding in and around the capital, Bujumbura.
A 40 foot container of emergency supplies, including medicine and food, is due to arrive in Burundi within the next few days. A second delivery of humanitarian aid is now being prepared for immediate shipment to the disaster area.
The goods will be distributed by WER's local partner organisation, African Revival Ministries (ARM) Burundi, to families who are now in desperate need of humanitarian assistance following the flooding.
Weeks of heavy downpours in Burundi have already destroyed thousands of homes and left tens of thousands of people without shelter.
The governor of Bujumbura Rural province, Zenon Ndaruvukanye, has reported that more than 70 percent of farmlands have been destroyed by the floods. With crops washed away in the floodwaters, immediate action needs to be taken to avert a major food crisis in the tiny central Africa country which is still recovering from more than a decade of civil war.
Lack of clean water has also sparked fears of an outbreak of cholera and water-borne diseases in and around Bujumbura.
These latest supplies from WER are to supplement relief goods which WER has sent to ARM in the past year in readiness for emergency situations in the region, and which are already being used to bring relief to the many thousands affected by the floods.
WER has been working in partnership with ARM Burundi for the past 10 years and currently funds programmes including education, HIV/AIDS care and counselling, agricultural training and care for orphans. In addition to cash grants, WER support to ARM Burundi includes the provision of quality goods such as pharmaceuticals, hospital equipment, general medical supplies, clothing and tents.
WER also funds other regional ARM projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
To make a donation to help WER deliver more urgently needed aid to flood victims in Burundi, please visit www.wer-uk.org or call us today on 0870 429 2129.
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