GENEVA, August 22, 2007. Members of the global humanitarian alliance, Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, have accomplished critical steps in the past month as they begin their operations in the eastern part of Chad.

The ACT member heading up the response, Lutheran World Federation (LWF), received official operational status from the Chadian government on August 15, 2007. Permission has also been granted by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Chad to begin camp and site management interventions.

As ACT members begin their work, one of the main challenges has been significant rain that has affected transportation. "We cannot reach Koukou at the moment by road at all, and flights have been hampered by technical problems, water logged airstrips unsafe to land on and delayed flights," said Maria Immonen from LWF.

Despite initial challenges, such as gaining necessary permission to begin assistance and heavy rains, the team has accomplished much important work laying the foundation for a large-scale intervention. "The setting up of a new operation is always prone to unforeseen events and delays. There were many issues to be addressed, which could not be accurately foreseen before actually being on the ground. This is the nature of an emergency operation," added Ms. Immonen.

Several ACT members have been instrumental through their contribution of staff resources. An emergency coordinator from LWF is currently heading the operation on the ground, Christian Aid seconded a finance officer for an initial two months and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) has provided a senior program officer.

"The most important step is that we have deployed our core staff, who are the most important element in setting up any kind of response," said Ms. Immonen.

The initial team has been on the ground since mid-July coordinating with other responders and agencies in the region, and has secured office spaces in Abeche and Koukou. Also, key areas of future work including water, psychosocial care and security all have confirmed staff beginning in the coming weeks and months.

Water and sanitation was originally envisioned as a critical area of future assistance. ACT members, NCA and DanChurchAid (DCA) are sending engineers for a September assessment of the water situation in the operational area in order to conduct a detailed survey of the needs for an effective and appropriate safe water response in the coming weeks and months.

The decision by ACT members to establish operations in Chad came after a detailed two-week assessment mission in the region. Based on the recommendations of the assessment team and discussions with other responders in the region, it was decided to intervene with the under-served and very vulnerable IDP populations in Chad. Refugees from Darfur have relatively more (albeit limited) international resources available to them.

So far ACT members have supported 50% of the Chad appeal with USD $978,365. Also, the program staff in Chad have secured an additional USD $250,000 pledge from UNHCR. The implementing ACT members are planning to submit a revised ACT appeal in late September to extend operations until June 30, 2008.

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Action by Churches Together (ACT) International is a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies worldwide.