Flood Response Helps Thousands of Survivors in Vietnam and Cambodia

Throughout the fall of 2011, the worst flooding in half a century left millions of people in Southeast Asia struggling to survive amid widespread destruction and food shortages. AmeriCares immediately responded to urgent requests for aid with emergency grants to partners in Vietnam and Cambodia for the purchase and distribution of food and relief items to help thousands of survivors in dire need.$10,000 grant provides crucial food aid to families in VietnamFamilies living in impoverished rural areas in central Vietnam – where an alarming number of children suffer from malnutrition – are particularly at risk when seasonal flooding wipes out farmland that serves as their primary source of both income and food.The provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, and Thua Thien (Hue), sustained severe flooding that left some roads completely impassable, posing great challenges to families living in these remote areas. AmeriCares awarded its long-time partner a $10,000 flash grant to purchase desperately needed food staples and distribute the aid directly to 1,000 flood-affected families, including 400 preschool students enrolled in the AmeriCares- and Abbott-supported Pediatric Nutrition Program. Funding was also used to purchase warm clothing for the children in the nutrition program, as well as children from two other schools in the suburb of Hue, to protect them from the cold and rain on their long walk to school.

 Grandmother and her grandchildren, grateful to receive flood relief in Cambodia.$5,000 grant to help indigent families in Cambodia AmeriCares awarded a $5,000 grant to a partner hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for the purchase of food and relief items for hundreds of flood-affected families in their patient populationThe hospital targeted the most needy, impoverished families residing in four districts in the outlying areas of the city. In December 2011 and January, 2012, hospital staff traveled by bus, taxi and motorbikes, distributing two months worth of food staples – enough to feed 600 people from 150 families.This assistance is crucial for people like Touch Phany, whose husband traveled to Phnom Penh to find work as a taxi driver after floods washed away the local farmland. The job cost him his life, leaving Touch and her four-month-old baby living in a small rental house with her elderly grandparents and her six orphaned brothers and sisters. Each day, the family struggles to survive, foraging the nearby fields and rivers for fish and greens to eat.The flood waters have receded, amid a growing threat of water-borne diseases, including cholera, dengue fever and malaria – diseases that can be fatal for patients with immune systems already weakened by illness. The emergency grant also helped the hospital distribute relief items, including personal health kits and mosquito nets to protect 172 vulnerable families from water-borne diseases.View a slideshow of our ongoing work in Vietnam »View a slideshow of our ongoing work in Cambodia »Donate Now