Recovery Aid: Rebuilding Stronger After Disaster

To help communities recover from trauma and loss after disaster, AmeriCares works for months – even years – to restore and strengthen local health services.In 2012 alone, AmeriCares awarded 77 grants totaling $3.9 million to support recovery efforts in six countries shattered by disaster. These included projects to help survivors in Japan, Haiti and Sri Lanka, the sites of devastating earthquakes and tsunamis in the last decade. We continue recovery efforts in Pakistan and Ethiopia, and in the U.S. we’ve funded projects to help more than 62,000 disaster survivors in 7 states. Highlights include:

• Emergency room restoration:  Work is underway to repair and re-equip an emergency room in Port-au-Prince, Haiti that was destroyed by the 2010 earthquake. The facility will also support surgical procedures for low-income patients
• Hospital expansion: Work is now complete on an 83,000 square-foot addition to Trincomalee District General Hospital in Sri Lanka, and a new expansion project has begun in the Mullativu hospital. Both facilities were damaged by the massive 2004 tsunami.
• Support for the disabled: In Japan, we are rebuilding a headquarters and group home that serve the elderly and disabled, replacing buildings destroyed by the 2011 tsunami.

In Japan, garden projects help survivors cope with trauma and loss.

• Emergency power: In the U.S., we funded backup generators that will keep safety net clinics in three states open to treat patients even after loss of electrical power due to disaster.
• Clean water sources: Working with local partners in Pakistan, AmeriCares funded the installation of hand pumps and improved the supply of clean water in six villages devastated by crisis-level flooding.
• Counseling and support: Our gardening projects in Japan are one example of ways to prevent crippling social isolation among survivors of the deadly tsunami. In 2012, we awarded nearly two dozen grants in Japan supporting depression counseling and suicide prevention.