InterAction Members Respond to the Floods in South Asia
Severe flooding following days of rain in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan has affected over 30 million people. There have been disease outbreaks as people suffer from food shortages and survive amid stagnant waters. Large areas of land remain under water.
In Pakistan the current floods are compounding the damage resulting from severe storms in June that left over 350,000 people homeless.
InterAction member organizations are responding to this crisis through a variety of ways, including food and medicine distribution, providing much needed clean water and sanitation services, and supplying shelter materials.
A regularly updated list of agencies responding is available at:
http://www.interaction.org/sasia_floods/
InterAction has also developed guidelines on the most appropriate ways to help those affected by overseas disasters: http://www.interaction.org/disaster/guide_giving.html.
InterAction is a coalition of more than 165 US-based private relief, international development and refugee assistance organizations. InterAction members have agreed to abide by a set of standards to ensure accountability to donors, professional competence and quality of service.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
