Our emergency response

10 April 2009

Y Care International has provided vital funds to our partners, YMCA Sri Lanka and YMCA Yambio (Southern Sudan), to help families who have been displaced from their homes in new waves of violence.

Sri Lanka  

Continued fighting in the northeast of Sri Lanka has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, and displaced thousands more. The UN estimates that 150,000 people remain trapped on a small strip of land, as fighting continues between government forces and the Tamil Tigers.
 
Around 60,000 civilians have managed to flee to safety and are staying in camps for displaced people. But the conditions are poor and the humanitarian situation is getting worse. Many people are at high risk of contracting malaria and other diseases and an outbreak of chicken pox has already been reported.  
 
Y Care International’s partner, YMCA Sri Lanka, has been responding to the situation by providing milk and nutrition to children under the age of three, as well as bed linen and towels for the injured. We have sent immediate funding to enable the YMCA to help those living in the camps. With our help, the YMCA will provide nutritional support to 1,000 children under the age of three. They will also provide psychosocial support to 4,000 displaced children and young people across seven camps, through sports and recreational therapy.
 
Southern Sudan  

Yambio is a small city in Southern Sudan on the border of DR Congo and Uganda, where Y Care International has been working since 2007. In recent days, thousands of people have flooded into the city fleeing brutal violence, looting and killing by the Lord's Resistance Army of Uganda. An estimated 17,000 people are now taking refuge in Yambio. Many are congregating under trees and in whatever spaces are available, such as church buildings.  
 
Our partner, YMCA Yambio, reports that the humanitarian situation is desperate. We are providing funds to Yambio YMCA, enabling them to support 2,500 vulnerable people. These people are receiving no support from either the government or other NGOs. Most of them are women and children, many of whom have witnessed the killing of their husbands or other family members.
 
These vital funds will help to provide food, mosquito nets and blankets. Temperatures in Yambio at this time of year drop at night and blankets will help those women and children who are having to sleep outdoors. The YMCA will also provide counselling and trauma services for those who have been affected by rape, sexual abuse and child abuse. A youth centre, which was recently constructed, will provide a space for the YMCA to carry out recreational activities for severely traumatised children and young people.