This week the Rotary Club of Dhaka Royal have been delivering Food Parcels to 100 families in the city.
The families have been identified by the Abinta Kabir Foundation.
The charitable foundation works to provide relief to people who need help during natural disasters, and other calamities.
Each family received a parcel containing:
20kg of rice;
2kg of lentils
3kg of potatoes
2kg of Oil
2kg of Onion
1kg of Salt
In total 100 parcels were distributed with 91 being provided by Disaster Aid Australia and the remaining 9 being funded by local Rotary Club President Mahfuzul Aziz.
You can help Disaster Aid Australia provide aid to those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and future disasters, by making a donation at the link below:
With DAA passing its 10th Birthday in 2020 its worth reflecting on our journey, and all those who have helped the organisation over the years.
It was back in May 2010 the members of the Rotary Club of Endeavour Hills got together to discuss forming an international aid organisation.
At that first meeting the members of the club raised $170,000 to provide DAA with working capital for the launch.
Shortly afterwards the DAA Board met with representatives of Rotary Clubs in the USA and Canada to form Disaster Aid International (DAI)
It was not long before the first deployment to floods in India and Pakistan during the period August through to October 2020.
Family Survival Box
This resulted in the delivery of Family Survival Packs and the first two SkyHydrants.
Other early deployments were to; the Sudan, Haiti, the Horn of Africa, and the Philippines.
As the organisation gained experience follow up reviews of aid delivery revealed that many of the components of the Family Survival Boxes were not being used.
Smart Aid
Our new SmartAid approach changed our aid delivery from ‘Shipping Boxes’ to our Disaster Aid Response Team (DARTs) travelling to devastated areas and asking communities what they wanted.
Generally the answer was they wanted help rebuilding their homes and clean safe drinking water.
The DARTs then found suppliers of building materials as close as possible to the disaster and arranged delivery.
The only materials brought into country were water filters carried by the DARTs as checked luggage.
With little delay in being able to start rebuilding Smart Aid has proved to have the advantages of being faster and at lower cost than the boxes.
Other benefits included the local purchasing helped the local economies recover and the home owners participation in the building gave them more of a sense or ownership.
Safe Water for Every Child
At the organisation continued to monitor aid outcomes it became apparent that the SkyHydrant Filters provided for the disasters provided a long term health improvement to communities.
Illnesses dropped by over 80% particularly among children who were the most affected by contaminated water.
With sponsorship of individual installations, we have now completed over 200 SkyHydrant installations and well over a hundred thousand children protected.
Aid Delivery Continues
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has placed some hurdles in our path, DAA have not stopped delivering aid.
75% of the 120 SkyHydrants for our Bhutan 2020 project have been delivered and over 45,000 children have been protected since 2018.
Installations, with a local team from the Bhutan Education Department, are continuing with an expected completion in mid 2021.
We are also financially supporting trusted partners in Nepal, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Beirut and Guatemala.
With a recent merger DAA is now a project of the Rotary Club of Greater Dandenong & Endeavour Hills
You can help Disaster Aid Australia continue to provide aid during the worldwide pandemic, and beyond, by making a donation at the link below:
COVID 19 has made travel for our Disaster Aid Response Team impossible.
However DAA has not stopped delivering aid.
We have been continuing to support partners in the fight against the disastrous pandemic.
After contacting the Rotary Club of Dhaka Royal about needs in Bangladesh, they identified the Dhaka Children’s Hospital as needing support.
Disaster Aid Australia has combined with Disaster Aid UK & Ireland to purchase a Baby Bubble CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine for the hospital.
This machine is critical for treating babies affected by COVID-19, and when the pandemic subsides, will have a continuing use for babies with breathing difficulties.
Children’s COVID Ward Staff
The Dhaka Shishu Hospital is the only specialist paediatric hospital In Bangladesh.
They have around 100,000 outpatients a year, with about 500 – 800 children visiting the hospital each day.
The hospital has surgical wards, a nutrition unit, a blood disease and cancer center, and a burns unit.
It also has an emergency center and an Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
Handover of the unit
If you would like to help Disaster Aid Australia continue to deliver aid to Developing Countries during the Pandemic click on the link below;
The 4th August Beirut Explosion caused at least 190 deaths with 6,500 injuries and billions in property damage.
With DAA being unable to travel we provided advice and support to Disaster Aid Europe DART, Stuart Amesbury, who travelled to Beirut to assess the situation
During his four day visit Stuart met with Rotarians and Rotaractors, staff from hospitals, the Country Director of Medair, as well as residents of Beirut.
Upon his return Stuart’s summarised the situation as follows:
Hospital Damage
Since the blast, the situation for more than 300,000 is at breaking point.
There is a great need for immediate, as well as long term assistance, with various projects and local agencies requiring support now and in the future.
Due to the long term consequences of this disaster and the winter months coming, it is felt there will be a need for a long term project based on requirements identified by on ground Rotarians and Rotaractors.
Rotarians and Rotarators have combined to form the Rotary Beirut Crisis Committee
In addition to Disaster Aid Europe’s support :
Disaster Aid Australia have been running an appeal and we are planning to send SkyHydrants to provide safe water for hospitals.
Disaster Aid Canada has also indicated they will be supporting the response with Sawyer filters and solar lighting.
Disaster Aid UK & Ireland have commenced an appeal.
Rotaractors assembling care packages.
To find out more there is a Facebook live event on September 5th which we encourage all Rotarians to watch. . . Details are below
Rotaract Mediterranean live event in support of Beirut Stay Strong
https://www.facebook.com/events/331862051340576
The live event will take place over Facebook Live on Saturday 5th of September from 4.00pm Central European Summer Time (Midnight Melbourne Time)
Donation to Appeal
Please Donate Today to ensure as many people as possible have access to Medical Help and and Shelter.
Choose your donation amount to help the people of Beirut.
Charity donations of $2 or more to Disaster Aid Australia are tax-deductible in Australia.
There are lots of posts on this website about generous Australians helping developing countries, so for a change here is one about people from a developing country helping Australia.
The photograph below shows young people in Lae, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea’s 2nd largest city marching in the city streets seeking public donations for Australian Bushfire Relief.
Papua New Guinea is a poor country compared to Australia with an average per capita weekly income equivalent to $64 AUD.
Even so they raised $61,000 from the city and surrounding area.
The collection was started by Lae local, Sheila Harou, who was inspired to take action after seeing news reports from Australia.
“We called out to all our Morobeans to be united in one heart, to give from the heart to console our neighbour,” she said.
The money was given to the Merimbula Rotary Club, which gave $50,000 to the Bega Valley Council Community Disaster Relief Fund.
The fund will benefit communities that are still struggling to recover many months after more than 400 houses were lost and many livelihoods destroyed
The Rotary Club spent the $11,000 on two trailers for BlazeAid, a volunteer-based organisation that repairs fences that were lost in the fires in rural communities.
What a great story about our neighbours helping Australia.
Thanks to the ABC for the photographs, and you can see more at the following link:ABC
Two massive, deadly explosions shook Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, in the early evening of Aug 4 devastating a huge area of the city.
Current Situation
Over 100 people are dead, while search teams continue to look for survivors.
Many hundreds are injured.
Thousand of house and apartments are uninhabitable.
There is urgent need for shelter,
Disaster Aid Australia’s Response
With travel from Australia not being possible we will be supporting our closer Disaster Aid International Partners; Disaster Aid Europe and Disaster Aid UK&Ireland.
They will be linking with local Rotary clubs who have started talking to the most affected communities.
As they find out more we will work to provide what is needed.
Disaster Aid International will also be working with other agencies to help Beirut recover.
How You Can Help
Your donation today will ensure families who need access to medical services and help with shelter and reconstruction can receive assistance.
We’re determined to reach as many families as possible.
Donation to Appeal
Please Donate Today to ensure as many people as possible have access to Medical Help and and Shelter.
Choose your donation amount to help the people of Beirut.
Charity donations of $2 or more to Disaster Aid Australia are tax-deductible in Australia.
With the current COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria Disaster Aid Australia’s Office will be closed from 5th August for a period that is expected to be at least 6 weeks.
During that time the Email, Phone, and PO box will be monitored and we will be continuing to operate the organisation from our homes.
We apologies if there are in any delays in our communication with our supporters during this difficult time.
Aid Will Continue To Be Delivered
Our installation program for the Bhutan 2020 project will be continuing as the latest shipment of 20 SkyHydrants arrived in Thimphu last week.
We will also be looking at assisting our international partners in the worldwide response to the COVID pandemic.
‘ZOOM’Guest Speakers Available
We continue to provide the opportunity for Rotary Clubs to have a DAA guest speaker at their ‘ZOOM’ Meetings.
In addition from late August we will be able to host ‘Virtual’ Vocational Visits to our Eumemmerring Office.
If you would like to help Disaster Aid Australia continue to deliver aid to Developing Countries click on the link below;
We have recently received these results from a SkyHydrant Project for eight schools in India
What this means is; across the eight schools:
Before the SkyHydrants were installed on average 643 students were ill every week
Afterwards the number of ill students dropped to 74 per week.
An overall 88% reduction in illness from all causes.
It would seem that the majority of child illness has been caused by contaminated water and with the removal of bacteria that form of illness has practically disappeared.
If you want to find out how Disaster Aid Australia can help your aid project achieve these results contact us at media@disasteraidaustralia.org.au
To see a short video about this projects follow this link: Indian Project
Thanks to Diganta Swaraj Foundation for providing these results.
This week the Rotary Club of Dhaka Royal have been delivering Food Parcels to 100 families in the city.
20kg of rice;
With DAA passing its 10th Birthday in 2020 its worth reflecting on our journey, and all those who have helped the organisation over the years.
Smart Aid
Safe Water for Every Child
With the current COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria Disaster Aid Australia’s Office will be closed from 5th August for a period that is expected to be at least 6 weeks.