Provide Lifesaving Support for Guatemala

More people are displaced due to war and natural disasters today than at any time in the last 70 years. Around the globe, humanitarian crises affect 141 million people in 37 countries.

The increased need for humanitarian assistance is driven primarily by:

• Increasing conflicts around the world. More than 65 million people – one of out every 122 persons on the planet – have fled their homes either as refugees or as internally displaced persons. Syria, Iraq and Yemen account for more than half of that number.
• More natural disasters. Since 1970, the number of disasters worldwide has more than quadrupled. Natural disasters affect over 375 million people every year, with 98 percent of these disasters related to climate change.

The world’s humanitarian response system faces unprecedented challenges. Yet it’s a system too often burdened by inefficient, bureaucratic, and outdated methods that seriously delay life-saving assistance. As one of the world’s leading aid agencies – providing relief to more than 10 million people in more than 20 countries – CARE is at the forefront of innovation to modernize emergency response for an era of unprecedented challenges. Our goal is simple: to be better, faster, and to save more lives.

Given the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, as well as the increasing number of protracted conflict-related crises, CARE is committed to maintaining our capacity to respond to multiple large-scale emergencies simultaneously. When disaster strikes, CARE needs flexible resources to deploy when and where they are needed most. We also seek to invest in new technology, to test and refine cutting-edge practices, and to drive global-level discussions around humanitarian need and response – not only to improve our own capacity to reach those in need, but also to set new industry standards for a global humanitarian system that is too often slow and inefficient. CARE places special emphasis on addressing the challenges faced by women and girls in times of crisis, including complications of pregnancy and childbirth, and a heightened risk of violence and abuse.

With the support of generous donors like you, CARE’s Humanitarian Surge Fund allows us to move quickly to respond to a crisis without waiting for governments to release funds or hoping individuals will support yet another emergency fundraising appeal. Critically, outlays from the fund help position CARE to leverage significantly more funding from institutional and private donors. By allowing CARE to launch our response without delay, the fund enables us to take advantage of the critical, short window of media attention to a disaster. When CARE is visible in the media, we are able to advocate forcefully with donors and governments on behalf of the needs of the most vulnerable, in particular women and girls.

In Guatemala specifically, a modest $25,000 Surge Fund allocation enabled CARE to initiate a response the day after the April 2018 volcanic eruption, starting with needs assessments and the recruitment of qualified personnel to launch activities and mobilize additional resources. In first stage of the response, CARE reached 3,360 people through water, sanitation and hygiene interventions and the distribution of other essential items like face masks and cleaning items. We were able to raise another $458,257 for subsequent phases.

CARE was able to raise close to $500,000 in new donor contributions toward the Surge Fund in Fiscal Year 2018, and just over $2 million in total. We are enthusiastic at the prospect of leveraging our use of the Fund to raise more donor money and enhance CARE’s visibility and effectiveness as a humanitarian actor. At the same time, leveraging additional funds that then can be used to replenish the Fund is a crucial challenge. The reality is that many of the crises for which we will make Surge Fund allocations are out of the public eye, or long-simmering/“forgotten” crises for which it is hard to raise money generally, including from institutional donors.

Going forward, we will be more strategic in how we use the Fund to support emergencies in order to capitalize on leveraging opportunities. We also hope to attract significantly more funding this year and beyond by redoubling our fundraising efforts, strengthening engagement with key donors, and getting the message out about the importance of the Fund and the high impact it achieves.

SOURCED FROM: Rick Perera, Resource Development Communications, CARE USA