Emergency & disaster relief

Floods, earthquakes, violence or hunger rob hundreds of thousands of their livelihoods every year. Immediate aid is often vital for their survival.

In the field of humanitarian assistance, which consists of emergency and disaster relief, Sign of Hope supports people in need worldwide. Humanitarian assistance is understood primarily as survival aid. In our work, we include self-help forces and also aim to promote the reduction of vulnerability to disasters.

In short-term disaster relief, Sign of Hope quickly and unbureaucratically ensures the survival of people who have been distressed worldwide by devastating natural events and have often lost everything. In doing so, Sign of Hope works primarily with local project partners who are best able to assess the needs of those affected.

In short- and medium-term emergency assistance, Sign of Hope responds to situations in defined priority countries where the timely delivery of relief supplies is important for people's survival. This aid is often targeted at populations affected by prolonged crises, especially conflict or war, but also by environmental pollution or climate change. When there is a thorough improvement in an emergency situation, emergency relief projects can be followed by long-term development cooperation projects.

We base our work on the international standards of humanitarian assistance - the "Core Humanitarian Standards", the guidelines of "Sphere" and the Code of Conduct of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement are mentioned here.

Humanitarian assistance includes reconstruction and rehabilitation measures in addition to "classic" food distributions, emergency health programs and programs to secure drinking water supplies. After flood and drought damage, for example, seeds and agricultural tools are distributed and infrastructure is rebuilt so that people can sustainably ensure their survival.

Shelter NowIn 2010, floods in the Swat Valley in Pakistan caused great hardship. Sign of Hope helped with food and cooking utensils, but also water purification filters as a measure to prevent disease and epidemics.

Helping when the need is greatest - as in Kenya's Turkana district in 2012 during a severe famine in East Africa. Handing over relief supplies such as mosquito nets, mattresses, seeds or agricultural implements is also part of our emergency and disaster relief work.

Philippines: Typhoon Haiyan brought widespread devastation to the island nation in 2013. After medical aid, food and drinking water, people needed emergency shelter such as tents - and later we also enabled many families to find new permanent housing.

After the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, we assisted survivors with relief supplies and shelter. 9,000 people died, 600,000 homes were destroyed. Sign of Hope helped hundreds of families with food, medicine and emergency shelter. In the mountain village of Dalchoki, we built 250 earthquake-resistant houses together with the local population.

In early 2019, Hurricane Idai devastated large parts of Mozambique with persistent rains and winds of up to 200 km/h. 600 people died and hundreds of thousands lost their livelihoods. Sign of Hope was on the ground with an outreach team and was able to provide water, food, hygiene items, school supplies, blankets, mosquito nets and tents. Our aid reached 35,000 people.