GEORGIA - IOM Appeals for Funds, Mobilizes Staff - IOM is appealing to international donors for an initial US$ 1, 9 million to provide emergency logistical support, shelter and non-food assistance to tens of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Tbilisi and in other parts of Georgia over the next six months.
The funding request, part of the UN's Flash Appeal, will allow IOM staff in Georgia to provide emergency ground transportation to support on-going WFP food distributions, and to distribute shelter materials and Non Food Items (NFIs) to hundreds of particularly vulnerable families who have been displaced by the recent armed conflict.
IOM is currently mobilizing some 20 staff in Tbilisi, Kutasi and Batumi, on Georgia's Black Sea coast, to support data collection on the newly displaced and to assist in the distribution of emergency assistance to the IDPs in need.
"IDPs are currently sheltering either with relatives and friends or increasingly moving into hundreds of collective centres. The influx of displaced is considerable and the process fluid. All these factors, together with limited transportation, communications and access to certain areas complicates the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable, including female headed households, children, the sick and the elderly," says IOM's Sophie Kharashvili. "Our challenge is to quickly identify the most vulnerable among the displaced to ensure they receive the assistance they desperately need."
Based on the number of people registered by the Georgian authorities, some 128,700 people have been displaced in Georgia during the recent conflict, including some 81,000 in Tbilisi. This figure does not include the estimated 30,000 people believed to have sought refuge in North Ossetia, Russian Federation.
For more information, please contact Khatuna Didbaridze at IOM Georgia, Tel: + 995 32 25 22 16; Email: kdidbaridze@iom.ge
MYANMAR - IOM Gets New Backing from UK, UN, Extends Cyclone Nargis Response - New funding from the UK's Department of International Development (DFID) and the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) will allow IOM's emergency response to Cyclone Nargis, which struck the Irrawaddy Delta in May, to continue through January 2009.
The new pledges of $932,000 from DFID and $650,000 from CERF for shelter and non food relief items will underpin IOM's operations in the Delta, where it has helped cyclone survivors with medical aid, the delivery of emergency relief goods and reconstruction over the past three months.
IOM's cyclone response effort now comprises over 100 staff working from three sub-offices in the Delta townships of Bogale, Pyapon and Mawlamyinegyun. Another 200 IOM staff continue to work on pre-cyclone programming in Mon State and Yangon.
IOM mobile medical teams continue to deliver medical aid and distribute medical supplies to cyclone victims and affected communities in remote areas, often only accessible by boat. As of early August, the teams had treated some 31,000 patients in over 400 villages.
Five temporary, tented health clinics set up by IOM in remote areas where medical facilities were destroyed by the cyclone are also expected to be fully operational by the end of August.
IOM has also distributed non-food relief items, including shelter kits, mosquito nets, jerry cans, water purifiers, waterproofs and blankets to more than 30,000 cyclone-affected households. IOM's warehouses in Bogale, Pyapon and Mawlamyinegyun are now also open to partner agencies to support their ongoing distribution of non-food and shelter items to cyclone survivors.
As the emergency response phase moves towards reconstruction IOM has now also launched a $3 million shelter reconstruction project funded by the Government of Japan focusing on urban and semi-urban areas.
The project will provide roofing, construction materials, tools, technical support and advice on how to build back better to some 6,000 highly vulnerable households in affected Delta townships over the next five months.
This project is being implemented in close cooperation with the Myanmar Ministry of Social Welfare, Relocation & Resettlement, the Ministry of Construction, township local authorities and affected communities, who will help IOM to select vulnerable households most in need, according to IOM emergency Coordinator Federico Soda.
"We are also working with the Japanese NGO Humanitarian Medical Assistance (HUMA) and township medical authorities to rehabilitate seriously damaged health centres in the worst affected areas," he adds.
IOM's Cyclone Nargis response budget now stands at $7.5 million. Donors include the UN CERF, Japan, UK (DFID), USA (USAID / OFDA), Switzerland (SDC), Denmark, AmeriCares Foundation, International Medical Corps (IMC), Humanitarian Medical Assistance (HUMA) and Chevron Corporation.
Under the Revised UN Flash Appeal, IOM is still seeking some $9 million for projects designed to rebuild destroyed bamboo housing, repair primary health care and maternity centres, improve health care delivery and mental health services, combat HIV and evaluate severely damaged communities in the worst affected Delta townships.
For more information please contact Chris Lom at IOM's regional office in Bangkok; Tel: +66.819275215; Email: clom@iom.in
