Colombia Flooding
May 2011
The Situation:
The worst flooding in the past 60 years has left 28 of the 32 Departments (equivalent to US States) of Colombia partially underwater. According to the Office for Risk Management of the Colombian Government, during the period of April 6, 2010, through February 2, 2011, the rains have left 311 people dead, 290 wounded, 64 missing and 2,294,402 people affected (just over 5% of the total population). Also, there have been 5,325 destroyed homes, 335,411 damaged homes and 751 affected roads. This situation has left many people homeless, while slowing relief efforts as flooded roads block vehicles from reaching the most affected areas.
The situation is made worse since the communities affected have already been suffering due to the consequences of violence and displacement caused by the armed conflict between paramilitary groups in the country which has raged for the past 50 years. The major outcome of this violence people leaving or being force from their homes which has led Colombia to have the second largest population of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world. As the floods have caused the number of IDPs in the country to swell humanitarian agencies have been overwhelmed.
According to Bishop Eduardo Martinez of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Colombia (IELCO), the government has been turning to the churches to help meet the response. The bishop also shared that this new crisis has called the church to grow in its response to the people. Whereas before the church has focused much of its work on the pursuit of human rights and justice, it will now be expanding on these capacities to meet the humanitarian concerns of disaster response and development.
ELCA Response:
The ELCA is working to address the situation in Colombia through its companions, the ACT Alliance (ACT) and the Lutheran World Federation/Department of World Services Colombia (LWF/DWS CO). In March ACT put out an appeal to help meet the most immediate needs of those affected by the flooding. As part of this appeal the LWF/DWS CO is responding in the Department of Chocó focused on bringing supplies, food and shelter to those affected. It will also be working on community strengthening to help people build the capacity to respond to disasters and to help meet the psychosocial issues of people dealing with trauma. The ELCA has committed $75,000 to help with this appeal. The ELCA also continues to be conversation with its companion IELCO as the church in Colombia assesses the situation and determines how best to respond.
What you can do:
Pray:
In this time of ecological disaster within Colombia please pray for those who have been displaced from their homes and cut off from their resources. Pray also for those work on their behalf. For prayer petitions, check out the ELCA worship resource on natural disasters.
Study and Share:
As you follow the situation in secular media, please check out these other resources for stories of how the ELCA and its companions are engaging in the situation.
Give:
Gifts to ELCA International Disaster Response help us to provide immediate and effective support to communities which are in need. Please consider giving to support the needs of this response and others like it. Information on different ways to give is provided in the left sidebar. Thank you for your prayerful consideration.
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Photo Credit: IELCO/Bishop Eduardo Martinez