After a natural disaster, even when aid is available, many people are cut off from aid because of destroyed roads, illness, or bad communication. This is when teams on the ground are the most valuable. After last year’s flooding in Pakistan, teams fanned out all across the flood region to find stranded families. One Muslim recipient said, “We cannot forgot this moment until the end of our life; while we were hungry you fed us and you visited us.”

Earlier that year, another OM team delivered food to three orphanages in Haiti after the January earthquakes. Through contacts in the communities, the team was able to find food and water to stock each orphanage. “I’ll never forget the cheers that erupted as we drove into the orphanage gates,” said one of the team members. As they transported injured people to a hospital in the area, they found that the medical staff had run out of food two or three days earlier. The team provided them with food also.

When floods hit the Philippines in 2009, OM Philippines packed and delivered 500 relief packages with the help of a Chinese church. Instead of asking people to come to them, the team walked in knee-deep stagnant flood water block by block to waiting families. “Thank you for coming to us” said an elderly man who was partially paralyzed and confined to the second floor of his house. For him, as well as a number of other families, it was the first time food relief had been brought to them in the ten days since the flood hit. Many families had tried getting to centralized relief stations but found large crowds and short supplies by the time they arrived, and were unable to get aid.

Relief work continues long after disaster headlines disappear. You can help long-term by giving to OM relief & development using the link below. Thank you.