American Refugee Committee
Encyclopedia
The American Refugee Committee (ARC) is an international nonprofit, nonsectarian
organization that has provided humanitarian assistance and training to millions of beneficiaries over the last 30 years.
In 2008, ARC helped nearly 2.5 million people get essential services to regain their health and take back control of their lives. ARC works with its partners and constituencies to provide opportunities and expertise to communities of refugees and internally displaced persons in seven countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, including Iraq
, Kosovo
, and in the Darfur
region of Sudan
and is currently providing for emergency relief and recovery in Haiti
. ARC provides shelter, clean water and sanitation, health care, skills training, microcredit
education, protection to help survivors of war and natural disasters to rebuild their lives with dignity, health care, security and self-sufficiency.
, Chicago
businessman Neal Ball founded the American Refugee Committee in 1979. In 1978 Ball agreed to sponsor a refugee
from Laos
, expecting merely to send a monthly check. To his surprise, he received a phone call telling him the refugee he had sponsored would soon be arriving at the airport. A few weeks later, Phunguene Sananikone arrived from Laos. Ball remembers:
One of ARC's first programs opened at Khao-I-Dang
refugee camp in Thailand in late 1979. ARC also provided medical and public health services at Nong Samet Refugee Camp
, Phanat Nikhom, Ban Vinai and Site Two Refugee Camp
until 1993, when the camps closed and ARC turned its attention to programs inside Cambodia
. ARC later provided health, sanitation
and laboratory services at Khao Phlu Refugee Camp from 1997 until 1999. ARC pioneered the treatment of tuberculosis
in refugee-camp settings using an innovative program structure that other international agencies had argued was not feasible.
ARC has humanitarian programs and provides medical care, shelter, protection services, clean water, community development support, microloans, and help for women who have suffered violence, as well as other opportunities to help refugees regain control of their lives in Asia
and Africa
ARC Programs.
In Africa, ARC has programs in Liberia
, Sudan
, Darfur
, Uganda
, Rwanda
and Sierra Leone
.
In Asia, ARC programs are concentrated in Pakistan
and in Thailand
. In Pakistan, ARC has recently been working with to help civilians who have fled fighting between the government and the Taliban in northwest Pakistan. ARC also responded to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
, providing relief services in Sri Lanka
and Indonesia
and a Fishing Boat Project in Thailand
.
struck just outside Port-au-Prince
. The capital city and surrounding towns were completely destroyed and a million people were left homeless. 50,000 were reported to have died. On January 14, the first ARC emergency response team members arrived in Port-au-Prince. They started planning the response, hiring local staff, and coordinating with the United Nations
and other partners. In the following days and weeks additional staff with expertise in emergency response, logistics
, health, water/sanitation, shelter, and protection
arrived in Haiti. ARC distributed food
to 2,200 people in the Delmas
district of Port-au-Prince, 1,000 hygiene and kitchen kits in the Nazon district. On January 26, ARC began managing settlement of 5,000 people in Terrain Acra district of Port-au-Prince, working with multiple relief agencies. In the next few months the camp size grew to 25,000 people. Of the 19 most crowded settlements (of 300 total), Terrain Acra was the only one with an organization overseeing and coordinating relief activities.
Four cargo planes carrying 90,000 pounds of donated emergency medical and shelter supplies arrived in Port-au-Prince from Minneapolis. In Terraine Acra ARC opened a health clinic, distributed shelter materials, built latrines and sanitation
systems. On February 9, the first three child-friendly spaces opened in the Terraine Acra settlement. 300 children were expected and 1,000 showed up. On April 10, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General
Asha-Rose Migiro
visited ARC's camp in Terrain Acra http://www.arcrelief.org/site/PageServer?pagename=haiti_appeals_stories_migiri. ARC is working with the local community and coordinating with international and local NGOs to help people survive and rebuild. http://www.arcrelief.org/site/PageServer?pagename=haiti_shelter_subpage01
since December 2010, constructing shelters to house refugees in Nimba County
, Liberia.
, Kyrgyzstan
to assess the situation and the needs of the affected communities.
. ARC began providing services to people living in camps at Brown’s Town and Unification Town and continues serving those locations today.
refugees living in refugee camps in Pakistan
’s Baluchistan Province. Some fled the oppression of the Taliban, others the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. For years they have known no way of life other than in the camps. Entire generations have grown up without the right to move about freely or the possibility to make a living for their families.
ARC provides primary health care to 98,000 Afghan refugees in the camps and in the surrounding communities. ARC also provides special attention to pregnant mothers and training for refugees in caring for their own communities. ARC helps refugees cope with the frustrations of living in a camp by organizing youth clubs and activities, working to prevent and respond to domestic violence in the camps, and building awareness of the threat of HIV/AIDS.
shattered communities throughout mountainous northern Pakistan. The impact has been long-lasting, with entire families and villages wiped out and vital infrastructure
destroyed. Within hours of the quake, ARC began getting survivors in Bagh District
the emergency relief they needed – clean water, nutritious food, shelters for those left homeless and in need of emergency medical attention. Today, ARC's efforts are focused on working with communities to rebuild health care clinics and water systems in the region so that survivors can care for themselves.
in the mountainous region of northwestern Pakistan. Many fled to camps without clean water or enough to eat. But the vast majority have been taken in by local communities, packed in tight quarters – sometimes 50-60 people in very small homes. Water and sanitation systems were on the brink of collapse, and there was a serious threat of outbreaks of disease.
ARC quickly began trucking clean water into refugee camps and digging wells and latrines to ensure safe and sanitary living conditions. Aid workers have also stepped in at local clinics to provide comprehensive medical care and to try to reach as many survivors as possible.
ARC is also currently working to help Pakistani families who have begun returning. So far, 100,000 families have gone back to the Swat Valley. But the fighting destroyed infrastructure and other systems, leaving people without basics like clean water and sanitation. ARC will soon begin work digging wells and repairing infrastructure so that basic necessities will be waiting for families when they return home.
, and Peshawar
were the most severely affected areas. Roads were washed out, bridges gone, internet and telephone were functioning intermittently. Many affected communities remained inaccessible except by helicopter; others had been entirely obliterated.
. ARC manages all three major refugee camps in Rwanda, providing health care, water, construction, and sanitation services as well as programs combating gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS. ARC also manages successful income generation programs in the camps and hires and trains refugees wherever possible. In 2005, the government of Rwanda asked ARC to build a refugee camp at Nyabiheke to accommodate 5,000 new refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo
. ARC quickly constructed roads, bridges, shelters, latrines, storage warehouses, and health centers, and began receiving refugees within a month of the request. The culminating achievement of the construction efforts was the drilling of a borehole
to tap an aquifer
, which provides 100,000 liters of naturally purified, filtered water per day. In the fall of 2007, ARC expanded Nyabiheke Camp to receive 2,000 more people fleeing increased violence.
in 2000 to address the needs of returning refugees and a war-torn society. ARC operates a microfinance
institution called Finance Salone. Finance Salone provides small loans and business training to entrepreneur
s trying to start and grow small businesses.
is who are without access to clean water, who are unable to make a living for their families, who live in camps with no access to farmland or who are forced to flee fighting too frequently to raise any crops.
ARC's corps of midwives assist pregnant mothers to safely deliver their babies, and health clinics provide treatment and medications to thousands of people each month. ARC is working with Darfuri communities to dig wells that will provide safe drinking water to thousands, and ARC is partnering with families to plant crops that will feed and support them. ARC provides tools and seeds and the families bring the farming skills to grow the food that will sustain them. In schools ARC provides children with nutritious meals. Parents have one less mouth to feed, and their children will be educated and better prepared to help rebuild the region when the fighting has ended..
, Malakal
, Nimule
, and Yei.
refugees in camps on the border with Myanmar
. ARC focuses on building the capacity and skills of constituents, training them to become health care providers and community leaders so they may apply these skills upon their return to Myanmar or their relocation to a third country.
ARC also operates in coastal villages between Phuket and Ranong
in the south of Thailand.
off-and-on since 1994, when ARC began operations in neighboring Southern Sudan. Today, ARC manages 14 internally displaced persons camps in the northern Gulu District
of Uganda.
to rate Non-profit organizations based on the ratio of funds spent on humanitarian aid compared to administrative overhead. Reader's Digest
Magazine, Money Magazine
, GiveSpot.com, and Charity Navigator
also highly rate ARC.
Nonsectarian
Nonsectarian, in its most literal sense, refers to a lack of sectarianism. The term is also more narrowly used to describe secular private educational institutions or other organizations either not affiliated with or not restricted to a particular religious denomination though the organization...
organization that has provided humanitarian assistance and training to millions of beneficiaries over the last 30 years.
In 2008, ARC helped nearly 2.5 million people get essential services to regain their health and take back control of their lives. ARC works with its partners and constituencies to provide opportunities and expertise to communities of refugees and internally displaced persons in seven countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, including Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, and in the Darfur
Darfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
region of Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
and is currently providing for emergency relief and recovery in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
. ARC provides shelter, clean water and sanitation, health care, skills training, microcredit
Microcredit
Microcredit is the extension of very small loans to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit...
education, protection to help survivors of war and natural disasters to rebuild their lives with dignity, health care, security and self-sufficiency.
History
Moved by the plight of millions of men, women and children affected by the conflict in Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
businessman Neal Ball founded the American Refugee Committee in 1979. In 1978 Ball agreed to sponsor a refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
from Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, expecting merely to send a monthly check. To his surprise, he received a phone call telling him the refugee he had sponsored would soon be arriving at the airport. A few weeks later, Phunguene Sananikone arrived from Laos. Ball remembers:
- "I had learned that part of his family was in Laos. His two brothers had swum across the Mekong River and were somewhere in ThailandThailandThailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
. Another brother had made it over to Thailand with his wife and child, and was in a refugee campRefugee campA refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people may live in any one single camp. Usually they are built and run by a government, the United Nations, or international organizations, or NGOs.Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu...
.
- I [went to Thailand and] found his family. And I found out that the two younger boys were going to be sent back to Laos. Anyone who had done what they did would have been stuck in a work camp. So in that case I was able to get a congressional inquiry, in which a member of Congress inquires into the status of individual people. That was enough to get a hold on their being sent back.
- In the case of an older brother and his family, I found them under a little plastic tent in a refugee camp in northern Thailand. I had gone to about six refugee camps before that. He was eventually able to come to the States. The family is all doing well now. It took about five years before they were all reunited here.
- When I went to the camp [in Thailand], that was when I started to see their medical needs. I became aware of the need for doctors and nurses to go over to Thailand.
- We made an early commitment, not knowing how we were going to do it, to send 75 doctors and nurses over the course of a year to refugee camps in Thailand. It went way over that number, and it was especially thrilling to see this all in operation when I went back to Thailand [a year and a half later]. Nurses and doctors were training the refugees to be paramedics and also work in the villages.
- The need was so great, and the ability to respond to it was clear. It didn’t strike me as that difficult of a thing to do. It didn’t strike me as an overwhelming task. It just was a series of things that had to be done to provide help and care, and we simply went about doing it. There are a lot of Phunguenes out there. And when you can put a face on suffering, you need to respond. It’s that simple.
- [When someone gets] medical care or clean water, that strikes me as a very important event. Sometimes the size [of the operation] isn’t really important. It’s what happens to each individual refugee or victim of war who is seeking help.
- It’s always been about the effectiveness and the importance of every person helping. Every volunteer, every donor, every staff member. It’s always been about that."
One of ARC's first programs opened at Khao-I-Dang
Khao-I-Dang
Khao-I-Dang Holding Center was a Cambodian refugee camp located 20 km north of Aranyaprathet in Prachinburi Province of Thailand...
refugee camp in Thailand in late 1979. ARC also provided medical and public health services at Nong Samet Refugee Camp
Nong Samet Refugee Camp
Nong Samet Refugee Camp, also known as 007, Rithisen or Rithysen was one of the largest refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border and served as a power base for the KPNLF until its destruction by the Vietnamese military in late 1984....
, Phanat Nikhom, Ban Vinai and Site Two Refugee Camp
Site Two Refugee Camp
Site Two Refugee Camp was the largest refugee camp on the Thai-Cambodian border and, for several years, the largest refugee camp in Southeast Asia...
until 1993, when the camps closed and ARC turned its attention to programs inside Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
. ARC later provided health, sanitation
Sanitation
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
and laboratory services at Khao Phlu Refugee Camp from 1997 until 1999. ARC pioneered the treatment of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
in refugee-camp settings using an innovative program structure that other international agencies had argued was not feasible.
Program areas in which ARC works
- AgricultureAgricultureAgriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
& Food SecurityFood securityFood security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food-secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. According to the World Resources Institute, global per capita food production has been increasing substantially for the past... - RefugeeRefugee campA refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people may live in any one single camp. Usually they are built and run by a government, the United Nations, or international organizations, or NGOs.Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu...
and IDP Camp Management - Capacity buildingCapacity buildingCapacity building also referred to as capacity development is a conceptual approach to development that focuses on understanding the obstacles that inhibit people, governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations from realizing their developmental goals while enhancing...
and Training - Community Development
- Community Health Education
- Community ReconciliationReconciliationReconciliation may variously refer to:* Bank reconciliation* Truth and reconciliation commission-Religion:* Sacrament of Penance , also known as Reconciliation...
and Reintegration - Disaster Preparedness
- Disease Prevention and Control
- Emergency Health CareEmergency medicineEmergency medicine is a medical specialty in which physicians care for patients with acute illnesses or injuries which require immediate medical attention. While not usually providing long-term or continuing care, emergency medicine physicians diagnose a variety of illnesses and undertake acute...
- Emergency ObstetricsObstetricsObstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...
- Gender-based violence Prevention and Response
- HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment
- Immunizations
- Income Generation
- Infectious DiseaseInfectious diseaseInfectious diseases, also known as communicable diseases, contagious diseases or transmissible diseases comprise clinically evident illness resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism...
Prevention - Legal Assistance
- Microenterprise Development
- MicrofinanceMicrofinanceMicrofinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....
- Maternal-Child Health Care
- Primary Health CarePrimary health carePrimary health care, often abbreviated as “PHC”, has been defined as "essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost...
- Protection of Vulnerable Groups
- Psychosocial Support
- Rapid Emergency Response
- RefugeeRefugeeA refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
Return and Reintegration - Reproductive HealthReproductive healthWithin the framework of the World Health Organization's definition of health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, reproductive health, or sexual health/hygiene, addresses the reproductive processes, functions and system...
Care - Savings and Loans AssociationsSavings and loan associationA savings and loan association , also known as a thrift, is a financial institution that specializes in accepting savings deposits and making mortgage and other loans...
- Shelter Construction and Rehabilitation
- Small BusinessSmall businessA small business is a business that is privately owned and operated, with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales. Small businesses are normally privately owned corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships...
and Vocational TrainingVocational educationVocational education or vocational education and training is an education that prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation... - Sports and Recreation Programs
- Through Our Eyes Participatory Video Communication
- Water supplyWater supplyWater supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...
and SanitationSanitationSanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
Services
ARC has humanitarian programs and provides medical care, shelter, protection services, clean water, community development support, microloans, and help for women who have suffered violence, as well as other opportunities to help refugees regain control of their lives in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
ARC Programs.
In Africa, ARC has programs in Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
, Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, Darfur
Darfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
and Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
.
In Asia, ARC programs are concentrated in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
. In Pakistan, ARC has recently been working with to help civilians who have fled fighting between the government and the Taliban in northwest Pakistan. ARC also responded to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
, providing relief services in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and a Fishing Boat Project in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
.
Haiti
On January 12, 2010 a 7.0-magnitude earthquake2010 Haiti earthquake
The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks...
struck just outside Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
. The capital city and surrounding towns were completely destroyed and a million people were left homeless. 50,000 were reported to have died. On January 14, the first ARC emergency response team members arrived in Port-au-Prince. They started planning the response, hiring local staff, and coordinating with the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and other partners. In the following days and weeks additional staff with expertise in emergency response, logistics
Logistics
Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...
, health, water/sanitation, shelter, and protection
Safety
Safety is the state of being "safe" , the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be...
arrived in Haiti. ARC distributed food
Food distribution
Food distribution, a method of distributing or transporting food or drink from one place to another, is a very important factor in public nutrition. Where it breaks down, famine, malnutrition or illness can occur...
to 2,200 people in the Delmas
Delmas, Ouest
Delmas is a commune in Port-au-Prince Arrondissement, Ouest Department of Haiti. Delmas itself is an urban continuation of the capital city. Delmas is also the location of much of the area's commercial and industrial enterprise....
district of Port-au-Prince, 1,000 hygiene and kitchen kits in the Nazon district. On January 26, ARC began managing settlement of 5,000 people in Terrain Acra district of Port-au-Prince, working with multiple relief agencies. In the next few months the camp size grew to 25,000 people. Of the 19 most crowded settlements (of 300 total), Terrain Acra was the only one with an organization overseeing and coordinating relief activities.
Four cargo planes carrying 90,000 pounds of donated emergency medical and shelter supplies arrived in Port-au-Prince from Minneapolis. In Terraine Acra ARC opened a health clinic, distributed shelter materials, built latrines and sanitation
Sanitation
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
systems. On February 9, the first three child-friendly spaces opened in the Terraine Acra settlement. 300 children were expected and 1,000 showed up. On April 10, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General
United Nations Deputy Secretary-General
The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations is an office created to handle many of the administrative responsibilities, help manage Secretariat operations, and ensure coherence of activities and programmes. The post was formally established by the General Assembly at the end of 1997...
Asha-Rose Migiro
Asha-Rose Migiro
Asha-Rose Mtengeti Migiro is a Tanzanian lawyer and politician. On January 5, 2007, she was named as the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. She was formally appointed and assumed office on February 1. She is married to Cleophas Migiro, and the couple has two daughters...
visited ARC's camp in Terrain Acra http://www.arcrelief.org/site/PageServer?pagename=haiti_appeals_stories_migiri. ARC is working with the local community and coordinating with international and local NGOs to help people survive and rebuild. http://www.arcrelief.org/site/PageServer?pagename=haiti_shelter_subpage01
Ivory Coast
The American Refugee Committee team has been responding to the refugee crisis on the border between Ivory Coast and LiberiaLiberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
since December 2010, constructing shelters to house refugees in Nimba County
Nimba County
Nimba is a county in the north-central portion of the West African nation of Liberia. One of 15 counties that comprise the first-level of administrative division in the nation, it has six districts. Sanniquellie serves as the capital with the area of the county measuring , the largest in the nation...
, Liberia.
Kyrgyzstan
On Sunday June 20, 2010 ARC's Rapid Response Team arrived in OshOsh
Osh is the second largest city in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Fergana Valley in the south of the country and often referred to as the "capital of the south". The city is at least 3,000 years old, and has served as the administrative center of Osh Province since 1939...
, Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
to assess the situation and the needs of the affected communities.
Liberia
In the fall of 2003, ARC launched a program to assist those who had been displaced by the Second Liberian Civil WarSecond Liberian Civil War
The Second Liberian Civil War began in 1999 when a rebel group backed by the government of neighbouring Guinea, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy , emerged in northern Liberia. In early 2003, a second rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia, emerged in the south, and...
. ARC began providing services to people living in camps at Brown’s Town and Unification Town and continues serving those locations today.
Afghan Refugees
Today, there are millions of AfghanAfghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
refugees living in refugee camps in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
’s Baluchistan Province. Some fled the oppression of the Taliban, others the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. For years they have known no way of life other than in the camps. Entire generations have grown up without the right to move about freely or the possibility to make a living for their families.
ARC provides primary health care to 98,000 Afghan refugees in the camps and in the surrounding communities. ARC also provides special attention to pregnant mothers and training for refugees in caring for their own communities. ARC helps refugees cope with the frustrations of living in a camp by organizing youth clubs and activities, working to prevent and respond to domestic violence in the camps, and building awareness of the threat of HIV/AIDS.
Earthquake Relief
In October 2005, a massive earthquake2005 Kashmir earthquake
The 2005 Kashmir earthquake was a major earthquake centered in Pakistan-administered Kashmir known as Azad Kashmir, near the city of Muzaffarabad, affecting Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It occurred at 08:52:37 Pakistan Standard Time on 8 October 2005...
shattered communities throughout mountainous northern Pakistan. The impact has been long-lasting, with entire families and villages wiped out and vital infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
destroyed. Within hours of the quake, ARC began getting survivors in Bagh District
Bagh District
Bagh District is one of the eight districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan. The district, which had been part of Poonch District, was created in 1988...
the emergency relief they needed – clean water, nutritious food, shelters for those left homeless and in need of emergency medical attention. Today, ARC's efforts are focused on working with communities to rebuild health care clinics and water systems in the region so that survivors can care for themselves.
2009 Pakistan Displacement Crisis
In the spring of 2009, three million people fled for their lives from fighting between Taliban forces and the Pakistani governmentOperation Rah-e-Nijat
The Operation Rah-e-Nijat was a Pakistani military operation against the Taliban and other Islamist rebels in the South Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas that began on June 19, 2009; a major ground offensive was subsequently launched on October 17...
in the mountainous region of northwestern Pakistan. Many fled to camps without clean water or enough to eat. But the vast majority have been taken in by local communities, packed in tight quarters – sometimes 50-60 people in very small homes. Water and sanitation systems were on the brink of collapse, and there was a serious threat of outbreaks of disease.
ARC quickly began trucking clean water into refugee camps and digging wells and latrines to ensure safe and sanitary living conditions. Aid workers have also stepped in at local clinics to provide comprehensive medical care and to try to reach as many survivors as possible.
ARC is also currently working to help Pakistani families who have begun returning. So far, 100,000 families have gone back to the Swat Valley. But the fighting destroyed infrastructure and other systems, leaving people without basics like clean water and sanitation. ARC will soon begin work digging wells and repairing infrastructure so that basic necessities will be waiting for families when they return home.
2010 Floods
In late July 2010 monsoon rainfall caused flash floods swelling the river Swat and killing over 1,100 people. ARC's Emergency Response teams began work as the flooding subsided in early August, providing clean water and mobile health clinics for survivors. ARC's mobile health teams, especially water and sanitation teams, assembled and began coordinating with partners and authorities. Swat, Nowshera, MardanMardan
Mardan , known as The city of hospitality, is a city and headquarters of Mardan District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. It is the de facto headquarters of the Yousafzai tribe and the second most populous city in the province, located at 34°12'0N 72°1'60E and an altitude of in the south...
, and Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
were the most severely affected areas. Roads were washed out, bridges gone, internet and telephone were functioning intermittently. Many affected communities remained inaccessible except by helicopter; others had been entirely obliterated.
Rwanda
ARC began work in Rwanda in December 1994, following the genocideRwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
. ARC manages all three major refugee camps in Rwanda, providing health care, water, construction, and sanitation services as well as programs combating gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS. ARC also manages successful income generation programs in the camps and hires and trains refugees wherever possible. In 2005, the government of Rwanda asked ARC to build a refugee camp at Nyabiheke to accommodate 5,000 new refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
. ARC quickly constructed roads, bridges, shelters, latrines, storage warehouses, and health centers, and began receiving refugees within a month of the request. The culminating achievement of the construction efforts was the drilling of a borehole
Borehole
A borehole is the generalized term for any narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water or other liquid or gases , as part of a geotechnical investigation, environmental site...
to tap an aquifer
Aquifer
An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology...
, which provides 100,000 liters of naturally purified, filtered water per day. In the fall of 2007, ARC expanded Nyabiheke Camp to receive 2,000 more people fleeing increased violence.
Sierra Leone
ARC began operating in Sierra LeoneSierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
in 2000 to address the needs of returning refugees and a war-torn society. ARC operates a microfinance
Microfinance
Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....
institution called Finance Salone. Finance Salone provides small loans and business training to entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
s trying to start and grow small businesses.
Darfur
The American Refugee Committee is taking a variety of actions to directly help millions of DarfurDarfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
is who are without access to clean water, who are unable to make a living for their families, who live in camps with no access to farmland or who are forced to flee fighting too frequently to raise any crops.
ARC's corps of midwives assist pregnant mothers to safely deliver their babies, and health clinics provide treatment and medications to thousands of people each month. ARC is working with Darfuri communities to dig wells that will provide safe drinking water to thousands, and ARC is partnering with families to plant crops that will feed and support them. ARC provides tools and seeds and the families bring the farming skills to grow the food that will sustain them. In schools ARC provides children with nutritious meals. Parents have one less mouth to feed, and their children will be educated and better prepared to help rebuild the region when the fighting has ended..
Southern Sudan
ARC began operations in Kajo Keji County in Southern Sudan in 1994, providing health services to people displaced by the war. Operations have since grown dramatically, and ARC now operates an integrated program of health care, water and sanitation, and microenterprise development for war-affected residents and returning refugees. Since 2006, ARC has been implementing a major, long-term initiative to expand comprehensive reproductive health care services in Southern Sudan. ARC has recently initiated the Through Our Eyes project in southern Sudan, using hands-on video and community participation to get people talking about gender-based violence and how to prevent it. ARC currently works in Juba, Kajo KejiKajo Keji
Kajo Keji, also spelled Kajo Kaji and Kajo-keji, is a city in southern South Sudan, lying in the state of Central Equatoria, a part of the region of Equatoria. It is just south of the capital Juba and lies very close to both the state border with Eastern Equatoria and the international border with...
, Malakal
Malakal
-Location:The city of Malakal is located in Malakal County, Upper Nile State, in the northeast of South Sudan, close to the International borders with the Republic of Sudan and with Ethiopia...
, Nimule
Nimule
Nimule is a town in South Sudan, immediately north of the International border with Uganda.-Location:Nimule is located in Magwi County, Eastern Equatoria State, South Sudan, adjacent to the border with the Republic of Uganda. This location lies approximately , by road, southeast of Juba, the...
, and Yei.
Thailand
ARC's oldest program, ARC has operated continuously in Thailand since 1979. Currently ARC works in refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border, providing health care services, health education, and water, sanitation and environmental health services to KarenKaren
Karen may refer to:* Karen people, an ethnic group in Burma and Thailand** Karen languages, spoken by the Karen people* Karen , a given name )* Karen , an NBC sitcom starring Debbie Watson...
refugees in camps on the border with Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
. ARC focuses on building the capacity and skills of constituents, training them to become health care providers and community leaders so they may apply these skills upon their return to Myanmar or their relocation to a third country.
ARC also operates in coastal villages between Phuket and Ranong
Ranong
Ranong ) is a town in southern Thailand, capital of the Ranong Province and the Mueang Ranong district. The town covers completely the area of the tambon Khao Niwet . As of 2005 it has a population of 16,163, and has town status .The town is located at the estuary of the Pak Chan River, opposite...
in the south of Thailand.
Uganda
ARC has been working in UgandaUganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
off-and-on since 1994, when ARC began operations in neighboring Southern Sudan. Today, ARC manages 14 internally displaced persons camps in the northern Gulu District
Gulu District
Gulu District is a district in Northern Uganda. The district is named after its chief municipal, administrative and commercial center, the town of Gulu.-Location:...
of Uganda.
Awards and Distinctions
ARC has been highly rated for the efficiency and effectiveness of their programs, perhaps most notably with an A rating by Charitywatch.org, a charity watchdog site created by the American Institute of PhilanthropyAmerican Institute of Philanthropy
The American Institute of Philanthropy is a 501 nonprofit organization, created in the United States by Daniel Borochoff in 1992, to provide information about charities' financial efficiency, accountability, governance, and fundraising. Its official website is known as...
to rate Non-profit organizations based on the ratio of funds spent on humanitarian aid compared to administrative overhead. Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
Magazine, Money Magazine
Money Magazine
Money Magazine is a business news and financial programme that is broadcast on Sundays at 7:00pm in Hong Kong by television channel TVB Pearl.-Producers and reporters:...
, GiveSpot.com, and Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator is an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates American charities. Its stated goal is "to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities."-About:...
also highly rate ARC.