Speed, flexibility and commitment

The past 15 months have seen Medair respond to the devastating earthquake in Bam, Iran, two cyclones in Madagascar, the enormous tsunami that devastated the whole rim of the Indian Ocean, and the deadly civil conflict in the northern Sudan region known as West Darfur. An important component of Medair’s response was our Emergency Response Fund. This fund is designed to allow Medair to address humanitarian emergency situations around the world more effectively. It is a designated fund, with monies set aside for the purpose of supporting our emergency operations. The fund gives Medair the ability to respond with increased speed in order to make a difference in the critical early days of an emergency, the flexibility to adjust its humanitarian response to rapidly changing operating environments, and the ability to make a commitment to the most vulnerable victims of crisis by filling funding gaps which appear in the early days of an emergency.

Increased effectiveness

We want to significantly increase our ability to meet the needs of forgotten crisis victims in humanitarian emergency situations around the world. It is the victims of these crises that concern us, but in order to respond to their needs we need to increase our organisational capacity. We want to increase our Emergency Response Fund to 500,000 CHF in order to be able to mount increasingly fast, flexible, and committed responses to the disasters that often, if not regularly, strike the world.

We want to do more

Our response to the earthquake in Kerman, Iran is making a significant difference to many of the 50,000 victims of the emergency. We were also able to assist many people in Sri Lanka after the recent tsunami. However, we would like to do more. Help us grow this fund so some of the poorest of the poor, the victims of rapid onset natural disasters or the victims of rapidly escalating military or political conflict will have a more effective advocate working alongside them.