Our Strategy for Helping Hurricane Katrina Survivors

Mercy Corps workers unload relef supplies at a shelter in Slidell, Louisiana. Photo: Eric Block/Mercy Corps

Hurricane Katrina is the worst natural disaster to ever hit the United States. Mercy Corps has launched a historic response to help the survivors of the crisis.

As a humanitarian agency, Mercy Corps is committed to making a contribution in the effort to bring help and hope to families by working with local partners on the ground in the affected areas. The agency has broad experience in disaster response, mobilizing teams for domestic emergencies such as the 9/11 tragedy in New York, as well as international crises like 2003's Bam earthquake in Iran and the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

In our agency's experience, there are three overlapping stages of disaster response. During the first stage, governments and humanitarian organizations rush to provide survivors with basic needs such as food, water and temporary shelter. In the second stage, the effort targets emerging public health concerns and problems. The third stage seeks to help families displaced by the disaster return to their communities, rebuild and restore local economies.

Mercy Corps is committed to helping survivors at all stages along the way. We are prepared to assist with a long-term recovery.

In the coming weeks and months, Mercy Corps will focus on four strategic program areas:

• Emergency Relief: Mercy Corps will provide critical financial, technical and material aid support to survivors of the disaster. This includes provision of shelter, food, water, sanitation and health care to displaced populations. Emergency relief will be provided in coordination with the efforts of other relief organizations.
• Community Mobilization: Mercy Corps believes that the participation of local communities in their own recovery and rebuilding process is critical for the long term success and sustainability of a program. This is also critical in overcoming psychosocial trauma and beginning to rebuild the bonds of community. Mercy Corps will work with local groups to support their own rebuilding and recovery process in geographic areas where this is possible.
• Psychosocial Programs: The effect of a disaster like Hurricane Katrina can have a lasting traumatic impact on the survivors, especially children. Children in particular are vulnerable to trauma, as it is more difficult for them to make sense of what happened. Mercy Corps will support psychosocial programs that help the survivors overcome their trauma, with a special emphasis on children. We will work with schools, daycare centers, children’s service agencies and other local groups to provide appropriate psychosocial support to children. We will focus on activities that restore healthy activities and routines for children, as well as ways to engage the children themselves in the planning and implementation of programs.
• Economic Recovery: Mercy Corps will work with local groups to help poor families rebuild their livelihoods. These programs will include helping people rebuild their businesses, create employment and earn income. The quicker families can get back on their feet economically and become independent, the quicker their communities will get back to normal.

Rebuilding and recovery will take months. The needs are immense. Please make a generous donation to help hurricane survivors move past our country's worst disaster ever.