Press releases
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Pakistan: As flood waters continue raging, Mercy Corps ramps up operations in southern Pakistan August 19, 2010
Portland, OR— As flood waters rise in southern Pakistan, Mercy Corps is quickly expanding efforts to assist families in four districts of Sindh Province. The aid agency is making multiple daily trips to displacement camps with water tankers, building latrines, and preparing to open two mobile health units to meet pressing medical needs. The United Nations estimates that 35 percent of Sindh Province is underwater and 2.5 million people in the province have been affected by the floods.
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Pakistan: Mercy Corps brings life-saving aid to flood victims in Pakistan August 16, 2010
Portland, OR— Mercy Corps is ramping up its response to devastating floods in Pakistan, continuing to meet immediate humanitarian needs in the Swat Valley, and preparing to start relief operations in Sindh province. Flood waters failed to recede over the weekend as the disaster and its impact spread. Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani reported this weekend that floods have rendered 20 million people homeless, significantly higher than previous United Nations estimates.
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Haiti: Mercy Corps receives $12.5 million grants from USAID to help feed Haitians in the impoverished central plateau and lower ArtiBonite August 13, 2010
Portland, OR – Mercy Corps has been awarded one of the first grants from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the new Emergency Food Security Program in Haiti. The $12.5 million grant to Mercy Corps will provide food vouchers to 100,000 vulnerable people in the Central Plateau and Lower Artibonite regions who were affected by the earthquake in January.
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Haiti: Mercy Corps launches Moving Forward youth sports program in Haiti to help young people recover from the quake July 12, 2010
Portland, OR – As the month-long World Cup culminated this past weekend, Mercy Corps launched Moving Forward, a youth program that uses soccer and other sports to help young people recover physically, socially, mentally, and emotionally from the January earthquake. Moving Forward will reach over 1,500 young people throughout Haiti, and train 50 coaches and educators at 25 community organizations and schools.
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Haiti: Six months after earthquake, Mercy Corps helps Haitians cope with emergency, begin long-term recovery July 12, 2010
Portland, OR – Six months after the deadly January 12th earthquake, Mercy Corps is providing Haitians with tools for long-term recovery while helping families fill ongoing basic needs. The agency, which started operations in Haiti immediately after the quake, has assisted thousands of Haitians with a combination of economic recovery, relief and psychosocial programs in and around the capital city of Port-au-Prince, as well as in Haiti’s Central Plateau.
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Iraq recovery at risk without more effective aid, warn aid agencies July 9, 2010
A group of aid agencies has today warned that if aid support from the EU and UK government for Iraq continues to fall, it could pose a serious risk to the country’s recovery.
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Haiti: Mercy Corps and Sesame Workshop partner to bring engaging, educational programming to Haiti's children June 22, 2010
Portland, OR – Mercy Corps and Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, have formed a partnership to bring engaging, educational programming to Haiti’s children. Sesame Workshop has dubbed one DVD featuring two Sesame Home Videos into Creole, and produced three short original films shot in Haiti specific to the country’s post-earthquake challenges. Mercy Corps will distribute at least 1,000 DVDs of this programming to schools, orphanages and other child-friendly facilities in the country.
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Mercy Corps CEO Neal Keny-Guyer named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year June 21, 2010
Portland, OR – Neal Keny Guyer, CEO of the Portland-based relief and development agency Mercy Corps, has been named winner of the 2010 “Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year” in the social responsibility category for the Pacific Northwest. Keny-Guyer was selected from nearly sixty nominations by a panel of independent judges.
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Preparations begin for St Andrews students’ 10,000 mile biodiesel drive to Mongolia June 17, 2010
In a world first, four students from the University of St Andrews will next month set out on a mammoth 10,000 mile drive across the world in a biodiesel-fuelled car, raising money for charity. The team of students – known as ‘The Green Yaks’ – will compete alongside other teams from across the world in the internationally renowned Mongol Rally adventure from 24 July.
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Mercy Corps wins major award for ICT work in Middle East May 28, 2010
This week UK-based aid and development agency Mercy Corps received a major international award for its work to support Palestinian information and communication technology (ICT) companies, alongside its consulting partner CIMS. They won the prestigious Digital Opportunity Award for their programme building links between Palestinian and Israeli ICT companies as a step towards peace in the region.