Posts Tagged ‘humanitarian assistance’
Humanity at Risk: Addressing Challenges to Principled Humanitarian Action
By Paula Rudnicka, Sr. Manager for Public Affairs. Audio production by Kallista Zormelo. For decades, the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence have underpinned humanitarian action. They provide a foundation for delivering aid with integrity and fairness, and they help ensure that assistance reaches those in need based on vulnerability and urgency, rather…
Read MoreCultivating New Leaders, Healthier Futures through Family Gardens
San Francisco de Cones is a peaceful mountain village in Honduras known for its year-round temperate climate and fertile land, ideal for growing beans, corn and coffee. Most residents rely on growing the food they consume and, until recently, there was always enough to sustain them. However, over the past five years, frequent landslides, winter…
Read MorePass the Mic: Localizing Child Protection Interventions in Ukraine’s Humanitarian Context
By Paula Rudnicka, Sr. Manager for Public Affairs Global Communities has a rich history of implementing Child Protection in Emergencies programs. Our interventions are multifaced, ranging from psychosocial counselling and art therapy classes to life skills, literacy and parenting sessions. In countries where institutional services are weak, Global Communities delivers these services directly, including through…
Read MoreShifting Tides: Advancing Locally-Led Development & Humanitarian Action
By Paula Rudnicka, Sr. Manager for Public Affairs The concepts of localization and locally-led development are deeply woven into the current discourse about the state and the future of global development. Rooted in social movements that fought to end colonization, the localization agenda gained global traction in 2016 at the World Humanitarian Summit. Its two…
Read MoreMarÃa’s Harvest: Empowering Sustainable Farming and Drought Resilience in Honduras
MarÃa MartÃnez is a wife, mother, grandmother and producer of basic grains living in the Zacatustal, San Ramón, Choluteca community in Honduras. Her home is far from central markets which makes access to nutritious food a challenge. MarÃa received fencing wire, seeds and fertilizers from the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian…
Read MoreGlobal Communities Ramps Up Hot Meal Distribution, Nutrition Assistance in GazaÂ
Amid widespread and severe food insecurity in Gaza, Global Communities, in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), has started tripling the number of hot meals we are distributing daily. Since March 13, our team has increased its hot meal distribution from 10,000 meals per day to 30,000 hot meals per day, aiming to mitigate…
Read MoreCharting a Safer Future: How Guatemala’s Communities are Preparing for Natural Disasters
The latest Humanitarian Needs Overview estimates that 75% of the Guatemalan population live in areas at risk of climate hazards. The Central American country is poised to experience hurricanes, tropical storms, landslides and earthquakes throughout 2024, yet only one-third of municipalities have planned how to handle the impact of these events and implement basic services.…
Read MoreInteraction Member CEOs Send Public Letter to President Biden to Address Crisis in Gaza
InterAction and 50 member CEOs, including Global Communities’ President & CEO Carrie Hessler-Radelet, urged President Biden to take decisive and actionable steps to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Detailed within this letter are specific steps and commitments that can save numerous civilian lives and alleviate the suffering of Palestinians on the brink of famine.…
Read MoreProtecting Children in Emergencies: Perspectives from Syria and Ukraine
By Emily Galloway, Tarek Fakhereddin, Nataliia Biloshytska and Tania Dudnyk Global Communities has a rich history of providing emergency aid and protection services to refugees and internally displaced people in many crisis settings, from Ukraine and Gaza to Syria and Guatemala. This includes our Child Protection in Emergencies (CPiE) programming, which supports the well-being of…
Read MoreAdapting and Innovating in a Volatile World: Reflections from the 2024 Fragility Forum Â
By Paula Rudnicka, Sr. Manager for Public Affairs  Last month, the World Bank held its 2024 Fragility Forum – a biannual conference that brings together policymakers, researchers and practitioners from humanitarian, development and peacebuilding communities to exchange knowledge and ideas about how to improve our approaches in fragile, conflict and violence-affected settings. This year’s theme…
Read MoreMaking Space for Economic Growth in Ukraine’s Lanovetska Community
For years, Lanovetska Territorial Community, located in Ternopil oblast of Ukraine, was off the global economic map. Aspiring entrepreneurs were stifled by this isolation. However, with support from Global Communities and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), enterprising local residents were able to breathe new life into existing businesses and those still trying to…
Read More‘Survival, Resilience and Solidarity’: Our Relief Efforts in Gaza
By Maureen Simpson Now over four months in, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels, with one in four households facing famine levels of food insecurity and severely limited access to safe water. “Our mornings begin with a silent check – are the kids, is everyone, alright?” said Mohammad, one of 74 staff…
Read MoreBuilding Community and Supporting Internally Displaced People with Integration Efforts in Ukraine
By Tania Dudnyk It took eight years for Yuliia to shake off the feeling of numbness and fully integrate into the Ukrainian community where she lives now. She moved to the Chernivtsi oblast from Luhansk oblast as an internally displaced person (IDP) in 2014. Having experienced this kind of uprooting on a personal level, Yuliia…
Read MoreMother-Daughter Duo Hatch Success with Poultry Farming Business in Rural Guatemala
Elsa Carrillo and her daughter Debora have found that sometimes it’s worth it to put all your eggs in one basket – especially when you are selling both. With support from the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID/BHA) and Global Communities, the entrepreneurial duo learned how to leverage savings from…
Read MoreLocalizing Humanitarian Assistance to Help Meet Needs of Marginalized Groups in Ukraine
By Tania Dudnyk “For the first time in my life working in the public sector, we as an organization not only provide assistance but receive it,” says Zhanna Derii, who is part of an association of teachers from Chernihiv Polytechnic National University that make up the civil society organization (CSO) known as Chernihiv European. Prior…
Read MoreIf You Care about Ending Violence against Women and Girls, Care about Toilets
By Jason Brooks, Technical Director, Water Security, Sanitation and Hygiene, Global Communities Have you ever used a bathroom stall without a lock? How about dark public facilities while toileting? How did these experiences make you feel? There are few moments when we feel as vulnerable as when we are attending to our biological needs. All people…
Read MoreUkraine’s Resilience Strengthened by Grassroots Psychosocial Support and Civic Partnerships
By Tania Dudnyk Chernihiv oblast has been one of the regions most severely affected by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. When it was under Russian occupation during the first five weeks of the war, residents – including children – were forced to spend long hours and days in shelters to protect themselves from heavy…
Read MorePreventing and Responding to Gender-based Violence in Humanitarian Settings
By Emily Galloway, Sr. Advisor for Global Protection, Global Communities Gender-based violence (GBV) is a pervasive issue that disproportionately affects women, girls and vulnerable individuals during emergencies. In disaster or conflict-affected areas, gender inequalities and power dynamics can both exacerbate existing risks of GBV and create new ones. While risks are always context-specific, we see…
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