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Mercy Corps

Registered Number: SC030289

Mercy Corps currently has progammes in two Latin American countries – Peru and Colombia. Operating independently and through partners enables these programmes to support many thousands of children, families and communities in both rural and urban areas who desperately need help.

In Peru, Mercy Corps joined with local partners to bring emergency relief and recovery efforts to families affected by the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck coastal Peru on 15th August 2007. The disaster left an estimated 100,000 people without a home.

Programme in focus:

Safer Schools in Chincha & Cañete
This programme will help 5 local communities in earthquake affected areas recover key community infrastructure and “build back better” through:
o Rehabilitation or reconstruction of local schools (to serve more than 500 students) using appropriate technologies and local materials, and combining local expertise with international best practices to ensure that buildings are more resistant to future disasters.
o Ensuring that each school has adequate water and sanitation facilities. Where latrines are necessary, the project will include training for their care and maintenance, as well as on hygiene and water sanitation issues as part of each rehabilitation/reconstruction plan.
o Providing youth returning to the new schools with basic supplies, as well as re-equip classrooms with essential furniture and supplies lost in the earthquake.

In Colombia, Mercy Corps is working with some of the 3.8 million internally displaced people who have been forced to leave their rural homes for urban slums. In three of Colombia's largest cities, Mercy Corps is operating shelter, food and income generation programmes.

Programmes in focus:

Emergency Assistance for Internally Displaced People
Colombia today has the second largest number of IDP’s in the world, people who have been violently evicted from their homes and communities. The IDP families suffer physical, economic and psychological trauma and are thrust from a rural environment into a dysfunctional urban setting. Mercy Corps supports newly displaced (< 1 year) families that have not received assistance by addressing the two following needs:
1) Primary emergency assistance to families during the first year of displacement by meeting immediate requirements for food and non-food items; and
2) To help targeted populations to regain a minimum level of self-sufficiency with a greater view towards sustainability:
• Provision or improvement of shelter
• Psychosocial adjustment
• Livelihood support

This integrated programme of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance (EHA) will meet basic human rights for food, shelter, and income to 400 new IDP families living in the four target municipalities of Cauca (Popayán, Silvia, Piendamó and Santander de Quilichao) by April 30, 2008.

Combating Exploitive Child Labour Through Education
In Colombia, as in much of the developing world, child labor has long been considered an inevitable consequence of the economic landscape. Over half of the country’s IDP’s are children and having had to move face special risks for labor exploitation. Children forced to forgo their education face lifelong challenges which ultimately outweigh the short term benefit of their meager income. The impact of formal education on a child’s social and emotional development cannot be overestimated. Moreover, children who complete their compulsory education have, on the whole, significantly improved economic prospects, which in turn can reduce poverty and instability.

The programme will focus project activities on urban areas where nearly 70% of the population between 5 and 17 years old live. Project activities will fall into three training cycles in our target cities of Bogotá; Cali, Cartegena, and Barranquilla; Cali and Yumbo; and Boyaca.

History

Our Work

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Mercy Corps Columbia and Peru General Fund

Your donations to our General Fund are essential as they fund the core costs which enable us to effectively plan, resear...

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