heks.ch

Earthquake in Haiti: HEKS takes stock two years on

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

HEKS set up street kitchens in Port-au-Prince just days after the earthquake. For 100 days, 42 local employees prepared 3,000 hot meals daily in a large kitchen. Those meals were distributed at 12 camps in Pétion-Ville. Shortly after the earthquake HEKS also launched activities in the Grand'Anse department in the southwest of the island where the agency has been active for decades in agricultural projects, amongst others. Beneficiaries also received support in the form of seeds and tools to grow more bananas, vegetables and rice for themselves and their family members who had fled a ravaged Port-au-Prince and taken refuge with them.

Thanks to humanitarian aid it was possible, by December 2011, to build 10 houses with stoves, toilets, cisterns and water filters in Grand'Anse, and another 15 houses are being planned and built. Besides, work has been completed on 15 km of the planned 20 km road, and scholarships have been awarded for school children and for the training of masons.

In addition to Grand’Anse, HEKS is also focusing its humanitarian aid on rebuilding and repairing houses in the Petit Goâve region, which sustained severe damage from the earthquake. Most of the NGOs working here left the area at the end of 2011. HEKS has stayed on and kept its local office open and is the only NGO in Petit Goâve that is building not just temporary accommodation but also solid houses for permanent use. The foremost beneficiaries are single parents, large families as well as families with family members who have been left physically disabled by the earthquake. One hundred new houses are being built and 300 are being repaired. So far 15 houses have been erected. This is not the pace that HEKS had expected for the project. There are several reasons for the delay: HEKS needed more time than planned to recruit suitable personnel, because the task could not be accomplished with local partners alone. HEKS is now working with a mixed team of foreign and local personnel, all of whom had to be first recruited and allowed to learn the ropes. Moreover, it took longer than anticipated for local home ownership issues to be carefully sorted out. Besides, the authorities wanted bigger houses than HEKS had planned to build. Compromises therefore had to be negotiated, and this also took time. Finally, the reconstruction had to be reconceived as the original plan to build an entirely new settlement had to be discarded, since HEKS did not receive the expected permit from the authorities.

HEKS is planning a total spend of 9.1 million francs for emergency aid and reconstruction by the end of 2015. Of that amount, Swiss Solidarity is expected to provide some 6 million francs.

HEKS is an accredited partner of Swiss Solidarity.

HEKS increases its emergency aid for the victims of the drought disaster in the Horn of Africa to 3.3 million francs!

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:32:00 +0200

A monthly pack of food per person contains 15 kg of maize, 1.5 kg of lentils, 0.5 l of cooking oil and 1.5 kg of maize/soya ready mix enriched with vitamins and minerals, especially for children. There are plans to distribute tools as part of a food-for-work project at the same time, so that the people can repair their access roads.

During a second phase HEKS will distribute seeds and farming equipment to the people, so that they can grow food in the next rainy season. Due care is taken to ensure that the seeds chosen are suitably adapted to climate change. The relevant training is provided for farmers if necessary. Water collection systems are being refurbished and built at the same time. An expansion of the aid project to other affected regions is also being finalised.

HEKS has been active in the Borana region since 2006 and provided emergency aid during the last severe drought in 2008. HEKS is an accredited partner of Swiss Solidarity.

Donations: PC 80-1115-1, please mark “Horn of Africa”

Further information: Susanne Stahel, Director of Media and Information, tel. 044 360 88 66, emergency duty mobile: 076 461 88 70, email: stahel@heks.ch

Donate online

HEKS is providing 300,000 francs in emergency aid for victims of the drought crisis in Ethiopia

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:44:00 +0200

Following two seasons of low rainfall, East Africa is battling severe drought. Ethiopia, Kenya, Somaliland and Somalia are particularly badly affected. According to UN estimates, over ten million people are suffering as a result of the drought, including some two million children. Large sections of the rural population have lost their livelihoods; the harvests have failed, seeds are used up and grain prices have risen dramatically.

HEKS is providing 300,000 francs in emergency aid for victims in the region of Borana, Ethiopia. For three months the local partner organisation OSHO (Oromo Self-Help Organisation) will be distributing food to 8,000 affected people in the drought-stricken area. People are given corn, oil, pulses and a ready-made corn and soya blend fortified with minerals and vitamins, the latter principally for children. At the same time, tools are being distributed as part of a food-for-work project so that the people can repair their rural access roads.

HEKS has been working in the Borana region since 2006 and provided emergency relief with OSHO during the last severe drought back in 2008. It is thanks to this emergency aid that people have water today: four water retention basins built three years ago within the scope of the food-for-work project are still in use and are now filled with water by the government. This water is sufficient for people’s daily requirements, but not for watering livestock. People are to receive seeds at a later stage, but this makes no sense at present as nothing can be planted due to parched soil and a lack of rain. Account for donations: PC 80-1115-1, Please mark "Hunger in Ethiopia"
HEKS is an accredited partner of Swiss Solidarity.

Donate online

Annual and financial report 2010

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:35:00 +0200

In 2010 too, natural disasters (Haiti and Pakistan) have been responsible for the very generous donations. The reconstruction work in Haiti and Pakistan will present an enormous challenge in the coming years. In development cooperation, we were able to give more than 50,000 small farmers access to land in 2010, thereby helping them achieve self-sufficiency.

In domestic activities – total income for which rose slightly again in comparison with 2009 – we used almost half of our funds for projects to do with labour integration, intercultural translation and communication and legal advice for asylum seekers. The report contains selected figures for these activities. Order and download

Give a Goat

Fri, 13 May 2011 09:04:00 +0200

HEKS hopes that this year’s “Give a Goat” campaign will also demonstrate just how effective a small token of aid, in the form of a goat for instance, can be. For 30 francs passers-by can symbolically donate a goat. By doing so, they will be supporting small projects in poor countries in the south and east where start-up aid is awarded at local level. Rather than being a gift to the beneficiaries, this start-up aid is a form of micro-loan that is repaid or passed on in a variety of ways. A goat provides milk and manure, for example, and produces kids. The kids can be passed on to the next family, which in turn enjoys the benefits of having a farm animal. HEKS staff on the goat stand look forward to answering any technical questions you may have and to providing more details about the project.

You will find current tour dates and background information on www.gibegeiss.ch (German) or www.1chevrecontrelafaim.ch (French).

Prominent Swiss personalities champion social integration

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 09:11:00 +0100

HEKS has five regional offices in Switzerland (Aargau/Solothurn, both cantons of Basel, Bern, East Switzerland and Zurich/Schaffhausen) as well as an office for French-speaking Switzerland (Secrétariat Romand) in Lausanne running a total of fifty projects. “Blickwechsel” – meetings between prominent personalities and participants in HEKS integration projects – are also being held in all six regions this year. The aim is for those involved to take a step towards one another and to get to know the world in which the other person lives. Prominent personalities taking part in Blickwechsel 2011 are the author Pedro Lenz, the television and radio presenter Mona Vetsch, the president of FC Zurich Ancillo Canepa, the Aargau dramatist Simon Libsig, the Basel actress Caroline Rasser and the radio presenter and author Etienne Fernagut.

Blickwechsel:

Zurich
Ancillo Canepa immediately agreed to the Blickwechsel in Zurich: “Socially disadvantaged people also have the right to be given a chance, which is why I support organisations that help to turn such chances into reality,” says the president of FC Zurich. The Blickwechsel is being held between him and Mahmud Wahidi, a participant in the HEKS rollt project.

Basel
In Basel the Blickwechsel is taking place between Caroline Rasser, an actress and theatre director, and Georges Bourquard, a participant in the HEKS-Wohnen beider Basel project. Both personalities will gain an insight into the other’s work and living environment. Caroline Rasser: “I’m looking forward to the Blickwechsel and hope to be able to give someone a fascinating insight into the sort of work I do – into a part of my world. I consider this to be a useful and interesting project and will be very pleased to support it to the best of my ability.”

Bern
For his part in the Blickwechsel, Pedro Lenz is meeting up in Bern with asylum seeker Tigist Haile, who attends a HEKS conversation course. Pedro Lenz: “The globalised world has become a village. This is why it’s high time that we in this world act like the residents of a village, that we approach one another, look to one another, answer for one another and take an interest in who else is living in this village with us. I’m excited about getting to know a villager whom I have never met before.”

St. Gallen
In St. Gallen the Blickwechsel is taking place between the well-known SRF radio and television presenter Mona Vetsch and Connie Pioda from the HEKS schritt:weise St. Gallen project. Mona Vetsch: “I look forward to gaining an insight into an unfamiliar environment. A personal view is a basis for understanding and solidarity. Both of these are important if we in Switzerland want to live not simply in a society, but also in a community.”

Aarau/Olten
In the Aargau/Solothurn region the Blickwechsel is being held between the Aargau dramatist and poet Simon Libsig and the intercultural interpreter Ayten Gülkanat-Sarlar. Simon Libsig: “I’m looking forward to this encounter, to new stories and insights.”

Lausanne
In French-speaking Switzerland radio presenter Etienne Fernagut and Chimène Maraviglia, a participant in the HEKS Mentorat Emploi Migration project, are meeting up for the Blickwechsel. Etienne Fernagut looks forward to showing the Benin-educated documentalist the radio archive and to having her as a guest on his programme “La ligne du coeur”.

You can download the magazine on the topic of social integration in german or french from www.heks.ch/blickwechsel

News about the current situation in Japan

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 08:27:00 +0100

Any donations are therefore being forwarded by HEKS to mission 21. Mission 21 is not involved in the direct relief effort, but offers cooperation between churches; the mission organisation supports care teams from its partner church United Church of Christ in Japan (KYODAN), which is providing pastoral care in the area along Japan’s north coast, the area hardest hit by the disaster.

Thanks to humanitarian aid: donations up by 19% in 2010

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0100

HEKS has received generous support, particularly after the earthquake in Haiti and the floods in Pakistan. However, numerous donations also enabled HEKS to provide emergency relief in the wake of natural disasters in other countries, such as Niger, Columbia, the Philippines and Albania.
Total income – as well as donations this also includes contributions from churches, Glückskette, the federal government, cantons, local communities and revenues from services – is 61.8 million francs, the highest since the year of the tsunami. It is especially pleasing that revenues are slightly above the amount for the previous year at 48.6 million francs, even without the contributions for humanitarian aid.

These funds have been used, amongst other things, to give 173,000 people abroad access to drinking water and to support and strengthen some 2,500 institutions, including grassroots organisations, cooperatives and NGOs. Support from HEKS has enabled 945,000 people to gain access to public services such as school, health care, retirement provision and state-run systems.
At home 17,216 hours have been put, for example, into intercultural transmission and mediation as well as educational mentoring in around 50 languages; 18 people have been trained as intercultural mediators.

Further information:
Susanne Stahel, Director of Media and Information, tel.: 044 360 88 66, email: stahel@heks.ch, Emergency duty mobile: 076 461 88 70

1 year after the earthquake in Haiti – HEKS looks back

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:06:00 +0100

Thanks to its local roots, HEKS was already setting up roadside kitchens just a few days after the earthquake. 42 local employees working in a large kitchen prepared 3000 hot meals each day for 100 days. These were distributed in twelve camps in Pétion-Ville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince. Fresh, locally-sourced ingredients such as rice, beans and vegetables were used. When the rainy season began, HEKS distributed tarpaulins to 1300 families living in these twelve camps. Tarpaulins provide just as much protection against water as tents and have the advantage of flexibility in use.

HEKS has for decades been actively involved in the area of food security, including agriculture projects, in the Grand’Anse department in the southwest of the island. With the earthquake triggering migration from the capital to the provinces, Grand’Anse alone saw the return of more than 120,000 victims of the earthquake. Suddenly poor families had to provide for additional relatives or friends, but often had little enough food for themselves. Those aided by HEKS thus received support in the form of seed and tools intended to help them cultivate bananas, vegetables and rice.

HEKS is concentrating its reconstruction work on the region of Petit Goâve. This area was heavily destroyed by the earthquake and other NGOs are also active there, which allows synergies to be exploited. HEKS also has the experience and expertise for reconstruction, including complex resettlements. Many people will resettle in Petit Goâve in particular because safety reasons prevent them building a new house on their original plot of land. Danger areas, i.e. areas uninhabitable in the future, have been defined by the Haitian government, with areas near the sea particularly at risk of collapse in the next storm or earthquake. Resettlements and reconstruction are always with the involvement of those affected. A committee will, for instance, decide which of the victims will receive one of the houses (there are at least 160) planned by HEKS. Among the criteria may be that those affected have lost their house in a zone where the government has prohibited reconstruction, or social components such as single parents with children, families with many children and families with members who have been physically disabled as a result of the earthquake. The people also have a say in the construction of their houses in terms of the design of the settlement and the form of the model houses. Selection of the location designated by the government for the new settlement is a long and time-consuming process, particularly as the authorities in Haiti are organised in a complicated way. A building permit, for instance, requires the signature of various ministries, such as the finance ministry or the reconstruction ministry. Given the politically unstable situation, building approvals are being delayed even further.
The architect and project manager on site, René Schärer, has completed the plans for the proposed quarter. Work can begin as soon as HEKS has obtained building approval.
600 houses will be repaired or rebuilt in the first phase. The reconstruction project also includes measures aimed at stimulating income generation, such as cash for work, agricultural rehabilitation, the distribution of seed, tools, goats and chickens. Account for donations: PC 80-1115-1, please mark “Earthquake in Haiti”
HEKS is an accredited partner of Swiss Solidarity.

Donate online

HEKS helps typhoon victims in the Philippines with 400,000 francs for reconstruction

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 09:40:00 +0100

As with last year’s catastrophic typhoons Ketsana and Parma, HEKS is now also providing support for the typhoon victims and has set aside a budget of 400,000 francs for this purpose. More than 3,500 houses in the provinces of Isabela and Cagayan on the northern island of Luzon are to be rebuilt or repaired. The money will be used to purchase construction materials like cement, nails, wood and roof sheeting. The affected families are building or repairing their houses themselves under the technical direction of HEKS partner organisations.

Not only houses have been badly damaged or, in some cases, completely destroyed, however: so have the harvests. Rice and maize are among the staple foods in North Luzon. The main harvest normally takes place in December, but it will be a meagre one this year. At present, the people are trying to save anything that is still left in the fields. With support from HEKS, farming families are being provided with seeds to enable them to sow again early next spring.

Children and elderly people are suffering particularly badly in the current situation; they have to live in makeshift patched-up tents, which offer scant protection against the persistent rain. In previous typhoons, school buildings have served as emergency sleeping quarters, but Megi has also wrecked schools. Elderly people and children have been weakened by a lack of food, persistent damp and a lack of sleep.

The 3,500 families being supported include some that had already fallen victim to typhoons the previous year. Typhoon Ketsana swept across Luzon in September 2009, followed a few weeks later by Typhoon Parma, which left a trail of devastation through the same region; these beleaguered people were then hit by Typhoon Megi on 18 October 2010. As if that were not enough: immediately after the first typhoons, there was a sustained and widespread period of drought from January 2010 as a result of the El Niño weather phenomenon, causing the newly sown rice and maize to wither. And the weather forecasts are not optimistic: further typhoons are expected in the middle of December.