Angela Owen's blog

Click to enlarge. Photo: courtesy of InterAction

InterAction, the largest alliance of U.S.-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs), has just unveiled a beta version Horn of Africa Crisis Map. You can find the map here: http://ngoquest.org/maps/1085. Each purple dot on the map represents areas where organisations like Mercy Corps are working to address the famine in the Horn of Africa.

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L to R: Randy Martin, Jill Morehead, Umer Khan, Mugur Dumitrache, Angela Owen, Susan Romanski, Richard Jacquot.

It's not often that the entire Global Emergency Operations team finds themselves in the same place at the same time. By design we are scattered across the globe, serving as a standing resource that can be quickly mobilized to augment Mercy Corps' overall ability to respond to an emergency.

Once a year we do try and take advantage of a lull in the hurricane season, or a gap between contentious elections, to meet and discuss next year's goals and lessons learned from past responses.

Until next year, we'll remain on the move.

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Houses destroyed by the tsunami are seen in the South Pagai subdistrict in Indonesia's Mentawai islands. The tsunami that pounded remote islands in western Indonesia following an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra killed more than 300 people and hundreds more were missing. Photo: REUTERS/Presidential Palace-Abror Rizki/Handout

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a magnitude 7 earthquake carries about as much as energy as 199,000 tons of TNT. That kind of energy is the reason why the small Mentawai Islands off the west coast of Sumatra were hit by a three-metre (10-foot) tsunami wave, which was spawned by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake in the Indian Ocean.

What is left is devastation as far as 600 meters (more than 1/3 of a mile) inland from the shore. The death toll is still rising — the latest estimate is at least 370 fatalities — but we do know that approximately 25,000 people, or about 5,000 households, have been affected.

Mercy Corps is working now to bring the basic necessities people need to start over again. Several team members are making their way to the remote island chain on a variety of boats, with supplies in hand to deliver to displaced and grieving families.

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Sean Collins pictured here with out local staff in Indonesia during a community distribution. Photo: Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps.

Sean Collins will be joining our team in Kyrgyzstan to serve as our Logistics and Security adviser as we respond to the needs of the refugees in the southern regions. Over the last five years he's managed programmes in Indonesia after the tsunami, worked in the Sudan, provided aid during the war in Gaza and served as our logistics and security advisor in both Iraq and Haiti.

He accepted the position on Tuesday and will be flying out this Friday.

Sean brings with him vast experience designing and implementing programmes for disaster relief, as well as managing country-wide logistical and security systems in challenging and volatile environments. Sean will be working with our team on the ground to coordinate distributions to people in immediate need and set up strategies for long-term recovery.

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Here's what our country director, Catherine Brown, reported today:

"Things seem to be calm in Osh and Jalalabad, but of course there is an underlying tension throughout these cities. Tonight the military in Osh will be going to certain neighborhoods in a sweep action to collect weapons and probably arrest some people they know were involved in wanton murder and property destruction....

"The airport in Osh is overwhelmed with humanitarian material and transport in Osh remains problematic....

"The food distribution in the city itself is somewhat dangerous because people are angry. The city is organising elders (aksakals) from both the Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities to help with food aid distribution so that riots don't break out around the food distribution trucks. The city is also using these groups to determine where food aid should go in the city and surrounding areas.

"Sasha [Mercy Corps' senior official in Osh] met with Osh's vice mayor today and the mayor said that people need food (flour, oil, sugar, salt, macaroni, vegetables and detergent) and medical supplies, like insulin, antiseptic, blood pressure medicine, aspirin, bandages. Even though food is being distributed, we understand that many mahalahs (neighborhoods) that are barricaded still haven't received any food. Also, food availability in the few stores that are open is rapidly disappearing.

"Kompanion's staff in Osh also are running out of food, so Kompanion's employees are donating funds to help us buy food for them in Bishkek, but we have the challenge of getting our aid to the south."

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The cover of our new "Comfort for KIds" workbook for earthquake survivors in Chile.

Together with our partner EPES (Education Popular en Salud), we're updating our Comfort for Kids materials to meet the needs of the Chile earthquake victims. We've just completed the design and translation of My Earthquake Story which in Spanish is Mi Historia Del Torremoto. A version of this book was used with great success in Peru in 2007, in China in 2008 and before that, it was "My Hurricane Story" in English for children affected by Hurricane Katrina.

We've made one very significant change to this book: instead of the cover reading "My Earthquake Story: A Guided Workbook for Children," it now simply reads "My Earthquake Story/ Mi Historia Del Torremoto." After talking with our trainers from Peru, who are now in Chile, we learned that a lot of parents and community members were interested in this book, but were hesitant to work on it because the cover said is was a workbook "For Children."

So we took it off, because everyone has a story to tell.

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Haiti response team members (from left) Kody Leonard, Doug Lyon, Colin Brownsberger and Gene Kunze. Photo: Angela Owen/Mercy Corps

The topic of the presentation was: "Why Did They Send Me to Haiti?" Even though Mercy Corps has sent dozens of people to the earthquake-shattered country, it wasn't that easy to find participants. We finally gathered four seemingly unlikely panel members who had grudging agreed to participate — but only if they weren't the only ones giving a presentation. Thus, the Haiti Panel Presentation was born. It consisted of:

• Gene Kunze, our Programme Officer for China and Mongolia, who served on our Haiti Response Team from January 14-February 14;
• Doug Lyon, our Director of Health Programmes, who served on the team from January 26-February 3;
• Kody Leonard from our Information Technology department, who served on the team from January 29 - March 7; and
• Colin Brownsberger from our Finance department who served on the team from February 1 - March 15.

In chronological order of their arrival time in Haiti, each member talked about how their area of expertise was utilized in an emergency.

So, why did we send our China Programme Officer to Haiti? In additional to his French language skills and the fact that, when the Haiti earthquake hit, he happened to be meeting with our head of our Global Emergency Operations to discuss the earthquake that hit China's Sichuan Province in 2008. Gene has a an extensive background in logistics and emergency response.

Doug Lyons, our Director of Health Programmes, would seem like an obvious choice until you realize that we were not specifically doing health programming in Haiti. So why did he go? Mercy Corps works in partnership with a lot of health organisations to implement its other programmes, and true coordination could only be accomplished on the ground, in the "cluster groups" that had sprung up all over Port-au-Prince.

Kody, the most reluctant panel participant, headed out to Haiti to make sure that everyone was connected and that we could all communicate with each other. Access to technology and the ability to effectively coordinate our actions is proving to be one of our most valuable tools in an emergency. Kody did everything from setting up Blackberries to installing roof-mounted antennas. The communications "infrastructure" in Haiti is particularly tenuous, but Kody held it all together and made it work.

A lot of people I talk to are really surprised to find out that one of the first responders we send is often a member of our Finance department. Mercy Corps' cash-for-work programmes have proven to be a very successful method for moving a post-disaster population from relief to recovery. And where there is cash, there must be finance! So Colin swooped into Santo Domingo (the capital of neighboring Dominican Republic) and straightened up our books after Gene had left behind a wake of receipts for cars, printers, phones and several supply runs to the local Wal-Mart. He then moved to join the Haiti team where, although his Spanish skills were of little use, he was able speak the international language of numbers as well as help with the transition of our newly-hired Haiti Finance Director.

There was also a surprise guest appearance. Just as a member of the panel was lamenting the absence of a Global Emergency Operations (GEO) team member stationed at our Portland headquarters office, a booming voice was heard over the speaker phone "We're closer than you think." It was Randy Martin, our GEO Director, calling in from our Washington, DC office. The audience of Mercy Corps staffers was very glad to have his input on our evolving strategy for emergency preparedness.

The panel gave us a glimpse into what life is like in an emergency response. What did they eat? Well, a lot of dried fruits and nuts that Gene sent in from Santo Domingo. But soon, the team was cooking and eating together. What was it like? Not as bad as you saw on the news, but still pretty bad. The resilience of the Haitian people impressed every one of our responders and continues to give us hope for their recovery.

Our panel showed us that — whether it is language, numbers, logistics, partnership building, email set-up or meal planning — each member of the Mercy Corps team can contribute their everyday expertise to an emergency response.

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Mercy Corps appears on the Colbert Nation website.

During the first days of an emergency response, you are often so engrossed by the actual work you are doing to get people out to the field that you don't have time to keep up with what the major news networks are saying about the situation. You're reading reports directly from USAID, but not watching CNN.

At the end of the day, you turn off your brain and search for a bit of comedy. So you can imagine how surprised we were to see two worlds collide last night when Stephen Colbert, comedic satirist, met the devastating earthquake in Haiti we are all so involved with. He urged viewers to visit his website — http://www.colbertnation.com/home — and donate to the featured charities listed there. Lo and behold, there was Mercy Corps proudly listed in the midst of Colbert Nation's online home.

It just shows that charity and compassion can even be found in the most unlikely of places.

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Mercy Corps Indonesia Country Director Sean Granville-Ross spoke to CBS News from Jakarta.

The key to responding quickly to any emergency is being prepared. With people on the ground and plans already in place, Mercy Corps is leading an international team of non-governmental organisations as we all respond to the two recent earthquakes in Sumatra, Indonesia.

On CNN, Nancy Lindborg, Mercy Corps President, talked about our established local capacity to respond quickly to emergencies — even multiple emergencies — in the areas where we work.

As the death toll surpassed 1,000 people, Sean Granville-Ross, our Indonesian Country Director, spoke via phone to CBS about the aftermath of the earthquake in Padang and how Mercy Corps is helping the people there.

Paul Jeffery, Mercy Corps' Senior Programme Manger Southeast Asia spoke to local Portland station KGW about our response and what we were hearing from the field. At the time of the interview, we had not been able to contact all of our staff. The good news is that just a half day later, and after a second strong earthquake, we've made contact with all of the Mercy Corps staff in Padang and they have already begun to respond.

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From left to right: Pat Dooris, KGW cameraman and Paul Jeffery consult The Big Map as they discuss the recent 7.6 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo: Angela Owen/Mercy Corps

At 5:16 P.M. (Indonesian time) on September 30, a 7.6 earthquake hit off the coast of Sumatra. By 2:40 P.M. Portland time, reporter Pat Dooris from KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon had showed up to interview Paul Jeffery, our Senior Programme Manager for Southeast Asia.

The people of West Sumatra are facing something extraordinary: in a couple of hours, they will be waking up to a tragically changed landscape.

Mercy Corps has been working with the local communities — situated in one of the world's most earthquake-prone areas — to enhance their disaster preparedness response. We are hopeful that this still-new programme has already helped people in the immediate aftermath of the quake, but we know that there is so much more to be done. One of the best ways to drive the support we need to deliver the kind of aid that is vital is by educating people about the crisis using TV, radio, online and print media. That's why we go to the Big Map.

Where did the earthquake hit? Sumatra? Is that in Asia? How do you spell it? Geography is sometimes a struggle here in our country. But by getting the word out and going to the Big Map, we can bring the needs of our global neighbors a little closer to home.

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