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50 years of emergency relief

Emergencie

History of Tdh’s emergency operations

Terre des hommes has been responding to the needs of thousands of families, victims of natural disasters, humanitarian crises and armed conflicts since 1960. Tdh provides emergency relief, access to drinking water and psychosocial support in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

1960 Algeria: Terre des hommes brings Algerian children suffering from famine and civil war to Switzerland.
1965 Vietnam: war victims are cared for locally or in Switzerland by Terre des hommes. Biafra (today part of Nigeria): witch hunts against the Christian minority lead Tdh to evacuate over one thousand children to Gabon.
1971 Bengal: ten million refugees are on the road without food and shelter in eastern Pakistan. Terre des hommes is among the first to bring aid.
1973 Ethiopia: drought and famine claim countless victims and several thousand children lose their parents. Tdh sets up a village for 450 orphans.
1974 Benin: a nutritional centre for severely malnourished children is set up following a long period of drought.
1975 Bangladesh: following devastating floods, Tdh sets up two nutritional centres as well as educational and occupational training programmes for children and young people.
1976 Lebanon: during the civil war, Tdh provides medical and social assistance for handicapped and orphaned children.
1979 Cambodia, Vietnam: around one hundred children who were among the ‘boat-people’ escaping on the China Seas are given permanent refuge in Switzerland. Cameroon: 90,000 refugees from Chad are stranded without food and medical care. Hundreds of children die. Terre des hommes provides emergency relief. Brazil: Tdh provides emergency food and medical care for child victims of the disastrous drought in the northeast of the country.
1985 Ethiopia: Tdh hommes provides 90,000 starving people with emergency food aid for 10 months. Sri Lanka: protection and emergency aid for refugee children in regions affected by the civil war.
1991 Lebanon: emergency aid for 20,000 children in shelters outside the bombardment zone.
1991 Bosnia-Herzegovina: distribution of food and other humanitarian supplies in Tuzla.
1997 Colombia: psychosocial care and nutritional project for children displaced by civil war in the shanty areas of Cartagena. Kosovo: Tdh supplies emergency aid in Albanian refugee camps and sets up psychosocial projects to care for traumatized children.
2000 Afghanistan: emergency aid project for people fleeing conflict zones.
2003 Algeria: emergency relief for earthquake victims.
2003 Iran: emergency relief for earthquake victims in Bam.
2004 Sudan: emergency aid in Darfour for people displaced by the conflict. Sri Lanka: emergency aid for tsunami victims along the east coast regions of Batticaloa and Ampara.
2005 Pakistan: emergency aid for earthquake victims in Kashmir.
2006 Lebanon: distribution of emergency supplies to refugees fleeing the conflict in south Lebanon; psychosocial care for children and families who have returned home.
2007 Bangladesh: distribution of food and clothing after the wave of cold weather as well as food distribution after the floods in Kurigram. emergency medical aid, distribution of food, clothing and cooking kits after Cyclone Sidr in Barishal; restoration of healthcare and rebuilding of sanitation facilities. Peru: securing of sanitation and drinking water supplies as well as psychosocial activities for children after the earthquake in Pisco.
2008 Myanmar (Burma): distribution of emergency kits and rebuilding of sanitation facilities. Georgia: psychosocial support for 1,000 children displaced by the conflict.
2009 Indonesia: emergency relief after the earthquake in Sumatra.
2010 Haiti: emergency relief after the earthquake. Medical care and coordination of care for casualties in Les Cayes (south). In the devastated areas of Léogâne, Petit and Grand Goâve, Tdh distributes hygiene kits and sets up mobile clinics to treat malnourished children as well as psychosocial and play centres for traumatized youngsters.