Hurricane Matthew – Briefing and Call to Action

2.1 Million people affected

1.4 Millionin need of assistance

750 000require urgent help

546people so far have died

128people are missing

The Disaster:

On the 4th of October at 7am Hurricane Matthew struck Haiti. With winds of 120mph and the centre set to hit the southern regions the Haitian government prepared by evacuating 61,500 people. As the days have past it has become clear that this is the largest humanitarian disaster to hit Haiti since 2010.

The Damage:

The hurricane took down the main bridge connecting the northern and southern parts of the island making it hard to assess the extent of the damage. Power and communication lines were cut and water supplies contaminated. On average 80% of crops have been destroyed with some areas loosing half of their livestock too.

Flooding has destroyed almost 2000 homes, and many more have been damaged by the winds or by flooding. Most hospitals are running but the health centres have suffered severe damage with 34 cholera centres destroyed. Access to safe clean drinking water is limited and there have been 70 cases of cholera reported so far.

Humanitarian organisations are now starting to reach those affected. Those responding include but are not limited to:

  • ActionAid
  • International Red Cross and Red Crescent
  • World Vision
  • Oxfam
  • CARE International
  • Plan International
  • Cristian Aid
  • UNICEF

The Need

A flash appeal has been launched by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. This is to respond to the needs of 750 000 people for the next 3 months. With most of the crops destroyed food security for the immediate and long term are the priority. Followed by water supplies, shelter and medicines. As of the 18th of October UNOCHA have received 9% of its target.

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Business Responses

Business has an important role to play in International Disasters and BITC member companies have been responding to the call to action in a number of ways. Below demonstrates the breadth and depth that a business response can have.

Citi
The Citi Foundation has confirmed a $250k donation to the American Red Cross to support relief efforts following Hurricane Matthew. This is in addition to $500k already contributed to the American Red Cross annually to support their disaster relief efforts.

Coca Cola

Coca Cola have been working with partners to identify how they can best respond and have been providing care packages including water, cereal and bread to those affected by Hurricane Matthew in the Bahamas. Alongside this they are providing beverages to the humanitarian workers on the ground throughout the disaster struck areas.

Diageo

Through the ‘Learning for Life’ programme Diageo are assessing and considering how best to help the communities of Haiti, and reinstate some of the facilities that have been lost. Thismay sit alongside additional humanitarian support.

IHG

The IHG Foundation is working with CARE on their on the ground relief efforts in Haiti. An example being the IHGs ability to provide shelter and space for its partners.

GSK

GSK is supporting those affected by Hurricane Matthew through both cash contributions & medicine donations, and has:

  • GSK have pledged a £50,000 cash donation towards Save the Children’s emergency work
  • They have launched an appeal to employees to make personal contributions to Save the Children’s Emergency Fund, which will be matched by the company.
  • GSK have worked with their medicine donation partners – Direct Relief and AmeriCares – who are experienced in the delivery of humanitarian aid, to assess medical needs and respond. Two large consignments of GSK antibiotics are already being mobilised by these partners to help support hospitals and health facilities affected by the storm in Haiti.
  • To help build resilience in Haiti GSK supports the health programmes through their commitment to reinvest 20% of profits generated in the Least Developed Countries back into their health systems. As well as training professionals and frontline staff, this has involved cholera prevention and treatment in Dessalines, a poor, highly populated urban area.
  • To find out more about GSKs health programmes you can read about their winning award entry here.

Linklaters

Pre-emptively, Linklaters fund MSF and the Red Cross so that when a humanitarian crisis occurs, resources can be deployed with immediate effect.Linklaters feel that this is better than responding ad hoc and also ensures its support for situations that may not attract wider public attention in the UK or elsewhere.

Unilever

In response to Hurricane Matthew, Unilever country operations, functions and select brands – including Greater Caribbean, North America, Procurement, Supply Chain, Global Partnerships and Vaseline – have stepped up to help communities respond to the crisis.

Working together, they have co-ordinated efforts and taken the following actions:

  • Ensured that all Unilever employees are safe and accounted for.
  • Provided support to theHeifer Foundationwhich has distributed around 5,000 food and hygiene kits to their smallholder vetiver farmers in Les Cayes and Favette, and to the communities of Grande-Anse, Miragoâne and Anse-à-Veau. Unilever have recently started working with these farmers toimprove livelihoods and secure our supply chain for vetiver– an important crop for Unilever, used in brands such as Axe and Impulse.
  • Kicked off an employee donation campaign through Unilever Greater Caribbean, as well as a collection drive to secure much needed items.
  • Contributed $50,000 to Direct Relief through Unilever North America to support their efforts in Florida, Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas. Unilever North America is providing a 100% match for all North American employee donations to this effort, which will go towards Direct Relief's response to Hurricane Matthew in the US.
  • Provided Vaseline Jelly and Lotion to Direct Relief as part of our partnership through the Vaseline Healing Project. These products have been distributed – along with other critical items in hurricane kits – to communities in Haiti and the US.

Unilever continue to work with Direct Relief to identify other products within their portfolio that are needed, including soap, to help prevent a further cholera outbreak.

Through their support Unilever hope to provide people with the products and services they need while bringing about a sense of normality to help heal and rehabilitate these devastated communities.

UPS

In response to Hurricane Matthew UPS have donated more than USD $1 million in emergency funding and in-kind support to help response and recovery efforts in the recently ravaged areas of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. The UPS Foundation contributions of logistics support willenable the provision of urgent relief efforts.

It is through UPS’s long-time partnerships that they have with the preeminent relief organisations and United Nations agencies which enable them to provide support and relief to these communities. Here are some of the activities they have been involved in:

  • Salvation Army, UPS transported almost 30,000 meals-ready-to-eat (MREs) to South Carolina and nearly 4 metric tons of clean-up kits to North Carolina. Additionally, UPS is coordinating with the Salvation Army to deliver more than 70,000 bottles of water to South Carolina and more than 800 boxes of food to Georgia.
  • CARE is dedicating their emergency funding from The UPS Foundation for aid focused on water and sanitation, food distribution, shelter and psychosocial support.
  • American Red Cross, UPS provides annual support to its Annual Disaster Giving Program. This upfront funding helps the Red Cross to immediately open shelters after disasters. They’ve already opened more than 200 shelters in Florida, Georgia and along the Atlantic coast.
  • World Food Programme (WFP), UPS airlifted two shipments containing 300,000 high energy biscuit packages that will provide 30,000 families food for a week. UPS also coordinated 2 additional flights from Panama for the WFP Global Logistics Cluster with multi-agency supplies and another from Dubai containing kitchen sets, solar lanterns and plastic sheeting for tents.UPS is coordinating ground transportation of supplies from Port-au-Prince to Les Cayes, which is also for the WFP Global Logistics Cluster.
  • UPS is also using its global logistics network to deliver more than 600,000 pounds of relief supplies in Haiti including food and shelter, solar lighting, comfort kits, school supplies, antibiotics, medication and water purification packets to help combat Cholera.
  • Additionally, UPS is working with its partners to combat the cholera outbreak in Haiti. From Copenhagen, Denmark, the company flew in 100 metric tons of antibiotics and water purification tablets for UNICEF and is transporting ocean containers for MAP International with antibiotics, medical equipment, and water purification supplies to Haiti. Cholera is one of 10 identified “pandemic diseases” that UPS has committed to assist with globally.

How can you help?

The UN is calling for urgent emergency help. If your business is trying to identify the best response here are a few ways to get involved.

Contribute to the Haiti Flash Appeal:You can donate directly to the flash appeal. Funds will then be coordinated by the UN OCHA to meet the aid priorities in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti. Please visit:

Contribute to the UNs Central Emergency Response Fund:CERF provide immediate funding in the event of a disaster alongside supporting long term crisis that are underfunded by appeals. This can be a good way to provide long term support for both the rapid on set disasters and to help communities affected by long term conflict or natural disaster such as severe drought

Contribute through a Humanitarian Partner:See the list above of some of the agencies and NGOs providing relief.All are running appeals and could help you facilitate donations from employees or customers.

Core Competencies, Services, Skills and Products:If your business is looking to organise support through your core competencies, services, skills and products, such as pro-bono work or gifts in kind please coordinate through your humanitarian partner. If you don’t already have an arrangement in place get in touch and we can help match your offer with a partner in need.

For more information on appeals and requests email Danielle Cox at

BUSINESS IN THE COMMUNITY
The Prince’s Responsible Business Network / I 1