ACF International Network
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Action Against Hunger has developed its water and sanitation expertise over nearly three decades of field work, advancing a number of solutions for populations at risk from water insecurity.
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Central to the targeting of malnutrition, Action Against Hunger extends water and sanitation improvements to communities with little or no access to proper sources.
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Action Against Hunger's programs are sustainable because of our commitment to community participation—to build local capacity and harnesses a population's energy and resources.
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Though strategies may vary, our food security interventions all share a common goal: to fight hunger by preserving and strengthening livelihoods in a sustainable and contextual manner.
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Action Against Hunger’s innovative food security programs offer a broad range of solutions for generating income, boosting food production, and strengthening livelihoods.
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Our comprehensive approach to hunger involves extending water and sanitation services to communities faced with water scarcity, unsafe drinking water, and inadequate sanitation.
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Action Against Hunger occupies a unique place among international organizations: our expertise encompasses emergency relief, longer-term development, and the terrain in between.
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We have developed an effective method to treat acute malnutrition that includes field-tested protocols and nutritional products backed by an international scientific advisory committee.
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Action Against Hunger helps rehabilitate and restock public health infrastructure, fields mobile health clinics, and trains local medical personnel on preventative and diagnostic care.
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Our comprehensive programs address the linkages between disease and malnutrition by coordinating with local expertise and strengthening existing public health systems.
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Where We Work

Update Against Hunger - September 6, 2006
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Field Notes: 

To All My Teammates

This is my final note for Update Against Hunger

I'm leaving Action Against Hunger knowing that my time here has been well spent, that I've worked with very good people successfully helping those unfortunate enough to be caught in situations beyond their ability to cope. The work has been hard, even at times unpleasant, but always worthwhile and always a time of learning. I've learned about corners of the world that are ignored in the US school system; learned how much father I can go when I think that I've reached my endpoint; learned how best to bring assistance to widely diverse cultures and problems; learned how to appreciate small things in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges; and learned how to work as part of a team over vast geographical and cultural distances.

I leave ACF firm in my belief that we are the best at fighting hunger. And I leave ACF in very capable hands.

Thank you,

 

Cathy Skoula
Executive Director,
Action Against Hunger (ACF)

New from US Headquarter: 

Our New Campaign Focuses on the Congo

We're revving up a campaign to raise funds for projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Why specifically the Congo? Because its devastation from war and neglect, coupled with the population's despair, is as widespread and debilitating as in any country anywhere. Currently, 1,200 Congolese die every day from hunger and disease. We're hopeful that the country's recent presidential election—its first multiparty election in more than 40 years—will jumpstart a national renewal and provide the winner with the resolve to bring life-affirming order to the national chaos.

We've worked in the Congo since 1996, and we currently spend approximately $7 million annually on projects there that reach about 400,000 beneficiaries. Our new Campaign to End Starvation in the Congo aims to raise public awareness and an additional $1 million to aid 25,000 to 50,000 Congolese over the year or two. We hope to demonstrate how much can be accomplished on a budget of $20 to $40 per person—a combination of assistance that includes treating children suffering from acute malnutrition; constructing sources of clean drinking water and sanitation; providing essentials for livelihoods such as seeds, tools,and fishing kits; and training to improve beneficiaries' hygiene, productivity, and access to markets.

We've sent a photographer to the Congo who is documenting its needs and our projects there, and we'll use his pictures to publicize our campaign. At the same time we expect to partner with major sponsors and donors as well as with schools to spread awareness and raise additional funds. Already we've received a commitment from Interact, a service club in California with more than 5,000 members from 60 high schools, sponsored by Rotary International. Based on campaigns from previous years, Interact predicts that it will raise $45,000 for our cause.

We recognize that $1 million is only a first step, that hundreds of million-dollar projects must be combined with a strong government initiative to eliminate corruption, maintain security, build hospitals, schools, roads, and markets, and pay salaries of civil servants, nurses, teachers, and doctors.

But a world-scale effort is needed to End Starvation in the Congo, and our Campaign is a start.

Got News For Update Against Hunger?

If so, please e-mail us at acf-update@actionagainsthunger.org

News from the field: 

Update on the Massacre of Our Teammates in Sri Lanka

As you probably know, on Friday, August 4, Action Against Hunger's Paris headquarters lost radio contact with our 17-member team in Muttur, Sri Lanka. Fighting between government troops and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the area had worsened during the previous week, and discussions were underway to evacuate the team—13 men and four women between the ages of 23 and 54, who were agronomists, engineers, project managers, and water-and-sanitation experts. The team felt that fleeing during the conflict would be more dangerous than staying put, but over the weekend, we learned that 15 of the workers had been shot in the head at close range in a courtyard at their office, even though each was wearing a T-shirt identifying the wearer as a humanitarian worker. The two remaining team members had tried to escape by automobile, but they were caught and shot to death as well.

This is the most catastrophic targeted attack that any humanitarian program has ever suffered. In response, various groups promised to investigate: the Sri Lankan government; an independent committee called the Group of Tokyo whose members are from the EU, Japan, Norway, and the United States; a group from Norway and Iceland called the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) whose mission is to oversee the declared ceasefire between Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers; and a team we assembled ourselves. On August 30, the independent SLMM officially declared that the execution-style killings were a ceasefire breach by the government. Their official statement said, “SLMM is, with the obtained findings, convinced that there cannot be any other armed groups than the Security Forces who could actually have been behind the act.” Sri Lanka’s government rejected the finding.

We have not officially accepted SLMM's report, which offered no motives for the massacre. Was it intended to eliminate witnesses to other atrocities? Was it collateral to simple robbery? Or was it revenge for aid provided to beneficiaries who were perceived to be the government's enemies? The investigations continue.

Person Profile: 

Profile — Josephine Querubin

Josephine Querubin ("Jing") became a humanitarian for the money. Born, raised, and educated in and around Manila, the Philippines, she became a doctor specializing in emergency medicine. When she was finishing her M.D., the government's Secretary of Health launched a program called Doctors for the Barrios that sent physicians into remote communities in the Philippines—271 villages in all—that lacked healthcare. To attract reluctant doctors, the program paid well and had other benefits, including automatic admission to additional health education for participants who wanted it. Jing signed on and was sent to a remote Muslim village.

She liked the work so well that when she completed her two-year commitment, she stayed for another two years. “The money became my least important reason to stay,” she says. “It was one of the best experiences of my life.” Humanitarian work, she decided, would be her career. Her mother wasn’t happy about it.

Capitalizing on the program's perks, Jing returned in Manila, earned her masters in public health, and joined a project sponsored by the European Union that promoted women's health and safe motherhood. Again she was sent to remote areas of the Philippines. After September 11, however, Jing decided to return to Manila, where she became a medical coordinator for the Swiss office of Doctors Without Borders. There she met and worked with expatriates and also coordinated programs with Action Against Hunger. Jing became intrigued by the "exposure, experience, and discipline" of working in areas where no healthcare was available, so when we needed a manager of Therapeutic and Supplementary Feeding Centers in southern Sudan, she signed on.

Our programs in southern Sudan were supervised from Nairobi, and Jing was soon promoted to medical coordinator for all the bases that our Kenya offices oversees. At first, she says, she missed close contact with patients, and whenever she visited a base, she'd make rounds with the resident doctors. But she also became fascinated with the challenge of establishing and refining medical protocols for all bases. When southern Sudan signed a peace agreement with the governnment of northern Sudan, she joined local experts as a representative of Action Against Hunger, planning the government's healthcare initiatives in southern Sudan.

Currently, Jing is working in eastern and southern Sudan for ACF—France, and when her assignment ends in October, she plans to go back to the Philippines for a long rest. Next year, however, she's torn. She enjoys evolving public healthcare policy and would like to do so for the Philippine government. But if Action Against Hunger offers her a position, she says, she'll go anywhere.