Responding to Global EmergenciesJDC PROGRAM DASHBOARD

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Responding to Global Emergencies

An earthquake. A tsunami. A civil war. A public health crisis. Each year, the lives of millions of people are irrevocably altered in an instant when natural disasters or other calamities strike. JDC responds with expert, immediate humanitarian aid and longer-term development solutions, leveraging its century of experience helping Jewish communities worldwide.

8 MILLION lives impacted by the

2015 Nepal Earthquake

OVER60 COUNTRIES

IN CRISIS have been helped by JDC

14 MILLION Filipinos a� ected by

2013 Typhoon

50,000 CHILDREN in Israel on the road

to healing with Hibuki

HIBUKI

Upama Shrestha is a Nepali woman with a calling. As program coordinator for Tevel Nepal, the local o� shoot of Israeli NGO Tevel b’Tzedek, she spends her time organizing empowering activities for disadvantaged women and youth in Kathmandu. Eager to add to her professional skills, Upama applied last winter for a spot in JDC’s Third International Women’s Leadership Workshop in Israel—a coveted opportunity for community development professionals to learn from JDC’s century-plus of humanitarian aid experience and from each other. But as it turned out, Upama did not have to wait until the spring workshop to become better acquainted with JDC.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25, 2015 killed over 9,000 people and displaced 2.8 million others from their homes. Weeks of aftershocks brought continuing trauma and new destruction, especially following a second full-scale quake on May 12.

JDC’s disaster response team mobilized immediately, partnering with Nepali, Israeli, and other international organizations to deliver medical equipment and supplies, food, clean water, shelter materials, and hygiene items to

over 36,000 people, as well as to local hospitals and other humanitarian agencies. With the Israel Trauma Coalition, JDC also provided psychosocial counseling and training for teachers and community leaders just three weeks after the initial quake.

JDC fi eld sta� joined Tevel’s local professionals and Israeli volunteers to distribute two tons of emergency food aid to

impoverished families, as well as deliver critically needed supplies to remote villages before the seasonal rains hit.

Upama was in the thick of these e� orts. She mobilized her youth groups to distribute food and help in organizing health camps for women and children, as well as Child Friendly Spaces to keep young kids safe and creatively occupied while schools remained closed. She was sustained by the strong sense of

determination that has propelled her career—the same inner calling that took her from a western Nepali village without electricity and running water to university study in Kathmandu, and the chance to better the lives of her countrymen.

“People are often capable of doing a lot more than they believe themselves able to do,” says Upama.

PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT

Restoring livelihoods for the most vulnerable has become an important element in JDC’s crisis response. JDC is enabling families in some of the Philippines’ most impoverished communities to regain or develop alternative livelihoods in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, focusing on climate-smart agricultural techniques and new boats and equipment for subsistence fi shermen.

Upama is deeply committed to helping her country move forward—and counting on JDC’s partnership along the way.

// CHALLENGE Children su� ering from post-traumatic stress disorder following calamities like

natural disasters or rocket attacks often struggle to process their complicated emotions and move past the

precipitating event.

// INNOVATION JDC’s Hibuki program helps young children overcome their fears and anxieties by

making them caretakers of plush Hibuki puppy dolls. The doll’s long arms can hug a child and it can be

hugged back, giving children an opportunity to restore their sense of control. Pioneered in Israel, Hibukis

have become a part of JDC’s expert toolkit for responding to disasters around the world — like the 2011

earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

OVER 600 mammograms in 12 rural

locations funded by WHEP’s

Sarajevo Race for the Cure

WOMEN’S HEALTH EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM

// CHALLENGE Breast cancer remains a stigma today in many parts of the world, especially

for minority populations like Europe’s Roma community. Women in these regions often lack access to

information, mammograms, and other medical procedures that save lives.

// INNOVATION JDC’s Women’s Health Empowerment Program (WHEP), established in 1995, has

partnered with Susan G. Komen® in Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Russia, and among Israeli

and Palestinian women to promote the early detection of breast cancer through increased access to health

screenings, educational campaigns, and awareness-building events like the signature Race for the Cure in

Bosnia that draws thousands each year.

2,000 Ethiopian lives forever changed

by critical spine surgery

SPINAL SURGERIES IN ETHIOPIA

// CHALLENGE In an economy heavily dependent on agriculture and plagued by frequent droughts,

Ethiopians, particularly in rural areas, lack access to basic resources such as potable water, education, and

healthcare.

// INNOVATION JDC’s medical program, directed by Dr. Rick Hodes, provides life-altering treatment to

young people, particularly patients su� ering from spinal deformities and those who need heart surgery or

treatment for Hodgkin’s disease. JDC also digs potable water wells, builds primary schools, and provides small-

business training and university scholarships for women pursing healthcare degrees.

After Earthquakes,

Relief and

Rebuilding in

Nepal

FRONT LINESon the

JDC.org

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is the world’s leading Jewish humanitarian assistance organization. JDC works in more than 70 countries and in Israel to alleviate hunger and hardship, rescue Jews in danger, create lasting connections to Jewish life, and provide immediate relief and long-term development support for victims of natural and man-made disasters.

JDC is primarily funded through the Jewish Federations of North America. Key JDC funders also include: The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the Maurice and Vivienne Wohl Charitable Foundation, World Jewish Relief (UK), UIA Federations Canada, and tens of thousands of individual donors.