Responding In Times of Crisis

A child waits to receive emergency supplies provided by USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance after Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano erupted several times in 2010.

Rob Friedman, USAID/OFDA

Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance Annual Report 2011. Click here to view.

When a natural disaster or conflict destroys cities, homes and markets, or when hunger and disease threaten to spread, people caught in the middle are simply looking to survive. Helping them is at the core of what USAID does every day, all around the world.

In 2012, USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance responded to 63 crises in 54 countries, providing life-saving assistance to tens of millions of people including those enduring:

• Conflict in Syria
• Severe drought across the Horn of Africa
• Flooding in Pakistan, India, the Philippines, and El Salvador
• Food insecurity in the African Sahel
• Earthquake in Turkey
• Complex emergencies in Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma, Mali, and South Sudan

USAID works to help those in crisis survive every day, wherever people are in need.