Giving cash directly to the needy is a growing trend, but in most cases it’s not nearly as effective funneling donations through a charity with ‘boots on the ground.’
Assam state suffers from severe flooding every few years but authorities still aren’t prepared.
Children from a village in Papua New Guinea’s Western Highlands Province stand in one of countless sweet potato gardens destroyed by frost across the country, August 2015.
Kud Sitango
Papua New Guinea is now facing a drought and frosts that look set to be worse than 1997, when hundreds of people died. So how can memories of 1997 save lives over the next few months?
People in Vanuatu were quick to make the most of the resources they had after Cyclone Pam hit their homes – including these boys, Manu and Leo, photographed a week after the cyclone at a school housing residents evacuated from Teouma.
AAP/NEWZULU/Jeff Tan
This Sunday marks 100 days since Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu, with ceremonies in villages across the nation to mourn the 11 people who died. Meanwhile, islands left brown in the aftermath are green again.
Would giving disaster victims cash, rather than just supplies, help them get back on their feet faster?
Reuters
When disaster strikes, billions of dollars are spent on food and supplies, with little accounting of whether relief groups bought the right things or what impact they had.
With many people in need of shelter and schools only now re-opening, Nepal is not yet ready to restart the lucrative tourism industry that will help its recovery.
EPA/Narendra Shrestha
While some operators have prematurely suggested it’s safe for tourists to return, Nepal’s recovery from the earthquake has barely begun. In the longer term, though, tourism will be vital to this process.
The road to recovery is a long one for Nepal, which goes beyond the immediate priority of disaster relief.
Diego Azubel/AAP
Politics in Nepal will hinder relief and recovery efforts following the earthquake and its aftershocks. But look at it the other way around. Could the disaster help to resolve political problems?
In the wake of the Nepal earthquake it’s important people don’t rush in to “rescue” kids who might not in fact be orphaned.
AAP
Following the earthquake in 2010, people flocked to Haiti to “rescue” orphaned and lost children. The problem that has since emerged is that many of the “orphans” placed in orphanages and sent for adoption, were not orphaned at all.