The rain started on the 27th of July. At first, people were happy about the rain because it would bring some relief after the heat and crops badly needed the water. However, for eight consecutive days the rain did not stop. The rivers burst their banks and flooded the neighbouring villages and fields, dragging along houses, animals and people.
On 12th of January 2010 an earthquake with the magnitude of 7,2 of the Richter scale killed about 230.000 people in Haiti. The epicentre was close to the overpopulated capital of Port-au-Prince and destroyed the city totally. 3 Mio. people are affected, from that 2 Mio. persons are displaced and 540.000 live in camps.
From 19th to 24th of May a mission of HOPE'87, led by Secretary General Robert Ottitsch, accompanied a major donor of the German UNESCO Foundation-Education for Children in Need of UNESCO Special Ambassador (Ms) Ohoven, Mr. Michael Keller, to Paraguay and Chile.
The European Commission (EC), the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and HOPE’87 (an Austrian NGO) are funding the project Capacity Building for Habitat Improvement in the Hindu Kush (CBHI) for three years, with project start date from 12-12-2009 to be implemented simultaneously in Tajikistan/ Gorno Badakshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) and Pakistan /Northern Areas (NA) and Chitral District (NWFP) Pakistan. The overall objective of the action is to contribute to the alleviation of poverty and to achieve an improved quality of life for communities in both countries, with specific objective to contribute to an improved and safer habitat in disaster prone areas of GBAO and Northern Pakistan by Habitat Improvement (HI) activities.
