Emergency Aid Fund and practical support for people in flooded areas

From mid-September to October 2011, storms occurred continuously in the Pacific Ocean, which caused flooding in many low lying areas in Thua Thien Hue province. Three villages of Phong Hien communes, Phong Dien, including Cao Ban, Son Tung, Hung Long, are regularly affected by natural disasters. In the recent fifth storm, the flood ruined a large amount of crop and fruit of the villages, and resulted in particular tragedy for one local family.

Flooded landscape near where the disaster occurred

Mr. Trinh Duc Cu was born in 1962 at Cao Ban village, Phong Hien commune, with his wife Nguyen Thi Nhung. On the afternoon of Saturday, 1^st, he was paddling to Bau Lay to earn his daily living. When he came back, he found that the boat had been blown off the shore. In his efforts to save the boat, he became exhausted and developed cramps.  His wife tried to save him then came back to call for help, but she was too late. After two hours of diving and searching, volunteers found Mr. Cu's body and hand-over to his family to prepare for the funeral. 

Following  Mr. Cu's death, the representative of People's Committee of Phong Dien commune and the Commune Red Cross visited and supported his family with 5.5 million Vietnamese Dong; 4.5 million from People's Committee and 1 million from the Commune Red Cross. After hearing the news, the project officer instantly contacted his family and called for help from related partners, including Department of Labour-Invalids and Social Affairs and People's Committee of Phong Hien commune to draw an amount of money from the Emergency Aid Fund to support victim's family. The fund was founded in the framework of "Disaster Response Capacity Improvement and Livelihood Development Support for Phong Binh and Phong Hien village of Phong Dien commune", which is sponsored by Caritas Austrailia. The project aims at improving the disaster response capacity and recovering livelihood to stabilize the living for people in Phong Binh and Phong Hien villages. Although the project has been finalized, the Emergency Aid Fund has continued to support people in overcoming the damage and loss caused by natural disasters and stabilizing their lives.

In addition n Monday October 3^rd, the project officer with the representative of Board of People's Committee of Phong Hien visited Mr.Cu's family and presented them with the support of 2 million VND. Although not a large sum of money, it helped the victim's family to pay the funeral costs.

Villagers attending Mr. Cu's funeral

Mr.Cu had four children; one in second-grade, one in a fourth-grade, a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old. Both elder children are unemployed. Despite being poor, his family is not listed in the poor or nearly-poor families of the village. The livelihood of the family mostly comes from a small rice crop and freelance work. The family is unable to raise cattle or poultry due to the regular impact of flood. Therefore, the support they have received will have significant impacts to Mr. Cu's family in assisting to recover from the tragedy and establish a new livelihood.

-SRD-