Welcome to the Official Website of

Malteser International, the Order of Malta’s worldwide relief service, is supporting the emergency relief efforts in the Philippines after this weekend’s flash flood. A sudden rush of water caused by tropical storm Washi caught hundreds of families in the Cagayan de Oro and Iligan provinces on Mindanao Island unaware in the middle of the night on Friday. The Philippine association of the Order of Malta has so far airlifted 1,000 kilograms of food and medication to the disaster zone. More than 63,000 families, or 338,000 people, have lost their homes and belongings due to the storm waters. More than 280,000 residents have taken shelter in evacuation centres in the disaster area, and more than 1,500 people are injured. The death toll now nears 1,000.
 

As food distributions continue in the Marsabit region in northern Kenya, Malteser International is now broadening its relief activities in the country, bringing aid to another 30,000 residents in the neighbouring region of Isiolo. The villagers will receive a basic supply of food and medication over a period of at least four months. With these additional measures, Malteser International’s help is now reaching a total of 73,000 people.

Around 5,000 Isiolo residents with special needs, such as children, pregnant and lactating women, as well as elderly and sick people, are each provided with a monthly ration of 5.6 kilograms of Unimix – a flour enriched with vitamins and nutrients – as well as 560 ml of cooking oil. Malteser International also supplies their family members – another 25,000 people – with monthly rations of 3 kilograms of maize, 1.5 kilograms of beans, 400 ml of cooking oil and 60 g of salt. “Only then can we be sure that the weakest people are truly getting enough to eat”, says Ute Kirch, emergency relief coordinator for Malteser International. “In the region, it is custom to divide the food among the family members in the household.”

 

Rome, 23/07/2011

Over 10 million people are at risk of dying of hunger in the Horn of Africa. The worst drought in 60 years has brought on what the United Nations have defined as the world’s greatest ongoing humanitarian disaster.

In this first emergency phase, the Order of Malta is working to bring aid to a population of over 20,000 in Marsabit, in the north eastern region of Kenya – including 1,200 pregnant women and over 3,000 malnourished children. More than 17,000 people will receive food, and 3,000 with be provided with emergency medicines. The food kits consist of rice, beans, oil and basic foodstuffs; the emergency medical kits include vitamin A, iron, folic acid and anitfunghus drugs for intestinal parasites. The Order of Malta will be assisted in the distribution of these survival measures by the Marsabit Dioceses and their medical units.

For days, these mothers and small children have struggled over the arid eastern plains of Kenya in a desperate search for something to eat and to drink. Exhausted and hungry, many have died along the way. The situation in the badly overcrowded refugee camps is now critical: there is very little food and insufficient medicines to meet the demand. And in the remote rural areas, many wait for help – help that so far has not arrived.

How you can help

Every donation, however modest, is most gratefully received. It will mean the Order of Malta can give support to those who are suffering, to avoid them dying of starvation and with the Government of Canada's matching program for donations your contribution will go even farther.  Please click 'here' or select the Donation button from the menu on the left and reference "East Africa" in the Add special instructions to the seller section on the final donation review page.