Volcano Refugees Flee to Rwanda: CARE Provides Shelter, Health Care, Sanitation

CARE
Friday, 18 January 2002

Thursday's volcano eruption in Goma has forced a wave of hundreds of thousands of Congolese survivors across the border into Rwanda. In response, CARE is mobilizing emergency provisions, such as shelter, blankets, health care and sanitation to meet immediate needs.

"Goma is flat, black and burning," says Anne Morris, CARE director in Rwanda, after making an assessment flight over the city, which had a population of 350,000. "At least 50 percent of housing is gone, government buildings, schools, clinics, banks all destroyed. People are arriving empty-handed and in need of immediate assistance."

CARE staff on the ground are helping survivors, who have made their way to an area between Gisenyi and Ruhengeri, close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The agency has dispatched a mobile health clinic to Ruhengeri, and is bringing in additional shelter materials and blankets.

CARE, which has years of experience working in the Ruhengeri region, is helping lead the coordination effort of 47 non-governmental humanitarian agencies in the country.

"Given the large numbers of refugees in a small area, shelter, sanitation, health and security issues are of paramount concern," says Morris.

CARE has worked in Rwanda since 1984. A staff of 140 implement anti-poverty projects in agriculture, health, water and sanitation. Before and after the civil war in Rwanda, which claimed an estimated one million lives, CARE assisted some 1.5 million internally displaced people, returning refugees and impoverished local residents.

For more information, or to contact CARE, see their website at: www.care.org