Problem Wings Like Eagles helicopter disaster relief logistics

The Problem

	The number of natural disasters is increasing. It can be difficult to get to disasters quickly.
	Early access offers a rapid assessment of the problem; offers the speedy delivery of medicines; offers the responsive delivery of critical water, nutrition and hygiene products; and perhaps most of all offers early reassurance to the people affected. These quick interventions can help arrest the decline that comes after a crisis and allow governments, the UN and the big agencies to deliver the right products to the right people at the right time.
	The total number of natural disasters worldwide now averages 400–500 a year, up from an average of 125 in the early 1980s. The number of climate-related disasters, particularly floods and storms, is rising far faster than the number of geological disasters, such as earthquakes. Between 1980 and 2006, the number of floods and cyclones quadrupled from 60 to 240 a year while the number of earthquakes remained approximately the same, at around 20 a year. Small- and medium-scale disasters are occurring more frequently than the kind of large-scale disasters that hit the headlines.

	Natural disasters affect about 280 million people per year, HIV/AIDS affects 40 million and there are about 25 million internally displaced people world wide.
	By responding within 48 hours Wings Like Eagles plans to assist governments and NGOs to cope with a world wide increase in natural disaster frequency.

© CRED the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. We are hugely grateful to CRED for their data on which much of our analysis is based; Wings Like Eagles is responsible for any errors in our interpretation of their data.

This material from Oxfam Briefing Paper 108 titled 'Climate Alarm - Disasters increase as climate change bites' dated Nov 2007 is reproduced with the permission of Oxfam GB, Oxfam House, John Smith Drive, Cowley, Oxford OX4 2JY, UK www.oxfam.org.uk. Oxfam GB does not necessarily endorse any text or activities that accompany the materials.

Natural disasters interact as shown below. If poverty, HIV/AIDS and conflict are also prevalent, the ability of a country and its people to recover is severely hampered.

Where will we work?

Wings Like Eagles staff has identified that there are areas of the world where natural disasters hit countries hardest and HIV/AIDS are prevalent:

- SE Africa suffers from a particularly high disaster impact based on the percentages of their populations affected by disasters in 2006: Malawi 38% (the highest in the world in 2006) and Mozambique 7% (9^th in the world); in 2005 the percentages were Malawi 37% (second highest in the world), Zambia 10% (7^th) and Mozambique 7.5% (10^th)

- SE Africa also suffers from a high disaster frequency. Since 1985, Tanzania has averaged 2.2 disasters per year (the 5^th highest in the world); Mozambique 1.6 disasters per year (8^th); Malawi 1.4 disasters every year (12^th); and Zambia 0.8 disasters every year (20^th). These are 4 of the least developed countries in the world.

Wings Like Eagles has chosen to concentrate its first regional operation there.

Wings Like Eagles believes that a speedy response to disasters can do much to help the natural coping mechanisms of the people affected.