OPERATION USA'S HURRICANE GUSTAV RESPONSE

Operation USA remains in close contact with nonprofit clinic partners in Louisiana and Mississippi in the wake of Hurricane Gustav.  We are coordinating shipments of supplies with the nonprofit state primary care associations and with the National Association of Communty Health Care Centers, just as we prepare for the possiblities of Hannah and Ike
becoming hurricanes.  In the Gulf Coast, over one million people remain unable to get back home and many more remain without electricity.  Our clinic partners are only now assessing  the wind and water damage.

OpUSA remains committed to helping the people on the Gulf Coast
recover, just as we've done since Katrina and Rita hit over 3 years ago.
Since 2005, we have delivered over $18 million in aid and provided over
$2.5 million in cash grants.

To see an ABC News Spotlight on Operation USA, click here. To find out how you can help, click here for our Hurricane Gustav press release and for cash and supply donation information, or you can make an immediate donation on line by clicking on the "Donate Now" button on this website.

OPERATION USA RESPONDS TO FLOODING IN IOWA

CHINA EARTHQUAKE
AID RESPONSE UPDATE

On May 12, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck eight provinces in Western China; Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Yunnan, Shanxi, Gizhou and Hubei. The quake killed 69,195 people, injured 350,000 and displaced more than 15 million residents. Five million homes were destroyed or severely damaged. Among the fatalities were more than 9,000 children and their teachers who died when 7,000 school buildings collapsed.

Operation USA responded rapidly to the disaster by deploying a team to the hardest hit province, Sichuan, to assess damage, meet with government officials and coordinate reconstruction projects in the region. Operation USA is partnering with Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the philanthropic arm of Honeywell Corporation, to reconstruct a village-level primary school that will serve over 300 students. Future plans also include the construction of a primary care clinic that will serve the same population.

A recent trip with the CEOs of 6 major US corporations active in China, the US Secretary of State and head of our foreign assistance program as well as the CEOs of three major US NGOs (including Richard Walden of Operation USA) was recently concluded. The group, coordinated by the Business Roundtable’s Disaster Response Task Force, met with Premier Wen JiaBao of China as well as senior officials at the national and local levels to discuss the best way to provide American assistance to those in need in this disaster of unprecedented size and severity. Dave Cote, Honeywell’s CEO, stated to the Chinese and to the other CEOs on the trip that Operation USA is Honeywell’s preferred partner in implementing relief projects in China—following our successful joint efforts in Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan after earlier disasters. Honeywell is replacing schools and clinics destroyed in the Sichuan earthquake.

To contribute to our China Earthquake relief efforts, please click here.

MYANMAR: THE CHALLENGE OF
WORKING AROUND A DIFFICULT GOVERNMENT

Not content that over 175,000 of its citizens had died as a direct result of the Cyclone and subsequent delay in allowing in any international aid, Myanmar's military regime has held fast to its policy of issuing very few visas to western aid experts and their staffs.  Despite massive international pressure to do so, the Government--10 weeks after the cyclone struck--only has allowed about 10 helicopters into the country to ferry supplies to a huge delta region which had been one of the rice baskets of Asia. While some sea lanes have been opened, when compared to the neighboring countries' response to the 2004 Tsunami, Myanmar's inaction and obstinacy has vastly compounded the problems faced by those who survived.

Operation USA is funding partners who buy what is available locally as well as partners able to manage to send supplies directly in from outside  Myanmar. [naming these groups would not be beneficial to the cyclone survivors as the Government would no doubt retaliate against them].

Operation USA has a 15 year history of assisting the Burmese people and working around obstacles. For more on our Myanmar relief efforts, click here

Photo: Reuters/Aly Song
Courtesy of Alertnet.org

All of our work is guided by the principle of Smart Aid.

WHAT IS SMART AID?