Food for the Hungry Recognized for Innovative Disaster Preparedness- Makes Top Six for FedEx Award
Phoenix, AZ (PRWEB) September 24, 2013 -- InterAction and FedEx selected Food for the Hungry (FH) as one of the top six organizations considered for winning the 2013 "FedEx Award for Innovations in Disaster Preparedness." The goal of the award is to recognize an innovative and effective program for helping vulnerable communities to reduce death, injuries and damages in the face of hazards and disasters.
Starting in 2013, FH’s Comunidades Resilientes program organized and trained disaster risk reduction (DRR) practices to leaders in 15 marginalized communities in San Juan de Lurigancho (SJL) district in Peru’s capital city of Lima. The program benefited more than 16,000 people with the goal of educating leaders to create their own DRR plan and to use local resources and partnerships for saving lives and community damage. With Peru being hit with three major earthquakes in the last decade—destroying more than 80,000 homes—the communities of the SJL district are extremely vulnerable. Set on steep hills, homes are made of non-supported materials, like plywood, bricks and aluminum.
Diomedes Isuiza, one of the community leaders from the SJL district, said, "I and the other leaders of the community think that the DRR training we are going through with FH is very important for our community…we are adding to our community development plan things to help protect our community and be prepared for disasters…This year we have about 80 percent of the community involved in different activities."
The winner of "The FedEx Award for Innovations in Disaster Preparedness" will be announced at InterAction's DRR Day in Washington, DC on October 17, 2013.
Founded in 1971, Food for the Hungry provides emergency relief and long-term development programs with operations in more than 20 countries to help the world's most vulnerable people. Learn more by visiting http://www.fh.org. Social connections include facebook.com/foodforthehungry and twitter.com/food4thehungry.
Megan Rose, Food for the Hungry, 602-690-0801, [email protected]
Share this article