End poverty together.

Emergencies & Conflict

Urmila Devi, 55, stands in front of flooded farm land and abandoned huts.
Urmila Devi, 55, stands in front of flooded farm land and abandoned huts.
Photo: Sanjit Das/ActionAid

When disaster strikes, we can respond within hours, providing vital things like food and shelter. We link our response to our ongoing projects, and we stick around as long as we’re needed, providing practical support, and making sure local people have a say in rebuilding their communities and livelihoods.

Disasters can hit anyone at any time. But people living in poverty are particularly at risk. They are likely to live on the most vulnerable land and in the most precarious housing.

Missing out on vital information – lacking a radio or phone to get warnings, or literacy skills to read safety advice – few resources and poor government protection, people living in poverty often suffer the most in a crisis.

In turn, disasters increase poverty, wiping out homes and livelihoods and causing a vicious circle of poverty, vulnerability and crisis. That's why our work with people affected by emergencies and conflict plays a key part in our fight against poverty.

Every year over 300 million people are affected by disasters. The poorest and most excluded are often hardest hit.

Emergencies blogs
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