| Mercy
Corps works amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and
instability to unleash the potential of people who can win
against nearly impossible odds. Its programmes reach more
than 14.4 million people in over 35 countries.
Mercy Corps works in the following key areas:
• Emergency relief services
• Sustainable economic development
• Civil society initiatives
We have learned that communities recovering from war or social
upheaval must be the agents of their own transformation for
change to endure. It's only when communities set their own
agendas, raise their own resources and implement programmes
themselves, that they can achieve renewed hope, confidence
and skills to continue development.
Mercy Corps’ livelihoods programmes integrate agriculture,
health, housing and infrastructure, economic development,
education and environment, and local management.
Specifically these projects include:
Agriculture: Most of the world doesn't have
the benefit of picking up food from the corner store - they
grow it themselves. A family's plot of land has to provide
for their nutritional and economic needs. Mercy Corps works
with families to ensure good crop yield, improved techniques
and a fair price at local markets.
Economic
Development: A functioning business sector, access
to good-paying jobs and the availability of affordable credit
to spur entrepreneurship and employment - all necessary ingredients
to building healthy, stable communities. Mercy Corps’
economic programmes, range from building roads to making £32
million in loans, alleviate poverty and give people the tools
they need to build sustainable economies.
Health:
Our work to build healthy communities, healthy families and
healthy individuals is at the foundation of Mercy Corps' vision
for social change. By partnering with village health committees
to government ministers, Mercy Corps helps build local infrastructure
to improve maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition,
combat infectious diseases including TB and HIV/AIDS and provide
physical and mental health care in emergencies.
Micro-finance:
Offering financial services to people not served by traditional
banks and lending institutions has been called "a weapon
against poverty and hunger" by the United Nations and
recognised as a strategy for peace by the Norwegian Nobel
Committee. Mercy Corps-sponsored microfinance institutions,
savings and credit cooperatives, loan guarantee programmes,
and bank lenders reach more than 1 million people in over
a dozen countries.
Sustainable
Resource Management/Climate Change: The environment
is an integral part of Mercy Corps programming and a major
consideration in almost every aspect of the work we do. The
organisation is ever vigilant and constantly searching for
better, more innovative ways to incorporate environmental
issues into our programmes around the world. Environmental
challenges both underpin and define all aspects of human development,
from economic development to health to food security. Mercy
Corps strives to mitigate adverse environmental conditions
and build a more sustainable future for the millions of families
we serve.
Water:
Water is essential for life, good health and economic development
- yet more than one billion people lack access to clean water.
Each year, millions are embroiled in conflicts over its scarce
availability. Mercy Corps' work fulfils the water needs of
vulnerable populations, from piping drinking water to rural
communities to solving resource-based conflicts to ensuring
that people have access to drinking water in the most devastating
emergencies.
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