Appeal – MapAction

*Union Island, St Vincent an the Grenadines, where 98% of buildings were reportedly destroyed. Photo: Tony Giles, MapAction.*

MapAction needs new funding to respond to the estimated scale of global disasters in 2024, particularly in the Caribbean – where Hurricane Beryl is already wreaking devastation – and Asia.

Hurricane Beryl continues to leave devastation throughout the Caribbean. As information floods in, agencies like the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), that is coordinating the response, need to understand the data coming from more than a dozen affected islands. MapAction members are on the ground supporting them by making maps: which communities are worst affected; where are emergency shelters, which roads and critical infrastructure have been damaged. These are just some of the key data points that MapAction’s team quickly maps to ensure support and aid goes where it is most needed.

“CDEMA and MapAction have been working together for many years responding to disasters while learning to be able to better respond to future disasters. When an event like Hurricane Beryl happens, CDEMA makes the call to MapAction because they will deploy specialist teams that understand what we need, and can make an immediate impact on how CDEMA and its regional and international partners provide aid to disaster affected countries.”
Renee Babb, GIS Specialist, Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA)

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*Carriacou, Grenada, after Hurricane Beryl. Photo: Lavern Ryan, MapAction.*

Maps help decision-makers to save lives when disasters strike. Risk and impact can quickly be assessed; aid and support sent to where it is most needed. But deploying teams from our team of 70+ experienced humanitarian mappers costs money. We have been able to deploy teams so far to Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines thanks to support from the German Federal Foreign Office’s Fund for Humanitarian Assistance. We need more for future responses, in what is predicted to be an exceptional hurricane season.

Nobody can predict the exact number of disasters where our help will be requested. What we know is that the climate emergency is driving an increase in the number of natural disasters; hurricanes, typhoons, floods, droughts, conflict and much more. We are limited in the requests we can respond to.

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What is MapAction? Short video intro

Can you support us to provide decision-makers with key insights during what is expected to be a busy ‘hurricane season’ in the Caribbean?

MapAction’s ability to do this emergency response work depends on you.

That is why we are launching an Emergency Response Appeal. Help us to get aid to the people who need it most.

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Thank you for opening MapAction’s Humanitarian Response Appeal. We need your urgent help as we seek to fund our continuing responses to humanitarian crises in 2023 and beyond.

If you fund MapAction you won’t be buying blankets, water, shelter or food. You will be making sure that as those items arrive they get to where they are needed most, as quickly as is possible.

The maps we make help to inform the activities of many different streams of aid, making sure that the most up-to-date information is being used to identify the greatest need. Understandably situation maps and data are not the first thing you might think of when hearing about a response, but just imagine trying to plan search and rescue, emergency health care or efficient aid delivery without maps showing you what is happening, where, and just as important, where the needs are.

Roberto Colombo Llimona, Head of the UN OCHA Assessment & Analysis Cell for the first phase of the Turkiye response, had to support humanitarian decision-makers immediately after the Turkiye earthquake. He said: “Investing in MapAction is a great way to support humanitarian operations…supporting Mapaction is supporting response directly”.

An early map overlaying population density and shake zones in Turkiye, to give early indication of likely priority need.

MapAction’s field teams are the most visible part of our activity, but more often MapAction members are supporting situations remotely, making maps, preparing data, each as qualified and experienced as the team members in the field.

**Above** : MapAction Field Team members working in the UN Onsite Operations Coordination Centre in Gaziantep, Turkiye.

Why Support MapAction?

MapAction has a unique capability to help in humanitarian crises. Turkiye/Syrian Arab Republic is MapAction’s 12th earthquake and our 137th response: we bring a wealth of knowledge, know-how and operational insight. Immediately after news of this latest devastating earthquake broke, UNDAC, one of many long-standing partners of MapAction, requested support.

MapAction responded immediately, as we always want to do. However there is a significant cost for MapAction to maintain and provide well-trained, well-supported teams, very rapidly. As an organisation we aren’t large enough to receive funds from the big TV and newspaper appeals, so we must raise the money however we can. This is increasingly a combination of trusts and foundations, corporate support, (often from mapping, geospatial and data-related businesses) and private individuals. We are grateful to them all.

PLEASE MAKE A DONATION HERE

If MapAction’s support can’t be provided when its asked for, responses to disasters may be less effective and more costly. Supporting MapAction can save lives, and make scarce resources go further.

Please help us to continue this vital work. Whilst highly-valued and regularly requested, MapAction’s response missions have no direct funding right now. We no longer need immediate funding for the Turkiye/Syria earthquake response, but we do need funding for the next mission and those after that, to ensure we can get on the plane without hesitation . Any donation, big or small, matters right now.

PLEASE MAKE A DONATION HERE

Donations can be made direct to MapAction in the UK, or to MapAction USA as a 501c3, who can also receive funds for this urgent work.

Please partner with MapAction to ensure that all aid gets to where it is needed most, for the many people affected by humanitarian emergencies. Thank You.

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Tag: Appeal

MapAction Emergency Humanitarian Mapping Response Appeal – £105k needed ASAP

Urgent appeal : Humanitarian Response Fund