The former United States Agency for International Development (USAID) building is seen at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center on July 8, 2025.(Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
When civil war erupted in South Sudan in 2013, Jeremy Konyndyk, the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, rolled out the U.S. government’s humanitarian aid playbook. As the conflict between two opposing government factions quickly spiraled into multi-sided infighting and mass atrocities, U.S. officials funneled money to distribute food aid, nutritional interventions like peanut paste, and clean drinking water among civilians fleeing the fighting.
But, as Konyndyk, now the president of Refugees International, told TMD, disaster response requires far more than emergency food and water supplies. He designated medical teams to deploy to areas of the country at risk of famine, as malnutrition-related disease usually causes more deaths than outright starvation. Social workers and doctors attempted to provide basic health care, especially for women, who were at greater risk of violence and often in need of pregnancy care. And tens of thousands of households were provided with fishing and agricultural kits to blunt the long-term need for emergency aid.
No comments:
Post a Comment