OUR WORK

Emergency Response and Climate Resilience

We’re bridging the humanitarian and climate sectors to alleviate poverty and support communities of resilience.

Climate change is resulting in an increase in natural disasters globally. That means more people, particularly those in vulnerable communities, are at risk, and economic damage in the hundreds of billions of dollars. We believe there is a better way.

9

Active Projects

$10M

Committed

6

Countries

Our Climate Resilience Initiative is focused on addressing multiple dimensions of emergency preparedness while scaling solutions to the problems of climate change.

These projects, which range from school and health clinic infrastructure hardening projects to gender-integrated emergency response planning and local capacity building in the Caribbean, serve as models of preparedness that can be replicated and scaled to enable other high-risk regions around the world to be better prepared to withstand extreme weather events.

Ultimately, our goal is that the Caribbean becomes the world’s first climate resilient zone.

“We have used and abused our natural environment to the point where our planet is acting out and sending us warning signs that we are in danger at an alarmingly accelerated rate.”

ROBYN "RIHANNA" FENTY

Hardening Reproductive and Sexual Health Clinics

In the aftermath of disasters, women and girls face disproportionate threats to their health. Health facilities are a linchpin of emergency preparedness, particularly when it comes to addressing the health needs of women and girls. In addition, they serve as response hubs immediately after a disaster and are cornerstones of long-term recovery, providing a localized response that is rapid, cost effective, and led by communities.

In 2019, we launched a partnership with International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/ WHR) and Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-USA) to strengthen the response capacity and harden the existing infrastructure of local sexual and reproductive health (SRH) health care facilities across four Caribbean islands. Read more about the partnership here.

Hurricane Dorian Response

Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas in September 2020 as one of the strongest Atlantic storms in history, and the strongest ever to hit the Bahamas.

Almost immediately, we deployed more than $1 million in emergency grants to on-the-ground partners to support relief efforts that included rebuilding critical healthcare facilities, mobile medical care, distribution of food in hard-to-reach areas, direct logistical support, portable satellite communications systems, and ongoing needs assessments and waste management.

Refurbishing Dominica’s Schools into Emergency Shelters

When Hurricane Maria hit Dominica, damaging nearly 90 percent of the island’s buildings, we moved quickly to partner with All Hands and Hearts—Smart Response to begin recovery efforts. Our work with All Hands and Hearts to rebuild the Paix Bouche and Morne Prosper primary schools in Dominica transformed the nearly destroyed schools to not only safe learning environments for the area’s youth, but also hurricane evacuation shelters for the surrounding community.