 | MAZON is dedicated to responding to humanitarian hunger relief efforts, domestically and abroad, during times of disaster and great need. Past and current relief efforts include:
Hurricane Katrina
Offering desperately needed relief to families still suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger made joint grants totaling over $1 million.
The grants spanned Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Alabama, and supported a wide variety of programs geared towards helping hurricane victims and their families pick up |
the pieces of their shattered lives and acquire the skills they needed to get back on their feet.
A portion of MAZON's Katrina-related grants were made in partnership with United Jewish Communities (UJC).
Niger In response to the worsening hunger crisis in the West African country of Niger, MAZON has announced a $10,000 emergency grant to Rain for the Sahel and Sahara.
The funds will deliver critical food aid - including semolina, rice, pasta, oil and other foodstuffs - to some of Niger’s most impoverished and malnourished citizens. Additionally, they will support Rain’s school garden program, which seeks to teach sustainable agriculture to children in an effort to craft a long-term solution to Niger’s ongoing famine.
Darfur The United Nations World Food Program recently announced that millions of vulnerable people throughout eastern and western Sudan will receive significantly reduced rations of food due to a severe funding shortfall.
The United Nations hopes that reducing the daily rations to as little as 1,764 kilocalories - just 84% of the minimum daily requirement of 2,100 kilocalories per person - food supplies in the region will last longer during the “hunger season,” the annual pre-harvest period from July to September, when needs are greatest.
Aid providers are especially worried about the negative impact of reduced rations in Darfur and neighboring Chad, where a genocidal campaign has killed 400,000 black Africans and forced an additional 2.5 million to flee their homes in search of safer ground. Though several parties recently signed a peace treaty, a number of rival factions are refusing to add their endorsement, potentially escalating the conflict and exacerbating the devastating consequences of a food shortage.
To help combat this catastrophic shortage, MAZON raised nearly $100,000 for this effort.
Myanmar Cyclone MAZON has partnered with long-time grantee, International Medical Corps (IMC), to provide vital assistance to help the survivors of the deadliest unprecedented natural disaster to hit Myanmar in recorded history. MAZON has committed an initial grant of $10,000 to IMC for its relief efforts.
As of May 15, 2008, IMC received visas and has deployed to Myanmar to deliver life saving medicine and medical supplies. IMC has secured millions of dollars worth of donated medicines, medical supplies and other relief items that will provide initial care to approximately 50,000 people for a three-month period, including IV solutions and antibiotics to treat acute respiratory infections, diarrheal disease, cholera, malaria, dengue and typhoid fever. Once the immediate emergency has subsided, IMC will begin the hard work of rebuilding the health, sanitation and food systems.
In the wake of this humanitarian crisis, MAZON raised over $16,000 to provide critical support to those most vulnerable in the region.
