Whether earthquakes, famine or civil war: every catastrophe or humanitarian crisis is always a race against time for the emergency services on site. Children, women and men must receive medical aid, secure accommodation, drinking water and food as quickly as possible. It is often a matter of life and death. The Evangelical Mission in Solidarity also repeatedly supports its member churches in crisis situations.

Increasing threats

Many of our member churches are in regions, which have always regularly been afflicted by natural disasters. For example, there is a great threat of earthquakes in Indonesia, while India frequently suffers flooding or periods of drought. Furthermore, climate change is increasingly causing extreme weather in countries like these. However, the number of disasters and humanitarian crises that are not the result of devastating natural events – for example, wars, environmental catastrophes or accidents – have also increased globally and threaten the lives of many people.

Acting with foresight

Disasters are unpredictable and are not always preventable. Despite this, in order to be able to anticipate and actively face these challenges, the EMS has systematically established reserves from non-specific donations. They are available quickly and unbureaucratically in case of an emergency. For example, we were able to provide money for aid missions and rebuilding immediately after the flood disaster in 2018 in southern India, the major explosion in the port of Beirut in 2020, and the earthquake on Sulawesi at the start of 2021 as well as the major earthquake in the Turkish-Syrian border region 2023.