Communities in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville and nine other provinces in Papua New Guinea will undergoing trainings or activities aimed at building resilience and improving government systems when responding to natural disasters.

This is part of the a renewed partnership between International Office of Migration (IOM) and United Stated Agency for International Development (USAID).

Through this partnership a $2.5 USD million was injected into IOM to facilitate the project called, Addressing the Drivers and Consequences of Disaster Displacement Through Enhancing Resilience in Papua New Guinea.

This project is aimed at forming a closer working relationship between sub-national and local disaster responses though timely information management with local authorities in disaster prone communities.

IOM will be leading discussions on how to maintain preparedness and how to respond to disasters that is in line with the PNG National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework, the Provincial Disaster Risk Management Strategies and Standard Operating Procedures.

This is a collective approach and IOM will be working with government, civil society, faith-based organizations, community services organizations, and partners in disaster risk reduction and management to provide quality, timely and sensitive protection and assistance.

Since opening up a USAID Country Representative Office in Papua New Guinea, more humanitarian assistance work as been coordinated by IOM with support from the USAID Country Office.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), working in partnership with the national, and provincial disaster centers, are distributing food rations to households affected by election related violence in Enga, Southern Highlands, Hela and Jiwaka provinces.

The relief efforts were made possible through financial assistance from the USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance.

Last week, Food rations of rice, cooking oil, tinned fish, sugar, and salt have been distributed to over 700 households comprising of over 3900 people.

It has been over a year, since the Election-related violence broke out in various provinces, mainly in the Highlands region.

Food crop gardens and shelters were destroyed, which affected the livelihoods of women, children, people living with disabilities and the elderly.

The relief efforts target households headed by women and the elderly, especially those hosting people living with disability.

These homes were identified through IOM’s displacement tracking matrix information.

Community leaders and women from these areas shed tears as they noted the hardships that affected groups were dealing with. Especially in providing meals for their families.

“It will take months for us to replant and harvest our crop fields destroyed during the fight. Providing enough food for families has been difficult and we are thankful to USAID and IOM for this assistance,” said Mambu Gene, a women’s representative.

“We faced several difficulties and several families had to skip meals. We did not have enough money to buy food and this help is appreciated,” she added.

Jiwaka Provincial Disaster Coordinator, John Kupul extended his thanks to the people and government of the United States for supporting affected communities. He appreciated the partnership of IOM and Jiwaka Provincial Disaster Centre, made possible through funding from the USAID/BHA.

Kupul noted that this partnership will go a long way to improve the lives of the most vulnerable populations. “This partnership has saved lives,” he said.

Related: https://insidepng.com/stop-election-violence/