Volunteers in Prnjavor, Serbia are working on a risk-map about their village.

Volunteers from Dolno Ezerovo are visiting community members to prepare family emergency plans.

On June 22nd and 23rd the fourth annual meeting of the regional SEECEG group (South East Europe Caritas Emergency Group) took place in Snagov, Romania. Representatives of Caritas organizations from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Romania and Turkey participated in the meeting. Caritas Europa was represented by Harald Happel, Humanitarian Officer. The meeting was moderated by Matthias Schmidt-Eule from Caritas Germany.

From June 20th to 22nd, Caritas Romania organized a second training session about “Community based disaster risk reduction”, which took place in Snagov near Bucharest. The participants of the training, who are implementing the project activities in a disaster prone community in their countries, came from Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Romania and Serbia. The project, which is coordinated by Caritas Romania, aims to reduce the vulnerability of disaster prone communities in the region, but also to facilitate the collaboration between Caritas organizations in South-Eastern Europe.

Caritas organisations in Romania, Albania, Serbia, Kosovo and Bulgaria are implementing an inter-regional project called “Disaster Risk Reduction in South Eastern Europe”.
This project aims at reducing the vulnerability of disaster prone communities in the region to future disasters, in particular, to their exposure to extreme weather related phenomena such as floods.

Strong rainfalls in November 2010 have caused serious floods in Fushe-Kruja area and in the region of Shkodra in Northern Albania.

In Fushe-Kruja region the problems appeared after heavy rainfalls in 12 and 13 of November. The major problem was caused by the Lumi i Zi river flooding. This river has mainly affected neighborhoods Nr. 7 and Nr. 8 of Fushe-Kruja. During the first days, people’s entrance in the area was prohibited due to flood-related risks. Another major problem is the fact that the river has served as a garbage deposit that has spread all over the inhabited areas due to river flooding. Garbage has been spread in such places like yards, households, shops etc. Even the polyclinic was damaged.

A strong earthquake struck Central Serbia early Wednesday of 3rd of November 2010, at 1:56 a.m. It measured 5.4 on the Richter scale. The epicenter of the quake was 10 kilometers north-west of Kraljevo in Vitanovac village. Kraljevo is a city and municipality in central Serbia, 150km distant from Belgrade.

Two people were killed in the earthquake by falling concrete as their house collapsed and about 50 persons were injured. Hundreds of people spent the night in the streets, in fear of new earth tremor.

Caritas Organizations from Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Romania, and Serbia announce today the launch of a regional collaboration project called “Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction in South-Eastern Europe” developed by the South Eastern Europe Caritas Emergency Group (SEECEG).

Community based disaster risk reduction is a systematic approach aiming at the empowerment of communities to identify and assess their risk of exposure to disasters and to minimize their own vulnerability. In this way, the adverse impacts of hazards can be avoided (prevention) or limited (mitigation and preparedness).

From 29th September to 2nd of October 2010 within the Emergency preparedness project of Caritas Bulgaria in parish Yambol in Southern Bulgaria was held an emergency training for volunteers of Caritas. There were invited guests form local Civil protection services and Red Cross who shared their experience and cooperation with Caritas during the emergencies in the region. 12 people have participated and have been motivated to be part of emergency teams of Caritas Bulgaria. The group had a field visit in areas affected by fires last years. This emergency training was the second one on the parish level within the project after the first one held in July 2010 in parish Belene (Northern Bulgaria).

Angel Gyorev, Caritas Bulgaria