Accompanying Communities in Crisis an overview of PWRDF Emergency Response
Accompanying Communities in Crisis - an overview of PWRDF Emergency Response
PWRDF was created in 1959 as a vehicle for emergency response and to this day continues to be a vital channel for Anglicans to help the most vulnerable people in times of urgent need. PWRDF responds to natural and environmental disasters, as well as to emergencies caused by war and civil conflict.
Natural disasters are happening more often, and having an ever more dramatic impact on the world in terms of both their human and economic costs. According to the United Nations, while the number of lives lost has declined in the past 20 years - 800,000 people died from natural disasters in the 1990s, compared with 2,000,000 in the 1970s - the number of people affected has risen. Over the past decade, the total affected by natural disasters has tripled to 2 billion. The factors most often blamed for the increase in natural disasters are environmental degradation, climate change, population growth and the negative results of economic globalization.
