Emergency aid and long-term sustainable development

Every year, some 90 thousand people are killed by natural disasters and cataclysms. Some 160 million have been affected by events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, avalanches, hurricanes, fires, drought and heatwaves. In 2020 alone there were nearly 400 natural disasters, with Asia being particularly affected.

By focusing on Disaster Risk Reduction the Order of Malta implements measures to ensure communities are prepared when disasters strike. Through its prevention programmes the Order of Malta in particular reaches out to people who are least able to flee: the elderly and disabled.

Recent emergency interventions have taken place in Indonesia following the earthquake and tsunami in September 2018, in Nepal after severe earthquakes, the Philippines devastated by Typhoon Haiyan, the Horn of Africa struck by famine and across Europe where our Relief Corps respond to floods and extreme weather. Long-term sustainable development projects are ongoing in the regions of Asia laid waste by the tsunami and in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and the second most densely populated.