Losing your home in a natural or a man-made disaster is a terrible ordeal. The international community has taken pains to get involved in goodwill programs that provide emergency shelters to those who have lost their homes. People from all corners of the world donate generously to both governmental and non-governmental organizations. It is the job of the organization to responsibly take the emergency materials to the victims.
A recent increase in international disasters has made it even more imperative for the international community to get together and provide temporary residence to victims of natural and manmade disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, wars and famines etc.
International organizations like Red Cross, UNHCR and Shelter Centre deal with providing homeless people with temporary homes and other emergency services such as shelter boxes. These temporary homes are provided free of cost and are need-based.
Some recent global disasters, where international organizations have provided relief and emergency shelter and services, mostly comprise of the third world. Indonesia and the beautiful island of Sumatra are the two archipelagos that have been most affected due to recent earthquakes that hit the region. Emergency shelters were provided to the displaced, and it is hoped that the victims would find new ways and means to get back to their normal life.
A lot of water related natural disasters have also occurred in the African and the Asian regions. India, Burkina Faso, El Salvador, Niger, Samoa and Philippines are the areas that experienced either floods, mudslides, tsunamis or typhoons. Many innocent people lost their lives, and those who got to live were left homeless and displaced. The international community yet again reached forward to help the displaced and provided emergency shelters.
When talking about man-caused disasters, places like Pakistan, occupied Palestinian territories or Gaza, and Congo come to mind. These places have been crippled due to war raging within their territories. In such cases, it is difficult to pinpoint which areas have been hit the worst. The international community has provided emergency shelters to the displaced persons of Swat and regions where fighting is going on between different factions.
In other cases, disaster shelters have also been provided in various other international regions. The wood fires in Australia, earlier this year, led to displacement of the locals. Many homes were destroyed in these horrible fires that raged for days and days. The flood in Colombia and earthquake in Italy also led to people losing their homes. Emergency shelters were also provided to the displaced there.
Storm surge in Papua New Guinea and hurricanes in Cuba took lives as well. Both natural disasters took place in the year 2008 and led people to extend support to the victims. Hurricanes also disturbed the normal mode of life in Haiti and Turks and Caicos. Places like Bolivia, Ecuador, Belize, Nepal and Ukraine witnessed a series of floods that washed away not only the employment opportunities but residences from the people as well. Yet again, the international community took an active part in providing temporary residences to those who were lucky to survive and provided them a small chance of building a normal life all over again.