Operation USA has continued to invest in the future of the region’s children by funding afterschool programs and mental health initiatives that are designed to bring stability to their fragile lives. The Awesome Girls Mentoring Program, a long-term partner, offers afterschool programming for at-risk girls that gives them a place of safety and shelter, as well as provides a nurturing environment where they have the simple freedom to be children again.

The Children’s Bureau of New Orleans (CBNO) was founded in 1892 to provide specialized programs for children and families in the greater New Orleans area, with an emphasis on mental health, child welfare and advocacy. The devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was particularly acute for the children of New Orleans. CBNO has been a local leader in providing mental health care for children and families in low socio-economic status with pre-existing problems that were exacerbated by the devastation.

The hurricane caused extensive and severe damage in Louisiana and Mississippi, with New Orleans clearly the hardest hit area. A break in the levee system caused massive flooding throughout most of the city. Preliminary damage estimates for the region were well in excess of $100 billion; over 1,800 people died; and it is reported that as many as 275,000 homes were lost.

Less than a month later, Hurricane Rita made landfall on the southern coast of Louisiana and Texas. Rita caused $11.3 billion in damage and was the third Category 5 hurricane of the historic 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. While Rita remained well to the south and west of New Orleans, more parts of the levee wall were breached causing major reflooding in New Orleans.

An impoverished region before the storm, the impact of Katrina and Rita added a devastating hurdle to the already taxed social services system in both Louisiana and Mississippi. As first responders to the area, Operation USA rapidly sent a wide range of emergency supplies to community-based clinics in both rural and urban areas.

To address the needs of Katrina victims in the immediate aftermath of the storm, Operation USA focused our resources on community health clinics. Having over 27 years of experience supporting low-income health programs, OpUSA provided an initial $8 million in supplies and $700,000 in cash grants to Gulf Coast clinics. These resources ensured the clinics’ continuity of operations and allowed them to provide critical disaster relief and social services. Ultimately, Operation USA’s donors were enormously generous following this disaster—allowing us to donate a total of over $17 million in medical supplies and more than $2 million in grants to over 50 local clinics and community organizations

While the natural devastation and the egregious human errors have been well documented, the will and determination of Gulf Coast residents affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita continues to inspire as they rebuild their lives and revive their communities. Although there has been significant progress in much of the region, many residents are still struggling to reconstruct their lives. Operation USA continues to respond to unmet needs.

The storms were responsible for the deaths of 74 people in the United States, with physical damage estimates ranging in the tens of billions of dollars.

Operation USA’s response to the devastation began immediately following Hurricane Gustav with a shipment of antibiotics and heart medications to twenty community health clinics throughout Mississippi and Louisiana. Following Hurricane Ike, OpUSA provided the Texas Association of Community Health Centers (TACHC) with funds to purchase much needed over-the-counter medications for area health clinics and purchased a 25KVA generator for the South Central Houston Community Clinic to aid its service for its low-income community.

Operation USA was a major responder to Hurricane Mitch throughout its impact area (Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador). After an initial airlift of medical and shelter supplies, Operation USA began a series of projects to restore people’s lives. Through this work, Santa Rosa was discovered—a small village of about 70 families near Nicaragua’s frontier with Honduras, originally set up in 1984 as a resettlement camp to move villagers out of a war zone. Santa Rosa had always functioned at a bare subsistence level—and Mitch nearly destroyed the village.

Our approach in Santa Rosa was to first guarantee the very survival of Santa Rosa’s residents by providing them with food, shelter, access to water and medical assistance. In the years which followed, Operation USA built a village health clinic, a common kitchen, a pre-school, an irrigation system, a micro-hydropower electrical system, a connection to the national power grid, a library, a computer training center, a recreational park and several outbuildings used by the villagers to house a series of microcredit projects.

Operation USA has made a long-term commitment to the village of Santa Rosa, which, over the years, has been transformed from a disaster site to a healthy, productive, self-sustaining community.

Operation USA used the Santa Rosa development model to assist the village of Kalladi, Sri Lanka recover and regain its livelihood after the devastation of the December 2004 tsunami. These village projects are two of Operation USA’s largest ongoing development projects.

Operation USA responded quickly to the disaster by coordinating with regional partners in Haiti and Cuba to deliver water purification tablets, medical supplies to pediatric hospitals, and critically needed food and nutritional aid to children affected by the storms.

Jackson Browne Headlines Show For Hurricane Relief in Cuba, Haiti and the U.S. Gulf Coast
November 29 at the Santa Monica Civic

LOS ANGELES, CA, November 1, 2008–Jackson Browne, a long time supporter of Operation USA, announced today that Bonnie Rait, Joan Baez, Ry Cooder, Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 will be joining him for the one-night only Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert on Saturday, November 29 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, Ca. The concert is in response to the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which hit Cuba, Haiti and the U.S. Gulf Coast twice within three weeks in late August and early September, 2008. All three areas are in dire need of material and financial aid to help restore safety and provide appropriate healthcare. Recent storms including Hurricane Paloma, which was especially ravaging in Cuba, have made the situation even more dire.

Operation USA mounted a major relief effort in Cuba, Haiti and Texas immediately following the destructive hurricanes. First response initiatives included a shipment of electric lights and generators to Texas communities to restore power; a grant to Haiti to purchase desperately needed relief supplies, especially for water purification; plans for two million water purification tablets to be flown to Havana, Cuba; and, a scheduled sea shipment of medical supplies for Cuban hospitals. Operation USA has worked in Cuba under U.S. license for over 15 years, with a focus on children in medical need.

Proceeds from the November 29th concert will go help Operation USA to fund additional relief efforts tailored to meet local needs of families and health facilities in Cuba, Haiti and Texas.

“This hurricane season may prove to be worse than three years ago when hurricanes Katrina and Rita wreaked so much havoc on our Gulf Coast,” said Richard Walden, President of Operation USA. “We hope the American public will continue their generosity to our neighbors in need. We know this is difficult during the culminating weeks of a national election, the start of the school year and the lure of various sporting events, but millions of people have been displaced and for them, surviving the hurricane and resuming a normal life is the only event in their lives.”

Operation USA’s response to the devastation in the Gulf Coast began immediately following Hurricane Gustav with a shipment of antibiotics and heart medications to twenty clinics in Mississippi and Louisiana. Operation USA is sending water purification chemicals to Haiti and Cuba along with medical equipment and supplies. Operation USA is continuing to coordinate with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), as well as statewide nonprofit primary care associations in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas with regard to both Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Operation USA has delivered over $18 million in material aid and provided over $2.5 million in cash grants to agencies in the Gulf Coast states.

Richard Walden, President of Operation USA, was critical of the US Government response, especially that of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. Walden said: “The Cuban Government has organized its disaster response effort time and again to mitigate loss of life. The US Government for 49 years has clung to a trade embargo denying Cuba’s people life saving medicines and equipment so that Cuba’s Government might be seen to fail its own people. That has never happened and the US should immediately change its policy to engage rather than strangle Cuba. We provide help with great sadness as all Cuba has asked for is an opportunity to purchase needed supplies, not to ask for charity. With even Miami’s hardline Congressional delegation asking for official US assistance, Rice stands alone in her obstinacy towards Cuba.”

Operation USA is appealing to individuals, foundations and companies for money and appropriate relief supplies to enable it to respond effectively in Cuba.