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How AFSC Responds to Disasters

1919 - AFSC fed one million starving children in Austria and Germany.

In responding to the aftermath of the tsunami in South Asia, AFSC will follow the same principles of value-added humanitarian assistance that have guided our work for many years: 

• Listening to the local people rather than imposing predetermined strategies,
• Procuring goods and services locally as possible,
• Attending to those who might be left out from larger relief responses,
• Upholding our pacifist principles,
• Building on past contacts to benefit ongoing and future peace work, and
• Striving to avoid redundancy and to help facilitate inter-agency relief cooperation.

Since its founding in 1917, AFSC has provided humanitarian assistance and relief. In fact, concerned Friends founded AFSC as “a conscientious service of love for humanity in wartime.”

In 1947, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and British Friends Service Council accepted one of the most prestigious awards in the world—the Nobel Peace Prize—on behalf of Quakers worldwide. Today, humanitarian assistance continues to be one of six areas of work in AFSC’s strategic plan.  Read more examples of AFSC's relief work >

Our staff members in the field see AFSC as serving those who “fall between the cracks.”

When a natural or man-made disaster occurs in the U.S. or internationally, we carefully assess whether and how we should respond. 

If we do respond to a disaster, it is generally because there is a history of work and established partnerships in the affected region and we have determined that a relief response will complement ongoing peace and development work. When such a response is mounted, AFSC usually stays for the long haul and remains on the ground long after the headlines disappear.

In the case of the Asian Tsunami, AFSC has had work related to and contacts in Indonesia for more than 30 years. The most recent work has been peace building efforts. We have both staff on the ground and longstanding partnerships with local NGOs. Thanks to these contacts in the region, we were able to support a medical team of 40 Indonesian medical staff who went into Aceh. 

We do not see ourselves as competing with the massive and necessary relief responses of larger international aid agencies.  Our staff members in the field see AFSC as serving those who “fall between the cracks.”

Years of economic development experience give us the ability to locate and serve those in isolated areas and ethnic minorities who may be overlooked in a crisis such as rural women in Mozambique or the Roma people (gypsies) of Kosovo who are discriminated against by the region’s other ethnic groups.

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