Making a Difference through Disaster Response

Have we made a difference? We continue to ask ourselves this question especially when it comes to our projects. January 30 marked the beginning of a week-long effort of verifying, assessing and pondering on the results of the work we have done in our first Disaster Response project.

The Project Monitoring and Evaluation began with an orientation to 3 independent researchers for the Household Survey. The project staff and implementing partner – represented by Lisa Stead of HFH Great Britain, participated in Key Informant interviews and visits, Focus Group Discussions and Field observation which were conducted for 3 days.

During the project M&E, the team has gathered a number of interesting facts proving how the first DR project was able to impinge on people’s lives. Affected families’ housing support needs were met through the provision of useful shelter repair materials and their hygiene habits were positively influenced by introducing them to the habitual use of simple hygiene materials. The team was also able to recognize some aspects that can further be improved in the next DR effort.

True to its goal of strengthening HFHC’s DR capacity and to build on the M&E findings, the project team engaged themselves in a Reflection Workshop on February 3 where experiences were shared, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of the project were collectively pondered on and recommendations were drawn out for the succeeding project.

HFH Cambodia project team was joined and supported by Wayne Bacale, M&E Manager and James Samuel, DR Manager for Asia Pacific.

Over-all, for another of HFHC’s first, we can say yes, we have made a difference.