CAMDA reaches 10th birthday in 2010

2010 sees the 10th anniversary since the formation in 2000 of what was originally set up to be a disaster appeal charity. CAMDA then stood for Cambridge Mongolian Disaster Appeal, but in September 2008, with the earlier disaster left well behind, it was decided to retain the well-known acronym but replace Disaster with Development. This was because the disaster left in its wake many thousands of families still affected by it, needing a different kind of aid aimed towards sustaining them in their often hostile and volatile climatic environment 

But in those early years, with the dire plight of thousands of distraught herder families uppermost in the mind of CAMDA's founder John Pirie, he thought that any efforts - however small in comparison with the scale of the disaster - would at least help some familes to struggle through that terrible period and just about be able to get on with their lives.

It became clear that with ever increasing herd animal losses due to unrelenting winter storms

 

that returned each year between 2000 and 2004, thousands of families were still in crisis.  John was in no doubt that even more strenuous efforts were needed to provide ongoing support in order to meet particular fundamental needs that had become more apparent during those first few years of his contact with herder communities.

2004 became a turning point since when, and as a result of him promoting the benefits achieved in those difficult early years but still with so much more needing to be done, he was able to obtain the support of many more prominent organisations who saw how effective were the benefits of projects CAMDA had been putting into place, projects that were giving herding communities a better chance of holding their ground in spite of the many adversities they continued to face.

It is not quite a coincidence that  2010 being the 10th anniversary,  is also seeing a repeat of the circumstances that brought CAMDA into being. Cycles of extreme weather conditions known as dzuds - drought summers followed by severe winters with heavy snow - tend to be of a 10-11 year frequency. All efforts will now be made to help herders in their current plight, just as 10 years ago, but to also maintain those aid projects set up to continue supporting herding families, which, more than ever they are going to need over the coming months and years.

These are more fully described in our Projects page