Diocesan Charity in
České Budějovice

As soon as the Czech Republic was struck by the 100-year flood ten years ago, the Czech Republic Charity (formerly the Czech Catholic Charity) acted immediately. The flood crews were created and flood auxiliaries were sent to the field. In the next few weeks, they visited over 4,000 households.

“Public solidarity with the people who lost their homes, or whose homes were severely damaged, was immense. This was one of the reasons why we were able to react that quickly and provide the victims with help on such a large scale, which meant the help ranging from food and dryers supplying up to the building of new dwellings,” explains the Czech Republic Charity Director Oldřich Haičman.

Individual donors sent over 70 million CZK to the Charity bank account and more than 333 million CZK were sent to the same bank account from abroad and there were over one thousand volunteers from the Czech Republic who helped with removing the damages the floods caused. There were also numerous volunteers from abroad, namely from the Croatian Charity as well as from Polish Lublin.

“There was a non-stop crisis centre set up by the Caritas of the Archdiocese of Prague. Many people came there - those who needed the help, but also those, who were willing to help the others,” recalls Jaroslav Němec, the Director of the Caritas of the Archdiocese of Prague, whose Charity helped for example in Karlín, Prague, and in the Mělník area.

Thanks to the donations we received from the German government and the German Charity, the staffs were able to buy 396 dryers. There were humanitarian storehouses emerging all over the Czech Republic – for example the Prague one received and subsequently divided over 690 tons of material help. Later on, at the turn of 2002/2003, the Charity started to build new emergency living areas.

“While the floods in 1997 were for the Charity the first large operation of this kind, we were prepared and trained in helping during the floods in 2002; although it was different area which was struck by the disaster. Flood assistants and directors from both Bohemian and Moravian Charities came to help their colleagues to České Budějovice, Prague and Litoměřice. They brought with them not only the experience with handling the situation like that, but also the technical equipment needed and material help as well as the means of transport,” says Jindřich Suchánek, the then director of the Archdiocesan Charity in Olomouc.

The situation both in 1997 and 2002 was very difficult and lives of many people were affected, however, the Charities gained in this period series of valuable experience from which they can profit today, while preparing themselves for possible emergency situations in future. For example the Diocesan Charity in Plzeň had set up the Centre of the Filed Emergency Service which helps people in unforeseen difficulties. The humanitarian storehouses are being kept in operation, too.

“We provide the Charity employees with the necessary training and we also co-operate with particular sectors within integrated rescue system, with the municipal crisis management departments, and also with clergymen. We are also working on the Charity system of the timely help, which is being prepared at the moment,” claims Martin Zmazal, the head of Emergency events collegium of the Czech Republic Charity. This collegium serves as an institution where the colleagues from particular regions share their experience.

In September 2012, the Coexistence Village in Ostrava will celebrate 10 years of its existence. This place provided the people who lost their homes in 1997 floods, and who could not afford to run their own housing even five years after the floods, with a place to live.