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Country: Yemen Source: Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development Meet Samih*, head of the Community Committee at the Ash-Shorooq site in Aden. As a community representative, he works closely with humanitarian organisations and the camp management team to identify the needs of displaced families and help coordinate services within the site. Samih participates in a CCCM Stakeholders training in Aden, May 2026 Yemen remains one of the world’s most complex humanitarian crises. More than 5.2 million people remain displaced, many of whom live in sites where access to basic services and humanitarian assistance is limited. To help ease the suffering of these communities, Acted plays a vital role as one of the leading Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) actors in Yemen, supporting more than 100 displacement sites across the country. This project, funded by the European Union, aims to enhance living conditions for displaced people through better coordination, information accessibility, community participation through the establishment of community committees, and improved communication to understand their needs and convey them to service providers and authorities. Community Resource Centre established to improve communications with vulnerable people, Aden, March 2026 In Ash-Shorooq site, Samih says the main challenge that displaced people face is the lack of services. Like many other site community members, he sees CCCM as a way to organise the response and improve access to support. Like many other camp residents, Samih was forced to leave his home in 2015 because of the conflict. After fleeing to Aden, Samih and his family of 8 members faced the difficult task of rebuilding their lives. Today, he represents residents at the site and works closely with camp management teams, local authorities, and humanitarian actors. Samih explaining the role of community committees during CCCM stakeholder training, Aden, May 2026 I coordinate with different partners and the camp manager, and I help facilitate the implementation of activities. Samih Why Community Committees Matter? In displacement sites, community committees play an important role in ensuring that residents can participate in decisions that affect their daily lives. Rather than being an external structure, these committees are community-based initiatives where members are identified and selected directly by the residents to ensure true grassroots representation. The process begins with community-led mobilisation, where residents identify trusted individuals from among their peers who understand the site’s unique challenges. Through a transparent selection and election process, the displaced community votes for their representatives, giving leaders a mandate to communicate priorities, flag concerns, and share information about available services. Samih’s own journey reflects this community-driven process. Over the years, he became increasingly involved in community activities before being selected by his fellow residents to lead the committee. His experience as a displaced person motivated him to take on this responsibility. When asked what drove him to take the lead, Samih said, Because I love serving my community and supporting displaced people. As someone who has experienced displacement myself, I understand their struggles. Samih Members of displaced community represented by Samih at Ash-Shorooq site in Aden Strenghtened Community Inclusion The Community Committee works to ensure women, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups are actively included in discussions and decision-making. “We involve them in regular meetings and ensure their active participation in identifying the needs of the area,” Samih says. He adds that this has helped the community become more involved in decisions that affect daily life at the site. Coordination meeting of displaced persons and host community, Aden, June 2026 Building Skills Through CCCM Training As part of Acted’s stakeholder capacity-building activities, community representatives received training on CCCM principles, communication, coordination, community participation, and problem-solving. Samih’s role grew through community participation. He was chosen by the displaced community to lead the committee, and the training he received helped him take on the responsibility more effectively. “I received capacity-building training and have gained broad knowledge in the field of humanitarian work,” he says. He believes the community can continue to manage its own affairs with the right support. Samih in group work during the CCCM Stakeholders training in Aden, May 2026 Towards Lasting Change Although challenges remain, Samih believes communities can play a greater role in managing their own affairs when they have the right skills and support. “With the training we received and the experience we already have, we can manage the camp and solve our internal problems.” He hopes coordination between communities, authorities, and humanitarian organisations will continue so that displaced families can access the support they need. “We thank them for their cooperation through the implementation of the project in the previous period, and we highly appreciate the support provided to us by the donors in the past period.” As part of the project “Improving living conditions and supporting durable solutions for displacement-affected communities across Yemen”, funded by the European Union through its Humanitarian Aid Operations and implemented through the Yemen Displacement Response (YDR) Consortium, Acted supported more than 89,000 people across 101 displacement sites through site coordination, community engagement, referrals, infrastructure improvements, and maintenance works. The project also strengthened local capacity by training 434 CCCM stakeholders and improved accountability by managing more than 6,700 complaints and feedback cases. Together, these efforts improved access to services, strengthened community participation, and supported more organised and accountable site management for displaced families. * The name of the beneficiary has been changed to protect his privacy.

Country: Democratic Republic of the Congo Source: Direct Relief With cases mounting, Direct Relief and partner health organizations are supporting community-led strategies to halt Ebola transmission. By Paul M. Sherer The Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is poised to become the deadliest outbreak in history, the World Health Organization warned Wednesday. “At its current pace, it is on track to eclipse the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014 to 2016,” which killed more than 11,000 people, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a WHO media briefing. “The outbreak had a big head start, it is still way ahead of us, and we are playing catch-up.” Three months after the WHO declared the outbreak a global health emergency, more than 4,400 cases have been confirmed in DRC and more than 2,000 people have died, a case fatality rate of roughly 46%, according to data through Aug. 11 compiled by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control – and the WHO estimates the true count is likely two to four times the official figures. Genomic sequencing shows the virus had been circulating since February – months before the outbreak was declared – with early cases wrongly attributed to malaria and typhoid. For Direct Relief, the three-month mark is a moment to take stock. The organization has delivered 19.5 tons of PPE, essential medicines and supplies, valued at $11.3 million, to partners across DRC, Uganda and South Sudan since May, with additional emergency shipments en-route. As public health leaders say the Ebola fight must move from treatment centers into villages and homes, Direct Relief continues to deepen its ongoing support for the community-level organizations best positioned to help slow the epidemic. “Frankly, this moment is the one I’ve been so worried about, where we’re not seeing the curve bending the way you would hope at this point,” said Craig Redmond, Direct Relief’s Chief Operating Officer. “There’s an uphill battle around community trust. It’s essential that local community-led organizations are leading the way on this. Our job is to make sure our partners have the resources they need for this extraordinary lift.” The Global Response Pivots to the Community Level Direct Relief’s long-standing focus on community partners aligns with a pivot in the international response. Most people dying of Ebola in this outbreak are dying in their communities rather than in treatment units – roughly two-thirds of deaths, according to the WHO. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 70% of new infections are found among people who weren’t being monitored through contact tracing, and its Director-General, Dr. Jean Kaseya, told reporters that an outbreak this size would normally generate 160,000 to 200,000 contacts to trace – against roughly 17,000 currently listed, Bloomberg News reported. On Aug. 5, DRC adopted a village-centered response run through community health workers community health workers selected by each affected village, according to Africa CDC, which along with the WHO called last week for “an urgent scale-up of the community-led Ebola response.” Africa CDC and its partners are shifting from conventional contact tracing to door-to-door case finding in the hardest-hit areas. More than 21,000 community health workers have been trained so far, Tedros said Wednesday, and contact tracing now reaches about 80% of known contacts – still short of the 95% target the WHO says is needed to interrupt transmission. Most transmission happens when people with late-stage disease are not in treatment, or when bodies are handled after death, Tedros said, making early clinical care and safe and dignified burials critical to stopping the outbreak. “And both depend on the trust of affected communities, which means community engagement and community ownership are essential. There is no other way.” “Containing and ultimately stopping this outbreak will come from communities,” Africa CDC’s Kaseya said. “When people have information they trust, can report symptoms early and seek care without fear, we can break every chain of transmission.” “You can’t fight this outbreak from treatment centers alone when so many patients never reach them,” said Dr. Jeffrey Samuel, Direct Relief’s regional director for Africa. “The response has to reach people where they are – through the community health workers and local organizations their neighbors already trust.” Direct Relief’s Community Engagement Work Direct Relief’s support for community-level engagement spans multiple organizations working where trust is the scarcest resource. In DRC’s Ituri, Haut-Uélé and Tshopo provinces, VillageReach has supported DRC’s Ministry of Health in training more than 1,000 community health workers to bring Ebola information to the region’s diverse communities, while strengthening lab sample transport. Direct Relief has supplied VillageReach with two large shipments of PPE and other medical supplies, including more than a quarter million N95 respirators delivered to Bunia, the outbreak’s epicenter. VillageReach in turn distributed much of the material to frontline Ebola responders in the region. Another shipment with nearly five tons of supplies for VillageReach is awaiting final DRC import documentation, including 341 cases of 3M protective coveralls, eye protection, intravenous fluids and water purification products. In Beni Health Zone in North Kivu, Direct Relief is providing material and financial support to a new Ebola response project by Humanitarian Action for Africa. HAA’s approach centers on building trust and encouraging early reporting, with community dialogues covering Ebola symptoms, early alerting, safe and dignified burials, hand hygiene, the risks of home-based care for suspected cases, rumor management, and support for Ebola survivors. A shipment of essential medicine, PPE and oral rehydration salts valued at $1.9 million bound for HAA is packed and ready for transportation. And along South Sudan’s border with DRC, the International Organization for Migration – supported by two large Direct Relief donations of PPE, medicine, infection-prevention supplies and oral rehydration salts – has screened hundreds of thousands of travelers and reached nearly half a million people with Ebola awareness messaging. “People are getting sick at home. They’re staying at home, and that’s the killer,” Redmond said. “We’re in close contact with our partners, really picking their brains about how