NOAA map of 2004 Indonesian Tsunami impact areas - Image from Wikimedia Commons

June 4, 2010: The nations of Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Iran head the 15 countries at extreme risk of suffering the impact of natural disasters, according to an index released on May 27 by the British risk advisory firm Maplecroft.

The study, called the Natural Disaster Risk Index, ranks 229 nations based on deaths per year and per million of population. It considers the probability of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, storms, floods, droughts, landslides, extreme temperatures, and epidemics. Asia has suffered the highest number of disaster deaths over the last 30 years.

According to the Belgium-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters as quoted by IRIN news service, in the last decade nearly 4,000 disasters have killed more than 780,000 people, affecting more than two billion. One result of these disasters is a growing orphans crisis fueled by massive deathtolls.

SOS There to Help in High-Risk Countries

Students in front of their SOS Hermann Gmeiner School in Khulna, Bangladesh

SOS Children's Villages, a global-based organization that provides family-based care for children without parental care, has 60 years of experience offering warm homes and hope to disaster victims. SOS is a safe haven for children who have lost everything they've known-parents, homes, sometimes entire communities-to the vagaries of nature.

Children in Bangladesh, which is at the very top of the index's risk rankings, live in one of the poorest and most densely populated countries in the world. Hurricanes and floods overwhelm Bangladeshi families on a regular basis. Poverty and natural disaster produce large numbers of homeless children.

SOS Children's Villages has been in Bangladesh since 1973 to help such children. Those fortunate enough to be taken to one of the country's five SOS Children's Villages receive loving attention by professionally trained SOS mothers. Fed, clothed, schooled, and given medical care, children who have seen parents and siblings carried away by flood waters and other disasters are given new lives of promise.

In Place to Save Lives

In addtion to providing stable homes and communities in which children can reach their full potential, SOS Children's Villages is also on hand to help local populations during natural disasters. Relying on the good relations it has developed on the ground through its Children's Villages, SOS partners with local governments and organizations to give emergency shelter, food, and medicine to vulnerable families when disaster strikes.

Help SOS give sanctuary to disaster victims. Sponsor an SOS child today.