Establishing & implementing a charitable program in the sport of equestrian show jumping - Essay Example

Background: The world witnessed lately several major natural calamities like the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caused by a strong earthquake in Aceh province, Indonesia. It was one of the largest natural disasters in recent memory that claimed the lives of 250,000 in several countries bordering the Indian Ocean and hit as far away as the coasts of Africa. All in all, it adversely affected fourteen countries by destroying tourist sites, tropical beach resorts and altering their way of life because their economies had been greatly devastated.

Hurricane Katrina is a very good example also of how even governments with plenty of resources are sometimes ill equipped to deal with victims of natural disasters due to some bureaucratic red tape that hinders rapid responses to pleas for help and assistance. There are other such as disasters such as the massive earthquakes to have hit countries like Haiti which hit January 12, 2010 and in Chile last February 27, 2010 with the latest to be hit was China on April 14, 2010 in the northern province of Qinghai near Tibet.

There are also many cases of man-made disasters due to environmental degradation causing massive flooding, landslides, soil erosion resulting to poor agricultural productivity and siltation of river systems. Perhaps the worst kind of man-made calamity is that one caused by armed conflicts in which mostly civilian populations became victims of forced displacement. Children, old men and women often huddle in temporary camps without adequate food, water and shelter. Most cases of these conflicts are in Africa such as the Darfur Crisis in Sudan resulting in 300,000 deaths and 3 million people forced to leave their homes and live in squalid camp conditions.

It is a human tragedy of untold dimensions in modern times but also totally preventable if all its warring parties had come to the negotiating table ready to make compromises. There are still many such on-going conflicts in Africa today which are