TV Schedule

Aid

  • Public Topic: Everyone is invited to contribute to Aid

    • Africa's children chores made lighter means a better life.

      According to a study in rural areas in South Africa surveying 1,052 children in 366 households, water carrying ranked as the most time-consuming of household chores for children.

      In average, a child spent just under 16 hours a week hauling water from the nearest water source to their homes.
      According to a study in rural areas in South Africa surveying 1,052 children in 366 households, water carrying ranked as the most time... more

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      17 hours ago
    • Dave Letterman tackles food aid: World Food Programme on The Late Show

      Josette Sheeran, the Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme on The Late Show with Dave Letterman.

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      6 hours ago
    • In My Name: celebrities team up against poverty

      YouTube has teamed up with will.i.am, and non-governmental organizations GCAP, Oxfam International, Save the Children and Comic Relief to help spread the message that poverty around the world needs to be eradicated. YouTube has teamed up with will.i.am, and non-governmental organizations GCAP, Oxfam International, Save the Children and Comic Relief... more

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      3 days ago
    • Humanitarians are more targeted than ever before.

      United Nations staff and humanitarian field workers are being deliberately targeted for attack by extremists and armed groups at an alarming rate.

      The number of deaths of U.N. civilian staff members as a result of malicious acts rose to 25 in the year ending June 30, 2008 up from 16 the previous year.
      United Nations staff and humanitarian field workers are being deliberately targeted for attack by extremists and armed groups at an al... more

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      7 days ago
    • US cuts funding for condoms in African clinics

      The supply of contraceptives at Marie Stopes International family planning clinics in Africa are to be subject to massive funding cuts by the US government. It says the organization condones forced abortions in China, an allegation the MSI explicitly denies.

      The charity also expressed that the funding cuts would directly cause 325,000 extra unwanted pregnancies in the six African countries it works in. This will lead to 65,000 extra abortions.

      One of George Bush's first acts after becoming president was to stop all US funds to foreign organisations that helped women obtain an abortion in any capacity: in 2002, the UN Population Fund lost $34m that Congress had allocated to it.

      Worldwide there are more than 80 million unintended pregnancies each year and one woman dies every minute from a pregnancy-related causes. More than 200 million women who want to plan their families do not have access to basic family planning services.

      Outside the smokescreen doors of the White House, it's difficult to know if this is an ideologically-driven act of retribution, or simply a callous cost-cutting exercise.
      The supply of contraceptives at Marie Stopes International family planning clinics in Africa are to be subject to massive funding cuts... more

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      4 days ago
    • Poverty in America, a national disgrace

      Times are getting tougher in the United States, but ending poverty isn’t high on agenda.

      The number of Americans living in poverty increased last year, but advocates for the poor say the situation is more desperate than the rising numbers.

      Poverty is increasing as the country’s social safety net continues to erode and the government uses outdated measures to even determine poverty levels, experts said. The methods used to track poverty are more than 50-years-old and overlook families’ modern problems and dwindling resources, they added.

      “It’s really criminal that as we’re facing the most serious economic crisis, perhaps since the Depression, people are talking about lipstick and just totally preoccupied with trivial personal issues about candidates and things of this sort,” said Roderick Harrison, an expert with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The poverty threshold is based on a hypothetical market basket of food that a family needs to sustain health, Mr. Harrison explained. Today, however, housing and transportation costs would make up a much larger share of the budget and would be better indicators of poverty, he said.

      The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has been feeding people in L.A. County for 35 years now and gives out 35-40 million pounds of food each year. According to communications director Darren Hoffman, the food bank is strained—new cases of families seeking food are up five to 50 percent depending on which of 900 agencies is reporting developments over the last eight months.

      Financial donations are close to last year, but more product donations are needed, he said.

      “Demand is outpacing supply a great deal. We have lot of wholesalers or manufacturers that would give an overrun of products in exchange for options like a tax write-off before, but now we see lots of second hand retail markets coming in and offering them 30-40 cents on a dollar to get their products put into their stores. That’s cut into food that once got donated to the poorest of the poor,” Mr. Hoffman said. He hopes recent passage of the federal farm bill will help increase availability of Dept. of Agriculture commodities over the next couple of years and positively impact food banks.

      In future years, Mr. Hoffman predicted, supermarket retailers will further reduce the amount of donated food by tracking monthly consumer spending with club cards and increasing efficiency. “Five- or 10-years-ago they had to guess a lot more and some overestimated. What they couldn’t move they donated to food banks,” he explained. The food bank now relies largely on salvage products donated by supermarkets, products like cereal boxes bent on the corners or dented canned goods.

      Food banks also try to convince restaurants that prepare foods, such as pizza restaurants, to donate food at the end of the day rather than tossing it out.

      “The safety net is shredded. Food banks, people who are there to assist, are getting hit from both ends because they have customers they never used to see before and the stores that used to donate food and clothing to them are donating less because they’re tight,” Mr. Harrison said. Harder times mean relatives or neighbors who were once better off and could help don’t have anything to spare, he said.

      “This is part of the failure of the society and it is not something that government can expect non profit organizations, charities, civic groups, churches, mosques to help each other out of because they’re all under stress,” Mr. Harrison added.------CONTINUES
      Times are getting tougher in the United States, but ending poverty isn’t high on agenda. ... more

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      26 minutes ago
    • Pakistan rejects U.S. help in probe of hotel blast

      Pakistan on Sunday rejected a U.S. offer to help investigate the weekend suicide bombing that killed at least 53 people and destroyed the Islamabad Marriott, this capital city's best-known hotel.

      "We do not need help. We are competent. We reject it," Interior Ministry adviser Rehman Malik told reporters Sunday after the U.S. offered FBI help in pursuing the terrorists behind the attack.

      The Marriott bombing is the latest in a series of terrorist attacks across Pakistan and will likely intensify debate within the country over Pakistani support for the U.S. war on terror, says Samina Ahmed, South Asia director for the conflict prevention, nonprofit International Crisis Group.

      "This strengthens those voices who say this is not our war," she says. Indeed, Maulana Fazal ur Rehman of the religious political party Jamiat Ulema Islam, part of the governing coalition, called Sunday for the country to drop former President Pervez Musharraf's policy of allying with the United States against the militants.

      Rescuers continued to pull charred bodies from the wreckage, and fires continued to burn inside the hotel Sunday.
      Pakistan on Sunday rejected a U.S. offer to help investigate the weekend suicide bombing that killed at least 53 people and destroyed ... more

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      8 days ago
    • "Doctors for the Third World" in Permanent Areas of Catastrophe

      Each year, approximately 3,000 German physicians forego their annual vacation. Instead, they travel to Third World slums around the world and offer their help, free of charge. The physicians can offer medical help to almost 3,000 patients per day. The idea for this project is the brainchild of Jesuit priest Bernhard Ehlen, who conceived of it exactly 25 years ago.

      If he could have, Klaus Biskamp would have immediately fled and returned to where he came from once he arrived in Calcutta. The doctor from Frankfurt had arrived there, with firm resolve to do good and suddenly found himself amid mud, dirt, darkness and a sultry 33 degrees C. (91.4 F). Around him waited 200 sweating human beings, eager for his help, not one of them speaking a word of English [or German]. No electricity, no water, no hygiene facilities … Ludicrous, to even think about it. And the colleague who was to assist him was ill himself, suffering from severe diarrhea and vomiting. Biskamp immediately put him on an infusion. Then he organized a bucket of water, to at least be able to wash his hands now and then.
      Help for Slum Dwellers

      That was in 1986, three years following the founding of the organization "Doctors for the Third World," and Biskamp was the first to participate. This coming year, 2009, internal medicine specialist Dr. Biskamp will participate again, for the 25th time. The now 70-year-old will hold the record among his 2,300 colleagues who have volunteered their time for this project. And when he travels to the slums of Nairobi, Manila, Calcutta or Dhakka, he is assured to find running water, electricity and disposable gloves, one-way injection syringes and in some locations even sonographic instruments. The improvements during the past 25 years are due to the cooperation between local partner organizations and their country-specific supporters and co-workers, having built a reliable infrastructure for the work of Doctors for the Third World.

      In some areas, actual health centers were established that are open to ill slum dwellers. The Filipino island of Mindanao is the lucky recipient of three field hospitals with 20-30 beds each. But occasionally the stations are "open ambulances," meaning the doctors make a commitment to bring these "clinics on wheels" to specific locations on specified days. Anyone needing aid will travel there. Or, the doctors travel by mobile ambulance into the countryside, far from any center.
      Accomplishing Much With Limited Resources

      "It is vitally important for people to venture out and assume the role of a Good Samaritan," says Father Ehlen. As stated above, he was the founder of the organization 25 years ago. Since then, many have heeded his call to action. Approximately 330 women and men physicians forego their annual vacation and perform six weeks of unpaid service for their fellow man—in a slum section in Asia, Africa or South America.

      On top of that, they pay for half of their airline tickets. "But contrary to other aid organizations, we are not working in areas of present wars, where natural catastrophes have happened," states Harald Kischlat, secretary general for Doctors for a Third World.

      "Our areas of involvement are those where permanent catastrophic conditions exist." And Dr. Biskamp adds without embellishment, "The areas we serve are those around the globe where the majority of humanity lacks any kind of medical care."

      This veteran internist knows only too well his efforts despite his diligent involvement cannot change the fact that whatever he does is merely "a drop of water on a hot rock," but has nevertheless come to the conclusion "with limited resources to have helped real people and eased their misery," even though it won't [ultimately] change anything regarding statistics of suffering.
      *CONTINUES
      Each year, approximately 3,000 German physicians forego their annual vacation. Instead, they travel to Third World slums around the wo... more

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      10 days ago
    • Why a charity refused $45m of US aid money

      Ethiopia is in the grip of a drought. Fifteen million people are receiving food aid. So why has one of the world's major aid agencies, Care International, turned away $45m worth of food they could be sending to Africa?

      As world leaders gather in New York next week to review progress towards the millennium goals of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015, Care is saying that aid is "too short term and focused too heavily on saving lives rather than protecting people's livelihoods".

      Care's hunger advisor, Vanessa Rubin, says the money the charity refused is tied to buying the grain from American farmers and shipping it in American carriers. Which means that much of the aid 'money' goes back to the US. When it arrives in Ethiopia some food goes to needy Ethiopians, but the rest is sold cheaply in markets, undercutting local farmers and giving little incentive for them to grow more. The combination of wastage and the damage done to the local market means the aid does more harm than good, says Care.

      By 2015 it is estimated that the world will have spent $100bn on crisis relief. But given decades of failed aid policies some say - not just Care - that it is time for a radical rethink: we should welcome high food prices, ditch most food aid, encourage mass migration from the countryside to cities, and - above all - give money to charity when there is no crisis.

      Rising food prices have been reported as a disaster for poor countries. Yet the UN World Food Programme in Ethiopia sees expensive food as an opportunity. Their country director, Sonali Wikrema, believes that it's a wake-up call for Third World governments that have relied on cheap imports to keep the townspeople happy rather than investing in agriculture.

      Many Third World cities have rapidly rising populations, and the sight of squalid shanty towns leads most people to believe this rapid urbanisation is damaging. But not Professor Steven Devereux, from the Institute of Development studies in Sussex.

      He notes that famine in cities is extremely rare: in rural areas it's all too frequent, especially given the vagaries of climate change. He also believes that farming productivity is held back by too many people on the farm. His solution is mass migration to the cities, not unlike that which occurred in Victorian Britain.

      Most bewildering for the ordinary Western charity donor in the street is the research by Care which suggests that in the Niger famine of 2005 it cost $1 to save a child from malnutrition if reached early and $80 later that year when the problem reached world media attention. The logic of this is severe: for maximum benefit from your buck you should save it during crises and spend it when all is (relatively) calm.

      Of course, it would be a hard man or woman who could hang on to a handful of grain and let the starving die so it could be planted and feed more next year. But it seems our most basic charitable urge - spending money to save lives when a crisis hits the headlines - could be pushing more people into life-threatening situations.

      Little of this radical thinking is likely to trouble world leaders in New York next week, but it should trouble every one of us the next time disaster strikes.
      Ethiopia is in the grip of a drought. Fifteen million people are receiving food aid. So why has one of the world's major aid agen... more

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      3 days ago
    • Anxiety about staying warm this winter spreads - Oil & energy- msnbc.com

      Prices for oil may be down now, but will that remain the case this winter?

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      1 month ago
    • Only one (or two) quake orphans adopted

      Shanghaiist reports that only two orphans who lost their parents in the May earthquakes in China have been adopted, out of more than 500, though some reports even say that only one has been adopted.

      Though as many as over 400 are thought to have moved in with relatives, 88 are still, in temporary care, despite the earlier outpouring of grief. It is reckoned that many of the children are unable to find adoptive parents because they are over 10 years of age and handicapped.
      Shanghaiist reports that only two orphans who lost their parents in the May earthquakes in China have been adopted, out of more than 5... more

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      16 days ago
    • Haiti is screaming for help

      Just 700 miles off of the Florida coast, our neighbors in Haiti were scrambling on rooftops screaming for help on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Hanna flooded their city. U.N peacekeepers and rescue convoys struggled to reach them in vain.

      In the Les Cayes area at least 5000 people have remained in shelters, and floodwaters have forced nursing staff to relocate patients to floors on higher levels. Haitian authorities have advised that Tropical Storm Hanna has taken 23 lives to date.

      You can donate money to the victims ravaged by Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Gustav by logging onto Food for the poor http://www.foodforthepoor.org/site/c.dnJGKNNsFmG/b.4447...
      Just 700 miles off of the Florida coast, our neighbors in Haiti were scrambling on rooftops screaming for help on Tuesday as Tropical ... more

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      5 days ago
    • 800,000 poor Dominican homes to get help with cooking gas this month

      Some 800,000 of the most impoverished Dominican households will receive as of the 25th of this month a subsidy to buy cooking gas with the "Bonogas" card distributed by the government through the Solidarity Program, headed by vice president Rafael Alburquerque.

      The investment,whose monthly allocations is RD$ million, will benefit around 4 million Dominicans whose receive RD$228 each month for the purchase of gas.

      Alburquerque said the program will include 400,000 new homes that participate in the program "Eating is First" and also receive the benefit of subsidized gas.

      He said to date 200,000 Visa electronic cards have been distributedto for use in the 700 gas stations participating in the program and the remaining 200,000 cards expected before next Saturday.

      He said that with the targeted gas subsidies, the government will save RD $6.0 billion per year.
      Some 800,000 of the most impoverished Dominican households will receive as of the 25th of this month a subsidy to buy cooking gas with... more

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      8 days ago
    • Chernobyl children's trips to Ireland banned by Belarussian Gov.

      A thousand Irish families, who provide holidays for children whose health has been affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident, have been told that future trips have been banned.

      The Department of Foreign Affairs says it is having talks with the Belarusian authorities to try to establish why the ban has been imposed and to see if it can be lifted.

      The travel ban which initially applied to the US has now been extended worldwide - although the Government in Italy has made a special agreement with Belarus to allow holiday visits to continue there.

      The Department of Foreign Affairs says it is aware of the situation and embassy staff in Moscow are in discussions with the Belarusian authorities to try to establish why the ban has been announced and to see if it can be lifted.

      Chernobyl Children's Project CEO Adi Roche described the announcement by the Government of Belarus as 'shocking news'.

      Ms Roche who is to meet minister Minister Martin Cullen on Monday says failure to have the issue resolved would be a disaster for the children.

      She told RTÉ News that the twice yearly trips to Ireland were vitally important for the children's health and also allowed them to visit medical specialists and receive treatment.

      She has appealed to the Irish Government to work to have the ban reversed.
      A thousand Irish families, who provide holidays for children whose health has been affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident, have be... more

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      1 day ago
    • US to give $1 billion aid to Georgia

      The Bush administration is offering an aid package of roughly $1 billion to help rebuild the war-torn nation of Georgia. It's allegedly planned to be distributed over several years. Details of the package have not been released yet. VP Dick Cheney is on his way to the region reportedly to show support of it's allies despite Russia's military aggressiveness.
      According to this article, the Bush administration is still deciding whether to take moves to punish Moscow for the Georgian intervention, such as possibly scrapping a lucrative civil nuclear deal.
      The Bush administration is offering an aid package of roughly $1 billion to help rebuild the war-torn nation of Georgia. It's all... more

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      6 days ago
    • Canada sends emergency aid as Gustav pounds toward U.S. coast

      As residents sought safer ground, Canada was among those to answer a U.S. request for help, sending aid before the storm ravishes the coast.

      Canada dispatched one of its four Boeing C-17 Globemasters to the region to assist with medical evacuations.

      The giant C-17 departed from CFB Trenton shortly before 1 p.m. Sunday with a medical team of 12 and some emergency supplies. It landed a few hours later in Lakefront, La.

      New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered mandatory evacuation of the city of 239,000 and told residents "This is still a big, ugly storm, still strong and I encourage everyone to leave."

      Not everyone is leaving though, according to Global National's Paul Johnson in New Orleans.

      "They defy the evacuation order because they're afraid to leave their homes empty . . . or can't stomach the indignity of being an evacuee," Johnson said.

      "But most others have taken Gustav as seriously as authorities are warning . . . an unprecedented pre-storm exodus that's based on the lessons learned from Katrina - Get out, and get out early."

      The storm evoked memories of Katrina which struck almost exactly three years ago, flooding 80 percent of the city, killing 1,500 people in five states and costing $80 billion.

      National Guard troops and aid from across the U.S. and Canada were expected to land in Louisiana Sunday, where the airport was scheduled to close by evening.

      "Canadian Forces medical personnel were on board to conduct a mass evacuation and assist U.S. medical personnel with any medical issues over there," Isabelle Hotte, a spokeswoman for the Department of National Defense, said Sunday.

      Defense Minister Peter MacKay said the plane and its crew will be put under the command of U.S. forces in the region to evacuate "medically-sensitive" individuals.

      The interior of the plane can be configured to carry cargo - it can carry one tank and its support vehicle - or it can be set up to be a flying hospital.

      "This is a very versatile and very useful aircraft," MacKay said.

      The plane will be moved as required to keep it out of the path of the hurricane, MacKay said.

      Canada's Foreign Affairs Department posted warnings against all travel to the region. As many as 4,000 Canadians are in Louisiana and up to 30,000 in Texas, Foreign Affairs officials told Canwest News Service.

      Nagin warned anyone who defied evacuation orders they would face extreme danger. Travel trailers that had housed some of those displaced by Katrina might "become projectiles" in the hurricane-force winds. He laid down a dusk-to-dawn curfew and told looters they would be sent straight for prison.

      By most accounts, evacuations from New Orleans and other coastal cities were proceeding smoothly although traffic was moving slowly on clogged highways. More than 11.5 million residents in five states could feel the impact of the storm.

      President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, accused of a slow and botched response to Katrina's chaos, said they would not attend this week's Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. Bush travelled to Texas to oversee emergency efforts.
      As residents sought safer ground, Canada was among those to answer a U.S. request for help, sending aid before the storm ravishes the ... more

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      6 days ago
    • Zimbabwe Lifts Ban on Aid Groups, but Its Effects Linger

      Zimbabwe lifted an almost three-month-old ban on the work of aid groups on Friday. The government had imposed the ban because it claimed some of the groups had been backing the opposition during a bitter election season in which President Robert Mugabe was fighting for his political survival.

      The suspension of the groups’ field operations deprived more than a million orphans, schoolchildren, the elderly and other impoverished Zimbabweans of food and other basic assistance, according to the nations that donated the aid.

      The effects of the aid restrictions will linger. The United Nations World Food Program had planned to feed 1.7 million Zimbabweans next month, but was unable to deploy its partners on the ground, the suspended aid groups, to identify and register the needy this month.

      “We will not be able to reach most of those 1.7 million people,” said Richard Lee, a spokesman for the World Food Program. “We will try to reach as many as possible, but we haven’t even begun to do the essential preparatory work.”

      The groups have long said they provide aid based solely on need, not politics. But Zimbabwe’s minister of information, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, on Friday reiterated the government’s charge that some of the international aid groups had backed the opposition against Mr. Mugabe, providing food only to opposition supporters and funneling aid money into the coffers of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change.

      “During the elections they were monsters,” he said. But now, he added, “since there are no elections, we hope they will now go back to their core business.”

      “I hope some have now repented,” he said.

      The aid groups have challenged the government to prove its case. Asked which nongovernmental organizations had used food for political purposes, Mr. Ndlovu declined Friday to name any. “They know themselves,” he said.

      The United States, which last year provided $171 million in food aid to Zimbabwe, said that it was Mr. Mugabe’s government that used food for political ends. This week, the American ambassador to Zimbabwe, James D. McGee, wrote to the social welfare minister, Nicholas Goche, demanding that the United States government be reimbursed for the theft of 20 metric tons of American-donated food. The aid had been meant for schoolchildren, but was instead confiscated by the authorities and handed out at a ruling party political rally.

      In the letter, Mr. McGee also said that 170,000 schoolchildren had been denied food donated by the United States because of the ban, while 455,000 people had missed out on water, sanitation and public health programs. Mr. McGee said the government must immediately lift the restrictions and stop harassing aid workers.

      “However, if you choose not to act, we will hold you personally responsible for the inhumane suffering caused by this ban,” Mr. McGee wrote.

      Mr. McGee said in an interview Friday that the government’s restrictions on aid groups were a crime against Zimbabwe’s people. “This is purely politically motivated,” he said. “To talk about NGOs being politicized to get support for the opposition, it’s garbage.”

      Aid officials had expected the government to end the ban after the June 27 presidential runoff, which was widely denounced as a sham. The opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, dropped out days before it was held, citing state-sponsored violence against his supporters. Zimbabwean political analysts said they believed that the government instituted the ban to clear the rural areas of aid workers who could have witnessed the worst of the state-sponsored violence against the opposition.

      But the ban dragged on for two more months after the runoff, prompting a plea from Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations, for restrictions to be lifted to avert what he called “a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.”*continues*
      Zimbabwe lifted an almost three-month-old ban on the work of aid groups on Friday. The government had imposed the ban because it claim... more

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      1 month ago
    • Fighting the Silent Killer

      Meet the adversaries to Mozambique's Silent Killer.
      Fighting against all odds, they strive to rescue the victims of a disease that has ravaged a nation.
      Meet the adversaries to Mozambique's Silent Killer. ... more

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      5 days ago
    • SUDAN-CHAD: Longing and gratitude – the refugee experience

      It is pitch black; the sun has not yet risen, but Achta Abakar Ibrahim is kneeling outside her straw home in Djabal refugee camp in southeastern Chad, praying to God.

      She thanks Him that she escaped war in Sudan and that she and her family are now safe in Chad. She thanks Him that the Chadian people have welcomed her so openly and that humanitarian workers have helped her build a temporary life.

      She still has scars on her back from the beatings she received while pregnant, by armed men she calls `janjaweed', who stormed her village in western Sudan, burning homes, killing men and raping women.

      "Until now, I do not have peace of mind," she told IRIN in January, in a small sand yard outside her straw hut. "I think what happened will happen again, even at the level of the [refugee] camps."

      According to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), which currently provides psycho-social support to some of the 250,000 Darfur refugees in Chad, trauma is a common problem.

      "They talked about nightmares, about not being able to sleep, about hearing the bomber planes, about the orphans they found along the way from Sudan," said Rachel Zelon, former vice president of programme operations, who worked in Chad in 2004 when most Sudanese refugees arrived.

      Four years later, the trauma continues, but in a different form. Julie Grier worked with the refugees early this year, as head of HIAS's team in the southeastern Chadian town of Goz Beida, the main town outside Djabal refugee camp.

      "To realize that you have probably left your home forever is difficult," she told IRIN. "It's almost a trauma in itself.

      "To realize that you are indefinitely going to have to rely on the assistance of other people can be disempowering, discouraging," she added, referring to a process of "learned helplessness" or unlearning how to help yourself.


      "I feel I am living in dignity"

      But despite these feelings, Abakar says she has much to be grateful for.

      Her children never went to school in their home village of Tandoussa in Sudan - their father did not see it as a priority. Now they do, as is their right as international refugees. Those too young for school go to the nursery. Those too old have the option of literacy classes.

      In their home villages, some Sudanese used to walk kilometres for unclean water, aid workers said. Now, clean water is just five minutes away in a public fountain constructed for the refugees.

      Abakar used to pay every time she went to a hospital in Sudan, where "traditional doctors" were often part of the treatment. Now, when her children fall sick, she takes them to the free heath care clinic in the camp. And every month, she is guaranteed a ration of flour, oil, salt and sugar.

      "I feel I am living in dignity," Abakar said. "The children go to school; they play with balls; they have fun; they have access to water. I thank God." *continues*
      It is pitch black; the sun has not yet risen, but Achta Abakar Ibrahim is kneeling outside her straw home in Djabal refugee camp in so... more

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      10 days ago
    • Reaching out With Seeds in Africa

      Congolese humanitarian worker gives food, but also seeds in Central African Republic, in an effort to help others in a war ravaged triangle between CAR, Darfur and Chad.

      Again advanced upload is not working these days, so I have put up version with less quality image.
      Congolese humanitarian worker gives food, but also seeds in Central African Republic, in an effort to help others in a war ravaged tri... more

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      1 day ago
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