Children on the day of the registration for the ACTED child and youth friendly space in Domiz camp. Over 40% of the Syrian refugees in Iraq are children. Densely populated Domiz camp offers them little space to play. The registration brings some welcome excitement and promises for more to come. Photo: ECHO/M. Chatziantoniou

21/05/2013 – It’s raining cats and dogs and mud sticks to the soles of our shoes as soon as we start walking through Domiz camp. Domiz is currently one of two camps for refugees from Syria in the Kurdish part of Iraq. It hosts about 40,000 people.

Neither the weather nor the mud seems to bother the 50 or more families gathered in the shell of a building, painted in bright mauve with no doors and windows yet. Children of all ages are running around, volunteers surrounded by groups of parents are crouching on the concrete floor, filling in forms. Today parents can register their children to join activities in the Child-friendly space run by ACTED – one of the projects funded by the European Union’s Nobel Peace Prize through the Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department. In the middle of it all, 39-year Carmel Aqeel Abdul-Wahid, a stack of over 100 already completed forms under her arm, is advising mothers, explaining to fathers and laughing with the children.

‘I was a refugee myself’ she explains to me much later over the phone when she has a quiet moment. ’Originally I am from Baghdad. Together with my husband and my three children I had to flee the violence in 2006. We came to Dohuk because I had an aunt living here.  The city had the reputation of being quiet and most importantly my husband found a job at the university’. Her children were then aged 13, 10 and 3. ‘I wish there had been such places for my children at the time!’ recalls Carmel. ‘Coming here was very difficult for them. They had lost their home, their toys and their friends. Here everything was new: the people, the language (Kurdish is the official language spoken in the Kurdish part of Iraq ; people from Bagdad, but also the Syrian refugees, speak and write mainly Arabic), the environment.’

In two different buildings surrounded by a small garden and a space to play, ACTED will organise activities for refugee children but also for adolescents: crafts, sports and social skills on how to cope in a camp where there is little privacy, and space needs to be shared with people they hardly know. ‘Parents want their children to join our activities because they learn something and they are safe here. There is huge demand for places for smaller children’ she says ‘Unfortunately parents prefer to send their adolescent children to work. They need the income.’

Carmel Aqeel Abdul-Wahid, ACTED on the day of the registration. Photo: ECHO/M. Chatziantoniou

ACTED will offer 400 places to children and teenagers organising them in 2 shifts, similar to the school day, to allow them to join ACTED’s activities while they are not at school. 14 volunteers have already been recruited to work with the children, most of them from among the Syrian refugees; they share their language, their culture and part of their memories. ‘We will be ready to start in a few days once all the works on the buildings are completed‘ explains Carmel. She plans on an opening party with a famous Kurdish singer from Dohuk.

‘I like the idea that this project enabling children to be children in all safety and to learn important skills, is funded by the money the EU received for the Nobel Peace Prize’ adds Carmel, who has set up several child-friendly spaces in Iraq for ACTED in the past 2 years. ‘I take it as a sign that despite the war in Syria, Humanity values the right of children to grow up in peace. ‘

By Heinke Veit,
Regional Information Officer in Amman

Related information

• EU’s Assistance for Children in Conflict
• Aid in action in Syria
• Aid in action in Iraq

With financial support from ECHO, the UNCHR distributed winterization kits to some 240 000 internally displaced Afghans this winter, equipping them to better withstand the sub-zero temperatures that engulf most of the country over several months. In Kabul, over 5000 families living in urban slums benefitted from this live-saving initiative.

17/05/2013 – Tucked behind a truck depot, the Dewan Begi Settlement, in the Western part of Kabul, is a maze of tents, tarpaulin sheets and ricketty fences. Children in tatters can be seen playing around in the mud, while women come and go between their makeshift houses and the only two water pumps to which this slum of some 190 families has access to. This is only one of over fifty Kabul Informal Settlements (KIS), as they are called, which have popped up in the Afghan capital over the past decade or so. Overall, some 30 000 people – including a vast majority of children – live in these illegal enclaves, deprived of basic public services, facing constant threats of eviction, and forced to live in freezing temperatures without solid walls around them for almost half the year.

“We came to Kabul about ten years ago, after  returning from Pakistan where we had gone as refugees because of the conflict”, explains Khaesta Khan, 50, sitting in his carpeted tent, surrounded by his children. The family belongs to the Kochi community, a minority ethnic group who used to make a living as nomad shepherds. Due to the rising insecurity across the country, this traditional lifestyle has now become untenable, and most have had to settle down in towns. Khaesta’s family therefore lives from doing petty jobs: the men offer car accessories to commuters at traffic junctions, while the women sell bangles imported from neighbouring Pakistan. Barely enough to make ends meet.

“Life here is hard, particularly in the winter”, explains Khaesta’s wife, Farzana. “Since there is no flooring and the soil is always humid, if you sleep directly on the floor you are sure to freeze to death”. This is precisely what happened during the winter of 2011-2012, which was particularly severe: over a 100 children died of the cold in the KIS. This winter, however, the mortality rate has come down massively, thanks in part to the distribution of “cold weather packages” provided by the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) through ECHO-funding.

Every single household in the KIS received a customized kit to help them withstand the bitter cold. Meant for a family of six (2 adults, 1 toddler and 3 school-aged children), this kit included sweaters, warm jackets, shawls, socks, gloves, boots, hats, and a baby blanket. “Last year two kids died here, this year fortunately there were none”, says Pusthana, from the Parwane Do Settlement.

Already distributed over the past years, the content of the life-saving winter kit was enhanced this year, with a particular focus on children’s needs. It comes in addition to fuel (distributed three times throughout the winter), food rations and an “all weather package” which comprises of three blankets, two plastic sheets, two jerry-cans, a kitchen set, a bucket and six bars of soap. “The combination of all these items is very important, comments Pusthana, sitting in front of her mud hut, in which old car windows have been incrusted into the walls to let in some light. What would be the use of having warm clothes if we didn’t have the plastic sheeting to keep the rain from coming through the roof?”.

As the winter comes to an end, all the humanitarian agencies involved in channelling aid to the KIS agree that the content of the kits was better adapted this year, and their distribution better organized. “One undeniable success is that there was better coordination between agencies, which enabled a full coverage of the KIS and avoided duplication in distribution”, comments Douglas DiSalvo from UNHCR, who also assisted some 35000 internally-displaced people families in the rest of the country with the same package. This coordination effort was possible thanks in part to ECHO, who funded UNCHR and Solidarités International to co-lead the new “KIS Task Force”.

A long-term solution to the hardships faced by those in the KIS, however, still remains elusive as all of these slums stand on government or private land. “The owner came again this week, asking us to leave”, confides Pushthana’s son, Harun, whose settlement now stands surrounded by massive construction sites. “But we have nowhere to go, and we need to stay in Kabul if we want to find some work”.

By Pierre Prakash
ECHO’s Regional Information Officer in New Delhi

Related information

• Aid in action: Afghanistan

Jean Louis de Brouwer, Director of Operations

08/05/2013 – The goal: putting resilience on top of the agenda. The venue to do so: an extremely at-risk country, Haiti. The Political Champions of Resilience, a group established in 2012 with high-ranking officials from leading international institutions – including the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department ECHO, UNDP, OCHA, CARICOM, the UK, USAID, and the World Bank – held a two day meeting on April 20^th and 21^st to draw increased attention and resources towards disaster resilience. ECHO’s director of Operations, Jean Louis de Brouwer, was part of the high level delegation. 

“I am deeply persuaded that the resilience agenda is a key one in countries like Haiti, or others in Africa where we are currently very much involved, where the humanitarian challenges come from recurrent structural problems. When we develop an agenda of resilience, we work so that each time there is a crisis we do not go back 5 steps for every 2 steps forward we had made”, said De Brouwer. 

One of the countries most affected by disasters in the world, Haiti is an obvious choice when it comes to talk about resilience. Risks include cyclones, floods, landslides, earthquakes and tsunamis as well as drought and epidemics. In 2012, it was ranked the country most at risk from climate change and we all have the memory of the horrible tragedy that struck the country in January 2010, when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake killed more than 220 000 and displaced over 1.5 million people. The threat raised by natural hazards is exacerbated by high levels of poverty and other fundamental development challenges. 

ECHO has had a longstanding commitment to build the resilience of Haitians and to help them be better prepared to face the frequent natural hazards that threaten them. From 1998 to 2013, ECHO invested €25.9 million in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) projects in Haiti. Following the earthquake in 2010, ECHO’s commitment to DRR in Haiti represented 6.6% of its total funding in 2010 and 8% in 2011, an amount that places ECHO at the forefront of humanitarian donors in terms of investment in resilience. 

Putting communities at the heart of the disaster preparedness strategies in the country is  ECHO’s main objective in Haiti. Alongside this is a goal to strengthen institutional capacities in disaster preparedness and response, always in close collaboration with the National System of Disaster Risk Management (Civil Protection Directorate and Haitian Red Cross). 

Achievements abound and have been recognised. ECHO was one of the main drivers in the development of the current National Disaster Risk Management System. From 1998, ECHO (through the Disaster Preparedness programme, DIPECHO) supported the creation of the Civil Protection programme in Haiti and then the creation of the civil protection network at municipal and departmental level. Today there is a real appropriation, understanding and willingness of local authorities as well as national authorities to support this civil protection system. Overall, the local civil protection committees supported by ECHO are all existent and continue to work with their communities in disaster preparedness actions as well as response. 

“We are very appreciated by Haitian authorities thanks to our Disaster Preparedness programme (DIPECHO), which has supported them in developing the first programmes that have allowed them to have a better response to recent crisis such as Tropical Storm Isaac or Hurricane Sandy than that they would have had a few years back”, said ECHO’s director of Operations during the meeting. 

To mitigate the impact of future disasters, DRR must be firmly embedded in Haiti’s reconstruction and development processes. That is why the Champions of Resilience visit was so important. They met with government representatives, civil society and the private sector to discuss their role in contributing to disaster resilience in Haiti. They toured Jean Baptiste, a neighbourhood in the capital where they learned more about how disaster resilience can be integrated in the process of reconstruction taking place three years after the devastating 2010 earthquake. And they made a clear commitment to support the resilience agenda, building capacity to respond and recover from disasters, and helping Haiti develop in a way that reduces rather than adds to disaster risk. 

“We need to build on this work so to help make sure that 15% of Haiti’s GDP is not knocked off the economy each time there is a new hurricane,” said the UK secretary for international development, Justine Greening, at the press conference closing the event. “We as donors will be looking at how to support improvements in Haiti’s responses to crisis and to ensure that resilience is included at all stages of our work, not just in relief but also in our development spending,” she added. 

 Isabel Coello
ECHO’s Regional Information Officer for Latin America & the Caribbean 

Related information:

• Read the press release of the Champions of Resilience
• Aid in action: Haiti

So she packed three suitcases full of bulgar wheat, rice, lentils and tomato paste. And when the family boarded the bus to Lebanon last November, the three suitcases went with them, taking precedence over almost all other possessions.

“The only other thing I brought with me were a few clothes and my jewelry,” said the 39-year-old housewife. It wasn’t sentimental value that prompted Um Abdou to bring her necklaces and rings. It was because she knew they could be sold.

Six months later, sitting in her small apartment in Beirut with her five children looking on, Um Abdou told me about her family’s first few months as refugees. It was similar to the stories of most Syrian refugee families now living in Lebanon – husband unable to find work, money and supplies running out, a desperate longing to be home again and for the war to be over.

 “It got to a point when we had no money, we had sold practically all my jewelry, and the children just couldn’t eat boiled bulgar anymore,” she said. “They’re not fussy eaters, but they were going crazy.”

Help came in the form of food vouchers distributed to Syrian refugees by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) as part of an operation partly funded by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO).

The first time Um Abdou received vouchers she didn’t believe she would get any more, so she spent most of them on more rice and lentils. The second time she added canned fish, vegetables and a bit of cheese to liven things up.

Now she has come to understand that the vouchers are not a one-off occurrence and next time she plans to buy eggs, humus and maybe even a little meat. “Up until now we haven’t been in a position to even think about meat or chicken.”

Food vouchers are the main channel for WFP’s food assistance operation in Lebanon. At the moment some 300 000 refugees are receiving them monthly. Vouchers are worth about 20 euros and enable refugees to buy a wide range of food items in local shops.

“Refugees like getting vouchers because it means they get to decide what food their families eat,” says Laure Chadraoui, WFP spokesperson in Lebanon. “They appreciate having that level of independence”.

The shop-owners involved in the programme are happy to take part, realising that the voucher system is creating more business for them and helping to boost the local economy.

By Martin Penner,
 United Nations World Food Programme

Related information:

• Aid in action: Palestine – Lebanon

In Kakres village, Amudat district, a group of women deliberated and chose to rear goats as a buffer against the effects of drought. The group started with 55 goats in June 2011 and today the herd has doubled.

02/05/2013 – In rural villages across north-eastern Uganda, drought is the most feared threat. Despite the Karamoja region receiving rains every season for the past three years, farmers and livestock keepers are apprehensive.

In Tokora Parish in the Nakapiripirit district, Loise Lemukol, a 38-year old mother of seven, says she is ready for it. “I have enough food to last me till the next harvest, and I can still get more from our ‘bank’,” she says.

Loise is one of the 20 people running a community grain store in Tokora. Currently, the store has 16 bags of maize, 10 bags of sorghum and 6 bags of beans in storage; and the community is buying more stock.

“We buy grain from farmers during the harvesting season and sell when markets are less saturated and prices are higher,” explains Jecinta Namer, the group’s chairperson. Profits are ploughed back. Needy members can get ‘emergency loans’ from the kitty.

Tokora community group is in its second cycle of buying, and the cash book looks healthy. “In the last sale, we made a profit of UGX 480 000 (€ 140); as our profits grow, we will continue to increase our stocks and perhaps later diversify to livestock trade,” explains Jecinta.

The group also stores grain for community members at a fee, just like a bank. Due to its central location, this grain store serves a wide area, as a source of seed and food.

Jecinta and her team came together in 2010. With the technical help of ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development), they identified the hazards that most gravely threaten their lives and discussed ideas best suited to overcome these risks. This is how the Tokora cereal bank was born – to fight the effects of drought.

The seed money, € 5 000, came through a grant from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO). Over the months, the group has received training and technical support to enable them run the project effectively. ACTED has also connected this group to the local government officials for regular support.

Michael Mangano, Area Coordinator at ACTED says this group is independent and can readily continue with only minimal external support. “The committee running this project is now well trained and can make sound decisions to suit the changing food security situation,” says Michael.

The Tokora cereal bank is aiming to improve food security across the Parish with a population of close to 6 000 people. The group has given 200 poor households seeds and taught them how to grow vegetables.

Peter Awas, a 32-year old father of two was trained on growing tomatoes. In his first attempt, he made sales worth UGX 9 000 (nearly 3 euros) enough to pay for his son’s school books. He is getting ready to plant a second time.

Further east in Kakres village, Amudat district, a group of women chose to rear goats as a buffer against the effects of drought. The group bought 55 goats in June 2011 and today the herd has doubled.

“Goats can withstand drought. We don’t have to migrate when the pasture reduces since goats can survive with salt-lick and little fodder,” explains Sylvia Bakan, the group’s leader.

This vibrant herd provides 20 families with milk everyday, giving the children especially a great source of nutrients. Anna Cheputero, a widowed member of the group, says that getting some milk everyday takes a huge burden off her back.

The women have recently sold four goats and invested the money in beads. The group has other grand investment ideas, including building rental houses in Amudat town. They plan to start selling the male goats soon, before the herd becomes too large to manage.

Across the Karamoja region, ECHO has supported 23 community groups to practice ‘community-managed disaster risk reduction’ or CMDRR. With requisite skills and funding, rural groups can build coping mechanisms strong enough to tame the hazards they face every so often.

In total, ECHO has given € 2.6 million through a consortium of its humanitarian partners led by the Danish Church Aid. Part of these funds has gone to equipping these groups with skills and helping them start their projects.

“CMDRR gives people a chance to take control of their own development agenda. It is an empowering process in which a community systematically takes charge over its own disaster risk reduction measures that make it safe and resilient,” says Judith Munyao, a DRR specialist at ECHO.

Most groups in Karamoja are generating some income and giving the communities skills and options needed to build resilience.

The 23 community groups have developed contingency and development plans, most of which are now deposited with the local governments. These plans carry the priorities outlined by the community.

These ‘blueprints’ ought to form the basis for any new intervention, either from the government or from development agencies. “You know your priorities by heart, and speak them out when development agencies visit you,” advises Judith.

In Karamoja, government services are gradually improving, but are still far from ideal. The development agenda outlined through the CMDRR plans gives the people a platform to engage with the local governments and demand for services.                                                                                             

By Martin Karimi
Regional Information Assistant in Nairobi, Kenya

Related information:

• Aid in action: Uganda

Early warning messages are also broadcast through radio. Maria Lomongin says she has learnt that boiling milk will keep diseases away, especially the rampant bacterial disease known as Brucellosis.

29/04/2013 – Uganda’s Karamoja region is known for its harsh climate, cyclical cattle raids, the ever high rates of malnutrition, and alcoholism. It is one of the poorest regions of Uganda, and home to about 1.2 million people, most of them living in abject poverty.

North-east Uganda has been dependent on aid hand-outs for decades. Every time a car passes by the manyattas (traditional huts), kids come running hands outstretched. The four-wheel drive branded car represents some form of freebie, and the jeeps roaming these plains are many.

Livelihood options in Karamoja are not the most diverse. A severe drought three years ago wiped out most livestock leaving close to a third of the population totally helpless. The herds have further shrunk due to infectious diseases, pest attacks, reducing grazing land, and sporadic raids.

Moses Loru Okim is a Chief in Acherer Parish, Nadung’et sub-county in the Moroto district. He constantly implores his community to take good care of the livestock, prepare their fields early, and to save some grain after each harvest. “This will ensure you have food during the dry season,” he tells them.

Moses is one of the Parish Chiefs collecting and relaying ‘early warning’ data to the district headquarters for analysis. In turn, he receives synthesised information to disseminate across his Parish.

This network, known as DEWS (Drought Early Warning System), collects, analyses, validates, and disseminates data on vital signs such as livestock diseases, rainfall patterns, pasture condition, nutrition status of children, and availability of water.

“DEWS provides us with practical data every month, with which we as a local government can act or lobby the central government to intervene,” says Francis Okwii, the Assistant District Agricultural Officer in Moroto.

The early warning information reaches aid agencies and government departments as paper bulletins. The same messages are transmitted through radio, and to most people in the rural villages, the local Parish Chief disseminates the information by word of mouth.

“I have learnt many things through the Chief,” says Akol Ruko, in Kaipeter village, Acherer Parish, “but what I value most is ‘to cultivate my garden in time’ and ‘to use the harvest sparingly, so that I don’t lack food during the dry season’”.

Betty Nangiro and Paulina Nause are two of the ten people in Kaipeter village that are interviewed in the data gathering phase every month.  And they too have benefited from the feedback provided by the Chief and through radio.

“I have already planted maize and sorghum; and when I harvest, I will store the excess grain,” says Paulina Nause. “If I want to make ebutia (sorghum beer), I will buy sorghum from the market. I won’t touch my stock.”

The early warning messages are slowly causing a positive change in behaviour. Chief Moses says that traditionally, gardening was a woman’s job. “Now men can be seen tilling the land.  Similarly, herders no longer drink unboiled milk because they know that this is one way of contracting brucellosis disease”.

Over the last two years, preparedness has remarkably improved. But the region is still a long way from being resilient to shocks such as droughts, flash floods, and disease outbreaks.

Chronic food insecurity and poverty are widespread. At the moment, many districts are said to be in a ‘stress’ phase, with families expected to run out of food in a few months.

Besides rearing animals and small scale farming, brewing sorghum beer, cutting wood, or burning charcoal for sale are the commonly mentioned methods of earning money quickly. These survival methods are counter-productive.

The European Commission Humanitarian Aid first tested DEWS in Nakapiripirit district in 2008; later scaling up to cover the whole region. Since 2011, DEWS has been part of projects supported through a €2.6 million grant to a consortium of partners headed by the DanChurchAid. But with the Commission phasing out humanitarian actions in Uganda, the project must now be handed over to the government and development agencies.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) has stepped up to the plate. The Ministry is discussing increasing their role in managing the system and would like to expand coverage to other drought-prone districts. But the system requires some fine-tuning before the roll out.

The local agents don’t always gather comprehensive data and sometimes the reports are late. The mobile phone system used in gathering and reporting data is said to have some technical glitches. And perhaps more importantly, MAAIF will have to convince the central government and development partners to offer finances required to take this project forward.

“Early warning is only effective if followed by early action,” says Judith Munyao a DRR specialist at the European Commission. “It is commendable that the government is willing to run this early warning system, but it is equally important that the data collected elicits timely response and action.”

In Kaipeter village, Moses the Parish Chief, is confident that the project will go on. “I will continue gathering data and disseminating information, even after the donor [Commission] pulls out.”

His clients are dependent on him, and besides, they know this as one of the few services ‘offered by the government’, in this remote region.

By Martin Karimi,
Regional Information Assistant in Nairobi, Kenya

Related information:

• Aid in action: Uganda

21 grandchildren and children of Rahma and Mohamad, including Hadi (4), Maria (4) and Ahmed (12) are living in a rented two-bedroom flat in the Syria border region. (Save the Children / Hedinn Halldorsson)

24/04/2013 - Every time I check UNHCR’s page where all the newest data, reports and statistics are gathered and updated around the clock, the number of refugees has risen. One of those numbers is Hiba whose children are confined to the tiny apartment, apart from when they go to Save the Children and (European Commission’s Department for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection) ECHO’s psychosocial support workshop. Reem’s name is also behind one of those numbers, waiting to be registered with UNHCR. She tells me she’s lost count of those she’s lost, among them her husband and cousins. There is Roqaya who lost her three sisters. And then there is Rahma.

“Last week, I spent half the cash on vegetables, medicine and diapers, Rahma tells me. She lives in a two-bedroom flat in Zarqa, northern Jordan, with her husband Mohamad, her children and grandchildren. There are 23 people living in the flat. “Every day we cry, talk about old times in Syria, watch the news, pray. And then we sleep.” Rahma says.

There is no heating. Mohamad has diabetes but the family can’t afford to buy him medicine. They need to prioritise and the children come first. The remaining stocks of medicine they have are stored in a black plastic bag, hanging by the window. A colleague of mine scribbles down the name of the pills Mohamad is supposed to be taking.

Save the Children and ECHO are providing Rahma’s family, as well as more than 2 000 other families, with 250 JOD (350 USD) in a period of three months. It is not a big amount but it covers some of the day to day expenses. Most spend it on blankets, heaters, health care and groceries.

The needs are big and Rahma’s family is only one of many. Mohamad explains that no need is bigger than another. “The most important thing is being safe. You can cope with being hungry and thirsty as long as you’re safe,” says Mohamad.

And their family is in safety. Now there are simply new challenges, such as making a living and coming to terms with one’s identity as a refugee; with an uncertain future. Once in the hosting country, a new reality checks in. Yes, one’s family managed to reach safety on the other side of the border, but what now becomes an issue is caring for your children and grandchildren and trying to provide routine and security; something all children need to thrive and develop. And for a refugee with limited means who has just recently escaped a war zone – that is quite a task.

Like Rahma and Mohamad, most people flee after taking a hasty decision that their lives were in grave danger and that they had to leave, no matter what. Nearly all cross the border with no possessions at all, perhaps a few personal valuables in a bag.

And when you put your life on the line and tempt to escape from war in Syria in the middle of the night, all you can think about is staying alive and making sure that your children will come out of this journey alive. Material things don’t matter anymore, all that matters is ensuring that your children are out of harm’s way.

Today, between 7 000 and 12 000 refugees are crossing the border to Syria’s five neighboring countries every day. A great majority crosses during nighttime, hoping the darkness will keep them safe.

What is frightening is that this is something that won’t go away in the next month. Neither will it in the next 6, 12, not even 18 months. This is a complex regional crisis that now has entered its third year, one of the biggest ones Save the Children and ECHO have seen for years.

A staggering fact is that more than half of those crossing are children. The total number of those that have fled Syria is now more than 1.2 million, and will round 2 million this summer. That means hundreds of thousands of children missing out on education, not getting proper nutrition, health care nor feeling safe.

Being able to care for one’s children brings dignity back to parents. So does not having to wait in line for humanitarian aid. For fathers that were breadwinners and mothers that were caretakers back in Syria, having money to decide for themselves how to best take care of their children again, brings some of their lost dignity back. In the words of Saba, Save the Children’s programme director: “For a parent, there is nothing harder than not being able to meet your children’s basic needs”. And that is what Save the Children’s and ECHO’s cash assistance program is to prevent from happening.

 By Hedinn Halldorsson
Save The Children’s Emeregency Communication Manager

Related information

• Aid in action in Syria

Resilience and psychosocial support in Jordan

23/04/2013 - Nothing could have prepared me for that building in Irbid in Northern Jordan, close to the Syrian border. A 24-apartment block, home to only widows, single mothers and their children; close to 200 people.

I ended up spending three days listening to and documenting their stories. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen to us”, said one mother. “My son has been scared since he was born”, said another. “I miss going to school”, says a six year old.

So many of the children that I’ve met and talked to in past days, express themselves like grownups. Their body language is also not that of children but of adults. They move slowly, not as most children would. Save the Children has found that three in four Syrian children have lost a close friend or a relative as the Syria conflict now enters its third year.

Smiling faces of children welcome me when I enter the building. After all, these are some of the lucky ones. They escaped the violence in time. And once again, I am reminded of how strong and resilient children actually are. Some of the children in that building have been going to Save the Children’s and ECHO’s (European Commission’s Department for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protectection) psychosocial workshops, which aims to bring back some sence of normalcy to the children’s lives.

The facilitators, parents and children alike will tell you that the difference after only a few sessions, is remarkable. And that it takes so little to have them bounce back. “Their parents may be processing the war or grieving a lost child, not realizing the needs of their remaining children, just as traumatised as themselves”, one of the Save the Children’s facilitators tells me. And this is where the workshops make a difference.

The children in the building talk about what they have witnessed; some with more ease than others, but what they will tell you is something that even adults would have difficulty processing.

The setting is nearly always the same. There are mattresses on the floor; blankets, rugs. Maybe an ash tray, tea cups, and a Syrian flag. Most of the flats are somewhat empty. In one corner you’ll see a television set, blasting news on Syria, the most recent fighting, the newest updates on number of deaths. Many families will show you photos on their mobiles of the relatives they’ve lost, photos of children.

My limited Arabic gives my interviewees something to smile at, and therefore I use it consciously. A sudden laughter can ease the tension that has built up. The sweet tea or the Arabic coffee that is always served, serves the same purpose. Talking about loss of lives, loss of dignity, the escape, needs, early healing and regaining some strength and dignity – is not easy.

Nearly all want to talk. “Why should I stay silent and not tell my story? This is something the world ought to know,” Reem says, mother of three, one of the widows in the building says. Initially she didn’t want to talk, but thirty minutes later, she comes back and says she has thought things through.

Reem tells me how tough she finds it having to stay strong in front of her children. “And then last night, my son Mohamad saw me crying”. Save the Children’s facilitators will tell both children and parents that addressing grievances and sorrow, crying, sharing fears and talking about lost ones, is a part of a healing process.

The psychosocial workshops also benefit Jordanians. The communities in Jordan hosting the exodus of refugees were among the poorest and the most vulnerable in the entire country even before the refugee crisis. So now, the aim is to ease adaptation and break down barriers between Jordanians and Syrians; an aim that is becoming increasingly important as the crisis drags on, the numbers rise, the resources in host communities dwindle and as a consequence – reciprocal tolerance may decrease.

In fact, as the burden of host communities has grown, so have the numbers of clashes between them and refugee communities. That fact makes it even more important that our workshops are attended by both Jordanian and Syrian children. “The differences between what a Syrian child and a Jordanian child will draw, is staggering”, a facilitator tells me. “The Syrian child just escaped from a war zone, the Jordanian child only knows peace.” But slowly, day by day, the drawings done at the workshop by the Syrian children start resembling those of the Jordanians.

 By Hedinn Halldorsson, Save The Children’s Emergency Communication Manager

Related information

• Aid in action in Syria

Jean-Louis Mosser

16/04/2013 – Trois mois après le début de l’intervention militaire au Mali, la situation reste extrêmement volatile dans ce pays qui se trouve en situation précaire au niveau humanitaire, alimentaire et nutritionnelle. Les populations maliennes réfugiées et déplacées n’ont pas encore entamé de voyage retour en masse, ce mouvement de retour ne pouvant se réaliser que suite à un rétablissement des services de base ainsi qu’à de meilleures conditions de sécurité dans le nord du pays. Jean-Louis Mosser, expert santé pour le département d’aide humanitaire de l’UE (ECHO) en Afrique de l’Ouest, revient d’une mission au Mali et décrit la situation.

Quel était le but de ta mission au Mali ?

J’y suis allé pour faire le point sur la situation sanitaire. J’ai rencontré toutes les ONGs médicales, partenaires d’ECHO, qui travaillent sur des projets d’urgence dans le nord du pays.

Lors de ma dernière visite en décembre, les groupes d’extrémistes occupaient toujours les régions du nord et une menace permanente sévissait sur les districts au nord de Mopti qui n’étaient plus administrés. Malgré la présence de quelques ONGs, la couverture sanitaire était incomplète, notamment dans certains districts de la région de Gao et de Tombouctou.

L’intervention militaire a permis de chasser ces groupes d’extrémistes hors des villes principales et des axes routiers. Mais, aucune administration ne s’est encore concrètement réinstallée. Certains directeurs de la santé s’apprêtent à revenir, mais de manière provisoire, pour évaluer la situation.

Sans la présence de préfets, ni de responsables des districts sanitaires, le personnel médical des centres de santé ne revient pas. Quelques infirmiers seulement sont rentrés car ils savent que des ONGs sont sur place et apportent des médicaments. Ce sont les ONGs qui assurent les soins de santé dans le nord et ce sera certainement le cas jusqu’à la fin de l’année.

Quels sont les problèmes majeurs dans le domaine de la santé ?

Le manque important de soins préventifs et médicaux, la barrière financière qui empêche les plus pauvres d’avoir accès aux soins de santé ainsi que des structures de santé peu fonctionnelles sont les principaux problèmes constatés. Trop de personnes, et surtout des enfants de moins de cinq ans, meurent de paludisme et de diarrhées, faute de soins. Le Mali affiche le troisième taux de mortalité infantile le plus élevé au monde.

Au nord de Mopti, nous découvrons également un taux de malnutrition sévère. Globalement, depuis l’année dernière, nous observons une dégradation de la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle comme partout ailleurs dans le Sahel. La situation est toutefois probablement pire au Mali en raison d’une prise en charge d’enfants mal nourris qui a fait défaut dans le nord suite au conflit et, d’une manière générale, à la faiblesse des services de santé étatiques. Un dépistage actif des cas de malnutrition n’est toujours pas possible dans tous les villages. Ceci dit, la référence des cas détectés d’enfants mal nourris et leur prise en charge se sont nettement améliorées grâce aux ONGs qui ont su rester actives et présentes au Mali.

Quelle est la stratégie d’ECHO par rapport au secteur de la santé ?

En décembre dernier, ayant identifié des lacunes majeures en terme de couverture sanitaire, nous avions demandé aux ONGs présentes si elles pouvaient étendre leur rayon d’action et nous avons contacté de nouveaux partenaires pour compléter le dispositif. Aujourd’hui, la couverture sanitaire dans le nord du pays est bien meilleure même si elle n’est pas encore totalement satisfaisante. 

Nous essayons d’offrir un paquet minimum de soins médicaux et préventifs, un traitement correct de la malnutrition et  un système de référence fonctionnel. Ce paquet minimum n’est pas respecté partout, mais nous essayons de faire en sorte que chaque district ait un centre de santé de référence qui fonctionne correctement.  Nous ne pouvons pas siéger partout comme une administration. Nous privilégions donc les endroits fortement peuplés, les axes routiers, les villes et les gros bourgs afin de réduire une part importante de la population qui n’a pas accès aux soins de santé. J’estime que globalement nous soutenons en moyenne 40% des structures de santé existantes et que ces structures couvrent les besoins sanitaires de 60 à 70 % de la population totale du Nord du Mali.

Quelles sont les conséquences de l’insécurité persistante ?

Cela peut paraître paradoxal, mais avant l’intervention militaire internationale, les interlocuteurs étaient connus par les ONGs qui avaient réussi, petit à petit, à créer un espace humanitaire étroit. Les cliniques mobiles pouvaient circuler sans être ‘rackettées’ ou sans courir le risque de sauter sur des explosifs. A présent, la plupart des cliniques mobiles sont suspendues/à l’arrêt. La tendance est de soutenir des centres de santé de façon plus permanente grâce à du staff qui reste en place. Cela pose évidemment un problème, notamment lorsqu’il faut faire face aux épidémies quand des déplacements sont nécessaires pour faire les investigations et qu’il faut contrer ces épidémies. Heureusement les épidémies de rougeole de ces derniers mois à Kidal et Ansongo ont pu être correctement gérées par des ONGs.

Pour quand la passation aux autorités sanitaires ?

Il existe un plan de retour des autorités mais vu la situation d’insécurité, les conditions ne semblent pas encore réunies pour que cette transition ait lieu très prochainement. Quand la majorité des services de base sociaux et administratifs seront remis en route, nous pourrons y songer.

Les médecins qui se sont réfugiés à Bamako ont aidé les ONGs à trouver des référents, c’est-à-dire des personnes qualifiées qui sont restées sur place. Au quotidien, celles-ci s’associent à l’administration de Bamako et à l’ONG. Cela se passe relativement bien.

Entretemps, la majorité du personnel médical a été réaffecté vers d’autres régions. Dans le nord, les banques restent fermées, il y a une pénurie de ‘cash’, de vivres, et toujours de l’insécurité… Nous serons certainement encore en mode d’urgence jusqu’à la fin de l’année.

Propos recueillis par Anouk Delafortrie

Information complémentaire:

• Aide en action: Mali

12/04/2013 – Saeda, who is originally from Baidoa in central Somalia, simply does not want to go back; she is ‘home’ after eight years in northern Somalia.  ‘Home’ for Saeda is a displaced persons camp in Garowe, Puntland’s administrative capital and third largest city. Saeda fled to Garowe three years ago from Bosasa, where she had lived for 5 years, with her husband and five children. 

Abdi Nur, an elder who has lived in a displaced persons settlement in urban Garowe for more than a decade, hankers for his home in Kismayo, South Somalia, explaining “I cannot be here [Garowe] for good; I have left family land and children behind – what stops me is the resources to go back and at times, the fear of the security situation in my family home.”

Farihya has been in Garowe’s displaced persons camp for a year; her immediate and extended family escaped the fighting in Mogadishu, in South-Central Somalia.  For Farihya, it was important to arrive in Garowe and be helped by the Government of Puntland with land and security whilst receiving immediate humanitarian assistance from non- governmental organisations (NGOs) like food, shelter, clean water, latrines and basic health care. The European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) funds many NGOs in Somalia with €40 million allocated for 2013. This includes CARE, NRC, DRC, PAH, SCF, etc. all operating in Garowe.

She says, “I wash clothes for people and collect their rubbish from their homes. My husband does manual work in construction and with this we support our three children and family.  I live as it is my home here.” She adds that if she could get help with cleaning tools it would help make her work safer.

Mohammed Abdi Ghali, the Chairman for the internally displaced people (IDP) Camp is most recently from Mogadishu, and explains what he has seen in his last 18 years in the camp in Garowe, “Food is always a problem,” he starts “CARE gave us food or training or business support – those that got business support are still surviving and those that got food are struggling.”

For humanitarians, like ECHO, who are meant to and can only offer impartial and independent short term help to get the people back on their feet, the challenge is what next for these eternally uprooted people? Somalis who cannot go back, rely on external assistance seek permanence, need services, want self-reliance and need economic opportunities.

“This is a protracted IDP crisis like we see in Afghanistan or Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for example – a mixed group of long term IDPs melding into the urban poor of Garowe.  The role of humanitarians needs to diminish in the coming years and development aid needs to step up; with the aim of service provision and fostering economic opportunities”, said Lars Oberhaus, ECHO’s Humanitarian Field Adviser for Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti.

Garowe is home to over 12 000 Somalis who have, over the last two decades, fled their homes due to conflict or natural disaster as well as hosting almost 60 000 residents.  In many contexts in the world, protracted IDPs and refugees can exercise few of their legal rights be they local integration, return, resettlement or relocation due to hostile hosts or reluctant authorities. 

In Garowe’s case, the local authorities appear to be willing, the residents are welcoming and many of the displaced are wishing to make it home; all the ingredients for supporting self reliance and improving opportunities whilst reducing short term humanitarian assistance.

Malini Morzaria
ECHO’s Regional Information Officer covering Central East and Southern Africa

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03/03/2013 – ECHO has funded the IVAP (Internally Displaced Persons Vulnerability Assessment and Profiling) project in Pakistan since 2011. Designed to fill the information gap regarding the needs and exact whereabouts of conflict-affected displaced populations in the Northwestern part of the country, this initiative run by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) enables humanitarian organisations to better design and implement their operations in the region.

Hassan Zalla and her family are one example amongst hundreds of thousands who have fled their homes from Pakistan’s tribal belt in recent years. Like many others in this region bordering Afghanistan, they were caught in the middle of the fighting between the Taliban and Pakistani troops. “We lost our house, our land, our community and our own identity,” she says. “We all feared our babies would die, so we ran.” 

Hassan has nine children, but if you include her extended family, there are actually sixteen relatives living in the rented four-room tumbledown mud house in Peshawar. The monthly rent is about €30. “My husband works collecting rubbish to cover the cost of rent and bills”, adds Hassan Zalla. “We used to live in our own house so we never had to worry about these expenses”. To add to her woes, for three years Hassan and her family were not able to access crucial humanitarian aid as, for various reasons, they could not register themselves with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Then, in December 2010, an IVAP team knocked on her door. The team was conducting an assessment to identify and profile the needs of families displaced by conflict to ensure that they could receive the appropriate assistance. This exercise also helped to pinpoint families who met the government’s eligibility criteria for registration, yet, till date, had not been registered. As a result, in early 2012, Hassan’s family was formally added to the UNHCR list of people eligible to receive humanitarian assistance. They now receive food rations on a monthly basis from the World Food Program (WFP).

“It seemed an act of God”, says Hassan, recalling the events of the day they received the news. “My husband got a call on his mobile phone. They told him to bring our ID cards and papers to Peshawar. That day he returned with biscuits, flour, lentils, oil, rice and salt. I was so, so happy when I saw all the food! But I made sure to cook small portions so that it would last us the whole month. I’m thankful that finally we got what we should have been entitled to”.
 
Birth of IVAP

Since 2008, military operations and sectarian violence have generated waves of major displacements in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of north-western Pakistan.  In order to facilitate a strong humanitarian response to the displacements, the humanitarian community and the Pakistan government took action after realising that essential data on both the whereabouts and needs of these families was lacking, thereby compromising the efficiency of humanitarian operations. In 2010, the IVAP project took shape, conceived specifically with the aim of filling the information gap regarding conflict-displaced populations from KP and FATA.

Concretely, IVAP is an information source that provides constantly updated data on Internally Displaced People (IDP) living outside camps in north-west Pakistan – critical information given that four of every five (86 per cent) displaced families do not live in camps and are therefore much harder to find and assist.  IVAP field teams visit IDP communities and gather key information on their needs including water, health, education, food security, and protection, both during displacement and upon their return to their home villages.  Constantly updated, this data is easily accessible online, at www.ivap.org.pk 

Enabling better targeting

While individual IDPs remain anonymous, a wealth of information on their needs and location is available thanks to IVAP. This data helps humanitarian organisations in the design, targeting and implementation of programmes assisting close to one million conflict-induced IDPs in Pakistan. “The information is of vital value for prioritizing the programmes in terms of vulnerability”, underlines Merlin, one of many international NGOs which have been utilising IVAP data to inform their programming. In parallel, IVAP findings have also helped register close to 11,000 eligible families with UNHCR, while a further 1,800 are in the process of being registered.

Throughout 2013, IVAP plans to conduct a re-census of all the families to re-establish their locations and needs which will once again provide vital data to humanitarian actors to facilitate the assistance of these families.  

By IVAP coordinator

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• Aid in action in Pakistan

Residents of Mayom village, Unity State in South Sudan, walk a long a road that was recently cleared and verified to be free of mines. Photo: EC/ECHO/Ludovico Gammarelli

04/04/2013 – After 20 years of civil war, South Sudan seceded from Sudan, becoming the world’s youngest nation – and one still reeling from the fall-out of the fighting. Swaths of the new country remain contaminated with landmines and other explosive remnants of war, causing the land to lie fallow and preventing infrastructure from being built. In 2010 to 2011, in a resurgence of conflict, along the border between Sudan and South Sudan left numerous roads re-mined and closed once again to civilian and humanitarian traffic.

The European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO), through its partner the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), provided support to clear routes of landmines.  This not only saved the lives of many local people but also re-opened the roads for humanitarian actors to provide critical assistance to communities along those routes.

“Armed groups have been operating and laying new mines in the northern border states of South Sudan since November 2010,” said Lance Malin, UNMAS Programme Manager. “This has resulted in a serious spike in mine-related incidents”.

During the most recent conflict in the northern border states of South Sudan, UNMAS reported over 75 victims, over half of which were fatalities. Due to the lack of access and poor connectivity in some parts of the northern border region, especially in Upper Nile State, it is anticipated that the number of accidents and fatalities is actually far greater as many incidents go unreported.

UNMAS, through support from ECHO, conducted route verification along major roads, focusing on Unity State, which has been especially hard-hit. Clearance activities involve a number of different techniques including mechanical equipment, manual clearance teams and mine-detecting dogs. Following clearance and the verification that no landmine and other explosive remnants of war remain, the routes are re-opened.

One route recently cleared by UNMAS serves as the link between the towns of Riatnabol and Abiemnom in Northern Unity State, a key transport network in the state. The route had been closed following a mine strike along the road that killed one person and injured four others in 2011. Following clearance of this road, UNMAS travelled with the Abiemnom County Commissioner to formally re-open it, and the team met with locals from the surrounding villages, Bumbill, Abyei-Nyng and Gol.

The tribal elder from Bumbill admitted his village’s dependence on the road. “Without it, we are cut off from nearby towns. People were afraid to use the road after the mine explosion. We are grateful for your help in making the road safe again. Many people now use our road.” The Abiemnom County Commissioner, when formally opening the road, thanked the international community for their efforts in improving safety for his people.

Through its partnership with ECHO, UNMAS was able to open over 650 km of roads in 2012. These routes, previously closed to humanitarian and local traffic, are now helping aid to reach thousands of vulnerable people. The clearance has allowed agencies to prioritize road transport over air shipments, expanding the areas of reach and dramatically reducing the costs of aid delivery.

The benefits of road clearance go further than the direct life saving benefits it offers. Once roads are cleared, humanitarian access to areas previously off-limits can resume. The Head of Office for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Unity State, Maduk Akot, explained: “The two biggest problems for aid delivery in Unity State remain the roads and the presence of landmines and without mine action operations in Unity State, WFP would not have been able to deliver food to some of the most at-risk individuals.”

By Matthew Williams, Programme Officer, United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), South Sudan

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Traditional mud homes were washed away by flooding in central Botswana. People have been relocated to temporary camps © Botswana Red Cross

02/04/2013 – When unexpected heavy rains recently lashed the usually dry province of Central Botswana, the local Red Cross was the first to respond. Trained disaster management volunteers from the Botswana Red Cross Society (BRCS) swung into immediate action, quickly accessing relief stocks, prepositioned last year in case of disaster.

More than 4 000 people were in need of assistance as traditional mud homes had been destroyed, public buildings, schools and infrastructure were damaged, and crops and livestock were swept away by the strong flood waters. Submerged roads left villages isolated and inaccessible.

Disaster preparedness is a core activity of BRCS, not only because a rapid response saves lives, but it also minimises the impact of disasters on communities, and reduces the long-term costs. With support from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), BRCS was able to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the 1,500 most vulnerable people, by distributing tents, tarpaulin, kitchen sets, blankets, mosquito nets, soap, and shelter tool-kits.

The wet conditions, even in relocation camps, left local Red Cross volunteers struggling to set up tents on the water-logged ground. Volunteers trained in first aid treated the casualties of the storm and those injured by their collapsing homes.

“Because of its early response, BRCS has reduced vulnerabilities and stabilised the disaster situation”, says Mabel Rammekwa, BRCS secretary general. “We will continue to preposition relief stocks, and our volunteers are on standby as more rains are expected in the coming weeks.”

The IFRC is supported by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO).  For natural disasters, ECHO funds both emergency response as well as community based disaster risk reduction actions.  The latter aims at helping communities to better prepare for imminent disasters, as well as building their resilience to recurrent crises.

By Hanna Butler, IFRC and Kefilwe Batsalewang, Botswana Red Cross

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A mother and daughter displaced by flooding in central Zambia cook in the relocation camp, where they will spend the next few months. © Stanley Ndhlovu/IFRC

02/04/2013 – Rivers have recently been bursting their banks across much of Southern Africa, submerging communities and crops, but in central Zambia where no rivers flow, there has also been flooding, the result of increased levels in the underground water table.

For an entire month, from mid-January on, the central province of Mumbwa experienced heavy rains causing the underground water table to rise to record levels. Falling rain could not be absorbed and instead overflowed onto the already saturated land, creating a flood. Water literally came up from underground, eroding topsoil and anything on it.

Houses on the water-drenched land collapsed, leaving 1500 people homeless and two dead as their homes fell apart around them. Crops were submerged and stored food was destroyed by the damp conditions and rising waters. 

Stanley Ndhlovu, disaster management coordinator with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), says that people were relocated to temporary accommodation camps. Despite the strained situation people were rallying together to support each other.

“They formed a committee to manage the camps and to look after each other and keep the camp safe,” says Ndhlovu. “An elderly couple, injured when their house collapsed on them, spent a few weeks in hospital and now they are being looked after by the community in the camp.”

The Zambian Red Cross Society (ZRCS), supported by the IFRC, has been assisting families in need since the onset of the flooding by supplying tents, mosquito nets, food and purifying the water supply. The European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) has a long standing relationship with IFRC, specifically on dealing with or mitigating the risks of natural disasters such as the ones in Southern Africa.  ECHO funds and stocks are prepositioned in disaster zones so the humanitarian response for the most vulnerable people is timely and effective.

There are no latrines in the Zambian camp, so maintaining sanitation and hygiene is a huge challenge says Ndhlovu. “Fifty volunteers have been trained to teach people ways to stay healthy, as diarrhoea is on the rise. There is a lot of stagnant water which is attracting mosquitoes and malaria is quickly spreading.”

The camps are only a temporary home, so when families return to their villages to rebuild in a few months, ZRCS will support them by providing building materials and tools. Staff and volunteers will also closely monitor the food situation as the floods came at the end of the harvest season and destroyed most of the supplies people had preserved for the year ahead. Many other countries in Southern Africa are already feeling the bite of recurring hunger, but it is a situation Zambia hopes to avoid.

By Hanna Butler, IFRC southern Africa Communications Officer

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When cyclone Haruna hit Madagascar, hundreds of families were evacuated to temporary settlements. Volunteers with the Malagasy Red Cross helped manage some of these camps; providing health care, hygiene promotion and raising awareness about gender-based violence. © Malagasy Red Cross

02/04/2013 - It was the morning of February 22 when tropical cyclone Haruna slammed into the southwest coast of Madagascar, bringing with it heavy rains and winds topping 170 km/hour. But she did not stop there; continuing on across the entire big Island, leaving many villages and communities flooded in her wake. 

Madagascar’s  west coast is much less exposed to the risk of cyclones, however, it also means residents are more vulnerable as they are not used to such disasters. 

Government figures indicate that more than 40 000 people were affected by the cyclone which caused 26 deaths. More than 7 400 homes were damaged or destroyed and critical infrastructure such as schools, government offices, health centres and roads was damaged. In Tulear, the main city in the southeast, a dam break flooded several districts, forcing the mass evacuation of thousands of people. Heavy damage was also done to maize and rice crops. 

About 200 volunteers with the Malagasy Red Cross – many of whom were also affected by the flooding -,sprung into action.  They provided assistance to their neighbours, coordinated the evacuations, managed temporary camp settlements, and provided psycho-social support where needed. They handed out items like blankets and tarpaulins, and helped to provide clean water. With contaminated water still coursing through the streets or stagnating in small ponds, there is an increased risk of diseases like malaria, cholera and acute diarrhoea. Red Cross volunteers consequently engaged in hygiene campaigns in the camps to reduce the risk of such illnesses. 

“We are here to tell them they are not alone,” said Jeanne Berthine, a volunteer with the Malagasy Red Cross branch in Sakaraha. “We know people are under a lot of stress, so we try to make it as easy for them as possible. We educate them on hygiene and health, but also on issues such as gender-based violence.”

The Platform for Regional Intervention in the Indian Ocean of the French Red Cross (PIROI) was activated, and delivered 35 tons of materials by ship directly to Tulear. Materials included 1,500 housing kits and water treatment centres. The European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) co-financed the emergency response with over €85 000 for the country, replenishing the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies funds to deal with small scale disasters. 

The main needs continue to be temporary shelter, food, water and sanitation. As the situation evolves from day to day, Malagasy Red Cross volunteers continue to put others’ needs before their own, conducting assessments to get the true picture of the gaps that still exist in the service. “These people need our help,” said Berthine. “They are our neighbours. We cannot abandon them when they need us most.” 

Katherine Mueller, IFRC and Amintsoa Razafimanantsoa, Malagasy Red Cross Society 

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Munira and her mother

27/03/2013 – Petite 19-year old Munira, covered from head to toe in a black abaya and veil, invites us through a once blue metal door into her family home, in the north western province of Hajjah, bordering Saudi Arabia. Surrounded by a high fence made of branches, corrugated iron and other debris, a small courtyard of rammed clay leads to a one-room house made of wood, plastic and corrugated iron. Once the door is closed Munira lifts her veil. It is winter in Hajja, a few weeks without the usual heat and humidity. Fatima Ahmed, Munira’s mother, welcomes us into a modest and very tidy home.

Fatima and her three children, one of them disabled, are among 4000 families who are recipients of a cash distribution programme funded by ECHO so that Yemen’s poorest people can buy food. This aid contributes to reducing the huge number of around 10 million Yemenis who do not know where their next meal is coming from.

‘I earn money by cleaning other people’s houses’ explains Fatima.  In addition she gets about 9,000 Yemeni Rial (about € 31) every 3 to 4 months from the Social Welfare Fund, a nation-wide safety net established by the government for the poorest of the poor . Whenever she has a little money which is not needed right away, she buys a lamb or a small goat, lets it roam around her courtyard where the little animal feeds on the few plants that grow there.  She sells it once it has grown a bit bigger and fatter.

The money she received through the cash distribution organised by Oxfam at the end of November, was used to pay off debts and buy slightly more varied food.

Munira is working with Oxfam in the cash distribution programme. For a couple of months she has been part of one of the 32 teams which try to sensitise mothers to the importance of improving nutritional and hygiene practices. Malnutrition has many causes; in Yemen poverty is one, but a low awareness of good nutritional practices plays a significant role in aggravating the problem.

Munira is convinced of the benefits of the programme.  Asked what she would like to change, she replies: ‘make it a permanent one’. Munira earns 15,000 Rial per month (about € 15): a good opportunity for an unmarried 19 year old girl with only a basic education to help her family in a  country where 43% of the population live on less than € 2  a day.

By Heinke Veit,
Regional Information Officer in Amman

Edwin Rogers, WASH Officer & Urban WASH Focal Point, UNICEF Liberia

 
21/03/2013 – Water is life – water can take lives - Water is life but water can also take lives: every 20 seconds, contaminated water kills one child somewhere in the world. Almost a billion people still have no access to safe water, and this number is expected to nearly double by 2025. The European Commission’s humanitarian aid department (ECHO) helps to provide access to clean water and quality sanitation. Edwin is working for the UNICEF in Liberia and tells us about the projects UNICEF is implementing there with EU funding.

I’ve been in charge of UNICEF’s urban WASH programme – which stands for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene – for about a year. Before the war, I used to work for the Liberia Water & Sewer Corporation. Back then in the eighties, 90% of Monrovia was covered by pipe borne water. Only half as many people lived in Liberia’s capital then, but every faucet of the city provided them with safe water around the clock. The war changed all that. It lasted for 14 long years and brought severe damage to the country’s infrastructure including the water treatment plant 20 km away and the hydro-electric dam. Ever since, it’s been a struggle to bring water back to Monrovia’s population which has more than doubled in the meantime. Making sure that people have access to safe water is by no means a luxury. Cholera is endemic in Monrovia and it’s nothing less than a miracle that major outbreaks haven’t yet occurred. The overall sanitary situation is poor and greater Monrovia’s sewer system is still down.

This is why in 2010 with the support of the European Commission’s humanitarian aid department (ECHO), UNICEF started the Urban WASH programme. In 24 ‘cholera hot spots’ of the city, most of them slums with the highest number of suspected cholera cases, we looked to improve the water, sanitation and hygiene conditions. We did this in collaboration with local partners and the communities themselves. In 2012, we completed the second phase of urban WASH project in 32 communities.

It is extremely important for the community to be engaged and appoint a dynamic WASH community chairman. It is one thing to bring facilities like water points, public latrines and showers to the people, it is another thing to get them to use these facilities correctly or use them full stop. Indeed, in some places like the very appropriately named ‘Struggle community’ many people continue to use the overhanging latrine just opposite the shiny new latrine block we constructed. This proves that it is as much about changing behaviours and hygiene education as it is about putting in the infrastructure. People are not sufficiently aware that by defecating in the swamp water that surrounds the shack they built and provides the fish they eat, they are contaminating the water and creating serious health risks.

As other more developmental donors take over, we will build on the projects that we completed thanks to ECHO and step up efforts to strengthen community management and hygiene education. It is a challenge to help communities organize themselves and take ownership. Some communities are very tight and run their affairs well. In others, there is little transparency and the community is in constant flux. Now is a good time for us to take stock of what has been achieved while observing what we can do better.

Hygiene education already works very well in the schools. In each of the 32 communities of the second phase of the urban WASH project we identified schools that could benefit from better sanitation facilities. We provided these on condition that they organized a School Health Club. Children from different age groups form a club that meets every week to discuss best ways to promote hygiene among the other pupils. They focus a lot on hand washing but also on personal and food hygiene. The children also get creative with drama and stage small plays for the entire school. This has a ripple effect beyond the school because when the children get home they also educate their parents. We still have some way to go, but we’re getting there.

By Edwin Rogers, WASH Officer & Urban WASH Focal Point, UNICEF Liberia

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21/03/2013 – In July 2012, clashes between Bengali Muslims and Bodos, an ethnic group in India’s northeastern State of Assam, displaced almost half a million people. Eight months on, families are slowly returning to the charred remains of their homes.  But many still languish in camps, some due to fear of renewed violence, others because they lack the resources to jumpstart their lives. The European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO), through its partner Oxfam, provides drinking water, hygiene and sanitation facilities to 7,000 families living in fourteen of these camps.

One day in July 2012, Amiron Khatun, 22, hid in a jute field near her house with her two-year-old son. She had heard rumours that armed Bodo men were likely to attack her village, Mokhanigiri in Chirang district. The long simmering discontent between Bodos and Muslims had flared yet again, and was now at its peak. 
                                                                                               
Too scared to return, Amiron stayed in the field till late night along with other women of her village. The men guarded the houses. A hushed message passed from one hide-out to the other directed Amiron’s group to a government school nearby. They were to unite with their husbands there.

“When we reached the school it was full of people”, recalls Amiron. “It was raining and there was water everywhere”. At dawn her husband had still not reached the school. Despite warnings, she ran towards her house to find him. She found him shot dead. He was one of the four people killed in the ambush that night; one of over 100 Muslims and Bodos who died in the violence.

Camp life

Since then, Amiron lives in the Bhawraguri camp that was setup near the school campus. She shares with her in-laws a bamboo-and-reed hut capped with tarpaulin.  The cubbyhole hut appears spacious, filled as it is with bare essentials. A slab of wood balanced on bamboo stumps serves as her bed.

The young woman says camp life in the early days was tough. “There was no food, and we had to depend on one hand-pump for drinking water. We had no toilet”. With no private space to bathe or relieve themselves, women like her were vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Littered with faeces and soaked with monsoon rains, the camp was a breeding ground for bacteria.

Then Oxfam, funded by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department (ECHO), stepped in to complement the relief efforts of the government and other NGOs. “Before jumping onto providing services we wanted to know from people in the camps what their most pressing needs were”, explains Zubin Zaman, humanitarian manager for Oxfam. “Our needs assessment showed that over 70 percent of people wanted bathing and toilet facilities with private spaces for women. Many families also said they needed water for drinking and cooking”.

Since then, Oxfam has built over 200 latrines and bathing cubicles with separate facilities for women and men in both Muslim and Bodo camps across the most affected districts of Chirang and Kokrajhar, while installing 47 new hand pumps and repairing 24 existing ones.

Restoring livelihoods 

When asked about her plans for the future, Amiron stays silent, her hands squirming. Her cousin chips in: “They don’t have land. Her husband was a daily-wage laborer. But the house of her in-laws was not burnt”. Like many in the camp, Amiron does not want to go back for now. Fear is palpable among those who have to return to villages where their community is in minority. Some farmers go to till their land in the morning, and return to the camps in the evening.

“The return process is complex”, says Zubin. “It is linked to land ownership, security and livelihood regeneration. Many returnees are in a precarious situation and need help with livelihood recovery at least in the medium term”. Emboldened by the compensation of € 320 and tin sheets to rebuild houses handed out by the government, many others, however, have dared to go back.

The Assam government reports that close to 40,000 people remain in the camps – a huge drop from the 485,921 people reported when the crisis was unfolding. But the numbers could be higher as some camps or settlements are not recognised by the authorities. Sanmia Sheikh, 61, is amongst those who have returned to their village in Howriapath, Kokrajhar district. “We don’t have much to do here”, he says “Earlier I had cattle, goats and chickens. But now I have lost most of my livestock”.

Having addressed the emergency needs of the families in the camps, ECHO will now extend its support to the returnees. Through Oxfam and other partners, it will help people like Sanmia buy livestock and secure their livelihood. When Amiron decides to go back to her village, she will be entitled to a cash grant, or to tools like a sewing machine in order to start a small business.

By Arjun Claire, ECHO’s Regional Information Assistant in New Delhi, India

Related information

• Aid in Action in India
• Water, sanitation and hygiene

19/03/2013 – In February Internews’ Humanitarian Information Service in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camps began broadcasting a Somali language program on humanitarian issues. ‘Gargaar’ (‘Assistance’) is produced by local and refugee journalists and broadcast daily. Internews receives support from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) and USAID’s Office for Transitional Initiatives (OTI).

When Somali journalist Shine Jamac was forced to flee his homeland in 2009 he first sought asylum in Ethiopia. It was not long before his profession began to cause him problems.

‘When I was seeking asylum at the border a journalist asked to interview me because it was World Refugee Day. He asked me what I did for a living in Somalia, and I told him I was a fellow reporter. In Ethiopia they do not respect journalists, so when they heard this they put me in jail for 20 days,’ Shine says with a rueful smile.

After returning to Somalia, Shine again suffered from an unfortunate coincidence. Whilst travelling through al Shabaab territory on his way to Kenya he was recognised as a journalist by an old acquaintance.

‘This was late in 2011 when the Kenya Defense Force was just crossing into Somalia. The al Shabaab people captured us and thought we might be spies.’ Shine goes quiet after this. He prefers not to remember his interrogation.

Now, one year after arriving in the Dadaab refugee camps, Shine is working as a journalist again.

The world’s largest refugee camp is currently home to around 450,000 refugees, and the need for information on basic issues and services is critical. Internews is partnering with local Somali language radio station Star FM to broadcast a daily program on humanitarian issues in Dadaab.

The program, which began broadcasting in February, is called Gargaar – a Somali word for ‘assistance’ or ‘support’.  Issues covered on the show so far have ranged from access to basic services, child labour, changes to health delivery, traditional birth practices or the role of community leaders in camp management. For Shine the response has been overwhelming,

‘People in the camp feel that this programme is theirs. They feel this programme belongs to them.  Many people with problems come to me now to share them and this is giving me many ideas for stories to cover. For example, I spoke with a disabled man who didn’t have a wheelchair, so I did a feature story about people living with disability.’

Shine is one of 15 refugee journalists who have been trained by Internews as part of the Humanitarian Information Service (HIS) project. With the support of Star FM and Internews staff and funding from ECHO and OTI, these refugee youth are currently producing the majority of the show’s content. Levels of experience amongst this group vary, and for youth like Sahal Ashli Hussein, Gargaar was their first opportunity to hear their own work on the radio.

‘You can imagine how I felt when my story started,’ Sahal grins, ‘I was so happy to hear my voice. Everybody in my household gathered around the radio to listen together and they were also very proud.’

In order to measure the impact of the project a baseline survey was recently conducted to assess information needs and media usage in Dadaab, the results of which will be published shortly.  A similar study was conducted by Internews in Dadaab in 2011 which identified radio as a key tool for improving access to information in Dadaab. Monitoring and evaluation of the HIS project is ongoing.

The Gargaar program currently runs daily for a half hour, although this is set to expand once construction of a dedicated radio-station in Dadaab is complete. In the meantime, Shine is just happy to be a journalist again.

‘I’m very delighted that Internews has been able to take me back to something that I have done for many years. After I fled from Somalia to Dadaab I never imagined I would be able to do this again.’

Kate Gunn and Rafiq Copeland, Internews Dadaab

A grant from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) has enabled Internews to launch the Humanitarian Information Service (HIS) to help refugees access critical, life- saving information and improve two-way communication between themselves and aid providers.

Related information

• Aid in action in Kenya

The small village of Assakaram is located over 1,000 km north east of the capital Niamey, somewhere between the cities of Agadez and Zinder. To get there, you have to leave the main road and drive for at least an hour on unmarked desert trails. Assakaram is a cluster of simple mud brick houses, often surrounded by straw fences. Saying that life here is difficult is an understatement. People grow food on parcels of land that have more in common with sand pits than agricultural fields. 

Nana Aboubacar says she has a lot of milk for her baby when she eats the special fortified food she gets from WFP. © WFP/ Stephanie Tremblay

“This is millet,” a farmer and his wife proudly say of tiny green shoots emerging from the sand. Assakaram is isolated, extremely poor, and also representative of many communities the World Food Programme works with in Niger. “All we have left to eat is this,” says Nana Aboubacar as a member of her family shows a handful of maize. Like everyone else in the village, her family are farmers. And like everyone else, last year’s harvest was bad so they make do with whatever food they can get. Maize is not her favorite food and she knows that eating only this day after day won’t give her all the vitamins and nutrients she needs to properly breastfeed her baby. 

Two days earlier, WFP distributed Super Cereal, a fortified blend of corn and soya flour that is used to prevent malnutrition. Each household with children below the age of 2 or with breastfeeding mothers received a monthly ration of the highly nutritional product. 

“Preventing and treating acute malnutrition is at the core of our response in the country,” said Darline Raphael, head of WFP’s nutrition unit in Niger. Malnutrition has always been a concern in the country, especially during the lean season. 

Outside her house, with her baby in her arms and her other children watching, Nana Aboubacar demonstrates how to cook a porridge with the fortified food she received. “When I eat this, I have a lot of milk for my baby,” she said. Her little girl wears a few “gris-gris” –charms given to her by the local marabout- to protect her from diseases. Aboubacar is convinced this helps keep her baby healthy, but she also knows that eating the Super Cereal every day is at least equally as important. 

Author: Stephanie Tremblay, WFP Public Information Officer 

Related information 

• Aid in action in Niger
• World Food Programme website