Kenya: We don’t intend to stop
by Reshma Kahn, Advocacy and Communications Assistant, CARE Kenya
I still remember the 1st of May 2011. His Excellency Mwai Kibaki, the President of Kenya, declared the ongoing drought a national disaster and called upon donors and well wishers to support the country in that difficult time. For the many Kenyans living in marginal areas, the failure of two successive rainy seasons had made access to water for their household, livestock and farming needs increasingly difficult. For pastoralists who already live in the harsh arid and semi-arid areas, this made their already difficult lives even harder. The situation then worsened, with the declaration of famine in parts of southern Somalia. More and more families fled the country, leading to an unprecedented influx of refugees to the Dadaab complex in Northern Kenya.
- Dadaab Refugee Camp has been flooded with refugees as a result of the drought in the Horn of Africa. Image: Kate Holt/CARE
Dadaab refugee camps were created in 1991 to respond to the influx of Somali refugees fleeing the fall of their Government. Located some 80 kilometers from the border with Somalia, the three camps at Dadaab were originally built to house around 90,000 people. Today, they are home to over five times that number, mostly Somalis. Despite the severe overcrowding, CARE has continued to work in the camps over the past 20 years, providing much needed relief, food, water, sanitation and hygiene. When the influx peaked at over 1,000 new arrivals per day, CARE stepped up its programs. Additionally, we continued with our gender and community development agenda, providing counseling to numerous gender-based violence survivors in the camps as well as operating schools with over 15,000 students. Read more…
Walk in Agnes’ shoes
By Amelia Poxon, CARE Australia Communications Coordinator
In the red dusty landscape of southern Zimbabwe, a slight figure walks under the blazing afternoon sun with a tin bucket swinging by her side.
It looks like a difficult and tiring task, but 10-year old Agnes* is happy to collect clean safe water that is just 400 metres from her home.
- Agnes carries her 15 litre bucket to collect water every afternoon. Image: Josh Estey/CARE
Every afternoon, Agnes walks to a borehole that has been recently repaired by CARE to provide her and 300 other families with safe, clean water near their homes and school.
Collecting water is a task that is almost exclusively carried out by women and girls in developing countries like Zimbabwe. Without a safe borehole to collect water from, many females in Agnes’ community used to walk for hours, several times a day, to collect enough water for their families to drink, bathe and cook with. Even after walking long distances to find water, what they would source may not necessarily be safe to drink. Read more…
Haiti Earthquake: Two years on
Two years since the devastating earthquake which killed more than 220,000 people, Haitians are rebuilding their lives and regaining their confidence with assistance from CARE.
CARE has a five-year, $US100 million plan to help Haiti recover. These photos document the past two years of CARE’s work in Haiti, including the initiail devastation and the recovery and rebuilding phases.
The devastation in Port-au-Prince in the moments after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake. Image: Evelyn Hockstein/CARE
CARE began responding immediately, distributing food, water purification tablets and shelter to those in need. Image: Evelyn Hockstein/CARE
Haiti: School’s in
By Mildrede Beliard, CARE Haiti
Two years after the devastating earthquake in Haiti which killed over 222,000 people, CARE is helping communities to move from the recovery phase and work towards rebuilding their lives and regaining their independence.
Léogâne was one of the areas hardest hit by Haiti’s devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010. Officials estimate the tremor destroyed 80 to 90 per cent of Léogâne’s buildings, including many schools.
A young girl outside a destroyed building in Leogane in the days after the earthquake in 2012. Image: Evelyn Hockstein/CARE
The parents of Léogâne’s Mellier community have a long history of banding together to help one another. In the chaos that enveloped Haiti following the departure of the ruling Duvalier family in 1987, a group of parents in Mellier formed the Association of Parents of Mellier (ASPAM), a PTA-like association to make sure their kids’ schooling continued without interruption. Soon after, they opened a pre-school and an elementary school so their youngest children didn’t have to walk for hours to facilities outside Mellier if they wanted an education.
Even in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, when day-to-day survival was itself in doubt for many, parents began work to get their children back in school. For help, ASPAM turned to CARE, which has supported 78 schools since the earthquake, 20 in Léogâne alone.
‘CARE was with us from the start,’ says Ginette Louis Jean, director of the ASPAM pre-school. ‘CARE provided us with school kits for teachers, students and educational materials for the class.’
An ASPAM school in Leogane where CARE has assited with refurnishing and has distributed school kits to students and teaching materials to teachers. Image: Mildrede Beliard/CARE.
Zimbabwe: More than bricks and concrete
By Amelia Poxon, CARE Australia Communications Coordinator
When Serina learnt about the benefits of having a toilet in her home, nothing could stop her from getting to work and building it herself.
Serina is a mother of eight and member of a community health club facilitated by CARE in southern Zimbabwe. The area has very low access to sanitation, so CARE began working through the clubs to teach hygiene and sanitation principles and improve access to toilets.
Serina outside her home in southern Zimbabwe. Image: Josh Estey/CARE.
‘I’m very happy to be a club member,’ Serina explains. ‘I have learnt how to keep my house clean inside and out and how to avoid the spread of diseases in our community. Now I feel happy that I can teach these things to my children.’ In a country that suffered from a severe cholera outbreak in 2009 which claimed 4,000 lives, the importance of hygiene and sanitation cannot be overstated.
by Edward Boydell, CARE Australia’s Climate Change Adviser
Following more than two weeks of intense negotiations, the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa ended on 11 December 2011.
In the conference’s closing hours, parties agreed on an outcome that for the first time will force all of the world’s biggest polluters to take action to reduce the impacts of climate change. Currently this is no more than a mandate to work towards a legally binding plan to cut emissions, to come into force by 2020. Meanwhile, the Kyoto Protocol will enter a second commitment period to run from 2013-2020, and progress was made on a Green Climate Fund that will support developing countries to reduce their greenhouse emissions and adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change.
Zambia © Evelyn Hockstein/CARE
However, evidence is growing that this could be too little, too late, to avoid catastrophic interference with the climate system and warming in excess of 3-4 degrees Celsius. This would have a devastating impact on vulnerable communities and ecosystems, particularly poor women and children who have contributed least to climate change, but will be the hardest hit.
CARE sees a glimmer of hope in this pathway towards a long-term legally binding climate agreement for all greenhouse gas emitters, but the devil will be in the detail. Developed countries will need to commit to deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and honor commitments to direct up to $98 billion a year to developing countries through the Green Climate Fund by 2020; a significant challenge against the backdrop of economic uncertainty in the US and some EU nations.
Breaking down barriers in Vietnam
By Christina Munzer, CARE Australia’s Asia & Pacific Coordinator
I’ve recently come back from a trip to the Delta region of Vietnam and I am hopeful. Through dedicated local partners and funding from donors like AusAID, CARE is reaching the most vulnerable communities with development assistance.
Thanh and his family come to mind. Thanh is 26, with a bright face. He has what could be described as cerebral palsy but this has not been medically confirmed. Working through local Women’s Union and Commune People’s Committee members, CARE has been providing crucial water, sanitation and hygiene support to vulnerable households that lie scattered across the Delta, many areas that are now inundated by floodwaters. This included building an indoor toilet for Thanh, who has limited mobility.
An indoor toilet provided by CARE has made life easier for Thanh, who has has limited mobility. Photo: Christina Munzer/CARE
Up until three years ago, Thanh and his family were using the river to go to the toilet. This was incredibly difficult and at times humiliating for Thanh, who often required assistance from his mum or dad. As visitors to their home, we had difficulty disembarking from a small boat onto a muddy embankment to access their porch, our shoes clogged with mud. I found it hard to imagine what it must have been like to crawl across this same embankment, clothes all wet and muddy, just to go to the toilet. Read more…
‘I am somebody now’: Living with HIV in Bougainville PNG
by Lyrian Fleming, CARE’s Education Coordinator
Sylvester Pokona is just 38 years old, but has the life experience of a man much older. A survivor of the Bougainville crisis – the civil war which gripped Bougainville in Papua New Guinea from 1988 to 1990, all the events of his life since then have been impacted by the conflict, including his status as a person living with HIV.
Since finding out his HIV positive status, Sylvester has become a leader and advocate for persons living with HIV in his community
When the crisis overtook Bougainville, Sylvester joined the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) and was separated from his wife and children. The conflict, which began over a dispute between local landowners and mining company Rio Tinto, tore apart many families in the region as men left their villages to fight, were imprisoned, and sometimes killed.
“During the crisis families got separated. Some marriages were broken because maybe the husband or wife might be from a different part of PNG, and then, if you weren’t from Bougainville you had to leave. When those people went away, or those people stayed back, the father or the mother was separated from the rest of the family,” explains Sylvester.
Sylvester’s family suffered this same fate, with the conflict driving him apart from his family. “I was married, I have kids, two daughters, and most of the time during the crisis I was traveling to the Solomon Islands and …I was leaving my wife and my two kids, so what happened, because of the problems, we got separated.”
“And when we got separated I went away with a troubled mind…I thought that I’m going to find a peaceful life somewhere with somebody else, but instead I got infected,” says Sylvester.
CAREgifts: Help her lead
Train a woman in legal rights for $45.
One very important step towards gender equality, is training women in legal rights to give them the resources and knowledge so they can voice their concerns and priorities and create a brighter future for their family, community and even their entire country.
CARE also works with women to ensure that they have an opportunity to enter into the work force if they wish, by training as an apprentice or starting a small business. If you purchase one of these CAREgifts, you are contributing to empowering women and giving them a voice and an important place in their community.
Find out more about CARE’s work helping women to lead in their communities or browse CAREgifts.
Ethiopia: Tell everyone my story
By Amelia Poxon, CARE Australia’s Communications Coordinator
Since returning from a brief trip to Ethiopia earlier this month, I have had the words of one woman I met repeating in my mind:
Women here used to be like material – just for looking at. I am so happy that someone would come and listen to my story. Please share it with everyone you meet.
That woman is 44-year old Asha Ame. Asha has eight children. She and her husband live with their large family in West Hararrghe, a region of Ethiopia routinely devastated by drought.
Asha is a member of a CARE community savings group. The group of 20 members contributes 10 birr each month (around 50 cents) until they have saved enough for members to start taking loans for income-generating activities. The loan is then paid back with interest, ready for someone else to start a new venture.
These activities help to diversify income supply, so families are not so vulnerable to drought and poor harvests. They also provide an opportunity for women to earn an income, often for the first time.
Asha herself took a loan to buy a goat, which provides her family with nutritious milk and has now had kids. She then took another loan to cover her transport costs to sell crops at the local market. She quickly paid back the loan and pocketed the additional profits as the first income she had ever earned.
Asha Ame in her home in West Harrarghe, Ethiopia. Image: Josh Estey/CARE
Then, one month ago, her new financial security provided the greatest gift she could imagine – it saved her daughter’s life.
CAREgifts: Help her earn
Around 70 per cent of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas; they are dependent on their livestock and crops for survival. By equipping women with farming tools, seeds, livestock and training, they can become self-sufficient and develop a secure income. What’s more, when a woman earns an income she puts 90 per cent of her earnings back into her family and community.
All of the CAREgifts animals will provide women and their families with an opportunity to earn an income. Many of the animals also supply nutritious eggs or milk so women can provide healthy
food for their families. They can collect and sell eggs from chickens and ducks, milk from goats and cows, manure for their crops and all of the animals breed so their young can be sold on to
help other families within the community.
Nothing says 'you're amazing' like a piglet for $40
A great example of this is pig banks. When a community owns a pig bank, families can borrow pigs until they breed. They can keep the piglets that are produced, and return the adult pigs to the bank for
other families to repeat the process. These piglets will also breed one day and produce more and more piglets for a family to sell.
If you buy someone special the gift of a sewing machine and training, you are contributing to help women establish their own steady source of income and have given them the opportunity to work
for themselves.
Find out more about CARE’s work helping women earn an income or browse CAREgifts.
Report release: Sex and Age Matter – Improving Humanitarian Response in Emergencies
Humanitarian aid is largely guided by anecdotes rather than evidence but a new report Sex and Age Matter – Improving Humanitarian Response in Emergencies, shows that proper collection, analysis and use of sex and age disaggregated data (SADD) allows agencies to deliver assistance more effectively and efficiently in a crisis.
The Feinstein International Center report was funded by CARE International and the UN Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs.
Data presented in this report comes from a review of more than 300 publications, dozens of interviews with leading humanitarian actors in the field, and 17 case studies from around the world.
Currently, the humanitarian aid system shows weaknesses in data collection, analysis and response in all stages of a crisis or emergency. As a result, the present system is less evidence-driven than it should be.
CARE Humanitarian & Emergency Response Manager, Adam Poulter said the SADD report reflects the investment and commitment of CARE globally to improving practice in this area.
‘We understand the importance of ensuring SADD to ensure specific vulnerabilities are captured, understood and inform programming,’ Mr Poulter said.
‘The SADD report is a learning tool for NGO’s as well as donors. It guides best practice and should be readily referred to, in order to improve procedures, in turn improving our efficiency and effectiveness in a crisis.’
Mr Poulter added that CARE was seeking to improve in the area of SADD.
‘We’re working to ensure the engagement of more female staff in assessment teams and the delivery of aid to ensure access to affected women. CARE is conducting further training for staff in headquarters and Country Offices on gender issues.’
‘CARE is promoting female leadership in humanitarian work. An example of this is that the emergency team in Geneva has changed in the last five years from being 70 per cent male to 70 per cent female nowadays, with senior positions being filled 100 per cent by women.’
Read the full report.
Vietnam: South-East Asia under water
By Lara Franzen, Emergency Advisor for CARE International in Vietnam.
Sitting three deep in a glorified canoe, I’m carefully motored across the Plane of Reeds on the Mekong Delta in south-west Vietnam.
I’m told that six metres below the water’s surface sit rice fields, land which only a month ago held hope of a bumper harvest, with it the offerings of a livelihood and a helping hand out of extreme poverty.
I’m wholly aware of the abnormality of the sights which surround me; the tops of thatched houses, immersed headstones of sacred graveyards and the surreal experience of being at head height with the electrical wires.
Men paddling along a flooded Châu Phú district highway. Image: Richard Wecker/CARE
I was not prepared for the sheer number of stranded households, completely cut off by oceans of flood waters. As we drift along, a three generation family meets our gaze with a smile. Resilient and adaptive, they are finding comfort in maintaining what remains of their normal routine, washing clothes in the flood waters and children fishing from the communal living space. Read more…
Bangkok – a sinking ship
By Promboon Panitchpakdi, Country Director Raks Thai Foundation (CARE Thailand)
We have just completed an assessment on the situation of migrant workers that are affected by the floods in a few selected areas around Bangkok. There seems to be very little emergency assistance for those workers, who have no means to support themselves.
Migrant workers standing in knee-level flood. Most of them fear prosecution or extortion by authorities. They are staying in apartment buildings, on the second floor and above, holding out with very little water and food supplies. Image: Raks Thai
It is a particularly difficult time because with each passing day we are hearing and seeing the floods surrounding Bangkok from all sides: the north, west and east. And in the south there is the ocean. It seems like the city is shrinking as the floods rise, giving the appearance of a sinking ship – Bangkok.
There is a lot of uncertainty among the population. Today, in every shop in Bangkok and even large malls, we see empty shelves for dry food, milk, and other items for daily use. Read more…
CAREgifts: Help her learn
We are proud to launch our brand new CARE gifts catalogue – packed full of gifts that help women, girls and their communities to LIVE, LEARN, EARN and LEAD.
Here are some of the gifts you can buy someone special which will help women and girls to LEARN.
Educating children is a vital step in the fight to overcome poverty. CARE works with rural communities to improve access to education in native languages for girls and boys who may otherwise miss out.
Great disparity exists around the world between the number of girls and boys accessing education. Of the 960 million adults in the world who cannot read, two thirds are women. Seventy per cent of the 130 million children who are out of school are girls. CARE focuses on the importance of sending girls to school, and making sure they stay there, because educated girls become educated mothers, who will have healthier families, earn a greater income and will be more likely to educate their own children.
Send a girl to school for $69
If you purchase an education CAREgift, you will contribute to CARE’s work in the education sector, and this will make the world of difference to young girls and boys. Gifts such as school books, blackboards, high school starter packs, desk and chairs and nutritious meals are all important tools that young children need to ensure they can learn in a healthy environment.
Training local teachers who speak local languages is important for many rural communities. Giving them the opportunity to pass on their local knowledge to future generations at the same time as earning a steady income is a gift that will keep on giving.
It is also important that schools are equipped to meet all the needs of young boys and girls, and therefore school toilets and clean water and sanitation are an important part of CARE’s education programs.
Find out more about CARE’s work educating women or browse CAREgifts.
