Reuters AlertNet -

Blogs

Working in Sri Lanka's camps calls for creative thinking
01 Jun 2009 16:05:00 GMT
Author: Amjad Mohamed-Saleem

These days, it's a question of survival of the most creative. In response to the challenges we face working in camps for internal refugees in Sri Lanka's north, we have to be innovative to overcome operational obstacles. And there are many!

Take, for example, the recent news of the end of the war and the death of the Tamil Tiger rebel leader, which brought euphoria to the streets of Colombo and some other parts of the country. For us, it meant a total shutdown of access to the camps. Initially, the authorities slapped a ban on vehicles entering the camps, largely it seems as a security measure.

...

Post a comment

Children wait for playtime in Pakistan
01 Jun 2009 15:59:00 GMT
Author: Islamic Relief

This blog is written by Niyaz Muhammad, an aid worker for Islamic Relief. He is based in Mardan District where Islamic Relief is working with those who have fled the fighting in Buner, Dir and Swat. In his diary he reports on the situation in an area that is struggling with more than 2 million displaced people.

Today, as we ran our first session to support children affected by the conflict, I realised how important our work is. The vast majority of displaced people are children and in the past few weeks their lives have been turned upside down. They have lost all that is familiar to them and are living in extremely difficult conditions with nowhere to play or study and in many cases, nothing to do.

...

Post a comment

Egypt: Cairo Refugee Film Festival
30 May 2009 02:17:23 GMT
Author: Global Voices

A wholehearteldy Sudaniya invited me to the Cairo Refugee Film Festival blog where I was introduced to some great background information on refugees in Egypt:

In the last three decades, Egypt has become host to refugees fleeing conflicts and persecution in Africa, Asia and Middle East. Many refugees have made Egypt their home and various refugee communities live amongst Egyptian, contributing to the Egyptian society. Though Sudanese are considered to be the largest refugee population, there are also large numbers of Somalis, Eritreans, Ethiopians, North Africans, and even more from Central and West Africa as also Iraqis. Refugees from the Middle and Far East also seek asylum in Egypt. In addition, there are an estimated 70,000 Palestinians. These refugees are often falsely identified as economic migrants, rather than a vulnerable population who fled their homelands due to political unrests and violence.

The Cairo Refugee Film Festival is an attempt to integrate refugees in their new host country:

Since the vast majority of refugees will never be resettled, integration in Egypt is of great concern and the need of the hour. This is possible only when when the misconceptions between the host communities and the refugee communities are cleared and an appreciation and understanding of the others circumstances is fostered.

...

Post a comment

Pakistan: Bloggers On Swat Relief Drive
29 May 2009 20:47:03 GMT
Author: Global Voices

The Observers features Pakistani blogger Teeth Maestros humanitarian relieve efforts for the IDPs in Swat region.

Post a comment

Calculating the human cost of climate change - help or hindrance?
29 May 2009 16:41:00 GMT
Author: Megan Rowling

Why does it seem so hard to put a credible face on the human impact of climate change? The latest effort to do so - a report commissioned the Global Humanitarian Forum (GHF), a Geneva-based organisation led by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and released on Friday - has been criticised for what some say is the shakiness of its data.

The study, carried out by Dalberg Global Development Advisers, estimates that climate change kills about 315,000 people a year through hunger, sickness and weather disasters, with the annual death toll expected to rise to half a million by 2030.

...

2 comments | Post a comment

Next entries