Concern Blog
All the latest updates on our charity work from around the world.
Conflict in Sudan
Posted by Níall Ó Murchú | in Concern Blog | 8 May 2012 | 0 comments
Thousands of people are at risk on the border of South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan because of increasing conflict. Concern Worldwide is working in both countries to help these communities, providing supplies, food and access to water.
Increased suffering
Paul O’Brien, Concern’s overseas director, has just returned from the region:
We are worried about the scale of the problem along the border areas of Sudan and South Sudan. Thousands of people are being forced to flee the conflict and it is exposing very vulnerable communities to unnecessary suffering and harm.
Our work in South Sudan
In two counties in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, in South Sudan, we are providing displaced people with blankets, cooking equipment and jerry cans. We’re also taking a long-term view by improving health services and helping people establish sustainable livelihoods. As well as displaced people, we’re also helping the communities that are now hosting them.
Running on empty in eastern Chad
Posted by Francesca Reinhardt | in Concern Blog | 2 May 2012 | 0 comments
Across the Sahel region, families struggle to find enough to eat in the months before the harvest. This year is more difficult than most as the cost of grain has doubled and the markets are almost empty. Concern Worldwide is helping by providing food and support to those in need.
Hunger gap
Radia Oumar knows that time is against her. It is May and she can barely find enough grain to feed her family, yet the next harvest is not until September. This is what is known as the hunger gap. A day’s labour in a neighbouring market buys Radia about two mixing bowls’ worth of grain. This is not nearly enough to feed her family of five.
Scraping by
Since their harvests failed, many families like Radia’s must scrape together enough money to buy food each day, living day-to-day, hand-to-mouth. To make ends meet, they are resorting to foods only eaten in times of extreme shortages:
The village is suffering; all the grain stores are empty. We do what we can, the rest is in God’s hands. [We are eating krebs]. Usually krebs is only for goats, now we add it to the sorghum. I hope the rain comes soon, so we can collect more plants to eat.
Tags:
Nature’s unforgiving hand in Afghanistan
Posted by Bernadette Murphy | in Concern Blog | 24 April 2012 | 0 comments
In February 2012, heavy snowfall in Badakhshan, a province in the far northeast corner of Afghanistan, triggered catastrophic avalanches, burying entire villages in feet of snow. Children in kabul’s displacement camps died because of the extreme cold. Concern Worldwide’s Peter Wilson visited the country recently and witnessed the devastation of the harsh winter firsthand. This is his story.
Isolated communities
"Badakhshan is an extremely remote and mountainous region and communities there can be entirely cut off from the outside world for up to seven months a year. Most villages can only be reached by horseback or foot across treacherous paths dotted with ravines, rockslides, and landslides."
Deadly avalanches
"After a string of avalanches left dozens injured and trapped in their homes, we launched an emergency response to bring life-saving assistance to 30,000 of the most affected and isolated people. They had no access to markets so we began to clear roads using donkeys and horses and provided fodder to 2,000 households in 30 villages to help their animals."
Tags:
West Africa food crisis: a daily struggle
Posted by Bernadette Murphy | in Concern Blog | 19 April 2012 | 0 comments
Concern Worldwide is working with poor families in Chad, providing them with desperately needed food. As food stocks dry up, we will be distributing food along with the World Food Programme. We are also helping communities to plant good quality seeds so that they will have a better harvest this year. We aim to help around 6,880 families over the coming months.
Hawa’s story
One of the families we are helping is Hawa’s. We will be working with Hawa and her family over the next few months. This is her story.
Poor rains
Hawa Mahamoud returned home to Ambaouda in eastern Chad with her family in 2011 after years of being displaced because of conflict. They arrived before the planting season but, due to the poor rains, their two fields yielded less than a sack of sorghum.
Hawa has eight children and her husband is too old to work. She has already sold off her five goats for around €120, which she has spent on food and the cost of returning home. Her granary, a large clay jar used to store grain, is almost empty.
Tags:
Rewarding 30 years of charity work
Concern staff member Dominic MacSorley last night received an award for his 30-year contribution to international humanitarianism. Well done, Dominic!
The award was given by the Northern Ireland All Party Group on International Development (APGID). The awards took place in parliament buildings, Stormont, and recognised some of the outstanding contributions which people living and working in Northern Ireland have made to the developing world.
Tags:
Video: crisis in west Africa
The food crisis in the Sahel region of west Africa is already affecting millions of people. In this video, Concern's overseas director, Paul O'Brien, talks about what we are doing to help prevent the crisis from getting worse.
Breaking the hunger pattern in Niger
The Sahel region of west Africa is on the brink of its third food crisis in less than a decade. At present, 5.4 million people in Niger are at risk of hunger. Concern Worldwide has responded by implementing an early intervention programme. We are also making long-term plans to reduce the impact of future crises.
Learning from past experience
We acted early in 2009 to initial indications of an impending food crisis in Niger. This meant that when a hunger crisis did arise in 2010 we had already put preventative measures in place. This helped save countless lives. We used cash transfers, improved seed varieties and emergency nutrition programmes to reach the most vulnerable people before food ran out.
This was the first time emergency cash was distributed using mobile phone transfers and the results were encouraging. Malnutrition rates in the areas where we worked were well below the emergency threshold and 80% of the targeted villages at risk of food shortages enjoyed above average harvests.
Tags:
West Africa crisis
Posted by Leila Bourahla | in Concern Blog | 20 March 2012 | 0 comments
A food crisis is looming in the Sahel region of west Africa and millions of people are already affected. Concern Worldwide is responding in some of the worst-hit areas in Niger and Chad, but more help is urgently needed.
Your help is needed
Unimaginable hunger
After a poor harvest last year, food supplies in the region are rapidly declining. In Niger, 5.4 million people are affected. In Chad, it is estimated that 13 out of 22 regions could be affected.
Many families are expecting to completely run out of food by as early as next month unless they receive immediate assistance. They are living with hunger on a scale most of us will never experience.
Tanzania and agricultural investment
Posted by Isla Gilmore | in Concern Blog | 2 March 2012 | 0 comments
Yesterday, I joined other marchers in Tanzania to deliver a petition, which was signed by more than 16,000 Africans, to President Jakaya Kikwete. It asked African leaders to invest more in agriculture for smallholder farmers and to be transparent.
I spent the morning in the State House with Tanzania’s President Kilwete, members of the Agricultural Non-State Actors Forum (ANSAF) and Bono’s ONE Foundation.
Setting an example
By increasing investment in the sector, President Kikwete has shown commitment to improve agriculture in Tanzania through the Kilimo Kwanza (agriculture first) initiative. Yesterday, we asked him to take the lead and set an example to other African leaders by encouraging them to increase investment to 10% of GDP, as promised in the 2003 Maputo Declaration on Agriculture.
Reducing world hunger
Concern Worldwide has been an active member on the board of ANSAF for over six years and we support ANSAF’s advocacy for small-scale farmers in Tanzania. Yesterday’s speeches in the State House echoed Concern Worldwide’s aim to reduce hunger across the globe by working with smallholder farmers. Audax Rukonge, ANSAF's executive secretary said:
In the Tanzanian context, and probably most of African countries, poverty is a rural phenomenon, and agriculture is the main livelihood source. Tanzania can attain some of the Millennium Development Goals as well as national goals if we invest in agriculture and particularly smallholder farmers.
Changing attitudes to agriculture
President Kikwete promised to talk to his fellow heads of state on this issue. He said:
This is important because it reminds us that agriculture is the life-blood of our country, sustaining our people in towns and villages and meeting their basic needs. Our attitude towards agriculture can change, will change, and must change.
Tags:
Brighter futures in Kenya
Posted by Bernadette Murphy | in Concern Blog | 1 March 2012 | 0 comments
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is “connecting girls, inspiring futures.” Lillian and Elizabeth, two school girls in Nairobi, gave me an insight into what this means.
Gender equality
For Kenyan girls and women, the dawn of a new era – brought about by a new constitution that recognises equal rights – has made the many years of fighting for gender equality worth all the effort. The new constitution gives women more opportunities to participate effectively in decision-making and recognises their rights to inheritance and owning property and land.
Changing times
Though times are changing in Kenya, many girls still struggle to go to school and parents tend to educate sons before their daughters. So, it is inspiring to learn that some girls are getting the opportunity to pursue their education.
Tags:
