Continuing our series of guest posts from Concern Worldwide, a story about needs to happen in Haiti now that it is six months after the earthquake. This post was written by Elke Leidel who Concern's Country Director for Haiti.It was a hot afternoon on Jan. 12, the day that marked the beginning of the toughest, most agonizing stretch of my professional career.Fast forward to today, the six-month point after the quake. The UN and an army of aid agencies have provided emergency shelter—in the form of tents and tarpaulins—to 354,573 households, which actually accounts for more than 1.7 million people. Survivors are scattered across 1,100 camps, their shelter being precarious at best now that the hurricane season has begun. The work for the longer haul is now underway.Along with other...
Continuing our series of guest posts from Concern Worldwide, a story about surviving in Kenya's slums. This post was written by Victor Odero who works as a program manager for Concern's operation in Kenya.How would you define the word “resilience”? In my role as Advocacy Officer for Concern Kenya, in which I am exposed daily to the life and death struggles of people living in absolute poverty, I realize that for me and the people whom I am trying to give a voice, this word has a significance that it might not have for others.An engineer would probably define resilience as “the quality of buoyancy or elasticity.” A psychologist might describe it as “the capacity to cope with stress and catastrophe.” I began considering the different ways people understand this word after...
Continuing our series of guest posts from Concern Worldwide, a story some unconventional tools being used to help the people of Niger stave off hunger. The story was written by Amanda McClelland, who is working with Concern's emergency response team in Niger.I arrived in Niger three months ago to help the Concern Worldwide country team scale up and roll out an emergency program to respond to the emerging food crisis. It’s hard to say when exactly this shifted from an “impending crisis” to a real humanitarian emergency, but we are there now. And we are putting every bit of the planning this team has done since December to the test. The official Food Security survey of April 2010 states that there are 7.1 million people facing hunger: 3.3 million of those are considered to be facing...
Continuing our series of guest posts from Concern Worldwide, a story about a rabbit farming program in Malawi that helps small-farmers when other crops fail. The story was written by Joseph Scott, who works as a Communications Officer for Concern in Malawi.As the rains mercilessly pound the small village of Chikanga – Stefano and his neighbours hope that, this season, their crops will make it. The rainfall pattern of the last two farming seasons has been unpredictable, with rains disappearing mid-season and leaving any crops to the mercy of the sun.After two hours of thunderous downpours, Stefano, a father of five from Lilongwe, goes out to survey his rabbit kraal and chicken pen, dodging the children playing and shouting all around him. Unlike the past years, Stefano has a sense of...
Continuing our series of guest posts from Concern Worldwide, a story about finding ways to let kids play amidst the homeless chaos in Haiti. This post was written by Mark Jafar, Vice President of Corporate Communications at MTV Networks. Walk around the edges of the sunken tent settlement at Place de la Paix in Port-au-Prince, and it’s nearly impossible to tell that this was a soccer stadium just four months ago. The grass is gone entirely, replaced by bare earth and debris. There are no goal nets or benches, just shelters made of tarp, cardboard, and rusted scraps of sheet metal. And where kids and adults once gathered to watch soccer matches or to kick a ball across the field, an estimated 8,000 displaced people are now living in shocking, unsanitary, overcrowded conditions, often...
Continuing our series of guest posts from Concern Worldwide, their view of the crisis in Niger. This area of Africa is going through a famine and Concern appeals for the world to act now before it is too late. This piece was written by Amanda McClelland a member of Concern's Emergency Response team.Niger is on the brink of what will be a major catastrophe if the world does not act now. As part of Concern’s Emergency Response Team, I am no stranger to crises: that is why I was sent to Niger on January 10, just two days before the Haiti earthquake. Millet is the crop that keeps most people alive here. The majority of the country’s population of 15.2 million lives by farming or herding livestock—without rain, they do not earn enough income to get by or grow enough food to eat. The...
Continuing our series of guest posts from Concern Worldwide, the story of a mother of five who is making a positive change in Cambodia. This piece is written by Concern worker Stewart Gee.I have been in Cambodia for just nine months now, and the hectic nature of the lifestyle in Phnom Penh is matched only by the sheer volume of work that needs to be tackled on a weekly basis.Then again, I have come to expect this when working with Concern, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.It is easy, particularly in an office-based role such as mine, to get immersed in the Mekong-like flood of different things coming across your desk.I guess it’s the same in most jobs. But one thing that’s distinct about working for Concern is that, frequently, things remind you why you left your family and...
Continuing or series of guest posts from Concern International, Mark Jafar of MTV Networks talks about the needs that are still very urgent in Haiti.Bourdon Valley, Port-au-Prince – April 18, 2010 – Tucked into the hills that rise above central Port-au-Prince lies Bourdon Valley, an enclave of beautiful, verdant forest flanked by the eastern suburbs of Delmas and Canape Vert. With its thick mango groves and gently winding river, it’s easy to see why one would make this home. But the small, basic concrete houses that once lined the Valley walls now lie in ruin, replaced by the blue and white tarp shelters that now blanket so much of Port-au-Prince’s landscape. More than 14,000 Haitians live in the spontaneous “settlements” within Bourdon Valley’s four square miles,...
As a part of series of posts from Concern International, Aoife Gleeson draws inspiration from the story of African field worker Abraham.A Conversation with Abraham – Concern Office Huambo, AngolaIt’s nearly eight o’clock in the evening and I can’t believe I am still in the office. The working day here in Angola starts at 7.30am, so it feels longer than a typical day. I finished working a while ago but have been chatting with Abraham, the livelihood program manager for Concern in Angola. His story is so compelling and he tells it in such an open and engaging way that I’ve found myself completely hooked.Abraham was born in a small village in western Ethiopia. He is shy about revealing his age and could confirm only that he is over 50. Growing up, he led a simple village life and...
From Concern International, Nina Gehm tells us the story of her work in South Sudan. An area where children have a greater chance of dying at childbirth than finishing an education. Peace prospects brighten children’s dreams in South SudanFor nearly two years now, I have worked in South Sudan, helping Concern empower the poorest of the poor through programs in education, farming, nutrition, and water. Even though I live here and I witness daily examples of the hardships people face just trying to survive, the statistics never fail to dishearten me. Consider, for example, that a 15-year-old girl has a greater chance of dying in childbirth than of finishing school. Last year, the United Nations issued a press release with a few other statistics that shocked me, like this one: “92...
Here is a look at efforts to improve education in Ethiopia by Concern International. Getinet Leweyehu is the manager of Concern's education program in Ethiopia. Getinet describes how the construction of the schools close to villages can help improve the children's eduction. Concern is also participating in a unique fund raiser today called Twestival Global. The Impact of education on children’s lives in Ethiopiaby Getinet LeweyehuSchools are constructed nearer to children’s homes in rural EthiopiaAster Arba, aged nine, lives in the remote and rural village of Duguna Fango, about 450 kilometers southwest of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. Before Concern intervened, Aster and her friends would walk eight kilometers every day back and forth to school. In fact, they walked barefoot in...
Continuing with our guest blogging series, Poverty News Blog has begun a partnership with Concern Worldwide. Concern is a non-governmental humanitarian organization that tries to address the root causes of poverty to restore people's dignity. Concern also responds to emergency situations such as the recent earthquake in Haiti.Our first guest post from Concern Worldwide comes from Joseph Scott. Currently working in Malawi, Scott files this story on how Concern's education program is helping to fulfill the dreams of children. Concern education program in Nsanje, MalawiBy Joseph ScottMartha is a shy yet intelligent twelve-year-old girl. This year, she was supposed to earn her primary school leaving certificate (PSLC). Her teachers believed she would make it to high school, as she had been...
Introducing our new guest blogging series called "Guest Voices." To inaugurate our series we turn to Jane Guinn, who writes for Sedona Cyber Link. Jane recently took a trip to Myanmar, the country that is ruled by an oppressive military regime. The military government was so oppressive that it prevented humanitarian aid from reaching it's people after Cyclone Nargis. Jane was thinking about how much better life in Myanmar if some bottom of the pyramid opportunities were allowed into the country. On my recent trip to Myanmar (Burma) I took the time to read several important books analyzing the root causes of the economic crisis of 2008. As I was floating up the Irrawaddy, one of the major rivers in Asia flowing from the Himalayas, I reflected on the way of life of the peasants living...