Great Lakes Pact and the Rights of Displaced People: A Guide for Civil Society (IDMC and IRRI, Sept. 2008) [English text] [French text]
Iraq's Refugee and IDP Crisis: Human Toll and Implications (Middle East Institute, August 2008) [text via Human Security Gateway]
"Persons displaced during conflicts have the right to return," Viewpoint of the Council of Europe Commissioner on Human Rights...
Barbour, Brian and Brian Gorlick, Embracing the 'responsibility to protect': a repertoire of measures including asylum for potential victims, New Issues in Refugee Research paper no. 159 (UNHCR, July 2008) [text]
Black, Richard et al., Demographics and Climate Change: Future Trends and Their Policy Implications for Migration, DRC Working Paper no. T-27 (Development Research Centre on Migration,...
In
South Africa,
Romania,
united kingdom,
humanitarian assistance,
asylum,
internally displaced persons,
protection,
Palestinians,
urban areas,
climate,
NGOS
Annual Consultations with NGOs, 25-27 June 2008 [web site]
- Provides access to detailed agendas for the consultations and side meetings, NGO profiles, and previous years' meeting documents. Topics discussed this year include human rights mechanisms, protection of women and children, IDP protection, resettlement, detention, education/employment creation, refugee law, reducing statelessness, and...
After 25 years of work in the human rights arena, the IHF was forced to shut its doors in early December 2007 when the embezzlement committed by the organization's former financial manager caused the organization to file for bankruptcy.
The IHF's records and documents will be transferred to the Open Society Archives (OSA) at the Central European University in Budapest where they will eventually...
The annual consultations between UNHCR and NGOs began yesterday and will continue through the 28th. Discussions will focus on a variety of themes, including: partnership and accountability, durable solutions, protection in mixed migration flows, creating safe schools, delivering humanitarian assistance and protection in complex emergencies, and refugee resettlement. The agenda provides more...
Expert Seminar on Protracted IDP Situations (Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, June 2007; posted August 2007) [text]
Guidelines for Relations between U.S. Armed Forces and Non-Governmental Humanitarian Organizations in Hostile or Potentially Hostile Environments (InterAction, posted August 2007) [text]
On Migration and the Policy Process, Working Paper no. T20 (Development...
Those beautiful guitars are from MahaloMusicBoston and Scott Lesniewski (Mahalo Music Boston). Scott was one of the generous donors who is supporting Leng Sopharath's college education.
Scott writes and records original, instrumental music intended for use in film, commercials and other media productions. He can also write a catchy pop tune! You'll find music samples and contact information here.I look forward to reading your updates. Education is a very important part of life, I think so many of us take for granted. Even just the ability to read and write can change a life....
Building Safer Organisations: Guidelines and Handbook (ICVA, Feb. 2007) [access]
Fostering Quality and Accountability among Humanitarian Aid Agencies through a Process of Accreditation: History, overview of current options and potential contribution from Sphere (Sphere Project, March 2007) [access]
Guidelines on the Treatment of Chechen Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Asylum Seekers and...
Leng Sopharath, February, 2007
If you are reader of this blog, you are probably aware of the campaign I ran to raise money for Leng Sopharath's college tuition using the ChipIn fundraising widget. Leng Sopharath is one of 19 college students being sponsored for college through a program of the Sharing Foundation,
an ngo that works directly with local officials, orphanages, and NGOs
in Cambodia to identify and carry out projects which improve the lives
of children.
The photo above came in today's letter from Leng Sopharath. You can read see the other photos and read the letter in flickr here. ...
Photo from the CWCC Web site
Violence against women and children (rape and sexual abuse, domestic violence, and sex trafficking) is a very serious problem in Cambodia. The Cambodian Women's Crisis Center (CWCC) is one of a number of NGOs in country addressing this problem (Stop Exploitation Now is another). The organization recently launched a new web site intended to promote their programs and help educate people about the serious violence issues, particularly sex trafficking, that are rampant in Cambodia. CWCC also works to advocate with the Cambodian Government for legal and structural reforms.
The CWCC was founded in 1997 by a small group of women concerned about the issue and the lack of services to care for victims. Since its openining a crisis center Phnom...
Photo in my flickr stream here.
Every time Dr. Hendrie travels back from Cambodia, we have a special briefing meeting for the Sharing Foundation volunteers and board members. We had that meeting over the weekend and Dr. Hendrie, had almost literally, just stepped off the plane.
The Sharing Foundation accomplishes so much! There's so much to write about .. so I'll be blogging about it over the next few weeks. I did want to report on how we're beginning to put the generous dollars you all contributed (matched by Yahoo) to work.
Dr. Hendrie passed around this photo of the 600 kids who now be able to attend school because they have school uniforms.
As many of you know, the Sharing Foundation won the Yahoo/Network for Good Charity Badge...
I woke up this morning and I'm sitting here utterly speechless and with tears of joy!! Everyone's generosity is very heart warming and wonderful!! Thank you so much for contributing to the campaign.
I know the badge says I've Raised $49537 from 745 Donations! It really should say "We" There was lots of help from the Sharing Foundation family - board members, volunteers, and supporters -- especially TSF's founder, Dr. Hendrie, whose relentess attention to campaign made it successful. In addition, we received lots of support and help from the Cambodian adoptive parent community and their families, churches, synagogues, fellow employees, golf buddies, quilting clubs, book clubs, parents of their children's school mates, high school and...
Sina, age 15, is an orphan and head of her family -- two younger sisters aged 11 and 8 (Sina is in photo with the white shirt and blue shorts on the left). She earns a monthly wage working for a sewing school and shop, a vocational program run by the Sharing Foundation that trains young women so they can earn a sustainable living wage with a home-based sewing business or get a better paying job in Cambodia’s garment industry.
Sina helps makes school uniforms that the Foundation provides to over 1,000 street children in Cambodia so they can attend school. Sina’s younger sisters are 2 of over 500 students who are learning English in a program in the local village supported and run by TSF.
This year we could more than double the number of uniforms we
provide to children...
Many children in Cambodia do not go to school because their families lack the $10 for a uniform, required for school attendance, and other school supplies.
Last year, The Sharing Foundation sewing school made over 1000 uniform sets and donated them to needy children in Roteang Village, to the Street Children's Assistance NGO, and to a poor government orphanage. Our sewing girls, who EW employed by the Sharing Foundation's vocational training program, earn from the first day of their training, so this is a win-win situation.
This year we could more than double the number of uniforms we provide to children in Cambodia, including some for HIV children's group homes. The Sharing Foundation has the opportunity to receive matching dollars from Yahoo via the...
We are very grateful to everyone for their contributions, links, and advice. I'm elated that we surpassed our goal to support Leng Sopharath's second year at college. But, I'm not ending the campaign. Why? Meet Sin Vuthy. He is one of ten students being sponsored for their freshman through the Sharing Foundation's education programs. His college fees for this year have been partially sponsored, so we want to raise more money to support him too.
But Leng Sopharath and Sin Vuthy are only of two of more than 1,300 children that the Sharing Foundation educates. These two college students represent the top of the tier of the Sharing Foundation's educational programs. In order to get to...
Some claims to be the voice of the voiceless - from animal rights activists, over NGOs working in Africa - to Rage Against The Machine.
The NGO I work for doesn't claim to give voices to the voiceless, it claims it gives influence to the poor. I am sceptical about both, I don't belive in the 'giving' thing. I prefer people claiming it themselves.
But I haven't been able to put right words to it in the way one of my Ugandan colleagues did today during a discussion on how to deal with advocacy; He suggested that we changed focus to unblocking the ears of the people who seem not to listen. He argued we can empower (and poor out money) people with voices or speak on behalf of them, but we will keep shouting and shouting, if no one is listening.
Point......
We've just received a donation on behalf of all the children at Ptea Ponleu Vichea, a youth center in Battambang which is focused on similar work that the Sharing Foundation is engaged in. The Center is a project of FEDA stands for ‘Friends Economic Development Association’. FEDA is a Cambodian Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) working to empower Cambodian people living in rural areas, founded in 1994 by a group of local Cambodian volunteers.
THANK...
To date more than 600 groups have become affiliated to ZAW. ZAW now boasts of membership of 5000 registered individuals.ZAW is well known and well regarded in Zambia. Unfortuantely, too many NGO's are 'all talk and no action.' It is tragic to hear that well funded executives of NGO's are driving around in 4x4's and living in plush houses whilst their organisations are neglected. These people tragically are the ones who know how to 'play the game' - they are the ones who effectively access funding. I am aware that ZAW has made a tremendous impact in Zambia but when Mrs Lubinda Tafira, the co-ordinator of ZAW, sort support from UK charities, including Oxfam, Christian Aid and CAFOD (three of my favourite charities incidently) she was turned down!!!Fortuantely, ZAW has had some funding, all...
Click here to view video
I’m the parent two wonderful children, Harry and Sara, who were adopted
as orphans from Cambodia. My children have food everyday, clothing, go
to school, have toys (probably too many), and many other necessities of
life that we in the US often take for granted. When we were in Cambodia, many
Cambodian people came up to us and said “Your child is very lucky!” We would
reply, now we’re lucky parents. But in some respects, they were
right. The infant mortality rate in Cambodia is very high, so my
children are lucky to be alive.
When we adopted our beautiful children, we also adopted their birth
country. We have embraced Khmer culture and we also feel a
responsibility to give something back to the...
The Zambian health deputy minister Chilufya Kazenene has raised alarm about HIV/AIDS in rural areas reaching alarming levels in the next few years if the current interventions are not scaled up as a matter of urgency.It will be very sad if some rural areas in Zambia which currently have relatively low prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS start to experience an upward swing in the spread of this virus because very little is being done to ensure that things do not get worse in the rural areas. Zambia has areas like Northern Province with 8.3 per cent infection rate and North-Western Province with 9.2 per cent but very little is being done to help these provinces push down these rates. Obviously areas like Lusaka with 22 per cent infection rates and Copperbelt with 19.9 per cent will definitely...
To date more than 600 groups have become affiliated to ZAW. ZAW now boasts of membership of 5000 registered individuals.ZAW is well known and well regarded in Zambia. Unfortuantely, too many NGO's are 'all talk and no action.' It is tragic to hear that well funded executives of NGO's are driving around in 4x4's and living in plush houses whilst their organisations are neglected. These people tragically are the ones who know how to 'play the game' - they are the ones who effectively access funding. I am aware that ZAW has made a tremendous impact in Zambia but when Mrs Lubinda Tafira, the co-ordinator of ZAW, sort support from UK charities, including Oxfam, Christian Aid and CAFOD (three of my favourite charities incidently) she was turned down!!!Fortuantely, ZAW has had some funding, all...
The Zambian health deputy minister Chilufya Kazenene has raised alarm about HIV/AIDS in rural areas reaching alarming levels in the next few years if the current interventions are not scaled up as a matter of urgency.It will be very sad if some rural areas in Zambia which currently have relatively low prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS start to experience an upward swing in the spread of this virus because very little is being done to ensure that things do not get worse in the rural areas. Zambia has areas like Northern Province with 8.3 per cent infection rate and North-Western Province with 9.2 per cent but very little is being done to help these provinces push down these rates. Obviously areas like Lusaka with 22 per cent infection rates and Copperbelt with 19.9 per cent will definitely...
To date more than 600 groups have become affiliated to ZAW. ZAW now boasts of membership of 5000 registered individuals.ZAW is well known and well regarded in Zambia. Unfortuantely, too many NGO's are 'all talk and no action.' It is tragic to hear that well funded executives of NGO's are driving around in 4x4's and living in plush houses whilst their organisations are neglected. These people tragically are the ones who know how to 'play the game' - they are the ones who effectively access funding. I am aware that ZAW has made a tremendous impact in Zambia but when Mrs Lubinda Tafira, the co-ordinator of ZAW, sort support from UK charities, including Oxfam, Christian Aid and CAFOD (three of my favourite charities incidently) she was turned down!!!Fortuantely, ZAW has had some funding, all...
The Zambian health deputy minister Chilufya Kazenene has raised alarm about HIV/AIDS in rural areas reaching alarming levels in the next few years if the current interventions are not scaled up as a matter of urgency.It will be very sad if some rural areas in Zambia which currently have relatively low prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS start to experience an upward swing in the spread of this virus because very little is being done to ensure that things do not get worse in the rural areas. Zambia has areas like Northern Province with 8.3 per cent infection rate and North-Western Province with 9.2 per cent but very little is being done to help these provinces push down these rates. Obviously areas like Lusaka with 22 per cent infection rates and Copperbelt with 19.9 per cent will definitely...
To date more than 600 groups have become affiliated to ZAW. ZAW now boasts of membership of 5000 registered individuals.ZAW is well known and well regarded in Zambia. Unfortuantely, too many NGO's are 'all talk and no action.' It is tragic to hear that well funded executives of NGO's are driving around in 4x4's and living in plush houses whilst their organisations are neglected. These people tragically are the ones who know how to 'play the game' - they are the ones who effectively access funding. I am aware that ZAW has made a tremendous impact in Zambia but when Mrs Lubinda Tafira, the co-ordinator of ZAW, sort support from UK charities, including Oxfam, Christian Aid and CAFOD (three of my favourite charities incidently) she was turned down!!!Fortuantely, ZAW has had some funding, all...
Earlier this week, Boston Globe correspondent Maura Welch (who really gets it) wrote an article called "Women tap the power of the blog." Boston area Bloghers Lisa Williams, Tish Grier, Millie Garfield, and yours truly were featured in the article. (Recalling some advice from a colleague that I don't toot my our own horn, I posted a link to the article on my other blog.)
I've had some interesting email, including one from my 85 year-old Dad who was very proud, but asked me "What's a blog?." Maybe Millie Garfield's example will inspire him!
The most exciting thing that happened was a comment from Cambodian blogher Details are Sketchy who told me that the article inspired her to create a Cambodia Blogher's page, something that...
Read my Flickr Story About Leng Sopharath, an orphan being sponsored for college by the Sharing FoundationI've been a board member of the Sharing Foundation for the last three years and volunteer several years before that. The Sharing Foundation is honored to be selected as one of the possible recipients of the Omidyar Network team-based collaborative funding projects. You can read about how it all is working here.The Sharing Foundation was nominated by the Snapdragon Team. Right now I'm waiting and biting my finger nails. You see in order to receive the funding, 30 people in the community have to vote yes by Saturday, July 1 at 19:35 PDT. The Sharing Foundation is one of five very worthy grassroots organizations doing social change work. You can...
Read my Flickr Story About Leng Sopharath, an orphan being sponsored for college by the Sharing FoundationI've been a board member of the Sharing Foundation for the last three years and volunteer several years before that. The Sharing Foundation is honored to be selected as one of the possible recipients of the Omidyar Network team-based collaborative funding projects. You can read about how it all is working here.The Sharing Foundation was nominated by the Snapdragon Team. Right now I'm waiting and biting my finger nails. You see in order to receive the funding, 30 people in the community have to vote yes by Saturday, July 1 at 19:35 PDT. The Sharing Foundation is one of five very worthy grassroots organizations doing social change work. You can...
Kalyan Keo writes and share photographs about the Angkor Borei Project. The Angkor Borei district is located in the Ta Keo province, a remote area located in the southern part of Cambodia. She travelled there to distribute some study materials to the poor students. Because the area is flooded during the rainy season and very difficult to reach, less aid is distributed there. Kalyan describes the rich history of the area, that it is known as the birthplace of Cambodia and includes the first temple ever built in Khmer history named Phnum Da.She says:"It was a great experience for me to join this project, and I am willing to do more projects to help my community and to promote the spirit of volunteerism among young generation. Although the...