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Mercy Corps - http://www.mercycorps.org/articles/9-humanitarian-crises-we-cant-ignore-year
9 HEADLINE HUMANITARIAN CRISES – WOMEN & CHILDREN - OVERVIEW
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People all around the
world, like these young Syrian refugees, are struggling to overcome conflict,
displacement and a lack of resources. We're looking ahead to the biggest
challenges we'll tackle this year. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps
February
20, 2015 - Every day there seems to be a different country in the news with a
new tragic headline: Nigeria. Ukraine. Afghanistan. Yemen. And of course,
Syria.
Last
year, we saw an unprecedented number of humanitarian crises around the world,
and thanks to supporters like you, we've been on the ground helping people
survive and continue working toward a better future despite unimaginable
circumstances.
While
we continue to address the crises around Syria and in South Sudan and the
Central African Republic, we're also looking ahead at the new challenges we
must address in 2015 — and what new ways we can make a lifesaving and
lasting difference for millions of people facing displacement, hunger, violence
and disease.
We
recently spoke with Mercy Corps’ Senior Vice President of Programs, Craig
Redmond, about what ongoing and emerging global situations pose the biggest
threats and how we're responding.
Syria Crisis & Iraq
Photo:
Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps
The Situation: The war in Syria
is the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. After nearly four years, more
than three million people have fled to safety in neighboring countries, but
more than seven million are displaced and still trapped inside the besieged
country. Two-thirds of the population is now in need of urgent humanitarian
assistance — they have no homes, no jobs, no school, no security, no ability to
meet their basic needs.
The
insecurity and conflict in neighboring Iraq has blurred the lines of war,
creating new and unpredictable risks at every turn. In all, such massive
displacement of both Syrians and Iraqis, and unpredictable violence, threatens
to destabilize the entire region.
Severe
winter storms are the most recent threat, with snow and freezing rain putting
families without warm clothes or proper shelter at risk.
How We're Helping: Basic resources
are scarce and transportation is difficult in the unstable environment, but our
teams in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria continue to provide food, water, warm
clothes, heaters and other necessities to 2.5 million people, including reaching
1.7 million people displaced inside Syria.
With
seemingly no end to this conflict in sight, refugees have no idea when they'll
be able to return home, so we must help them cope and settle for the time being
where they have found refuge. We are working to rehabilitate Jordan's water
infrastructure to increase access to clean water and are repairing shelters for
refugees in both Jordan and Lebanon.
At the
same time, as the strain on host countries creates tensions between Syrians,
Jordanians and Lebanese communities, we've spearheaded a program that brings
people together to mediate their issues and collaborate on community
development projects that jointly solve their problems: expanding schools and
building playgrounds and sports fields, for example.
The
work to help young people — who make up half of all Syrian refugees — overcome
their trauma and continue with their healthy development is key to ensure that
we don't lose an entire generation to this crisis.
In
order to fill the gap in critical education and life milestones they are
missing, we implement several programs that give children a safe place to play
and learn in refugee camps, as well as leading group activities in communities
for adolescents to build friendships and develop leadership skills that will
help them create a better future for themselves — and ultimately, for their
country.
Photo:
Courtesy of U.N. Ukraine
The Situation: Since early
2014, government and rebel forces have been fighting for control of the eastern
region of Ukraine. The conflict has thus far killed thousands of civilians and
left more than one million people displaced within the country.
While
a cease-fire agreement was recently signed during peace talks in Belarus, it’s
unclear whether any end to the fighting will hold. The future of eastern
Ukraine still hangs in the balance.
Many
people in the east are hiding from violence where they can and have little or
no access to electricity, water, food or health care. Large swaths of the eastern
region now lack any functional economy, and shelling has caused massive
infrastructure damage. Children and the elderly have been particularly
vulnerable during the fighting, and the humanitarian needs are mounting.
There
has been sporadic fighting for nearly a year, but a recent swell in conflict in
the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk has caused a surge of new and large
displacements.
How We're Helping: “It’s suddenly a
huge crisis,” says Redmond. “So we’re going to do an immediate response.”
Mercy
Corps’ emergency response team is currently determining the most urgent needs
of displaced people in the area — and preparing to quickly respond with
essential supplies and programs that will support the recovery of the region.
South Sudan
The Situation: The world’ youngest
nation has been battered by civil war since political violence erupted in the
capital of Juba in December 2013. The conflict soon spread across the country,
destabilizing markets and forcing more than one million people to flee their
homes. Many ran into the bush with nothing on their backs but their children.
This
is only the latest conflict, after decades of another civil war that ultimately
led to South Sudan's independence in 2011. For a couple years it looked as
though this most underdeveloped country in the world would have a chance at
peaceful growth, but “The roots of the conflict are well in place and haven’t
been dealt with,” says Redmond.
Now,
the entire country is in the grips of a massive hunger crisis — the U.N. warned
recently that more than 2.5 million people are at risk of famine. In a country
where most people have been dependent on subsistence farming, families are
unable to grow food after being forced to leave their own land behind, and
markets are barren because traders do not want to risk being attacked en route.
How We're Helping: “We’re trying to
focus on food security and look at markets. That’s what needs to happen because
food security is an ongoing problem,” says Redmond. But the challenges are
steep. “How do we do it within a conflict? How do we do it on a big enough
scale to matter?”
Mercy
Corps is working in remote villages in South Sudan to help displaced people
grow more food to feed their families. We’re also providing cash assistance to
the most vulnerable people so that they can purchase food in local markets.
Our
work helping traders maintain their businesses is helping keep South Sudan’s
markets alive, and our team in South Sudan is continually looking for new ways
to help the people of this young country survive and recover in the delicate
and constantly changing environment.
Photo:
Fatima K. Mohammed for Mercy Corps
The Situation: Nigeria is the
most populous country in Africa and is, in many ways, a model of prosperous
development in Africa. But stark economic inequalities remain — roughly
70-percent of the population lives in poverty, and women and girls have
especially-limited access to education and resources.
Ethnic
and religious conflict is still seen in pockets across the country, and now,
the rise of extremist violence by Boko Haram in the north of the country is
putting millions of people at risk and threatening neighboring countries.
Nearly one million people are now displaced in Nigeria, creating new
humanitarian needs. “That’s a serious one to watch,” says Redmond.
How We're Helping: Our emergency
response teams are on the ground and assessing the areas of most urgent need
and how best to respond.
Despite
the potential for more serious conflict, Mercy Corps’ ongoing programs to
support young women's education and job training continue. Their safety and
security is our top priority in the insecure environment, but we believe we
cannot give up on addressing the root causes of inequality and poverty here.
By
helping girls stay in school longer, and providing tutoring and economic and
business skills lessons, they will be empowered to make better decisions for
their families and contribute to the peaceful development of their communities.
Central African Republic
The Situation: The Central
African Republic (CAR) is one of the world’s poorest countries, and has long
been plagued by marauding bands of rebel fighters. A violent coup in 2013 only
made things worse for struggling citizens. Since then, the country has
descended into lawlessness, and basic services like clean water, education and
health care are minimal.
Unpredictable
violence has displaced more than 500,000 people and continues to threaten any
sense of recovery. People don’t feel safe — and women and girls are especially
vulnerable to incidents of gender-based violence.
How We're Helping: “The presence of
organizations like Mercy Corps is really important to communities, because we
represent civility,” says Redmond. “When there’s nothing they can rely on,
we’re a stability that they otherwise don’t have.”
Mercy
Corps is providing much-needed clean water and sanitation services to people
living in crowded displacement camps. Our work within communities promotes
peaceful conflict resolution and teaches mediation techniques.
In the
absence of consistent governance, supporting victims of gender-based violence
is one of our top priorities. We operate listening centers across the country
where women can access confidential counseling, learn about their medical and
legal options after an incident, and get the support they need to reintegrate
into their communities and move forward.
The Situation: With a
newly-elected government in place and most American military forces leaving the
country, Afghanistan’s future is uncertain as the Taliban may look to make a
resurgence. The past year has seen an increase in violence and conflict-related
displacement, with more than 150,000 people forced to flee their homes.
How We're Helping: Even with
cultural tensions running high, Mercy Corps is encouraging gender equality in
some of the country’s most conservative areas in the south of the country. Our
pioneering vocational training program that began in Helmand province, where
women are scarcely seen in public, offers education for the first time in
decades to young women in culturally-acceptable trades like sewing and
embroidery.
Women
in the program also learn how to start small businesses, and a revolutionary all-women’s
market allows program participants to begin selling their goods and services to
other women in their community. Mercy Corps is now looking to expand the
vocational training program into the southern Kandahar province, where
educational opportunities for girls and women have been all but non-existent. “It’s
very tough,” says Redmond of the region.
We
have been active in Afghanistan for nearly 30 years and have built deep ties
with the communities that we work with. Our extensive knowledge of the region
and Mercy Corps' long history of helping the Afghan people allows us to work in
some of the country's most difficult places.
Nationwide,
our programs are helping people in Afghanistan learn skills and trades that
will help them build more prosperous futures for themselves and their families.
With greater access to education and the opportunity to build successful
livelihoods, the hope is that Mercy Corps' work will lead to a more stable and
peaceful Afghanistan.
Liberia
The Situation: The Ebola epidemic
that began nearly a year ago has taken a serious toll on the people of Liberia,
and the fight still isn’t over. Cases of the deadly disease have dropped to
just a small number, but it only takes one new case to potentially spark
another outbreak. Awareness about the disease, along with its causes and
symptoms, has increased greatly, but communities must remain vigilant to
eradicate Ebola completely.
While
some parts of life are slowly returning to normal — students returned to school
this week after a six-month closure — Ebola has had a huge effect on the
country’s economy. With many people unable to work or farm, and restrictions
placed on transportation and trade in an effort to contain the disease, rising
prices and lack of income all contributed to the economic slow-down.
How We're Helping: Our team in
Liberia has helped trained 15,000 community educators who have been working
tirelessly to bring important information about Ebola to some of Liberia’s most
remote areas. Now, they will also focus on community education about the stigma
that Ebola survivors face on a daily basis in order to help communities
reconcile and trust one another again.
Our
team is also focused on the country's economic recovery and is working to
support the most vulnerable families with food and cash assistance that will
help stimulate local markets.
Photo:
Lindsay Hamsik/Mercy Corps
The Situation: While the
northern area of Somalia has remained fairly calm in recent years, the south
has seen increasing insurgent attacks and instability. The country is still
recovering from more than two decades of strife and the 2011 drought and famine,
which was the worst that the region has seen in 60 years.
Insurgents
have been weakened substantially, but they are still able to cause enough fear
and damage to keep the region destabilized. Because of long-term conflict and a
lack of infrastructure, education has not been a priority, especially for
girls. Enrollment of young girls and women in school is the worst in the world.
How We're Helping: Mercy Corps is
working to change that statistic by encouraging girls to stay in school and
teaching communities about the benefits of educating their young women. “We’re
doing that work in very tough places,” says Redmond. “There’s so much need for
education infrastructure there.”
Part
of the program also offers teacher-training to female students so that future
generations of young girls will have role models in their classrooms. The
program has been so successful that it is now expanding into the south central
region of the country.
Photo:
Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps
The Situation: Yemen is the
poorest country in the Middle East — and one of the hungriest and most
malnourished in the world, since it is almost entirely dependent on imports.
Economic issues sparked uprisings in 2011, and the country has been dealing
with continued tensions ever since, threatening to cause a more dire
humanitarian situation.
Social
services are few and far between for everyday people, job opportunities are
limited, and food prices are soaring out of reach for most citizens. The
volatile political dynamic has the potential to trigger further violence that
would disrupt vital humanitarian aid to the country.
The
Houthi rebels overran the country's capital of Sanaa last September, and life
there is now extremely tense for civilians. Many fear that the conflict between
government and rebel groups may soon boil to the surface and cause full-scale
sectarian fighting.
How We're Helping: Mercy Corps
continues to help the most vulnerable communities by improving their access to
food and water and teaching people to recognize and cope with future food
crises. To combat hunger and malnutrition, our emergency food program is
providing healthy, nutritious meals to 63,000 people. Health education classes
also teach people how to make the best choices to feed their families. We are
also helping small farmers grow more food.
In the
capital of Sanaa, we are reaching school-aged children with vital psychosocial
support to help them deal with the instability around them. Child-friendly
spaces help them learn and make friends in a peaceful setting.
To inspire a new generation of peaceful and engaged citizens, we are encouraging young people to dream big with leadership, conflict-management and civic engagement trainings. We are also supporting them in their efforts to develop business plans and start successful small businesses.