—A woman who fled with her husband and four children after her brother was hacked to death and the hotel they owned was burned to the ground by another ethnic group. She was interviewed by IRC senior policy adviser Anna Husarska for this photo essay.

CHAD: Under seige

“The big fights started on Saturday. We saw them through the windows of our office, but we stayed in. Then at noon, some locals intruded into the office and started stealing whatever they found. At that moment we decided to run away.” 

—IRC’s Chad country director, Jef Imans, telling the New York Times about the fighting between rebels and government troops that forced the evacuation of five IRC staff members working at IRC’s administrative office in Chad’s besieged capital. The IRC is keeping relief programs up and running for 28,000 refugees from Darfur at a camp in northeastern Chad.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Health crisis

“People aren’t dying dramatically. They’re dying quietly and anonymously … In the eyes of Western powers, Congo doesn’t represent major political or economic interest.”

—IRC health director Rick Brennan telling Reuters why the humanitarian disaster in Congo doesn’t get more attention. A new IRC study has found that some 45,000 people a month are dying from war-related hunger and disease.

“In my professional life, as health correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, my feet are firmly planted in what I call the ‘Health Care World of Plenty.’ I mainly cover the U.S. healthcare system —- that $2 trillion-plus behemoth of high technology and innovation and, as we increasingly know, startling inefficiency, ineffectiveness and just plain old waste. In the work I do for IRC, I have a foot in the ‘Health Care World of Want.’ The contrasts are devastating and painful, but the knowledge of one has informed my coverage of the other. I am a better journalist, and a better person, for having feet in both camps.”

—Susan Dentzer, chair of the IRC board’s health committee, describing her recent trip to Congo with the IRC in the current edition of Nieman Reports, the quarterly publication of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

LIBERIA: Violence against women

“We are like a bundle of sticks.  If the bundle is loose, men can pluck us out, one at a time, and break us.  But a tight bundle of sticks cannot be broken.”

—Betty, from Nimba County, speaking at a workshop for women who are part of an IRC project that is helping them use digital photography to make their voices heard and work toward a better, more peaceful Liberia.

IRAQ: 2 million refugees

“How Iraq settles in the years to come is going to affect the entire Middle East. It’s in our best interest to address a humanitarian crisis on this scale because displacement can lead to a lot of instability and aggression.”

—Actress and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie, speaking with CNN in Iraq this week. The IRC honored Jolie and António Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, with the 2007 Freedom Award last November.