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Gordon says:“I saw hundreds of these massive concrete electric cable posts, snapped in two like match sticks. You can imagine what the storm did to thatch homes and the families that lived in them.”
How can you help? We’re accepting contributions to support IRC emergency relief programs and long-term recovery assistance in Myanmar. Please click here to donate. (If you’re in the UK or Europe, please visit www.IRCuk.org to make a gift.)
“Just imagine the horror of watching whole villages completely submerged and swept away. Now the survivors are homeless and desperate. They are seeking shelter in monasteries or just out wandering in search of any form of shelter from the elements. They say bodies are scattered throughout fields, school yards and roads. They have lost so many family members and neighbors and are very very worried about dwindling supplies of food and water.”
- Greg Beck, the International Rescue Committee’s Asia regional director, speaking in Thailand, where he is organizing IRC’s emergency response to the cyclone disaster in Myanmar.
IRC emergency experts have rushed to the region to assess needs and launch lifesaving assistance for survivors. You can donate to IRC’s emergency response here.
Women taking part in the GBV Global Crescendo project took these photographs of violence in their villages. These photos are not staged. They document real attacks against women as they took place. Men routinely use violence against women with complete impunity. Photo: Goze Martine
A weekly round-up of notable quotes in the news and on the Web.
“Here in West Africa, as in so many other places where rape was used as a weapon of war, it has become a habit carried seamlessly into the ‘post-conflict’ era. Where normal law enforcement and justice systems have been disabled by war, ex-combatants and civilian men alike can prey upon women with impunity, and they do.”
- Charles Nasibu, a Congolese journalist living as a refugee in Norway, wrote in an opinion piece in the International Herald Tribune, which cited the IRC’s mortality survey that estimates 5.4 million have lost their lives since 1998.
“Atlanta is a big city. Everything is huge. And people, the majority are very nice. They don’t care whether you’re Arab or Asian. But it’s not the city I was dreaming of. I didn’t dream I would be living in America as a refugee.”
- Ahmad Ali (not his real name), an Iraqi refugee resettled in Atlanta with his family by the IRC, said in the cover story of Creative Loafing entitled “From Baghdad to Doraville,” last week.
“I can’t wait until when I hear the time they are coming. It’s a feeling like when you think you lost something really important, then all of a sudden, you found it.”
- Gabriel Dut Bethou, a so-called “Lost Boy of Sudan” resettled in the U.S. by the IRC told The Milford Daily News of Massachusetts. Bethou hopes to reunite with his family after not seeing them for 13 years.
openDemocracy today published a photo essay by IRC senior policy adviser Anna Husarska:
A month of fear and violence following the disputed presidential election has left tens of thousands of Kenyans homeless, displaced and traumatised. Their desperate need is highlighted in Anna Husarska’s images and commentary from the frontline of the International Rescue Committee’s relief-work.
Anna says of the image above:
These triplets — Karen, Dorgas and Deborah — are 5 years old. Their mother, Jennifer, fled with the girls, while the father went to hide with the three older brothers at the neighbours’ home. Later the family was reunited in the relative safety of a makeshift camp in the showground of Kitale, the provincial capital. When they escaped from their village in the Rift Valley it was burning; four people were shot and two hacked to death. They fled at 5 am, and Jennifer asked the girls to quickly put on their best clothes. But these cute white dresses may not be the most practical attire in their new life as displaced persons.
Conflict and humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo have taken 5.4 million lives since 1998, according to a survey just released by the International Rescue Committee. That’s equivalent to the entire population of Denmark or the state of Colorado perishing within a decade. In fact, it’s the greatest loss of life in any conflict since World War II — and the numbers keep rising. As many as 45,000 people are dying each month.Last summer, IRC survey teams traveled across the vast country — by motorbike, canoe, 4-wheel-drive, and on foot — to research death in order to save lives. They visited 14,000 homes, talking to people about loved ones they lost: not just to violence, but to illnesses that no one dies from in the United States these days. People who died simply because they couldn’t access basic health care.
Dr. Rick Brennan, who conducted the study and manages the IRC’s health programs in more than 20 countries, hopes the research will raise awareness of this “forgotten” crisis and help people understand the dire circumstances of life in Congo. “We want people to give a damn,” he says. Watch this video to find out how you can get involved.
