Catholic Relief Services
Leia Isanhart Balima of Catholic Relief Services talks about the impact that AIDSRelief, a program funded by US’ PEPFAR program, has made for HIV patients in Rwanda.
Photo credit: Helen Blakesley/CRS
Last week, I visited the Bungwe Health Center, a small clinic nestled in the hills about two hours outside Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. The center is part of AIDSRelief, a program that has been providing HIV care and treatment in Rwanda since 2005 with funding from the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). My employer, Catholic Relief Services, is the lead agency for AIDSRelief in nine countries.
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The Associated Press this morning has a report on a recent policy shift in an AIDS relief project funded by the US government. The project, implemented through Catholic Relief Services will seek to directly pay South Africans.
Catholic Relief Services explains further:
With funding from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and assistance from the AIDSRelief consortium—including Catholic Relief Services—the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) has brought care and treatment to 60,000 people, including 20,000 on lifesaving antiretroviral medications. The AIDSRelief program in South Africa has been so successful that the SACBC is taking over responsibility for the grant money—the first full transition to local partner management, as called for by the U.S. government.
Here’s another round-up of today’s news—including on-the-ground stories, pictures and updates—from our partners and friends on their work in Haiti.
American Red Cross
Read a situation report from President and CEO Gail McGovern.
AmeriCares
Chief of Staff Carol Shattuck recounts her experience on AmeriCares first emergency airlift to help Haiti with earthquake and humanitarian relief.
CARE
A story from the field by Rick Perera.
Catholic Relief Services
CRS turns a golf course into a relief camp in Port-au-Prince.
Concern Worldwide
Program Officer Susan Finucane offers a video update of Concern’s work on the ground in Port-au-Prince.
Leon H. Sullivan Foundation
“In the aftermath of the largest earthquake to hit the Caribbean nation of Haiti in more than two centuries, the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation has initiated a relief effort to help meet the population’s immediate needs and participate in long-term efforts to restore normalcy to a country plagued by natural disasters.
“To merely replace the unsound buildings and feed people temporarily will not be enough. My organization is working on projects to help Haiti and its people become more self-sufficient over the long term,” said Hope Masters, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Sullivan Foundation. “We who have so much must never forget to help those who have so little.”
Mercy Corps
Cassandra Nelson, Director of Multimedia Projects, talks with CNN.
Oxfam America
A blog update from staff member Coco McCabe on the ground in San Juan. Also, a video on distributing water in Haiti.
Partners in Health
An on-the-ground update from Dr. Evan Lyon, who has been working at the general hospital in Port-au-Prince since Saturday.
Physicians for Peace
A blog update and photos from Dr. Lisbet Hanson in Haiti. Also, Physicians for Peace will be holding a collection drive in Norfolk, VA this Saturday.
Save the Children
Save the Children sets up child friendly spaces in Haiti.
TransAfrica Forum
An online resource for the latest news on the earthquake and its aftermath. TransAfrica Forum also held a candlelight vigil at the Haitian Embassy in Washington DC earlier this afternoon.
World Food Programme
“Within the next week, we aim to move the equivalent of 10 million ready-to-eat meals so that people whose homes have been destroyed, and who have no access to cooking facilities, can feed their families,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran. “We are also procuring 4.2 million rations of supplementary ready-to-use foods specifically designed to give children the calories and nutrition they need each day.”
Here are a few more updates today from our partners and friends on the effort underway in Haiti:
American Red Cross:
“We are humbled and thankful for the outpouring of support from our blog visitors offering their services to help those in need in Haiti. We committed $200,000 last night, and increased that amount this morning to $1 million.”
AmeriCares:
“AmeriCares is sending $3 million worth of medical aid to survivors of yesterday’s deadly, 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti from our Stamford warehouse. Disaster relief modules stocked with emergency medicines and medical supplies valued at $2 million have been deployed from the Amsterdam warehouse.”
Bread for the World:
An extensive list of where and how to help earthquake victims.
Catholic Relief Services:
“In the Dominican Republic, the country that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, CRS is preparing 10,000 packages, each containing food and water for a family of five. The first 500 are scheduled to be delivered to Port-au-Prince on Friday. Today four CRS staff members are traveling by bus from the Dominican Republic to Port-au-Prince as CRS begins to increase our presence in Haiti to respond to this unprecedented disaster. CRS has committed an initial $5 million (US) to help survivors of the devastating quake.”
Episcopal Relief and Development:
View a video statement by Presiding Bishop and President of Episcopal Relief & Development.
FEED:
In 2009, WFP School Feeding reached over 400,000 Haitian children in 850 primary schools. FEED is working to maintain WFP School Feeding in Haiti during this critical time.
International Relief & Development:
IRD, a specialist in disaster response and emergency relief operations, has mobilized an emergency response team to Haiti. IRD will focus on the provision of emergency commodities, such as water, sanitation kits, medicines, hygiene kits, and shelter materials.
Islamic Relief:
Islamic Relief USA announced that it will immediately fly a $1 million shipment of aid to Haiti.
Jubilee USA:
Jubilee USA is calling on the Obama administration to take 3 specific steps as part of its comprehensive response to the Haiti earthquake.
Mercy Corps:
A blog post showing satellite images from Port-au-Prince.
Oxfam International:
A six-strong team of Oxfam emergency specialists has been dispatched to Haiti from the UK today to assist the 200 staff who were already stationed in Haiti when the earthquake hit on Tuesday.
Partners in Health:
On the ground reports from staff in Haiti.
Save the Children:
An interview with President and CEO Charles MacCormack.
World Food Programme:
“A WFP food distribution reached 3,000 people in the southern town of Jacmel on Wednesday and, despite logistical difficulties, more distributions were planned for Thursday in three areas of Port-au-Prince with high a population concentration.”
World Vision:
“On Thursday, World Vision will rush 18 metric tons of lifesaving supplies from its warehouse in Denver to Haiti, which was hit by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake Tuesday that affected some 3 million people. Thursday’s shipment will include tarpaulins for temporary shelter, blankets, collapsible water containers, hygiene kits, and cooking sets.” Also, click here to watch an interview with Laura Blank, Media Relations Manager at World Vision.
Yele Haiti:
Wyclef Jean’s nonprofit organization, Yele Haiti, has raised over $1 million for the victims of Tuesday’s devastating earthquake from mobile donations.
Earlier this week, I had the chance to talk with Thomas Awiapo, a Ghanaian from the country’s Upper East Region and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) staff member. As a child in Ghana, Thomas was a beneficiary of CRS school feeding programs. Now, as an adult, he works for CRS Ghana and travels to the U.S. annually to tell his inspiring story to American Catholics at schools, parishes and communities. A powerful story to help wrap up our Food Security in Focus series this week!
Food security is a personal issue for you, isn’t it?
I lived hunger. I suffered it. I lost two siblings to malnutrition. I saw them die—skinny and bony. Every single day I fought for a bowl of food. There was nothing called breakfast or lunch. We were just lucky to get one bowl of food a day.
The only reason I survived was because I went to school. Catholic Relief Services built a school in my village, but I hated it. No one in my family had ever been to school. I didn’t know the benefits. So I went there merely to search for food. I thought the food was free—but it wasn’t. If you wanted snack, you were sentenced to one class and if you wanted lunch, you were taken hostage in another class. As CRS kept fixing lunch, I kept going to school, and today I hold a master’s degree in public administration. That’s the power of a little snack.
Today, I put three meals on the table for my children—and they stay in school because I understand that education is liberation from hunger. Education is the way to break the chains of poverty and hunger. I lived it. I survived to tell the story.
So is food security an issue you still deal with on a daily basis?
Every day: Now we’re working with local farmers—training them, giving them better seeds, helping to teach them how to produce more in their villages. Before, people were mostly just producing food for subsistence. But now we’re trying to encourage farmers: if you grow peanuts, how can we help you? What seeds, training and equipment do you need? How do you find the best markets? Farmers often sell their items at the wrong time, when the price is cheaper. But we help them find a market where they can sell their goods at a good price and make as much profit as possible.
How has climate change impacted farmers in Ghana?
Most people didn’t understand what climate change was. But now you can see so clearly. There was always a rainy season and a dry season. Each lasted six months. Every year it was the same. But now if we get three months of rain, we’re lucky. And the rain that comes is either too late or too early or too much.
Farmers can work as hard as they want, but without rain they are lost. When I visited Wisconsin, I saw them using sprinklers. It seemed so easy. But our government in collaboration with local and international NGOs is trying to support and educate farmers, creating awareness about issues of global warming.
Are they educating just about climate change?
They’re providing education on many issues—like deforestation. Trees here are a source of fuel. You cut down trees to build homes. You need them to survive. But with education, we are trying to teach that if you cut this tree, then plant another in its place. The education is slow, but we’re making progress.
How have the farmers reacted to this help?
They are very excited. Ghana is said to be comparable to Oregon in size. Oregon has 4 million people. Ghana has 21 to 22 million people. The need is great but resources are limited. But I believe there are enough resources in Ghana to feed Ghanaians, just like the United States has enough resources to feed all Americans. We just need to continue to advocate for more just and accountable systems and structures that are beneficial to all without exception.
We’re all working together—government, NGOs, universities and other stakeholders—to try and provide support. But we must remember what President Obama said when he visited Ghana—aid is not an end in itself. The purpose of foreign assistance must be creating the conditions where it is no longer needed. We have to make sure we have the right systems, the right people with the right intentions and many good things can happen. The trick is how to find all three.
Many of you are following news reports of a hijacking that recently occurred aboard the Maersk Alabama off the coast of Somalia. Today comes word that some of the cargo aboard the ship is life-saving food aid en route to Catholic Relief Services programs in Rwanda. According to CRS, this consists of 49 containers holding “860 metric tons of bulgur wheat that are to be used by CRS relief workers for some of the poorest populations in Rwanda.”
Our thoughts go out to the crew aboard the Maersk Alabama in this very tense situation. We’ll bring you further developments as they occur.
-Chris Scott
