News Briefs: April 11, 2006
Recovery and Rehabilitation in Pakistan
Six months after an earthquake devastated northwest Pakistan, killing between 73,000 and 80,000 people, injuring more than 70,000, and leaving 3.3 million people displaced, recovery and rehabilitation efforts continue. Severe winter weather in high altitudes and the recurring aftershocks continued to cause landslides, blocking roads and constraining relief operations.
It is estimated that more than 300,000 head of cattle, sheep and goats were killed during the earthquake. Livelihoods of many rural families, who depended on dairy products and wool produced by their animals, have been completely eliminated.
With the end of winter will come a return to the devastated villages. However, in some cases, whole villages were swept down slopes or buried. Rebuilding will be a challenge for all. Water supply schemes have been damaged or destroyed. The psychological impact on the population is overwhelming.
Action by Churches Together (ACT) has issued an appeal to assist with the ongoing recovery and rehabilitation efforts. The recovery programme of ACT Member Church World Service Pakistan/Afghanistan comprises housing reconstruction, psychosocial care and protection, capacity building, sustainable livelihood as well as environmental protection. Water and sanitation, health and hygiene are being implemented through co-operation with ACT member Norwegian Church Aid.
—With reports from ACT International
Severe drought plagues Ethiopia
More than 2.5 million people are at risk of succumbing to malnutrition and disease as severe drought conditions plague Ethiopia. The worst drought conditions exist in the southern region of the country that borders Kenya and Somalia. Community livelihoods (livestock, agriculture, small business) are in extremely fragile states with livestock numbers falling drastically.
Food shortages and loss of livestock are expected to become increasingly more critical in the coming months and the number of at-risk persons could double. Women and children are the most vulnerable, while migrating men and their livestock in search of food and water are succumbing to weakness in isolated areas.
Action by Churches Together (ACT) member organizations are working through area synods or churches, and other local community partners to implement food relief, agricultural rehabilitation inputs (seeds and tools), water, livestock feed, and capacity building in four regions of the country—Afar, Amhara, Oromiya, and SNNP.
—With reports from Reuters AlertNet
UNHCR and Microsoft Protect Refugees
A data system, perfected and implemented by a team of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees experts known as Project Profile, in partnership with software company Microsoft, allows the UN refugee agency to keep much more complete details of each refugee and his or her special needs.
Refugee John Bankuwiha said refugees prize the registration system as the only bond to their true identity while in exile in Tanzania. “Once we are registered, we refugees are sure that our records in the computer will not be tampered with,” he explained. “This way our rights as refugees are protected and we can get all the assistance we are entitled to in the camps and once we return to our home country.”
Project Profile and the ProGres database improve the way UNHCR staffers collect, share and use information on refugees and other persons of concern. The standardized system—replacing dozens of old, incompatible databases—grew out of a mobile registration system designed for the Kosovo crisis in 1999. It gives a more complete picture of the needs of individual refugees, as well as demographic information on camps and the origins of refugees to help better plan for their return home.
“It's an important tool to help UNHCR better protect refugees,” said Deputy High Commission Wendy Chamberlin. “You have no protection if you are invisible,” Chamberlin said. “To get this kind of documentation is a basic form of protection, and services flow from that.”
Seventy Microsoft employees have so far volunteered their time and expertise to help Project Profile members set up the registration process in UNHCR camps in some 41 countries.
“The system handles a broad range of demographic information—the number of men, women, and children, the age of people, the mortality rate, where people come from and what their protection needs are,” said Patrick De Smedt, Chairman of Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa. “The ProGres database—with appropriate protection for confidential information—can be shared between UNHCR offices to make repatriations of refugees, for example, go more smoothly. Such comprehensive data help ensure that plans are made to have sufficient classrooms for returning school-aged children, or to assist other returnees with special needs.”
—With reports by Roselyn Paul and Kitty McKinsey for UNHCR News
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