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Easter after the earthquake
Many churches were damaged in L’Aquila’s earthquake. Masses were celebrated either in tents or in the open air on Easter day.
Copyright: Caritas/Michelle Hough
The church of Saint Francis of Assisi in the neighbourhood of Pettino was filled with boxes rather than parishioners this Easter Sunday. Meanwhile, the local bishop was living in a tent in his sister’s garden. Elsewhere a priest celebrated mass behind an improvised altar perched atop an army truck in the car park of a shopping centre.Welcome to Easter in L’Aquila in Italy, where just one week ago a massive earthquake left almost 300 people dead and tens of thousands of people homeless.
Saint Francis of Assisi church is the coordination centre for the Caritas relief effort. The Caritas office in L’Aquila was heavily damaged in the earthquake – along with the bishop’s apartment. This concrete church in Pettino is one of the few churches in L’Aquila to escape serious damage.
I arrived in Pettino at 9am on Easter morning to find volunteers busily loading and unloading relief items which had been sent by nearby Caritas organisations. The church’s massive basement was full of everything from loo rolls to children’s toys - and not forgetting pasta and tinned tomatoes. The church itself was full of boxes of clothes donated by well-wishers and outside there was a tent with an improvised kitchen to provide people with hot meals.
While I was there, people came and looked through the clothes and chose things to take away. The earthquake struck at 3.30am last Monday morning and many people fled their houses in their pyjamas and slippers, taking nothing with them. They haven’t been able to go back since.
Midmorning, a crowd gathered for Easter mass. Someone from Caritas Italiana had told me about the importance of creating a sense of community and belonging for people following the earthquake so they didn’t feel alone.
I visited a number of “tent cities” while I was in L’Aquila. The big blue tents which could hold up to eight people had been set up all around L’Aquila by Italy’s Civil Protection. Tens of thousands of people where housed that way. Others had decided to stay close to their homes by either camping in their own garden or sleeping in their cars near their homes. It was in one of the tent cities that I finally understood what Caritas meant by “ascolto” – or “listening”. I accompanied Don Dionisio Rodriguez, director of Caritas L’Aquila, as he went and talked to some of the immigrants living in the tents and asked them what they really needed from Caritas.
The tent cities seem very well organised. In the tent city in Paganica, near l’Aquila, I attended an afternoon mass where two children were being baptised by the parish priest - Don Dionisio Rodriguez. The enormous tent which was filled with churchgoers has been used as a dining room over the past week for those in the tent city. After mass I hung around and watched the preparations for dinner. One man drained bag after bag of mozzarella and chefs in a mobile kitchen prepared a delicious-smelling meal for that evening.
The people living in tents told me their immediate needs were being catered for. It was cold in the tents at night – L’Aquila is up in Italy’s Appenine snow-capped mountains - and they didn’t have hot water, but the aid effort had made sure they had everything else for now. However, the concern of everyone is what will happen when the world no longer sees L’Aquila as an emergency. When will they be able to return to their houses, which are currently undergoing structural evaluations to see how safe they are? When will they be able to return to their jobs, which they’ve not been able to do since the whole city came to a standstill? When will their city be rebuilt and when will their lives be able to return to normal? People are now stoically putting up with the enormous difficulties of the present, however, everyone I spoke to is worried about the future. They are afraid that once the world is focused on another crisis, their needs will be forgotten.
The situation for the immigrant population is even more serious. Many have jobs with little security. They don’t have a family network which can provide support. And those who are undocumented and who have lost their houses are fearful of registering with the authorities for temporary lodging in case they are thrown out of the country. The civil protection has asked Caritas to pay special attention to the immigrant population, as they are particularly vulnerable in this desperate situation.
There’s still a lot of fear among the people of L’Aquila. One person told me that following the initial earthquake, the ground didn’t stop shaking for five hours. Others said that, as the aftershocks continued throughout the week, they couldn’t function properly and couldn’t comprehend what had happened. There were still aftershocks yesterday and at one point I stared in amazement as a car next to me rocked from side to side as the earth moved beneath my feet.
Archbishop Giuseppe Molinari of L’Aquila celebrated Easter mass yesterday on the same massive parade ground where the funerals of 205 earthquake victims took place two days earlier. The mass was attended by the Italian Prime Minister. The archbishop took the opportunity to remind the Italian Government of its commitment to rebuilding L’Aquila.
Archbishop Molinari was surprisingly warm and positive when I spoke to him after mass. In a much better mood than I would have been if I’d spent the past week camping in my sister’s garden.
He reflected on the difficult Easter day that he was sharing with his diocese and told me: “Jesus will rise again in L’Aquila. A sign of his resurrection is the love, the solidarity and the work of all the volunteers who have come to L’Aquila to help us this week.”
Michelle Hough – Caritas Internationalis
//15. 04. 2009
Number of dead rises in Italy’s devastating earthquake
Aerial view of collapsed buildings around L'aquila April 6, 2009. A powerful earthquake struck central Italy early on Monday, killing more than 100 people, making up to 50,000 homeless and flattening entire medieval towns while residents slept.
Credits: REUTERS/Livio Anticoli/Pool
A team from Caritas Italiana is in the city of L’Aquila to assess needs and coordinate relief efforts following yesterday’s 6.3 earthquake.
The disaster has left over 200 people dead and thousands more injured after it hit central Italy. The powerful earthquake, which happened in the early hours of Monday morning, flattened whole buildings and left an estimated 17,000 people homeless.
“In one tremor, whole streets came down,” said Fr Vittorio Nozza, director of Caritas Italiana. “Even compared to previous earthquakes in 2002 and 1997, I’ve never seen such devastation.”
“Caritas is working among those made homeless by the earthquake, and is focusing in particular on helping the vulnerable such as children and the elderly. We’re providing psychological support to help people pull through the disaster,” he said.
Caritas is currently assessing the needs of those affected and it is coordinating local efforts to provide relief. It has set up a coordination centre outside L'Aquila to collect and redistribute food, blankets, hygiene items and clothes.
The director of Caritas Paganica will celebrate Easter Sunday mass on a sports field in the town for those affected by the earthquake. The church of Paganica, which is ten minutes away from L’Aquila, was damaged by the tremors. “Easter Sunday offers a sign of hope and optimism,” says Don Dionisio Rodriguez, director of Caritas Aquila and parish priest of Paganica. “People aren’t feeling much joy at the moment, but Easter Sunday provides us with a sign of life and renewal.”
Caritas Italiana has also appealed for funds to help the relief effort. Meanwhile, it has set aside 100,000 euro to provide assistance to the people of L’Aquila and the surrounding area.
Caritas members from near and far have offered their solidarity and support as rescue efforts continue. Caritas staff report that anxiety among the population is high, and further tremors today have left people feeling very vulnerable.
Za Caritas Internationalis
//09. 04. 2009
The beginning of a long Calvary
A man walks on debris as he looks for his relatives after an earthquake, in downtown Aquila April 6, 2009. A powerful earthquake struck a huge swathe of central Italy as residents slept on Monday morning, killing at least 16 people when houses, churches and other buildings collapsed, officials said. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi
Driving up to L’Aquila, we saw towns that had been flattened. This earthquake has brought people to their knees. There was another strong tremor this morning and people are filled with anxiety as they don’t know what’s going to happen or who to turn to. I’m up here with Fr Vittorio Nozza, Secretary General of Caritas Italiana, and some other colleagues. We’ve been talking to the bishop of the area and representatives of the local Caritas about what our plan of action will be.
At the moment, we’re helping coordinate. There have been people ringing from abroad offering help, so we have been fielding these calls. Abruzzo is an area from where many people emigrate abroad, and these people have also been calling Caritas Italiana. We’ve started giving people psychological support.
As I said, everyone is very anxious and they need to feel as though someone is there for them. On Easter Sunday, Fr Nozza and I plan to celebrate Mass with the people who’ve been affected in the area. We’re hoping this will help people feel as though they’re not alone and that they’re all in this together. In disasters like this, it’s very important not only to rebuild houses, but also to rebuild the community spirit.
We’re trying to help create a sense of community in places where people are gathered together in shelters. When people are hit by a disaster such as this, it is very easy for them to just focus on their own needs rather than the general good.
I think the real problem will come in a few days when the attention of the world’s media will no longer be on L’Aquila. It’s then that people will have to start rebuilding their homes and their lives. With this latest tremor this morning, people are very worried about their future. For them, this is the beginning of a long Calvary.
Za Caritas Internationalis piše vlč. Andrea La Regina – Caritas Italije
//07. 04. 2009
Gaza stories: “Five hundred families are living in 69 tents”
Muhammad Saleh, living in Al- Rayan Camp receives a blanket from Caritas
For Gazan refugees, like 56 year old Muhammad Saleh a father of eight, living in tents stirs memories of the tragedy that began 61 years ago, when the 1948 war forced thousands of Palestinians into refugee camps.
“I was a child back then living in Al-Yarmook refugee camp. I know the feeling of returning from school to a tent. I know the feeling of not completely feeling warm or safe and watching his parents struggle to provide food,” he said. “I really hate to see my children go through the same experience. I lived all my life without having a happy day.”
Tent camps like Al- Rayan are temporary accommodation for the Palestinians who lost their homes after Israel’s three-week assault on the Gaza Strip on Dec. 2008.
“ They have to live through cold and rain. Psychologically they are still afraid,” Khaled Abu Ali, Al- Rayan camp coordinator said.
Because of this women are sent in the evening to stay with friends and family.
Although some aids have been received conditions of life in the camp are uncomfortable.
Caritas staff and volunteers have already distributed 500 hundred blankets to the neediest families. The displaced people living in Izbet Abed Rabo and Al Rayan Camp received 250 blankets, Al Ahli Hospital and The Holy Family School each received 100, and Mother Theresa Nuns received 50.
Khaled thanked Caritas Jerusalem for their efforts to aid the displaced people but pleaded organizations to do more to help because the need is great.
Caritas Internationalis
//26. 02. 2009
Caritas food gets to Gazans
“These parcels are something great,” said a Gazan woman as she peaked inside her Caritas food parcel.
“These food items will last for a while. I am really happy to see the flour and sugar but I am so excited to eat the good quality cheese,” she said.
Caritas is distributing 1000 parcels that contain oil, flour, rice, sugar, tea, tomato paste, meat cans, tuna, sardine, spaghetti, lentils, halaweh, beans, chick peas, milk, and tahina. The food is going to 520 Gazan families who had been cut off from supplies because of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian forces linked to Hamas.
Distribution began on 9 February, but it is a lengthy process, taking staff 11 hours a day to get food to all the families in need.
Caritas is working through its local member Caritas Jerusalem. Amin Sabag, Secretary of Caritas Jerusalem said, ““People expressed much happiness when they were handed the food parcels. They were very appreciative.”
Some families were completely cut off from humanitarian aid for weeks. They had to stay sheltered and when fighting was so intense it was impossible for them to get out of their homes.
The distribution of the food process took much longer than expected due to many procedures and obstacles imposed by Israel.
In order for the food parcels to be delivered into Gaza a long and tedious procedure had to be followed. Caritas Jerusalem had to fill out a request form called CMR (Cargo Movement Request), including the number of pallets, consignee, contents, number of parcels, and the addresses in Gaza had to be filled out. Then all pallets had to be delivered to UNRWA warehouses in Ramallah and then UNRWA delivers them to their warehouses in Jerusalem. After the pallets arrive at the UNRWA warehouse in Jerusalem they are loaded into their trucks and then sent to Gaza. When the food parcels arrived into Gaza, our Caritas project coordinator Jouma’ Khadoura had to coordinate the unloading and distribution process.
Prior to any distribution in Gaza a list of names was handed out by the Ministry of Social Affairs to NGO’s to assure that the food parcels are reached to the right area zones to avoid duplication.
According to the Caritas Jerusalem project manager Jameel Khoury, this process wastes much time. “Coordinating the delivery of the food packages into Gaza takes much time. The time spent coordinating the delivery of the food parcels many hungry people become more hungry.”
//17. 02. 2009
World Social Forum 2009 – building “another world”
The WSF is seen as a vital opportunity for social movements, NGOs and civil society networks to discuss the issues of poverty and the effects of globalisation.
Credits: Caritas
Caritas members from around the world are heading to Brazil this week to attend the World Social Forum (WSF) and show their support for a world based on justice.
Kicking off in Belem on 27th January, the WSF offers civil society representatives and NGOs a global platform for debate and the exchange of ideas regarding the social challenges facing a globalised world.
“For Caritas, the World Social Forum is an opportunity for the globalisation of solidarity, something which is crucial in the construction of another world,” says Cristina dos Anjos, National Director of Cáritas Brasileira.
One hundred and fifty Caritas representatives from 14 countries will represent the Caritas network at the forum. Members attending the event include Caritas France (Secours Catholique), Caritas Nigeria, Caritas Italiana and Caritas Brasileira. A number of members will present workshops. These will include seminars by Caritas France on a variety of subjects ranging from human trafficking to the peace process in Colombia and a seminar by Caritas Nigeria on the issue of oil and gas production in the Niger Delta.
The WSF is seen as a vital opportunity for social movements, NGOs and civil society networks to discuss the issues of poverty and the effects of globalisation.
“This process of gathering civil society actors from all around the world is all the more relevant as we need to find answers to the current economic and financial crises and speak for the poorest who are deeply undermined,” says Michel Roy, International Advocacy Director for Caritas France.
Visit Caritas Internationalis’ WSF blog
//26. 01. 2009
Video interview with Claudette Habesch, CEO of Caritas Jerusalem
//22. 01. 2009
The world wakes up to Gaza devastation
Ruin of what used to be Gaza legislative building before the bombing.
Credits: Secours Catholique/ Caritas France
By Conor O'Loughlin, Caritas International Humanitarian Communications Officer
On Monday, the first full day without violence in either Gaza or southern Israel, and after what was probably the first proper night's sleep for many since the fighting began, Gazans woke up to find a moonscape where their homes had been. According to Tariq Al- Safine, the head of the Bloodbank Unit in Al'Shifa hospital, Gaza's biggest hospital, "Whole neighbourhoods are just gone. The sewage system is smashed in places and sewage is overflowing everywhere. There are deep craters in the ground. Some areas looked like an earthquake had just passed through. When people emerged yesterday, olive trees were still burning on the streets."
The rebuilding work will take a long time, and Gazans are tired. Commitments of aid, like the $1 billion committed over the weekend from Saudi Arabia, will certainly help. The psychological trauma will take even longer.
"Since the ceasefire, people have been roaming the streets in shock," said Fikr Shalltoot, programme co-ordinator for Medical Aid for Palestine, a Trocaire/Caritas partner organisation at work in Gaza. "Nothing that they remember looks the same. People are afraid because now they have to face reality; to start asking about friends and family and to face the truth of whether their loved ones are dead or alive."
"Gaza was already a nightmare," she continued. "Before this new war, we had little access to water, the electricity was shut off many times, food was scarce and people were not able to move. It would take 7 hours in line to get a few loaves of bread. And then? F16s, Apache helicopters, submarines, white phosphorous. Children and adults were equally scared. There was complete destruction of buildings, glass windows broken, homes destroyed, phone lines and electricity, whole streets gone; everything."
Fikr sounds tired on the telephone as she describes how difficult it was for her to leave her children with their father and go out to work amidst the war and carnage to help those who desperately needed all the assistance they could get.
"I am a humanitarian, but first I am a human being. For the last three weeks, nowhere was safe in Gaza and I thought that if I can do something to help or provide medical help in order to save lives then I needed to do it. Instead of sitting at home, which was also not safe!"
Those concerns were shared by Nawaraz Abu-Libdah, another aid worker with young children. Nawaraz lives in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
"I realised that I had to keep it together for my children who kept asking what was happening and why. They wondered if we were all going to die. The strikes were so loud and so close. Many times we thought: we are next.
"I explained to my children that I had to leave them to help the people that need it more. I told them that they were safe with their father. I told them not to worry about me because I was doing something good to help the people that need it."
With the ceasefire and increased access for journalists, the images of the destruction in Gaza are being beamed around the world. It is worse than many feared, and shows to some extent the horror that the people have Gaza have been locked into since December 27.
And what will it take to recover? It is impossible to know.
Tariq told me of the daily horror of working in the hospital during the siege. "Some of the things that I have seen are unbelievable. I have seen people carrying body parts. Injured people with smoke coming out of their stomachs and bodies falling apart with blood everywhere. After this is over, most people here won't need just food aid or medical aid, but psychological aid due to the things they have seen and experienced."
Fikr also told of her shock at what she saw in the hospitals: "I saw the injured lying on the floor with nothing under them. Nurses and doctors were working with nothing. Dead bodies were lying in the corridors and outside the hospitals. Relatives screaming and crying in search of their loved ones."
With the sewage system smashed in many places, and dead bodies still being pulled from the rubble, the humanitarian community is on alert for an outbreak of water-borne diseases, such as dysentery or cholera.
There are already more than twice the number of injured people in Gaza as there are hospital beds. The last thing the people need is another crisis; another day of pain.
//21. 01. 2009
“We just want to live”: Voices from Gaza
By caritasinternationalis
Jouma’ Khadoura
“We collected empty cans and we brought a small ball. We mounted the cans on top of each other then we made two teams,” said 10 year old Muhammad, telling Caritas Project Coordinator in Gaza Jouma’ Khadoura about the moments before the Israeli shell struck. “In this game you have to roll the ball in order to knock down the cans. Then you have to mount them on top of each other before you get caught by the other team”.
Mohammed was playing outside his home in Al- Maghazi neighbourhood in central Gaza with his siblings and friends when the Israeli shell hit. The next thing he remembers is waking up in Al- Aqsa Hospital.
“I thought I was dead when I woke up in hospital. I could not believe that I was still alive,” said Muhammad. Muhammad has now returned to his home and will visit the hospital every few days for follow up treatment.
For Jouma’ Khadoura it is just one incident of many that he’s witnessed over the last month.
“People were wandering the streets with lost faces, because of the things they have seen,” said Jouma’ Khadoura, recalling aftermath of the attack that destroyed the Caritas medical point and 20 homes on 9 January. “As I was walking, people could see I was an aid worker wearing a Caritas vest. They expected me to know where their lost relatives were. When they asked me, I felt helpless.”
Jouma’ began volunteering with Caritas in 2003. He has also worked with Doctors without Boarders, Red Crescent and Red Cross. He says that he has not seen anything like this intensity, “I have seen children with amputated arms and legs. Body parts all over the place. I lost my friend who worked on an ambulance. Sadly my aunt also died.”
These twenty-two days of conflict have left over 1,300 Palestinians dead and over 5,300 injured. That is 1 in every 225 Gazans either killed or injured. Of the dead, 431 are children and 112 are women. This number does not include those who have died due to lack of access to regular health care.
At 29, Jouma’ does not think of getting married or having children at this moment. He believes that it’s a punishment to raise children in Gaza under these circumstances. The life they would have would be miserable. “They have no playgrounds to play safely or freely like other children. I would always worry,” he said.
Nisreen Abu-Amra
Nisreen Abu-Amra is a 30 year old resident of Tal Al-Hawa near Gaza City. She has 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. While on his way to buy oil for cooking, her husband broke both of his legs when Israel struck the Mosque in Jabaliya. On Friday morning she arrived at the Holy Family School outside Gaza City seeking refuge after 20 days trapped in her home.
She said by phone today, “I didn’t know where my husband was for a whole day. The day after he left he managed to call and told me what happened. Because the hospitals are so overcrowded he had to leave that day so I took him home. But even that day, Israel began attacking my area and we were trapped; unable to move. Anyone who moved outside was shot. Our neighbours lit a candle and their home was destroyed. They all died.
“The next day, from my building I could see the tanks and army trucks surrounding the area. Soldiers went into high tower buildings and arrested all the men but let the children and women go. They then made holes in the buildings and snipers were all over the buildings. We heard heavy shooting. Our building was shaking, I saw lights flashing outside and every time I did I thought that we would be next to be hit.
“My children kept crying from fear. I heard people injured outside screaming from pain.
“From my window I saw one man who was already injured coming out of his home for help. He was waving a white scarf for surrender and immediately he was shot. Two bullets: one in the head and one in the stomach. Anything that moved or breathed was shot. My children turned white and were frozen with fear. I saw this with my own eyes.
“At home, in order to do anything, we had to crawl around. For two days I did not have even a sip of water. My youngest baby is only one year old. A baby needs constant cleaning and I am using whatever I can find to do it. Because of his injury, my husband also needs constant care and cleaning.
“We were trapped like for that for 20 days. When I heard it was a bit quiet I called an ambulance to come and take me and my family. I thought to myself where would I go? I have no-one. Then I thought of Fr. Manuel so I asked to be taken there. I worked in this school as a teacher for five years. “I came to him for help and he welcomed me with open arms. He gave me a room in the school and he is trying to provide me with all the necessities for me and my family and helping to take care of my husband.
“I cannot believe I am alive. Every moment I heard the strikes I thought this was the last moment. Really, really I cannot believe that I am here and that I am alive.
“Please, I plead to the world that you save us and our children. Let us live and have a normal life, with just basic necessities we just want to live.
“We don’t want anything else.”
Fr. Manuel Mussallam
Fr. Manuel Mussallam is Catholic Parish Priest of Gaza. It is the school that he runs that Nisreen fled to this morning.
He said by phone earlier, “We now have 3 families, which is 15 people, staying at our school. I have turned the classrooms into rooms for them to stay but we lack blankets, mattresses, clothes and pillows. There is not much here to offer.
“Nisreen came here with her husband who has two broken legs. He cannot move. We are not equipped here for such things, and I have no medics here to help me. One of the cleaners in the school, her husband was killed just yesterday. My driver’s brother, sister-in-law and both of their children have been killed so I don’t have much help. I can only do so much. I am helpless.
“My biggest concern now is the generator for electricity. I am running out of diesel and the cables were hit so it’s not working properly. I am only using it for 6 hours a day so it will last longer but if it finishes I don’t know what I will do. What about the people who come to the school to bake their bread everyday? What then? There is no other food.
“Currently, we are using the water that is in the well but even that not sure how long it will last.
“I feel helpless, I really need help.
“The people’s situation is unimaginable and inhumane. This is the worst war we have ever seen. People are lost and they have nowhere to hide. They are tired and helpless. They have given up.”
Testimony of Father Mussalam on January 3rd
From God’s church in Gaza to the beloved saints in Palestine and the rest of the world,
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
From the valley of tears, from blood-drenched Gaza, whose one and a half million residents have been robbed of the joy they once had in their hearts, I send you these words of faith and hope. As for love, that’s a word that even we Christians no longer dare utter, not even to ourselves. Today, the priests of the church are raising the banner of hope. May God have mercy and pity on us and leave a remnant in Gaza. May he not put out the light of Christ, which was spread by the deacon Philip at the time of the early church. May the compassion of Christ be what reawakens our love for God, which is currently like a patient in a hospital’s intensive care unit. As a priest and a father, I bear the sad news of the death of a beloved girl who was a tenth grader at the Holy Family School and the first Christian to die in this war: Christine Wadi’ Al-Turk
Christine passed away on the morning of Saturday, January 2, 2009, due to fear and cold. The windows of her house were open to protect the children from being hit by flying glass fragments, and as missiles passed over her house and her neighbors fell victim to Israeli attacks, her entire body would shake with fear. When she could not longer bear it, she cried on her Creator’s shoulder and asked Him for a home and shelter with no crying, shouting, or wailing but joy and happiness.
My brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, what you see and hear on your television screens is not the complete painful truth about what our people in Gaza are going through. Their suffering is so widespread over our land that no television or radio could report the whole truth about it. The brutal siege on Gaza is a storm that escalates by the hour; it is not only a war crime but a crime against humanity. Today, the suffering people of Gaza are appealing to the conscience of every human being with goodwill, but it will soon be our just God who decides the case.
The children of Gaza have been sleeping with their families in the hallways of their homes (if they have them) or in bathrooms, for protection. They tremble with fear at every sound, every movement, and every violent F-16 attack. While it is true that so far the F-16 jets have for the most part targeted the headquarters of the government and Hamas, they are located in residential areas no more than six meters away from people’s homes, the minimum distance required by construction law. That’s why people’s houses are severely affected by the violence, and it leads to the death of many children. Our children are suffering from trauma, anxiety, undernourishment, malnutrition, poverty, and lack of heating.
The situation in hospitals is unspeakably deplorable. Our hospitals were not properly equipped before the war, and now there are thousands of injured and ill patients streaming in, to the point that operations are being done in the hospital hallways, and many patients are being sent to Egypt via the Rafah Border Crossing. Some of them never return because they die on the way. The conditions in the hospitals are horrifying, heartbreaking, and hysteria-inducing.
I would like to tell you a short story about something that happened in a hospital to the Abdul-Latif family. One of the children disappeared during the first attack, and his parents spent the first two days of the war looking for him but did not find him. On the third day, as the family was walking around a hospital, they found some people from the Jarada family gathered around a disfigured and injured boy whose leg had been cut off. His face was distorted not because of the F-16 attacks he had suffered but because of the glass that had fallen onto his face when part of the hospital was attacked. The Adul-Latifs approached the Jaradas to console them. When they reached the injured boy, Mr. Abdul-Latif realized that it was his son and not the Jaradas’. The families argued with each other over the issue and waited for the boy to wake up and tell them who he was so that he could be taken by the Abdul-Latifs.
I will keep my letter brief. I lift our suffering up to God just as I have presented it to you. Our people in Gaza are being treated like animals in a zoo; they don’t get enough to eat, and they cry but nobody wipes their tears away. Instead of water, electricity, and food, there is fear and terror and restriction. Yesterday, the baker refused to give me bread, because he did not want to let me eat something made from flour not suitable for human consumption — which he had begun using when he ran out of good flour — so as not to insult my priesthood. I vowed not to eat any bread for the remainder of the war.
We want you to pray to God fervently and continually and to mention the suffering in Gaza before God in every mass or service that you hold. I send short letters with Scripture to the Christian community here to bring hope to their hearts. We have all agreed to say the following prayer every hour on the hour: “O God of peace, shower us with peace. O God of peace, bring peace to our land. Have mercy on your people, O Lord, and do not be angry with us forever.” I ask you to stand up now and say the same prayer. Your prayers with us will stir the world, showing it that any type of love that is not extended to your brothers and sisters in Gaza is not the love of Christ and His church, which does not let religious and social obstacles or even wars stand in its way. When your love is extended to us here in Gaza, it makes us feel that we are an indispensable part of Christ’s one universal church. The Moslems among us are our brothers and sisters. We share with them their joys and their sufferings. We are one people, the people of Palestine.
Despite all that is going on, our people in Gaza reject war as a way to achieve peace and insist that the road to peace is peace itself. We in Gaza are patient and have decided that we have no choice other than bondage or death for our country. We want to live so we can praise God in Palestine and to witness for Christ — we want to live for Palestine, not to die for her — but if we must die, then we will die honorably and bravely.
Let us all pray together for the true peace that Christ gives. May wolves and lambs one day live together, and bulls and cubs graze together, and children be able to put their hands in the mouths of snakes without being harmed.
And may the peace of Christ, “into which you were also called in one body,” be with you all and protect you. Amen.
Your brother,
Father Manuel Musallam
Holy Family Priest
Gaza
Ghada Riad Rajab Abu Halima, 21
Until last week, I lived with my husband, Muhammad, 24, and our two little daughters, Farah, 3, and Aya, 6 months, in the a-Sifa section of Beit Lahiya. We lived in the same house as Muhammad’s parents, Sa’dallah Abu Halima, 44, and Sabah Abu Halima, 44, and his brothers and sisters: Omar, 18, Yusef, 16, Abd a-Rahim, 13, Zeid, 11, Hamzah, 10, Ali, 4, and baby Shahd, 1.
On Saturday night [3 January], Israeli jets dropped leaflets calling on residents of the area to leave their homes. The army did the same thing in previous incursions and we didn’t leave the house, so this time, too, we decided not to leave.
Around 4 P.M. the next day [4 January], when all the family was in the house, the army started to shell our area. A few minutes later, shells landed on our house. Fire broke out in the house and several members of the family burned to death: my father-in-law, his baby daughter Shahd, and three of his sons – ‘Abd a-Rahim, Zeid and Hamzah.
My mother-in-law and her sons Yusef, Omar and Ali suffered burns. The fire spread throughout the house. I was holding my daughter Farah and we were both burned too. My clothes went up in flames, and some of my skin and Farah’s skin was scorched. Luckily, my baby daughter Aya wasn’t hurt. I ripped the clothes off my body and cried out that I was burning. I was naked in front of everybody in the house. My body was burning and the pain was excruciating. I could smell my flesh burning. I was in a horrible condition. I looked for something to cover me and shouted non-stop. My husband’s brother took off his pants and gave them to me to wear. The top part of my body stayed naked until my husband came and covered me with his jacket.
Then he ran to the road to get an ambulance or find some people to help us get the killed and injured people out of the house. He couldn’t find any ambulance or firefighting vehicle. His cousins, who live nearby us, Matar and Muhammad-Hikmat Abu Halima, came to help. My husband lifted me up, and Nabilah, his aunt, picked up Farah. Another aunt, who also came to help, took Aya.
Muhammad, Farah, Nabilah, her son Ali, Omar, Matar and I all got onto a wagon hitched to a tractor. Muhammad Hahmat drove it, heading to Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital. We also took the body of the baby Shahed. We left all the others in the house.
On the way, we saw soldiers about 300 meters from al-‘Atatrah Square. Muhammad stopped the tractor and suddenly, the soldiers opened fire at us. They killed Matar and Muhammad-Hikmat. Ali was wounded and managed to run away with Nabilah and ‘Omar.
The soldiers told my husband to undress, which he did. Then he put his clothes back on and the soldiers told us to continue by foot. We left the three bodies in the wagon. My husband, Farah, and I walked toward the square, where we got into a car that happened to be passing by. He took us to a-Shifaa Hospital. It was about 6 P.M. when we got to the hospital.
I am still hospitalized. My whole body was burned, and so was my face. Farah has third-degree burns.
We were referred to further treatment in Egypt and they tried to take us to Rafah by ambulance, but the army fired at us on the way. The driver was slightly wounded in the face and he drove back to the hospital. Now we are waiting for authorization to leave for Egypt.
Ghada Riad Rajab Abu Halima, 21, married with two children, resident of Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip. Testimony was given to Caritas Ireland (Trocaire) partner B’Tselem at a-Shifaa Hospital on 9 January 2009.
Nafez a-Daiyah, 38, policeman
Our family’s house was in the centre of Gaza City, next to the Hassan al-Bana mosque. It had four floors, and more than thirty of us lived in it. My brother Amer and my four married sisters live elsewhere.
Three days ago, the army called the house of our neighbours and told them that it intended to bomb the house. Their house is only fifteen meters from ours, and only one house stands between us. The family left the house after receiving the notice.
My wife, children, and I went to stay with my wife’s parents. The distance from their house to our house is about 500 meters. Yesterday morning, after prayers, I heard two explosions from the area of our house. The local radio reported that the army blew up “the house of the a-Daiyah family,” in the centre of Gaza City. I was at our house in five minutes.
I was shocked. The house was totally destroyed, with only a few pillars remaining. There were body parts everywhere. I started shouting the names of my family, hoping that somebody would answer. Neighbours came to help look for survivors. I only found my brother Muhammad. He was crying and screaming. He told me that the house had been bombed while he was on his way home from prayers, right when he was about to enter. We found Amer. He was lightly wounded from shrapnel and was in shock. Then we found my brothers Rida and Radwan, who were in very bad condition. We managed to take them to a-Shifa’a Hospital. They’re both in intensive care, and Radwan is brain dead.
From six in the morning until evening prayers, we kept on looking for body parts. This morning, we continued our search until noon. The neighbours helped us, using their two tractors. Rescue forces didn’t come because they were busy in other places that had been bombed.
The members of my family who were killed in the bombing are my father, Fayiz, 60, my mother, Kawkab, 55, my sisters Raghdah, 30, and Sabrin, 26, both single. My brother Muhammad’s wife, Tazal Isma’il, 26, who was nine months pregnant, and they had four children, Amani, 7, Qamar, 5, Arij, 3, and Yusef, 2. My brother Iyad, 35, his wife Rawdah, 28, and their children ‘Ali, 10, Khitam, 9, Alaa, 8, Duha, 6, Sharaf a-Din, 5, and Muhammad, 1. My brother Ramez, 25, his wife Wafaa, 20, and their children, Baraa, 3, and Salsabil, 4 months.
Nafez Fayez a-Daiyah, 38, married with seven children, is a policeman and a resident of Gaza City. His testimony was given to Trocaire partner B’Tselem by telephone.
Izvješće Caritasa Internationalis
//19. 01. 2009
Children dying of hunger in Ethiopia
Caritas has launched a US$1.3 million emergency appeal to feed mothers and children in Ethiopia after critical food shortages have led to a sharp rise in malnutrition levels.
Caritas Internationalis, the umbrella organisation for 162 national Catholic charities, aims to provide 22,000 children with supplementary food and up to 4,500 pregnant women and new mothers with extra rations over the next five months.
“I was in Ethiopia two weeks ago and I saw malnourished children die. Even though they’d come to a health centre, it was already too late for them. Without help, the numbers of children at risk will increase,” said Caritas Germany desk officer Wolfgang Fritz. Caritas Germany is working with Caritas Ethiopia – the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat – to co-ordinate the response to the crisis on behalf of Caritas Internationalis.
“Our focus is on children under ten years old, with those under five as a priority. We are also targeting pregnant and new mothers with food aid. Mothers often give up their food to ensure their children eat. Nursing mothers and small children are least able to cope when food is scarce,” said Mr. Fritz.
Although parts of Ethiopia are green and the rains have now come, the failure of two successive rainy seasons means many people will have to wait until October to harvest food which they have planted.
“People may be able to deal with the failure of one rainy season,” said Mr. Fritz, “But when the rains fail twice, it’s just too much for people to cope with and the situation gets dramatic.”
Mothers and children in Adigrat, Awassa, Emdebir, Hararghe, Meki and Soddo Hossana will be the focus of the Caritas’ appeal. Besides food, Caritas also intends to provide clean drinking water and medication to the mothers and children.
Nearly one million people died in Ethiopia in 1984-5 in a famine caused by drought.
Caritas has worked in Ethiopia for fifty years. It links emergency work to rehabilitation and sustainable development and works to improve people’s ability to cope with disasters.
//04. 07. 2008
The long march continues with a pause for gratitude
Dear Friends,
After 45 days of hectic work, the church and its group of committed volunteers, take a pause from the long journey of re-building our people's lives, to express our deep gratitude to all of you who stood by us and the people of Myanmar in their hour of darkness.
Thousands are returning home, or where their home used to be. Children return to school, knowing some of their friends will not be here. Farmers are returning to a slowly healing land, wounded by the marauding sea on that fateful day. The Ayeyawady River is subdued into serenity after straddling killer waves and exhibiting dead bodies for a month. It has been a heavy month for the church. In Dedeya, Fr Benedict and his group valiantly buried dead bodies, exposed to sun and rain for a month. It is a challenging work, for days together, many villages were a valley of bones, and now they are rested with dignity in a place. Elsewhere the caregivers, our volunteers, faced threats to their own physical and psychological health, living amidst contaminated water and rotting bodies. Some have to be carried back to Yangon for medical attention.
All the parishes have been turned into disaster response teams. Food and Non Food Items are distributed through them. Many times the Buddhist monks are fellow sojourners in this act of mercy. Just a month ago, no family had wish or wherewith all to send their children. This month, with our support for uniforms, books and fee, hundreds of children are returning to the school. This return is healing and is the first signs of life to the battered communities. Hundreds of Temporary shelters are coming up. Seeds are distributed. The Church is designing a healing process through Psycho-Spiritual training and trauma healing services.
The nightmare is slowly replaced with hope. Catholic Bishops Conference of Myanmar (CBCM), all the religious and faithful, Karuna (national Caritas) and the Caritas international is reiterate their commitment. We thank all of you at this juncture. Our work has been very challenging, done under great restrictions on access. But you all made our work rewarding by standing by us with your great fellowship. Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI evinced fatherly concern from the day one. He mourned with the Myanmar Bishops when they met him for their ‘ad limina’ visit. His Delegate Archbishop Salvatore Pennachio rushed in by the first plane available and personally interacted with the survivors and the caregivers all through these days. The churches from various nations contributed their mite and prayers to our work.
It has been a month of pain and sorrow for our people. But the tide is turning, because people like you felt their pain from far and rushed with assistance. The Church could save lives because of you. On behalf of those thousands who survived we owe a deep debt of gratitude to all of you. Once again we realize that the Universal Church is a mother who reaches out where there is a tear, a human brokenness.
It is still a long journey. The full recovery will take at least two years. Cyclone Nargis was nature's nuclear attack on our people. There are villages destroyed without any trace. The farm lands are polluted with the sea water. The human asset is diluted, social assets destroyed, natural assets mutilated with wanton destruction. The poor of Myanmar, already handicapped by some of the worst permanent disasters, are crawling back to normalcy.
So our journey continues. The urgent needs are for setting up homes, shelter and regenerating the livelihoods through supply of seeds to farmers, encouraging micro enterprises. This has been a month of challenge, but a blessed challenge because we felt the power of human oneness, the unstinted support of the Mother Church and great generosity of human sprit among Myanmar people through their selfless service to their suffering brothers and sisters.
Our heartfelt thanks to every one of you,
In Solidarity
Archbishop Charles Bo SDB
//03. 07. 2008
Compassion is the common religion in the Post Nargis Myanmar
As the waters raged in the pre dominantly Christian village, the monks from the nearby monastery were on the noble mission of saving people. A monk swam across the currents to pull out a woman who was about to be dragged by the marauding river. In the far off Phyapon, where Church workers linked to Caritas Internationalis were distributing aid to the survivors they choose Buddhist monks as their partners in distributing aid to non Christian villages.
All religious groups were made victims by the cyclone. All places of worship-monasteries, clergy houses and convents bore the brunt of the deadly cyclone. Nargis, in its monstrous ferocity tore through many of the famous places of worship of all religions. In Aima, in the Pathein Diocese, Fr Andrew Soe win, offered his life as a supreme sacrifice in trying to reach his marooned people. His body was found after 18 days.
But nothing deterred them from the sacred duty of saving lives. In the predominately Buddhist Country, where Metta and Karuna [mercy and compassion) are the major tenets of a great religion, compassion broke forth like a healing stream after the demonic deluge. Churches and Monasteries became the refugee camps. With death and mayhem threatening them in their villages, thousands took refugee in sacred spaces, seeking coping and mutual consolation. Even before the government could move in, or the do-gooders and NGOs could move in, spontaneous charity sprang forth with Buddhists feeding Christians and Christians feeding the Buddhists etc. Nargis broke many things in an evil way. Goodness broke all parochial borders that fateful night when death danced arrogantly across wounding a nation.
In Bogalay the Hindu temple opened its portals to feed the multitude. In the ravished streets of Yangon, Muslim merchants were distributing food to the starving masses. More poignant was the response of many poor and lower middle class people. They collected whatever they had and every weekend they treaded across in aid convoy to far off Labutta. Nargis stripped naked a nation with violence but people of all faiths are clothing it now with compassion.
With other Christian Communities, Catholics threw in everything into rescue - money, material and man power. Many young men and women volunteered to go to the risky villages, strewn with dead bodies of people and animals. The first psycho social assistance came from nuns who risked their lives, by undertaking dangerous boat travels, without life jacket etc. They were the first ones to hold mothers who lost their children, carried orphans and consoled a grieving community with prayer and simple presence. Hundreds of seminarians were the first rescuers, clearing the villages of debris. All these are done under extreme restrictions. Through the Caritas Internationalis network, assistance continues.
Compassion is the common religion in the post disaster phase. In Myanmar people lived with various tags - religion, colour and tribe. But now Nargis taught us all, that human tears have no colour, no religion, and no tribe
Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon, 13 June 2008
//19. 06. 2008
Aid getting through; more needed.
Letter from Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon, Burma (Myanmar)
Monday 2nd of June marks the start of the school year in Myanmar and also one month after Cyclone Nargis. However, for so many children there will be no school to go to. For the children in the delta region their lives have been turned upside down. Many of them lost their parents and their homes.
Last week I visited a village called Aima and some surrounding island villages called Pha-ya-lay-gone, Pein-ne-gone, Ta- yoke-gone, and Lein-maw-gone. Aima village is in Labutta township in the southern delta region and is very difficult to reach.
It took almost ten hours to get there by boat. There, I met families who are still struggling to survive and feed their children. In this area all the schools have been destroyed. For the children of Aima, the horror of the cyclone still haunts them.
Many children cry at night and when it rains. The children fear the worst and re-live the trauma of the night of the 2nd of May. In this village there are so many inner wounds that must be healed over time.
To date very little aid has been able to get to these communities. For the first two weeks the only aid received by these people was from the Catholic Church.
They told me that without this, they would not have survived. The government now only supplies two cans of rice per person per day, which is not enough for people to live on. In some cases people have been asked by the government to leave temporary camps and return to their villages. In many of the villages there was still no shelter, food or clean water and the government only supplied them with a few kitchen utensils.
My trip to Aima also demonstrated how important it is for the Catholic Church to continue our work and ensure that we support communities as best we can. To date we have been able to supply food, clean water, tarpaulins for shelter, cooking utensils and medical supplies to approximately 20,000 people in Labutta township.
We now must continue to support them, firstly to survive but also in rebuilding their lives. The people I met remain modest in their requests, and ask only for food and shelter.
The start of the school year is also an important reminder that we must prioritise the needs of children who have been affected by Cyclone Nargis. The Church will play a role in ensuring that children are reunited with family members and are given toys and space to play in. We must ensure that children can also return to school as soon as possible. Without routines such as school and normal daily activities, children will find it much harder to heal and miss out of vital education.
On my recent trip, amidst so much death and destruction, the resilience of children was brought home to me by many stories that I heard.
In one case a lady called Veronica told me of how she and her three month old child were stuck in their house when a tree fell over and blocked the door way. The floodwater rose inside the house so she piled furniture up and climbed above the water. As the water level rose she had just her head and her baby above water and one foot left until the water reached the roof of the house. She remained like that until the following morning and the water gradually subsided. Veronica told me this story and then added that during this time her baby had not cried once.
I also heard the story of a five-year-old boy in the village of Lein-maw-gone. He had been separated from his family and when the floodwater rose he could no longer stand on the ground so he grabbed onto his dog. He held onto his dog as it began to swim. The dog kept swimming for hours until he could eventually bring the boy to the safety of dry land. Sadly, following this amazing feat, the dog died of exhaustion.
Having met the people affected by Cyclone Nargis and seen the conditions they are now living in one month later, my recent trip left me with both hope and anguish. There is still a great deal of suffering and people need considerably more aid and help to survive and rebuild their lives. However, I am also optimistic that the Church can play an important role in meeting these needs. It is with this in mind that we must go forward, work together and serve those in need more effectively and to the best of our ability.
Archbishop Charles Bo
//11. 06. 2008
Peruvian Government gives top award to Caritas Internationalis President for earthquake relief
Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, President of Caritas Internationalis, will be presented with an award by the Peruvian Government in recognition of his work to help the victims of Peru’s 2007 earthquake in which over 500 people died and over 100,000 were made homeless.
“I am honoured to receive the award of ‘El Sol del Perù’ on behalf of Caritas Internationalis,” said Cardinal Rodríguez, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa in Honduras. “It highlights the importance of the work of Caritas, which acts as a beacon of hope to millions of men, women and children in times of disaster and difficulty.”
Cardinal Rodríguez visited Caritas Peru last year to show solidarity with survivors after a 8-magnitude earthquake levelled the coastal town of Pisco and destroyed homes in the surrounding region on August 15 2007.
Caritas Peru made an appeal for US$11 million and initially helped over 55,000 families by providing food, water, tents, medicine, blankets, clothing, mattresses, hygiene kits, and cooking sets. Caritas Peru also provided medical help and counselling to those affected by the disaster.
“I was very impressed with the quick and effective response of Caritas on the ground. It offered help – but more importantly hope – to people whose lives had been turned upside-down,” said Cardinal Rodríguez.
The order of “El Sol del Perù” will be given to Cardinal Rodríguez by the Peruvian Ambassador to the Holy See, Alfonso Rivero Monsalve, at 19.30 on 27 May at the Peruvian Embassy to the Holy See in Rome.
//27. 05. 2008
Caritas mourns death of Sri Lanka church worker in bomb blast
21st April 2008 - Caritas Internationalis joins with Caritas Sri Lanka in condemning the death of Rev. Fr Karunaratnam, who was killed in a bomb blast on 20 April in the north of the country.
Fr Karunaratnam was the Chairman of the North East Secretariat on Human Rights, which aimed at recognizing and respecting the human rights of the minority Tamil community.
Fr Karunaratnam played a key role in promoting peace in the conflict between government troops and Tamil minority rebels.
Rev Fr. Damian Fernando, National Director of Caritas-Sri Lanka (SEDEC) said, “He was an example of courage, strength and humanity and will be missed by all. He also showed endless empathy towards refugees and displaced people while working tirelessly to improve their living standards.
“Over the past several months, violence has flared up in the country and innocent civilians have been the victims of this deteriorating situation and we at Caritas strongly condemn acts of violence against harmless human beings.
“The killing of Rev. Father Karunaratnam is a reminder to us all that a swift resolution to this partisan conflict has to be found and lasting peace achieved for all Sri Lankans and our entire country.”
This is the second killing of a clergy member in the recent months in Sri Lanka, and follows yet more violent deaths of church worker in 2008 in Pakistan and Iraq. Caritas partners have also receiving death threats this week in Colombia from militias for their work on peace building and development.
Caritas Secretary General Lesley-Anne Knight said, “The tragic death of Fr Karunaratnam increases the pressure on all sides in Sri Lanka to find a lasting solution to the conflict through dialogue and negotiation and the international community to support the process.
“That his death comes in the context of other killings and death threats of church workers is deeply troubling. All parties to a conflict must guarantee the protection of civilians. That the very people who are aiming to bring peace are losing their lives must underline the critical need to seek non-violent solutions throughout the world’s war zones.”
Caritas Internationalis Lesley-Anne Knight.
//09. 05. 2008
Caritas Côte d’Ivoire celebrates 50 years of fighting poverty and social injustice
23.04.2008 - Caritas Internationalis is sending its tributes to member organization Caritas Côte d’Ivoire as it marks 50 years of working with the most marginalised in the country.
Caritas Internationalis, the umbrella organisation of 162 Catholic national charities, says that Caritas Côte d’Ivoire has played a key role on peace building and human development in the country by supporting hundreds of thousands of people improve their own lives.
Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Lesley Anne Knight said, “Congratulations to Caritas Côte d’Ivoire. Their staff has worked tirelessly over the last half a century in the service of the poor.”
Caritas Côte d’Ivoire is involved in programmes that promote agricultural development and enhance access to clean water and sanitation facilities. It also supports projects such as income-generating schemes that aim to increase employment. Caritas Côte d’Ivoire is concerned at all levels with addressing human rights issues and with protecting vulnerable children from exploitation.
Caritas Côte d’Ivoire promotes and supports programmes addressing, health and HIV/AIDS, education, peace and reconciliation, water, sanitation and the environment, micro-credit and income-generating schemes, care for the elderly, and psychosocial counselling.
Caritas Côte d’Ivoire’s 10 national staff, 500 diocesan staff and 1000 volunteers also work on promoting peace, increasing access to anti-AIDS drugs, ending forced labour of children and building grassroots economic self-sustainability. They help under half a million people.
Celebrations in Côte d’Ivoire include a conference looking at the work of Caritas, a charity gala celebrating the history of the organisation, and a mass at the Cathedral in Abidjan on Sunday 27th.
//09. 05. 2008
Caritas Internationalis raises deep concerns over Zimbabwe election
Caritas Internationalis says that there is no possible reason to delay any longer the release of results in Zimbabwe’s presidential contest other than to rewrite the final result. It is now more than 10 days since the peaceful elections took place on 29 March 2008, but there has been no outcome to the presidential poll.
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is in charge of publishing the results. It is a constitutional body mandated to conduct elections and referendums “efficiently, freely, fairly, transparently and in accordance with the law.” This mandate includes ensuring that the results of the elections are made public to the contesting parties and to the nation as a whole as quickly as possible, within reasonable time.
Caritas believes that time has now elapsed.
In the presidential poll, the incumbent, Robert Mugabe, is facing Morgan Tsvangirai and Simba Makoni. If a winning candidate does not win more than 50 per cent of the total votes, a run-off race is required.
Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Lesley Anne Knight said, “Failure to release the election results without any compelling reason is not justifiable. It is simply leading to the suspicion that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is being manipulated to produce results against the verdict of the people.
“The voice of the people of Zimbabwe must be upheld and must not be tampered with by partisan interests. The delay is a recipe for political tension and instability. In the interests of peace and justice in Zimbabwe, Caritas supports the Catholic Church and the people of Zimbabwe in calling on the Electoral Commission to publish the results urgently.
“Zimbabwe faces an urgent task in rebuilding its economy, turning the tide on a devastating HIV and AIDS pandemic, and encouraging the millions of Zimbabweans who have fled the country in despair to return. The delays with producing the results are just making that process more difficult.
”All sides in Zimbabwe must remain committed to dialogue and a peaceful outcome to the political crisis. All sides must condemn acts of violence or intimidation and ensure their supporters remain committed to the democratic process.”
Alouis Munyaradzi Chaumba of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe said, “The autonomy and professionalism of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission have been seriously eroded and deeply compromised, reinforcing accusations of embedded partisanship and bias. In the event of a re-run of the presidential election, Zimbabweans and the international community will have grave doubts about the fairness and impartiality of ZEC to conduct the poll.”
Over four million people in Zimbabwe are facing critically low levels of staple foods unless they receive urgent food aid. Caritas has scaled up its operations to provide food for over 100,000 people until April 2008. Caritas is helping 16,500 families with agricultural and irrigation support in planting for the next harvest.
The Catholic Church in Zimbabwe has blamed the Government led by President Robert Mugabe for overseeing the economic and social collapse, for violating the freedom and fundamental rights of the people, and for failing to tackle rampant corruption.
//17. 04. 2008
Caritas Bolivia celebrates 50 years of fighting poverty and social injustice
Caritas Internationalis is sending its tributes to member organization Caritas Bolivia as it marks 50 years of working with the most marginalised in the country.
Caritas Internationalis, the umbrella organisation of 162 Catholic national charities, says that Caritas Bolivia has played an important role in combating poverty in its own country and in contributing to the work of the global network.
Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Lesley Anne Knight said, “Congratulations to Caritas Bolivia on its 50th anniversary. The staff of Caritas Bolivia has provided exceptional service to the poor that has been recognised both nationally and internationally, and most significantly by the poor in Bolivia itself. May their next 50 years be just as productive and worthwhile.”
Caritas Bolivia held commemorative events 5-6 April throughout the country, with guests from Argentina, Antilles, Brazil, Mexico, and Europe who will join the Bishops of Bolivia in thanksgiving for these 50 years of social and pastoral service.
There have been various activities organized for the event, including an exposition on the institution’s history with photos and artefacts.
The celebrations began with a greeting from the President of Caritas Bolivia, Monsignor Luis Morgan Casey, and a message from Cardinal Julio Terrazas, President of the Bolivian Bishops’ Conference. During the festivities on Sunday, April 6, there was recognition of the Presidents (Bishops) and former directors of the Pastoral and Social Services of Caritas Bolivia, as well as recognition of the municipal authorities. There were also testimonies from some of the beneficiaries. Later in the day, there was a Mass in the Cathedral of Cochabamba, presided by Cardinal Julio Terrazas and concelebrated by the Bishops of Bolivia.
“We will celebrate these 50 years with a Eucharistic spirit, in thanksgiving to God for the infinite number of graces and gifts we have received, for the inspiration, for the privilege of being His instruments,” said Caritas Executive Secretary Roberto Barja.
“We also ask that the Almighty continue to inspire us in our service, forgiving our weaknesses and imperfections. We greatly rejoice for the vitality of our Church in general, while we prepare ourselves for the next 50 years, at the light of the Gospel, with the illumination of the Holy Spirit, and with the protection of the Virgin Mary.”
//11. 04. 2008
Chad - Secadev supports the local population near the Sudan border
In the villages located south of Adre, near the border with Sudan, there co-exists displaced, returnees and members of the local population. Living in what are very difficult conditions, Secadev supports their livelihoods.
It is the start of 2007 and insecurity in the area of Borota, south of Adre, has reached its peak. Fleeing the frequent attacks of armed militias, the Chadian population deserted its villages near the border to go to the sites set up for the interna
lly displaced or in other villages.
Now some people have returned to their land to profit from the rainy season. Borota is coming back to life. The health dispensary, which has been closed for 6 months, has started up its activities. The school reopened its doors early February.
Secadev, in collaboration with Caritas United States (CRS), implements a project to support the gardening activities in the area of Borota and villages close to Adre (27 villages in total). The aim is to allow the displaced, returnees and local population to continue with their agricultural activities after the end of the rainy season. Secadev distributed to 2,250 households seeds, tools and jerry cans to irrigate their plots.
Awai Adma Moussa, a beneficiary of this project, lives in Borota. She left in January 2007 because of the attacks. She took refuge in a village where she has members of her family living.
“They were poor. There was not enough food, nor work nor land to cultivate” she said. She came back to Borota in July to work on her fields and produce millet, the main staple food for the local population.
Yaya Mahamat Yaya has spent several months in Arkoum, a site for internally displaced people, 35 km away from Borota. His village of origin is located 7km east of Borota, near the Ouaddi Kadja, a dried up riverbed which delineates the border with Sudan.
“Now I have received seeds, I will be able to go back to my fields to work. There are not enough of us yet to come back to live in our village, which has been completely destroyed. Until now, I go there to cultivate my plots and I go back to Borota at night. We do not have any huts here. We sleep under straw roves,” he said.
Awai, Yaya and the others say they feel safer now. They can go out into the bush to collect firewood or to cultivate their fields without the fear of being attacked or killed. The attacks seem to have decreased for now, following an agreement signed between the local population and Arab tribal chiefs.
“We do not have any belongings left they could steal,” said Mahamat Arbab Barit, a displaced man in Borota.
We can already see the first results of the project.
“We can now eat salad, onion leaves and the tomatoes will soon be ripe. The rest will be harvested later” said Awai. The group she works with in the fields would like to use the produce to create a common cash deposit for the village. The first harvest is already being sold in the market place. A training session will be offered to the farmers and dry stores will be distributed in each village to help conserve the products longer and sell them when there is a shortage and the price is higher.
Despite the insecurity and a lack of logistical resources, Secadev wants to increase its support to these people who have received very little aid.
“Secadev has been in that area for 20 years. It has reduced its activities because of a decrease in funding. Today, the situation of these populations has gotten worse than before” said Idriss Saleh, Secadev manager in Adre.
“When they fled, the people left all their belongings or used the few they had to survive, he said, “They depended on host villages which have been affected as well. As a whole this constitutes a very vulnerable population who need aid for food, clothes and basic needs.
“Some people want to go back home. Secadev, a national NGO, has to be there to help them get back to their day-to-day activities.”
It is also a challenge for Secadev: maintaining the link with these populations – though they could flee again from one day to the next - with whom it has worked for many years.
In April, Secadev will propose to its Caritas partners a new funding proposal. One of its main objectives is to enlarge its support to the Chadian population, for instance in the area of Borota, in the sectors of agriculture, breeding and the environment.
By Judith Marie
Communicator for Secadev / Caritas France
// 02. 04. 2008
Serving with Love: Caritas Medical Centre in Somalia gives hope to a Devastated People
It is four in the morning in Baidoa, a destitute town in the southern part of Somalia. A dawn to dusk curfew has been imposed by the Ethiopian military stationed in the town that provide security to the Somali authorities of the Transitional Federal Institutions.
But at a compound near Ridhwan Mosque, on the outskirts of town, a large crowd has already gathered at the gate. Even though there is a curfew, their needs cannot wait until day break.
Welcome to the Caritas Somalia Health Dispensary.
The centre provides free health care, without which the life of many people in this region would be much worse. It is to this medical facility that Pope Benedict XVI donated through the Pontifical Council Cor Unum last year’s collection of Holy Thursday Mass in the Basilica of St John Lateran.
All donations collected during the Mass were earmarked for this medical dispensary run by Caritas Somalia, a member of the Caritas Internationalis network, working under the authority of Msgr. Giorgio Bertin, Bishop of Djibouti and Apostolic Administrator of the diocese of Mogadishu.
One year after the Pope’s contribution, this outpatient facility run by Caritas Somalia has increased its service up to almost 170 patients a day. In an average month, the centre serves more than 4,000 patients.
Many of them have travelled long distances, while many are living in camps improvised for people who have fled the conflict in Mogadishu. It is normal for people to travel up to 75 km to receive the care.
With so many patients the facility had to develop a mechanism of helping people with absolute impartiality. They worked on a first-come, first-served basis. Anybody showing up at the gate will be attended with love and care, regardless their clan belonging or their social status.
It is no wonder that people queue up at the clinic so early, with some sleeping outside the gates under the shelters to be sure they will be treated that day. Unfortunately, sometimes there are too many people and some have no choice but to come back the next day.
Ibrahim Guurow Jimaale left his two wives and eight children yesterday at home in Hawen, 17 km away, and started the trek to this clinic. “I was told that this Caritas clinic has good staff and good medicine,” he said.
For Hawo Adan, a 28 year old mother of four, she came to the clinic knowing that her child would be given treatment as well as supplementary food after being affected by Kala-azar (Leishmaniasis), a parasitic illness contracted after being bitten by sand flies.
“A serious drought ravaged our land so there is no food at home. But I knew at this clinic even if my child’s treatment lasts a month, I will be given food for all that period”, she said.
Ibrahim Mohammed is a patient at the clinic. He has walked 30 km and spent last night at the clinic’s gate. His fellow villagers had advised him to come here after he could not afford treatment elsewhere.
“I have been given medicine and supplementary food and I did not pay even a coin,” he said.
Well trained, courteous and dedicated staff, free treatment, a variety of services including out patient care for adults and mother and child care are the centre’s strengths.
Abdullahi Mumin Roble, the medical coordinator, said the most common ailments in the region are upper respiratory tract infections, like tonsillitis, bronchitis, rhinitis and the common cold, which mostly advances to the potentially deadly pneumonia due to delays in seeking treatment.
“There are also cases of sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhoea and syphilis,” said Abdullahi. He adds that very few health facilities in the country have started dealing with HIV and AIDS, as other common ailments are still a challenge.
According to Davide Bernocchi, the director of Caritas Somalia, the health centre’s work shows that it is possible to operate among the Somalis, improve their welfare and meet their basic needs with limited resources. Yet, security remains the biggest challenge for humanitarian workers too.
“We are glad that the Pope remembered the people of Somalia, it is a sign of love and solidarity for one of the smallest and most fragile churches in the world, at the service of some of the poorest people on earth” he said.
Recently, the spread of Kala-azar has led Caritas to appeal for more help. Kala-azar leads to massive wasting and death if left untreated Grace Kyeyune, the UNICEF Chief of Field Office in Central and Southern regions of Somalia says that Caritas staff ensures high levels of professionalism and efficiency.
“The Caritas clinic is a model that we are asking other local medical centres to emulate, their organization and efficiency is an example of what it means to serve in a war zone with scarce resources,” she said.
UNICEF is also providing equipment and working with the clinic’s staff to increase the services offered. The Kala-azar treatment is also being supported by the London-based ngo, Merlin.
While making the contribution to Somalia last year, the Pope appealed to the international community to put an end to the bloodshed in the country.
Bishop Giorgio Bertin said that without international assistance the government in Somalia will fail. “The most difficult task for Somalia is piecing back its fragmented society, which has almost been completely destroyed, since the State structure collapsed in 1991”, he said. Baidoa is one of the cities worst affected by nearly 20 years of fighting between rival clans and armed factions. It was also recently hit by severe drought and a cholera outbreak and was referred to as the "dead city" in the early 1990s, when terrible images of people dying of starvation broadcasted from this town convinced the international community to put in place a major rescue operation for Somalia. Today, Baidoa is the only town which provides a safe base for the fragile Transitional Federal Institutions, supported by Ethiopia but threatened by a widespread and violent opposition.
Somalia is one of the world's poorest nations, with 25% of children not reaching their fifth birthday. The country has been without an effective central administration since the collapse of the regime of Siad Barre in 1991.
The present government has been created in 2004, following two years of peace talks in Kenya, through mediation among different clans and armed warlords. Today, the legitimate institutions are struggling to impose their control on Mogadishu and their influence does not go beyond limited parts of central and southern Somalia.
The different factions opposing the government mainly protest the over one-year-long presence of Ethiopian troops in the country.
All humanitarian services in this country are being provided by the United Nations and NGOs.
The hope of Caritas Somalia is that its work in Baidoa is not only providing good health care, but also promoting human dignity, in a region where people have been denied the most basic rights and have known little but violence for the last 17 years.
Dignity, food and healthcare are much needed in Somalia. Not even the long distances, rough terrain and military curfew can stop the locals from seeking these services as long as they can be found.
Fighting Kala-azar: Caritas Somalia Health Centre changes lives in Baidoa
Seated outside the Caritas health centre in Baidoa, Mama Habibo Salad Habibo waits for help. After walking the more than 18 km from her home with her two young children, she is glad that her sick child will finally get treatment.
Hawo Salad, her 2-year-old daughter looks emaciated and sleepy. Yet her stomach is swollen, leaving the impression of a child overfed. But the wounds on her belly, visible ribs, tiny legs and hands speak otherwise. “It was her father,” Habibo offers pointing at the wounds, “He was treating her stomach problem by placing a hot iron on it. When she did not recover after four weeks, I decided to bring her to this centre.”
Caritas’ Nurse Abdullahi Mumin explained that it is a tradition among Somalis to treat all stomach ailments by placing a hot iron or smouldering ember on the belly. He himself has scars on his stomach inflicted when he suffered a bout of diarrhoea as a child and his father administered the same treatment. Hawo is suffering from Kala-azar (Leishmaniasis) a parasitic illness contracted after being bitten by a sand fly. Kala-azar symptoms include fever, enlarged spleen, headaches, muscle loss and a protruding stomach. It is a common disease in Somalia. Kala-azar affects mostly children and young people. For years it has been affecting the people, leaving many dead as often only traditional medication is available. The hot metal treatment is also used in the case of malaria and any illness with a high fever and stomach upsets.
Placing smouldering embers on the victims’ stomachs means the patients are not only seriously weakened by the disease and but also weakened by the wounds. If left untreated the disease leads to wasting and often death.
Hawo’s Kala-azar case is a real challenge for the nurses at the clinic, but it’s not unusual.
“We are torn between treating the wounds, administering food supplements to the seriously emaciated, and treating the real cause,” said Nurse Abdullahi.
Little Amino was one such case. As she was brought into the medical centre, the nurses realized she was just too weak to be injected or given any medication. Her immediate need was high-energy food, then first aid for the wounds, before administrating an injection for Kala-azar.
The 7-year-old girl can hardly walk, she talks inaudibly and her pain does not leave her enough energy to even cry. That she walked 35 km to the medical centre is hard to imagine.
“She had to walk because I was carrying her three year old sister and I am five months pregnant,” said her mother, Marian Abdi. “The only food we had for the two days was some milk we carried from home. We drank dirty water along the way”.
But she is glad that despite the hardship they had to endure her daughter will be treated.
It’s a complicated matter in a region where basic infrastructure and security is lacking. The patient is supposed to get a daily injection for 30 days, but Caritas centre is an outpatient facility and some of those here have travelled up to 75 km.
Working with technical support from Caritas USA (Catholic Relief Services/CRS) and Merlin, the Caritas Somalia health centre has been able to offer specialized treatment to many people.
“Providing food beside treatment to these patients has been a good decision. Since they normally come from far-away villages, to enable the young patients, always accompanied by one of the parents or a close relative, to be welcomed by a local family, we secure a fixed amount of rice, beans, oil, sugar and tea leaves.” said Davide Bernocchi, Caritas Somalia’s director.
“Moreover, we provide high-energy food to the patient before each injection. In an environment where 75% of the people are chronically undernourished, food is a strong incentive to complete the treatment.”
Those with relatives live with them, while others put up temporary structures in the open for the period of treatment, which is not so uncommon in an environment heavily marked by a millennial nomadic culture.
“I have a sister in Baidoa where I will stay until my child has finished the injections. I know they will welcome me because I was given all the food I need during the stay,” said Habibo.
Ibrahim Mohammed, from Goof Gaduud, some 30 km away, has also benefited from this treatment and food. He said he had resorted to reciting the Holy Koran and burning his stomach when the sand fly struck, but a neighbor told him of the Caritas health centre and now he is happy to be part of the treatment program.
“I will miss my family, I know they need my protection, but I am sick now and I needed the treatment to be able to keep protecting them for more days to come”, he said.
Classified as one of the most dangerous ailments in Somalia, Kala-azar targets the malnourished and underfed of this part of the Horn of Africa torn by war, drought and endemic famine. It has forced the Caritas Somalia team to expand their health services to include food rations as most of their victims are so weak they could not be treated in any other way.
“It is extra work,” said Mustafa Haji of Caritas, “But it is the only way to ensure we serve these poor people and do it well. Most of them come from rural areas and they hardly deal with money at all. They normally come to town to offer camel milk in exchange for what they need”.
Since no therapeutic nutritional program is available in Bay region, it is not uncommon for Caritas to refer the most serious cases to the NGO Action Contre la Faim in Waajid, some 90 km north Baidoa, covering the transportation fees.
Previously, these cases had been sent to SOS Kinderdorf’s hospital in Mogadishu, but the situation in the Somali capital collapsed shortly after Sister Leonella Sgorbati was killed in the same hospital, in September 2006. Because of the level of insecurity, since December 2007, SOS Kinderdorf has been forced to temporarily close down the facility that had been operating with no disruption since the beginning of the civil war, in 1991.
For Ibrahim, he is happy that when he goes back to his family, albeit after a whole month, he will be fit, ready to take on his responsibilities, and not the immobile patient Kala-azar had reduced him into. Like others, he cannot pay Caritas staff back, but by asking God to bless their job.
The Caritas Somalia medical facility in Baidoa was supported by Pope Benedict XVI through the Pontifical Council Cor Unum when he donated last year’s collection of Holy Thursday Mass in the Basilica of St John Lateran.
All donations collected during the Mass were earmarked for this medical dispensary run by Caritas Somalia, a member of the Caritas Internationalis network, working under the authority of Msgr. Giorgio Bertin, Bishop of Djibouti and Apostolic Administrator of the diocese of Mogadishu.
Caritas and Islamic Relief join forces to serve displaced in Somalia
When Davide Bernocchi, the director of Caritas Somalia, first arrived in Baidoa in February 2006 to set up a humanitarian program as the Somali Transitional Federal Institutions were settling in this town, many could have regarded it as a hopeless initiative. Caritas Somalia had gone to Baidoa to explore the possibility of re-establishing a direct presence in the country. It had previously been based in Nairobi.
It seemed impossible for a Catholic organization to work in such an extreme environment, marked by years of violence, where people were unused to interacting with outsiders and where any non-Muslim religious presence would likely to be regarded with suspicion. Caritas Somalia was aiming to set up anew its main base in a country without effective central government and run mostly by warlords.
“Since my first, eventful mission to Baidoa, it was apparent to me that the health emergency was the first challenge. We needed to give the local people some hope that the ongoing national reconciliation process would eventually result in concrete positive outcomes in their daily life,” Mr Bernocchi said.
Two years later, the Caritas Somalia medical centre in Baidoa is an example of committed service to the poorest. More that 70,000 people have already benefited from its free services and medicines. It is a model of how service with love can remove barriers and change the life of many people, according to the Caritas Somalia director.
It is to this medical facility that Pope Benedict XVI donated, through the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, last year’s collection of Holy Thursday Mass in the Basilica of St John Lateran.
All donations collected during the Mass were earmarked for this medical dispensary run by Caritas Somalia, a member of the Caritas Internationalis network, working under the authority of Msgr. Giorgio Bertin, Bishop of Djibouti and Apostolic Administrator of the diocese of Mogadishu.
The centre has earned respect from the locals who regard it as their own, one sent by Allah to save their lives
Maalin Nuno Abdulrahaman, Imam at al-Ridhwan Mosque, next door to the Caritas health centre, is full of praise, calling Caritas, “a peaceful and useful neighbor” he would be ready to assist at all times.
“I don’t know what life would have been without Caritas. Many people would be dead from diseases that this clinic has treated. The respect we have for this service can be seen by the distance people travel to come for medical care,” he said.
The Imam said that the approach taken by Caritas of serving everybody without discrimination according to age, sex, clan or origin is commendable. “We are greatly touched that our Christian brothers have remembered us in times of need,” he said, adding that more than once his own family has sought treatment at the centre. “Not only my family but also neighbours and everybody in this region comes to this clinic. We have never known any other hospital since this one was started.”
But the centre is not the only presence of members of the Caritas family. Other arms of Caritas have been present in Somalia even during the most difficult times. From the beginning of the civil war in 1991, Caritas Somalia itself has never stopped operating from inside Somalia directly or through partners to address the immense needs of the Somalis.
Caritas Switzerland and Caritas Ireland (Trócaire) have been operational for the last 13 years, respectively in the northern region of Hargeisa and in Gedo, in the South. Trócaire is the leading agency for Gedo Health Consortium, which also currently includes British NGO Merlin. The consortium is in charge of the whole health system in the dry and destitute region of Gedo, where Somalia borders Kenya and Ethiopia. Caritas Switzerland and Caritas Luxembourg on the other hand have a long-presence in the self-declared independent State of Somaliland in the North. Their areas of focus are water and sanitation, hygiene, adult education and skills.
A Vatican document on “Dialogue and Proclamation” issued in 1991 distinguishes four different forms or levels of inter-religious dialogue: dialogue of life, dialogue of theological exchange, dialogue of religious experience and dialogue of action: “In which Christians and others collaborate for the integral development of people”.
“It is in this spirit” said Davide Bernocchi, “That we look for any possible cooperation with other faith-based organizations, to witness together that believing in God means acting for alleviating poverty and sufferance, in the absolute respect for human life and dignity.”
“So far, we have been working together with both Protestants and Muslims. Particularly important has been the cooperation with Islamic Relief in responding to the hundreds of thousands of people that started fleeing the violence in Mogadishu in March 2007, seeking refuge in the rural outskirts of the capital, especially in Afgoye district.”
From the beginning, the security situation on the ground has made it extremely difficult for humanitarian organizations to reach those areas.
At the end of October 2007, 40 NGOs, including Caritas Somalia, issued a common warning on an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia, where they stated that they could not respond effectively to the crisis because access and security were deteriorating dramatically at a time when needs were increasing.
“In such an alarming moment, Islamic Relief was among the few operating on the ground and that is why we took the resolution to build a partnership with them, within the framework of an intervention that involved also Caritas England and Wales (CAFOD) and Christian Aid”, said Mr Bernocchi
According to Shihab Babiker, Islamic Relief’s Somalia country director, the cooperation between his agency and Caritas Somalia is one example of dialogue of works where faith in the same only God can set aside all differences to address the needs of the community.
The support Islamic Relief received from Caritas Somalia and CAFOD has assisted them reach out for several months to more than 1,000 families displaced from the Mogadishu fighting and living in dramatic conditions, under improvised shelters in Afgoye district, along the main road between Mogadishu and Baidoa.
“When Christian and Muslim agencies cooperate in the name of God, it is placing the dignity of the human person before other differences,” said Shihab.
Underlining the spirit of inter-religious dialogue in action, the agreement signed between Caritas Somalia and Islamic Relief stated: “Together we supplicate the Almighty to bless our efforts in favour of the needy displaced in Somalia, making them useful to alleviate their suffering.”
Davide Bernocchi adds that working with Islamic Relief was crucial as it enabled them to reach more people.
He said, “Since the emergency is not only far from being over, but the very number of people in need has been increasing over the past months.
“We attach to this activity an additional value, because we believe that the very cooperation between an Islamic and Christian organization is an important message of dialogue and peace, particularly in the Somali environment, so marked by animosity among different identities, but also in the broader international context”.
The way towards this cooperation had been paved by a general agreement signed in London in 2004, between the UK-based Islamic charity and CAFOD.
The general idea was to enable both faith-based agencies to respond to major humanitarian emergencies, in a spirit of reciprocity. So far, for instance, CAFOD has been supporting Islamic Relief’s operation in Pakistan, while the reverse happened for El Salvador.
It is such agreements that are changing lives. The selfless service by these agencies is also earning recognition among locals.
“Let’s not forget,” said Davide Bernocchi. “That all our local staff are Muslims who also find in their religious values a source of inspiration towards the service to the destitute.
“Thinking about this, two different verses come to my mind. The first from the Gospel: «Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me». The second from the Koran: «If God had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but His plan is to test you in what He has given you: so strive as in a race in good deeds».
David Omwoyo – Caritas Internationalis
// 20. 03. 2008
A Prayer for Darfur
DARFUR: 5th ANNIVERSARY OF THE WAR
Reflection:
5 years of deaths, displacement, difficulties, suffering: these are the results of 5 years of war.
Experience teaches that no good comes from war, but only destruction and death; in spite of this, wars continue in the world, and man wants to solve his problems and divergences by war and the use of force.
War will not solve the existing problems in Darfur - only justice and equality, which will be reached through dialogue. If dialogue is surely the only way to reach peace, why to continue to fight? Is it not better to lay down arms immediately and to start a real and sincere dialogue, with a decided will to come to a peaceful and satisfactory agreement?
A compromise by both parties is necessary. Truth and mistakes exist in both parties, and both must recognize this reality. But is there the goodwill to terminate the war, or will private interests and pride prevent the fighters from reaching the desired results?
Prayer:
O God, You are our Creator, the Creator of all mankind.
You created us all equal, with the same dignity and therefore You want us to be brothers, to love and respect each other.
In Darfur there is no union, no love, no respect for the person.
Millions of people, children and elders, women and men, are living without dignity, suffering and dying.
Give them courage to bear their difficulties patiently and help and bless the organizations who put their efforts towards alleviating their sufferings.
Help those who work for peace, trying to convince the parties to put an end to the war.
Touch the hearts and enlighten the minds of the parties in war, so that they think of the good and welfare of the suffering people, instead of their personal good and interest.
O God, peace is your gift and You are the God of peace: bring peace in Darfur and put an end to the sufferings of innocent people.
AMEN.
// 20. 03. 2008
Letter from Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon, Burma
Aid getting through; more needed.
Monday 2nd of June marks the start of the school year in Myanmar and also one month after Cyclone Nargis. However, for so many children there will be no school to go to. For the children in the delta region their lives have been turned upside down. Many of them lost their parents and their homes.
Last week I visited a village called Aima and some surrounding island villages called Pha-ya-lay-gone, Pein-ne-gone, Ta- yoke-gone, and Lein-maw-gone. Aima village is in Labutta township in the southern delta region and is very difficult to reach.
It took almost ten hours to get there by boat. There, I met families who are still struggling to survive and feed their children. In this area all the schools have been destroyed. For the children of Aima, the horror of the cyclone still haunts them.
Many children cry at night and when it rains. The children fear the worst and re-live the trauma of the night of the 2nd of May. In this village there are so many inner wounds that must be healed over time.
To date very little aid has been able to get to these communities. For the first two weeks the only aid received by these people was from the Catholic Church.
They told me that without this, they would not have survived. The government now only supplies two cans of rice per person per day, which is not enough for people to live on. In some cases people have been asked by the government to leave temporary camps and return to their villages. In many of the villages there was still no shelter, food or clean water and the government only supplied them with a few kitchen utensils.
My trip to Aima also demonstrated how important it is for the Catholic Church to continue our work and ensure that we support communities as best we can. To date we have been able to supply food, clean water, tarpaulins for shelter, cooking utensils and medical supplies to approximately 20,000 people in Labutta township.
We now must continue to support them, firstly to survive but also in rebuilding their lives. The people I met remain modest in their requests, and ask only for food and shelter.
The start of the school year is also an important reminder that we must prioritise the needs of children who have been affected by Cyclone Nargis. The Church will play a role in ensuring that children are reunited with family members and are given toys and space to play in. We must ensure that children can also return to school as soon as possible. Without routines such as school and normal daily activities, children will find it much harder to heal and miss out of vital education.
On my recent trip, amidst so much death and destruction, the resilience of children was brought home to me by many stories that I heard.
In one case a lady called Veronica told me of how she and her three month old child were stuck in their house when a tree fell over and blocked the door way. The floodwater rose inside the house so she piled furniture up and climbed above the water. As the water level rose she had just her head and her baby above water and one foot left until the water reached the roof of the house. She remained like that until the following morning and the water gradually subsided. Veronica told me this story and then added that during this time her baby had not cried once.
I also heard the story of a five-year-old boy in the village of Lein-maw-gone. He had been separated from his family and when the floodwater rose he could no longer stand on the ground so he grabbed onto his dog. He held onto his dog as it began to swim. The dog kept swimming for hours until he could eventually bring the boy to the safety of dry land. Sadly, following this amazing feat, the dog died of exhaustion.
Having met the people affected by Cyclone Nargis and seen the conditions they are now living in one month later, my recent trip left me with both hope and anguish. There is still a great deal of suffering and people need considerably more aid and help to survive and rebuild their lives. However, I am also optimistic that the Church can play an important role in meeting these needs. It is with this in mind that we must go forward, work together and serve those in need more effectively and to the best of our ability.
Archbishop Charles Bo
Caption: DSC02917 Many of the Children who survived Burma’s cyclone need both immediate and long term assistance according to Archbishop Bo of Burma. Despite many amazing tales of survival, many having lost their parents, will require counselling, education and shelter.
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