Showing posts with label Kenya. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kenya. Show all posts

Wednesday 3 September 2014

The world Having to face a collective failure

These last few days we not only have seen how ISIS or the fighters for IS destroyed the treasures of culture and unashamed pitiless killed thousands of innocent people and animals. In many countries at the south half of this world several tribes bring suffering to each other and make it that millions of peopel have to flee for the violence.

The West can only look how she is not able to bring a solution in those war-countries. It only can note a collective failure. It also does not manage to get a good working international refugee regime.


English: Logo of the UN World Food Programme i...
Without addressing these inadequacies and putting other policies and strategies in place, the World Food Programme and UNHCR also faces a crisis with a $186 million funding gap.

The UN refugee agency and the World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday warned that funding difficulties, compounded by security and logistical problems, have forced cuts in food rations for nearly 800,000 refugees in Africa, threatening to worsen unacceptable levels of acute malnutrition, stunting and anaemia, particularly in children.


English: Ambassador Ertharin Cousin, the Unite...
Ambassador Ertharin Cousin, the United States Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, addresses volunteers at the Earth Day Tri-Mission Community Project in Rome, Italy. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin and UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, at a meeting with government representatives in Geneva, made an urgent joint plea for US$186 million to allow WFP to restore full rations and prevent further cuts elsewhere through December 2014. For its part, UNHCR needs US$39 million for nutrition support it provides to malnourished and vulnerable refugees in Africa.
"Many refugees in Africa depend on WFP food to stay alive and are now suffering because of a shortage of funding," Cousin said. "So we are appealing to donor governments to help all refugees half of whom are children have enough food to be healthy and to build their own futures."
Across Africa, 2.4 million refugees in some 200 sites in 22 countries depend on regular food aid from the World Food Programme. Currently, a third of those refugees have seen reductions in their rations, with refugees in Chad facing cuts as high as 60 per cent.

Supplies have been cut by at least 50 per cent for nearly 450,000 refugees in remote camps and other sites in the Central African Republic, Chad and South Sudan. Another 338,000 refugees in Liberia, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Ghana, Mauritania and Uganda have seen their rations reduced by between five and 43 per cent.

In addition, a series of unexpected, temporary ration reductions has affected camps in several countries since early 2013 and into 2014, including in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Cameroon. Some cuts were also due to insecurity that affected deliveries.
"The number of crises around the world is far outpacing the level of funding for humanitarian operations, and vulnerable refugees in critical operations are falling through the cracks,"
said Guterres.
 "It is unacceptable in today's world of plenty for refugees to face chronic hunger or that their children drop out of school to help families survive,"
he said, calling for a rethink on funding for displacement situations worldwide.

A joint UNHCR-WFP report issued in conjunction with today's Geneva meeting says that refugees are among the world's most vulnerable people and warns that reductions in their minimum rations can have a devastating impact on already weakened populations.

Many refugees arrive in countries of exile already in urgent need of emergency nutritional care. Lacking any means to support themselves in many host countries, they remain totally dependent on international assistance sometimes for years until they can return home or find other solutions. Generally, WFP tries to provide 2,100 kilocalories per refugee per day.

Guterres warned that while a sustained 60 per cent reduction in rations would be catastrophic for refugees, even small cuts can spell disaster for undernourished people. The impact, especially on children, can be immediate and often irreversible. Undernutrition during a child's first 1,000 days from conception can have lifelong consequences, compromising both physical growth and mental development. Numerous studies have shown that this "stunting" leaves affected children at a severe social and economic disadvantage for the rest of their lives.

Even before the most recent ration cuts, refugees in many of the camps surveyed were already experiencing unacceptable levels of malnutrition, despite some progress over the past five years in improving nutrition standards. For example, a programme to prevent and treat micro-nutrient deficiencies has helped to slow or even reverse rising malnutrition rates and associated problems in some areas. But the current shortfall now threatens to negate even those hard-won gains.

Nutritional surveys conducted between 2011 and 2013 showed that stunting and anaemia among children was already at critical levels in the majority of the refugee sites. Only one of 92 surveyed camps, for example, met the agencies' goal of fewer than 20 per cent of refugee children suffering from anaemia. And fewer than 15 per cent of camps surveyed met the target of less than 20 per cent stunting among children. The surveys also showed that acute malnutrition levels among children under five years of age remain unacceptably high in more than 60 per cent of the sites.
Refugees hit by the food shortages are struggling to cope, posing a host of additional problems as they resort to what the report calls "negative coping strategies." These include an increase in school dropouts as refugee children seek work to help provide food for their families; exploitation and abuse of women refugees who venture out of camps in search of work; "survival sex" by women and girls trying to raise money to buy food; early marriage of young girls; increased stress and domestic violence within families; and increasing theft.

The end result, the report says, is a
"vicious cycle of poverty, food insecurity, deterioration of nutritional status, increased risk of disease, and risky coping strategies. Therefore, improving livelihood opportunities and food security is paramount to break this vicious cycle, and ensuring that previous investments and advances in nutrition and food security are preserved."
In addition to urging donor governments to fully fund the refugee food pipeline, WFP and UNHCR are also encouraging African governments to provide refugees with agricultural plots, grazing land, working rights and access to local markets to promote self-sufficiency among refugees. Given the unpredictability of funding, the agencies are also refining their methods of prioritizing those affected by possible cuts to ensure that the most vulnerable are identified and receive the help they need.

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Please do find:
850 Calorie Challenge

850 calories is just not nearly enough…for lunch!
Speak Out for Refugees in Africa

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Thursday 30 January 2014

Escaped the fighting in South Sudan

Sue Mathias is presently in Uganda and has seen 2 of the brothers who escaped the fighting in South Sudan. They are both well. She also confirms that our sister Purity has now reached her home in Kenya after Sue and John Mathias were able to get funds to her to travel through Ethiopia, the same applies to our brother Martyn who has also now reached Kenya.
English: Uganda (orthographic projection) Port...
 Uganda (orthographic projection)(proyección ortográfica) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
 A student who was also caught up in the fighting is safely in Northern Uganda. Sue and John have lost contact with a number of brothers and sisters and students and your prayers are still urgently required. The temptation to travel back to Uganda for economic reasons is high and Sue has tried to counsel the brothers not to travel there as some Ugandans have already done. The Ugandan military are involved and there is now concern that Ugandans will be targeted as a result of this.
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Thursday 16 January 2014

A White Field Worker Profile: Sister Tabby Ryan

A White Field Worker Profile

Sister Tabby Ryan

smilesTabitha (Tabby) Ryan is planning to return to Kamukuywa, Kenya in January 2014 for a year’s stay to teach at the Agape in Action Academy. A teacher by profession, Tabby wrote:

"I will be teaching the first principles course as part of the school curriculum and also helping out leading Bible studies at night time with the students that live at the school. Sunday School teaching and visits to other ecclesias will also form part of the work I do there. I believe it is important as much as possible for the locals to run their ecclesial activities, however, as there are only two qualified Christadelphian teachers in the school I think I can be of great value there. Also, as being the only female Christadelphian teacher I believe I will be able to have a real positive impact on the female students in particular.

Having self-funded previous mission work in Cambodia and an earlier trip to Kenya, Tabby has clear set objectives.
I hope to provide my teaching skills for the school and encourage the students who live there. On my last visit the deputy principal spoke to me and said that the difference in the students over the month we were there was noticeable and heartwarming. Having a younger adult around to whom they could ask questions and discuss the Bible with was something that really positively impacted the students.
tabbyPersonally I hope to gain a lot of experience and information about the conditions in Kenya so that upon return to Australia I can advocate for the brethren living here. After studying teaching for four years I am excited to be able to put my qualifications and experience to work in a Christadelphian school where I can not only teach my relevant subject areas but also teach Bible studies and first principles. I hope to return home motivated to encourage others to preach."

If you are interested in working in the mission field for 6 months or longer and require funding to make this a reality, consider applying as a White Field Worker. The applications can be downloaded from our website, wcfoundation.org/wf/white-field-application/
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Wednesday 4 December 2013

16 Agape in Action Academy Students Baptized!


At the end of November, 16 young people from the Agape in Action Academy were baptized in Kamakuywa! 15 are sponsored young people from Kimbilio and one is a young person from the USA. They have been attending baptismal classes with Bryan, Chris and Katie for the past year.
The 15 young people from Kimbilio are Justus and Sis Annette’s children and Elia, from the USA, has been in Kenya for the past year with her parents (Bryan and Chris Lloyd, teachers at the Agape in Action Academy). Those from Kimbilio will be joining the very large and vibrant ecclesia in Kamakuywa; they are an incredible group of young people.
This is the ultimate outcome of many prayers and many people putting their love into action! Praise God!
— in Kamakuywa, Kenya.
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