War and Suffering

The war in Yemen has just entered its fourth year. The war in Syria is 7 years old, the war in Sudan 5, the war in Afghanistan 15. War and suffering go together. For example, in Yemen which has already been called a humanitarian crisis :

  • in March 2017 an outbreak of cholera spread to a million people by the end of the year
  • an estimate of 2 million children are out of school
  • 2 million people, nearly 3 in every 4 people are dependent on humanitarian aid to survive
  • besides cholera there has been dengue fever malaria and diphtheria, while the fear and possibility of those diseases returning is real
  • the destruction of hospitals and infrastructure make rendering aid more difficult

Continue reading “War and Suffering”

Climate Change Migration

It’s easy to speak of the consequences of climate change, but being faced with potential numbers of one of its consequences is a wake-up call. The World Bank recently issued a Report “Groundswell: Preparing for Internal Climate Migration” saying that if current trends continue and we do nothing by 2050, 143 million people would be climate change refugees. The reasons are due to causes we’ve already heard about:  decreased crop productivity, water shortages and rising sea levels. Of course Continue reading “Climate Change Migration”

Gynecologie Sans Frontieres

We know refugees face hardships, yet sometimes it’s difficult to give these hardships a name or a proverbial face. Perhaps that is why I was moved by an article about the work of midwives in a refugee encampment in Calais in Northern France.  Young girls fleeing conflicts, epidemics, natural disasters and the like often come or become unaccompanied and usually end up under the protection of a “brother” who may be more pimp than sibling. They get pregnant either because of them, rape, or at times Continue reading “Gynecologie Sans Frontieres”

Yemen

Here are some facts about Yemen. They portray a country in worse shape than Syria, facts that are hard to accept, but still the reality, and a reality we ought to remember because so many lives are affected.

<>OCHA (the office of coordination of human affairs) calls it the world’s largest food insecurity emergency

<>17 million are food insecure. 6.8 million are severely food insecure and 2 million children are acutely food insecure. (The total population is 27.4 million)

<>It would cost 2 billion dollars to bring food aid Continue reading “Yemen”