DanChurchAid
Other relevant articles
Articles about: News
After months of languishing in the hundreds of overcrowded, understaffed, and undersupplied camps, Kenya’s internally displaced persons (IDPs) are finally returning home.
Read more...
Fellowship of Christian Councils in East and Southern Africa (FOCCISA) met on 2nd and 3rd July 2008 in Gaborone, Botswana and discussed the problems Zimbabwe is going through at the moment.
Read more...
Where have all the young men gone, gone to Russia everyone," might be the modified refrain of a folk song in many a rural village in Tajikistan, at least for the women folk left behind. This is the 4th part in the series on self help groups in Central Asia, written by Peter Kenny.
Read more...
DanChurchAid played host to a number of activities at this year’s Roskilde, related to both the volunteer refund work and the humantohuman campaign focus on the DR Congo: “Fair Phone – Fair Future.” These activities were symbolic of the often-unfair mining practices that are behind the production of the many mobile phones we buy and use every day.
Read more...
Roskilde Festival could not exist without the help of its many volunteers. Around 23.000 out of Roskildes maximum of 105.000 guests are volunteering as security, chefs, parking guards, sanitation workers and last but not least; refund collectors. While the volunteer refund collectors of DanChurchAid are an equal part of this essential festival element, the work they do and the information they share will travel far beyond the borders of Denmark – and Europe.
Read more...
Margarita Zobnina, a medical biologist in the nursing profession, joined a women's group in her native Kazakhstan after the collapse of the Soviet Union, at a time when women faced not only increasing impoverishment but also loneliness.
Read more...
Faith based organisations (FBOs) have a unique possibility and responsibility to address one of the most important drivers of the aids pandemic, namely gender inequality. View the position paper "Human Rights, HIV and AIDS prevention and Gender Equality", which has been co-signed by DanChurchAid's sister agencies: Christian Aid, Norwegian Church Aid, FinnChurchAid, ICCO, Brot fur die Welt and Kerk in Actie.
Read more...
Heavy and incessant rainfall since June 16, 2008 has flooded many areas in the eastern states of Assam, Orissa and West Bengal leaving some 93 people dead and close to 2.7 million people affected.
Read more...
DanChurchAid and the local partners LICADHO and Legal Aid Cambodia have worked together since 2004 to improve the rights of children in Cambodia.
Read more...
Farmers in Cambodias Kompong Speu province are working to make their villages more resilient to the recurring natural disasters, such as drought or floods, hitting the area as a result of changes in the climate. See the video about clean drinking water and audioslideshow about a ricebank here.
Read more...
A video on deployment in Congo
Read more...
An ACT situation report on the response to the disaster in Burma.
Read more...
The poor people in the development countries are the ones who must pay the biggest price for the climate changes even though it is largely our way of living in the rich countries which contributes the most to create the climate changes.
Read more...
Mobile phone batteries from at least four leading mobile phone producers contain cobalt from DR Congo. These companies run the risk of supporting illegal export and unfair mining practices, which often involve severe human rights abuses. A report by DanWatch, May 30 2008. Commissioned by DanChurchAid and Roskilde Festival Copenhagen.
Read more...
Mine clearance is thorough and meticulous work and in DR Congo highly influenced by weather and vegetation. This video shows a DanChurchAid deminer in action.
Read more...
On May 30 in Dublin, cluster bomb survivors and campaigners welcomed the formal adoption of the Cluster Munitions Convention by over 100 countries. This historic treaty bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of all existing and future cluster bombs. To keep pressure on governments and to ensure that the treaty enters into force, campaigners have launched the People’s Treaty. Sign up now.
Read more...
“I felt that I had to help,” says one of ten dedicated young Burmese volunteers. These young people are supporting the survivors of Cyclone Nargis in the severely devastated Irrawaddy Delta region and their task is increasingly demanding.
Read more...
On Saturday the 15th of March 2008, a large explosion happened on the outskirts of the Albanian capital, Tirana.
A civilian company was working with dismantling of several tons of old ammunition – a remnant for the communist era in Albania, and by mistake set of a large explosion.
Read more...
A civilian company was working with dismantling of several tons of old ammunition – a remnant for the communist era in Albania, and by mistake set of a large explosion.
Read more...
Increasing prices of food heavily affect the poorest people in Honduras who can no longer afford to buy enough food every day – the increased production of biofuels in the US is one of the main causes
Read more...
The village of Kamumba was once a prosperous fishing community. But during the five year long war it was turned in to a military camp. Though the war is over, the mines remain, preventing the villagers from returning.
Read more...
DCA's Humanitarian Mine Action programme concentrates on clearing agricultural land of mines, in order to link mine clearance with food security for the population in affected areas.
Read more...
Millions of poor people are in danger of being affected by hunger and famine as prices on food will remain on a high level during the next ten years. This is predicted in a new report ahead of the summit in Rome where the only item on the agenda is the global food crisis
Read more...
Read more...
In light of the global climate changes one of the biggest challenges the world has to face in this century is to create food security for all human beings.
Read more...
"Aid is going out everyday, and local
organisations are reaching thousands of people,” says an ACT
member representative. Read more...
organisations are reaching thousands of people,” says an ACT
member representative. Read more...
Line Brylle has just returned home after working with a Humanitarian Mine Action Programme for two years in one of the most war torn countries in the world.
Read more...
The enormity of human deprivation among the vulnerable and destitute in India is overwhelming. A newly published paper describes the experience of living with hunger as recounted by persons from intensely insecure social groups from eight villages in Orissa, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. The research study on hunger is written by Harsh Mander, convenor of Aman Biradari, a people’s campaign for secular democracy in India. The study is funded by DanChurchAid in India.
Read more...
Most people know of fair trade coffee and bananas. But when it comes to mobile phones and other electronic equipment, the trade is far from fair. DanChurchAid and Roskilde Festival aim to change this now.
Read more...
A flock of chickens and a hen house. This is what the 40-year-old Chanthon from Cambodia’s Battambang province got for the DKK 150 which she borrowed in December from a local lending group established by LWF Cambodia with support from DanChurchAid
Read more...
Survivors are still arriving at relief camps in the Irrawaddy Delta nearly two weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma according to Christian Aid partners.
Read more...
Responding to the increasingly critical need for humanitarian relief in Myanmar (Burma), ACT International launched a preliminary appeal today for US $5,156,215 to provide emergency assistance for up to 1.3 million cyclone-affected people.
Read more...
Despite roadblocks and bad weather conditions DanChurchAid’s partners are able to gain access to some of the worst hit areas in Burma.
Read more...
The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Danida) has granted 24 million DKK for DanChurchAid’s HMA programmes in Africa and Asia.
Read more...
Read more...
Prosecutors in Honduras are on hunger strike now for more than one month as a protest against corruption, impunity and gross political interference in the Justice system.
Read more...
The destructions after the cyclone Nargis are huge. DanChurchAid’s representative reports from the delta area which was hit most severely and where no one has received any help and where dead people and animals are floating in the rivers
Read more...
Bodies are floating in the rivers; desperate survivors are plundering the rice stores; these are some of the stories that are pouring in from disaster struck areas in Burma. So far DanChurchAid has earmarked 750.000 DKK to arrange for food supplies for the disaster in Burma.
Read more...
Participants of the Second Eastern European and Central Asian AIDS Conference in Moscow have confirmed to each other that many positive developments have been taking place since the first conference was held in 2006.
Read more...
The HIV/AIDS situation in the Russian Federation is worsening, and the epidemic may spread, a new report from DanChurchAid concludes.
Read more...
Smashed up houses, broken masts, giant trees strewn across the roads. The damages from the cyclone Nagris are visible everywhere in and around Rangoon, the capital of Burma, where almost 50 percent of all houses are overturned.
Read more...
A large group of children gather in front of Um Gozein School in Mershing, South Darfur, filling the yard with the excited chatter of their young voices. They are lined up and eager to receive school kits being distributed by ACT-Caritas.
Read more...
Read more...
European and Latin American civil society networks aired their concerns and proposals in the European Parliament in Brussels at the end of February. Read the report from the negotiations.
Read more...
According to a new report published by DanChurchAid, the number of AIDS orphans is projected to exceed 20 million worldwide by 2010. In 2005 that same figure was 15 million orphans. It is a tragedy of enormous dimensions and it puts a tremendous strain on the traditional family safety net and community structures.
Read more...
DanChurchAid (DCA) Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) program in DR Congo has signed a one year contract with the AECI, Spanish Agency for International Cooperation under the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for an amount of 554.713 Euros to finance Mine Action activities in Eastern Congo.
Read more...
Read more...
Under the shade of a straw roof, the space is alive with chatter. Children play outside while women gather in groups to practice newly learnt skills that include making pasta and traditional mat weaving.
Read more...
As the political stalemate continues and violence associated with the highly controversial December 27th elections of 2007 escalates and spreads, camps for those displaced throughout Kenya are operating beyond their capacity.
Read more...
Millions of Kenyans went to the polls to choose their president in the national elections after Christmas. But for Benta Nyipolo and hundreds of thousands of Kenyans like her, being forced from their homes in the violence sparked by the election dispute was something they did not choose.
Read more...
DanChurchAid (DCA) has received Euro 250.000 from the European Commission Humanitarian Aid department in response to the situation in Bangladesh after the Cyclone SIDR.
Read more...
Rising tensions and violence in Kenya following a disputed election has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people with tens of thousands fleeing their homes.
Read more...
An ocean of gold, pink, red, yellow and green saris fill the cultural centre in the village of Madaripur, where an emergency relief distribution by ACT member, Lutheran Health Care Bangladesh (LHCB), is currently underway in response to the Cyclone Sidr emergency.
Read more...
DanChurchAid gives relief aid worth 300.000 DKK to the worst hit areas in Bangladesh.
Read more...
According to a new report by UNAIDS, the Number of HIV positive in the world is not as high as earlier assumed. DanChurchAid is pleased with the news, but points out that the fight against AIDS is far from over.
Read more...
Thousands of lives have been destroyed by the cyclone that recently hit the coast of Bangladesh.
Read more...
Which product has NOT been recalled from the market because it can be fatal to children?
Read more...
The Cambodian Interior Ministry recently removed four pictures from an exhibition of drawings made by juveniles in Cambodian prisons. The pictures – from the exhibition “Our Drawings” arranged by DanChurchAid – were removed and forgotten. Not unlike one of the artists, 13-year-old Sokhun who has been in prison for almost a year in Cambodia.
Read more...
The monsoon rains have stopped in the states of West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa with the onset of winter. The last rain spell was in the first week of October 2007. The flood waters have receded (except in some pockets of very low-lying areas) and people have gone back to their villages. Some people are living under polythene sheets distributed by NGOs and the government where traditional mud homes were damaged and destroyed.
Read more...
Heavy and continuous rainfall over the past five days has caused widespread flooding and the deaths of at least 13 people in the state of Tamil Nadu. The rains, also affecting the state of Andhra Pradesh, were caused by a low pressure center over the south-eastern bay off Chennai along with the north-east monsoon.
Read more...
Torrential rains have hit the Central American region as a result of a low pressure system over the Yucatán Peninsula. The rain started on October 10, 2007 and continued until October 18, 2007.
Read more...
A humanitarian problem that will not go away quickly: Recent killings of African Union peacekeepers and World Food Programme contract drivers combined with detentions of humanitarian workers in the conflict-ridden Darfur region of western Sudan are just the latest examples of a deteriorating situation, which is prompting increased anxiety by those affected by the ongoing crisis, as well as by those responding to the emergency, soon to enter its fifth year.
Read more...
Read more...
George William Odeke is a local councilperson in the flooded village of Adurukoi in the eastern Ugandan district of Katakwi. “I don’t know what will happen next year because the food is just finished. If the rain continues, we will undoubtedly need food relief,” said Mr.
Odeke. Read more...
Odeke. Read more...
Perparim started to work with humanitarian demining in 2001 as Team Leader, and has been working for DanChurchAid since the spring of 2005. At present time Perparim is working as one of the two National Supervisors in charge of the daily demining activities, in addition he is trained as EOD operator with the responsibility of destroying unexploded bombs along the Albanian/Kosovo border.
Read more...
In West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar the monsoon rains continue. A depression that formed over the Bay of Bengal caused heavy rains from September 23 to 24, 2007 in several areas. The continuous downpour led to a rise in water level in all major river systems in the region. Calcutta was submerged under heavy waterlogging and received 44.0 cm (17.3 inches) of rain. The whole city was flooded with up to 1.5 metres (4.92 feet) of water in some areas.
Read more...
Watch how the Ugandan NGO KADP works with drought preparedness in Karamoja and how they help improve the quality of life for the Karamojongs, who are among the poorest groups in Uganda.
Read more...
Interview with Peter Ramazani, a Congolese Chief of Operations in training within DanChurchAid's DR Congo Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) Programme.
Read more...
"Mine action is a male dominated sector, but it doesn't have to be," declares Christina Bennike, the dynamic head of Danish charity DanChurchAid (DCA) in south Lebanon. "I really felt it would be important to address this from the beginning, then it would be natural instead of something different or unique."
Read more...
When the storms struck Pakistan in late June 2007, Barkat Ali’s home was washed away completely. “At that time I was sleeping and gradually about 4 feet of water came into my home. I and my family ran to a safe place and at 9:45 pm my home totally collapsed,” he explained.
Read more...
Read more...
Religion and faith plays an important role for an effective response to HIV and AIDS, but joint efforts sensitive to religion between faith-based organisation and governmental and civil society organisations have proven difficult. Now a new comprehensive book can help overcome the obstacles and bring new and more effective partnerships to life.
Read more...
Some of the largest floods ever have hit parts of India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Across South Asia, DanChurchAid has been providing essential water equipment and temporary shelters for people who have lost their homes to flooding.
Read more...
Read more...
On Tuesday, September 4, 2007, Hurricane Felix made landfall in north-east Nicaragua and coastal Honduras with wind speeds of up to 260 km/h (162mph), before weakening into a tropical storm. Hurricane Felix was the second Category 5 hurricane to pass through the Caribbean the past two weeks.
Read more...
In Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts in Sri Lanka, DanChurchAid has been working on a project to improve the living conditions for the most vulnerable and war affected persons. The European Commission Humanitarian Department (ECHO) has provided a grant to DanChurchAid who has been responsible for the implementation of the project in partnership with a local NGO OfERR Ceylon. DCA contributed with a minor grant.
Read more...
RDRS Bangladesh has provided food relief worth over taka 18 million (equivalent to USD 261,500) to about 30,400 flood-affected people in Kurigram and Lalmonirhat Districts.
Read more...
The floods in South Asia have hit Bangladesh with enormous force, and there is an acute need for just about everything, such as food, seed grain and reconstruction, DanChurchAid representative reports from Dhaka.
Read more...
The situation in India and Bangladesh is still critical.
Read more...
Members of the global alliance, Action by Churches Together (ACT) International of which DanChurchAid is a member, continue to respond to multiple floods crises across vast regions of Asia. Reuters reports that 35 million people are affected by the crisis in India, Bangladesh and Nepal alone. China and Pakistan have also suffered torrential rains and floods in the past month.
Read more...
DanChurchAid has sent one million DKK to the relief work for the survivors of the floods in Asia, and more money is on its way.
Read more...
New report: The Fight against AIDS is the Fight for Better Health Service. Lack of Health Care Workers and well functioning Health Care Systems are some of the biggest obstacles in stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS.
Read more...
Read more...
In India, people beneath the traditional caste system, the Dalits, are particularly badly affected by natural disasters. This summer’s monsoon flooding in India is no exception. But with disaster preparedness, disaster-proof housing and not least strong women self-help groups, things can improve.
Read more...
With thousands of people forcefully driven from their homes into overcrowded camps, where both resources and opportunities are short, disputes have become a frequent feature of life for many of Darfur’s displaced.
Read more...
The monsoon season is hitting India hard. In the Indian state Orissa, DanChurchAid supports the relief work through the local partner LWSI with DKK 400000.
Read more...
One evening towards the end of June, a crowd of 300 people or so gather round the local football pitch in Zalingei town in West Darfur. For the first time ever, a football match is being played between young people from Khamsadegaig camp and the local youth team from Zalingei. The match, organised by ACT-Caritas, is an effort to bridge the gap between those displaced by the conflict and the local community.
Read more...
Rose Imilima lives in the eastern Ugandan district of Katakwi. She never imagined that she would spend her life struggling to survive. In fact, she never thought she would spend her life alone, but when her husband died, she was left without a means to support herself.
Read more...
In South Darfur, another 3,000 people have been forced to flee their homes because of brutal attacks on their villages, adding their number to the more than 2.5 million others in Darfur that have suffered the same fate. The conflict has killed at least 200,000 people since violence escalated in 2004.
Read more...
Five months ago, Lino Lokwkawa and his family came out of hiding from the mountains. They had fled to escape the violence during the 20-year civil war in south Sudan. Now, the Lokwkawa family and others have begun returning home to Ikotos County in Eastern Equatoria and are re-establishing their lives in the village of Longairo.
Read more...
Read more...
One of the poorest parts of Ethiopia got an extraordinary visit in mid June. The Danish Minister of Development, Ulla Tørnæs, visited the DanChurchAid agriculture component of the Ethio-Danish Joint programme in North Wollo.
Read more...
The Mennonite Central Committee, a long-standing partner of ACT-Caritas, sent over 40,000 blankets to the Darfur Emergency Program (DERO), to assist conflict-affected communities in the province. But these are no ordinary blankets - they have been individually hand-made by members of the Mennonite community in the U.S.
Read more...
In October 2005, radio director Mam Sonando packs his toothbrush and his tie. The items are in his drawer in his office at the radio station already. Then he turns towards the two policemen who wait for him in the door. They have come to arrest him and the next four months, Mam Sonando spends in jail, charged with defamation of Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen. During the next three months an additional seven journalists, human rights front men and opposition politicians get arrested for similar offences. And that's how the year 2006 began in Cambodia. With a sizeable portion of democrats in jail.
Read more...
On Sunday 17th June, an ACT-Caritas employee was shot and killed on his way home from work in West Darfur. ”This killing shows how cruel and chaotic the situation is in Darfur. It’s unacceptable to do humanitarian work in this environment but we have to continue. A lot of people are dependent on our help,” says Lisa Henry, Relief Director in DanChurchAid.
Read more...
The Khmer Rouge Trials in Cambodia recently moved significantly forward after a seven months long standstill.
Read more...
A string of recent dedications of newly constructed post-tsunami housing in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu was reason to celebrate. But it was also an opportunity to take stock and explore ways to respond to future disasters.
Read more...
DanChurchAid has just published a new folder about its work in the fight against AIDS. It presents the many different ways in which the disease can and have to be fought, and it is rich on examples of projects that in different ways fight the disease, its causes and help stop the spread of the infection.
Read more...
DCA partner Circles of Hope in Zambia is working to improve awareness of HIV/AIDS, to encourage people to attend counseling and testing, they fight against stigmatization by openly declaring their status. They encourage positive living and try some income generating activities to help the affected families.
Read more...
In the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bisjkek, thousands of people from all parts of the country have camped on the city square to participate in large demonstrations against President Bakiev’s regime.
Read more...
Life is slowly returning after the traumatic 34-day Israeli-Hezbollah conflict last summer that left Lebanese villages bombed, roads destroyed and thousands injured and dead. DanChurchAid is currently clearing mines and unexploded ammunition in Lebanon and is right now engaged in four mine risk education events in Southern Lebanon.
Read more...
Sudan: A sand track leads north from Zalingei to the village of Abata, but these days few people travel along it. The track is flanked by tall acacia trees, and every so often the track cuts through a group of deserted, roofless shells of buildings. The countryside is silent. Where there were villages, only the wind now speaks through the trees.
Read more...
Read more...
Not every year can tell good news about the harvest in Ethiopia. But after last year’s drought which affected millions of people, and huge floods affecting another hundreds of thousands, the Ethiopian government announces that a good harvest is expected in 2007.
Read more...
On Thursday, March 15, DanChurchAid and 20 of its local partners paid a notable visit to the Ethiopian Parliament. The group saw the parliament in session in the morning and in the afternoon the group met with chairpersons of three Standing Committees. This is the first time in a long while that the civil society and members of Parliament engage in a dialogue and the meeting was mentioned in the evening news on the national television channel, ETV.
Read more...
The site smells like burned tires, garbage and dirt. There are no toilets, no clean water, no roads and no houses. Nothing but hundreds of simple shelters made from wooden poles and plastic. Andong, described as the trashcan of Phnom Penh by a NGO worker, is the place where former slum dwellers reside, placed here by the government, with promises of new land, food and money. Over 1000 families are forced to call this former rice field - 25 kilometers from the city - home.
Read more...
Almost 40 million people worldwide are living with HIV, and every day more people are added to the list. One of the biggest obstacles is the severe lack of nurses and bad healthcare systems.
Read more...
Read more...
19.000 voluntary collectors all over Denmark spent a couple of hours on a lovely sunny Sunday and ensured that DanChurchAid’s annual door-to-door Parish Collection reached a fantastic result of DKK 14 million (EURO 1,880,240).
Read more...
46 countries have now committed themselves to a process that should lead to a convention banning cluster munitions in 2008. "This is a great step forward to prevent new victims and justice for the ones that have already fallen victims to cluster munitions,” says Henrik Stubkjær, General Secretary in DanChurchAid.
Read more...
Read more...
A recently published report has documented how “caste blindness” in the Indian post-tsunami disaster recovery has exacerbated vulnerability and exclusion of the dalit communities. The study which was commissioned by the Dalit Network Netherlands (DNN) documents how international organisations, the Indian Government and local Indian organisation all contributed to the continuation of caste discrimination during the tsunami relief and recovery phase.
Read more...
"Tomorrow will hopefully be the day when the governments officially agree to continue the Oslo process on banning cluster munitions. To continue the process that will sooner, rather than later prohibit cluster bomblets. Hopefully the deadline will be clearly set and be 2008," reports Eva Veble, Head of Humanitarian Mine Action in DanChurchAid from the Oslo conference on cluster munitions.
Read more...
Eva Veble, Head of Humanitarian Mine Action in DanChurchAid reports from the Oslo conference on cluster munitions.
Read more...
Blog from Oslo conference on cluster munitions: "Even though I'm more of an Adidas person myself, the Nike slogan is the one ringing in my head all day during the Civil Society Forum on Banning Cluster Munitions held in the Oslo Nobel Peace Institue," Eva Veble, Head of Humanitarian Mine Action in DanChurchAid reports from the conference.
Read more...
Press release: Nordic church related agencies call for a freeze and a new international treaty prohibiting cluster munitions.
Read more...
The cold weather in Russia during the last few weeks has caused many frost-bites among the homeless in Sct. Petersburg. The hostel of Nochlezkha has just succeeded in organising a local collection of clothes, but is now appealing to the Danish population for help to food and health care.
Read more...
Providing remote rural communities with access to health care has been one of the principal achievements of ACT/Caritas’s health care program in Kubum locality, south Darfur. A mobile clinic has been just part of the solution. However, as funding reduces, sustainability is now a major concern.
Read more...
Cambodian Heng was arrested by the police, when he was 12 years old. They knocked on his family's door one day and took him to the police station.
Read more...
On 1 February 2007, the EU Parliament approved a resolution asking the Indian government to stop violence against Dalits, the approx. 165 million Indians living at the bottom of the caste system.
Read more...
Firewood collection: A threat to women and a threat to the environment. ACT/Caritas’s Darfur Emergency Response Operation is working on initiatives to protect both.
Read more...
With support from DanChurchAid, Lutheran World Service/India (LWSI) has initiated a livelihood support and a community based disaster preparedness (CBDP) programme in 50 tsunami affected non-ocean fishing and dalit communities of Cuddalore and Nagapattinam districts of Tamil Nadu state. As part of the project, women will receive special attention by way of getting vocational training for alternative livelihood options.
Read more...
Recent flooding in Luanda, Benguela and other western Angolan provinces have resulted in the deaths of some 90 people and have contributed to a worsening cholera outbreak.
Read more...
Nearly 500 children are currently detained in Cambodia’s prisons. For these children, the prisons they call “home” are overcrowded, unhygienic and lacking in basic facilities. Many are detained with adults, they are regularly held in pre-trial detention that exceeds the legal time limit, and many are sentenced to prison time without any regard to their age. A coalition of local and international groups has called on the government to pass legislation to protect the children.
Read more...
Two Danish and three local employees were caught in a teargas battle when an allegedly illegal demonstration was dispersed with teargas by Ugandan Police on January 26th. The group was returning from a workshop outside Kampala, the capital of Uganda.
Read more...
Flash floods have left thousands of people homeless and crops washed away in the Karonga district, about 300 km north of the capital Lilongwe, Malawi. According to Karonga District Commissioner, more than 20 villages have been completely flattened by the floods.
Read more...
“Women for Change” is a grassroots organisation in Zambia with the dynamic leader Emily Sikazwe, who has spent a lot of time fighting government persecution of the free press and of the opposition. Stine Leth-Nissen, Head of Advocacy in DanChurchAid met Emily Sikazwe at the World Social Forum.
Read more...
The key to a permanent solution in Somalia – if such one can be found at all - is a new government which really represents and is backed by the Somalian people, says Lars Jørgensen, DanChurchAid, who has year-long experience with the Horn Africa region.
Read more...
Poor people are at higher risk of HIV infection. Poverty increases the vulnerability to the disease and it makes the already poor poorer. These are some of the conclusions in a new report done by one of DanChurchAid’s partners in Zambia.
Read more...
Darfur: As the sun rises from behind the mountain, boys in long, white shirts, known as “jelabia,” hurry through the streets of Nertiti, kicking up the dust with their feet.
Read more...
The winter in the mountainous regions of South Lebanon is rapidly approaching. Though reconstruction is well under way after the 34 day war between the Israeli army and Hizbollah, people are in need of heaters and blankets.
Read more...
USA and the Middle East are right now engaged in a nerve-racking power struggle in Somalia. It may result in fatal consequences for the civil population and chaos on the Horn of Africa.
Read more...
After 20 years on the run, Kong Pov dreams about settling as a farmer. Through the 1980s and 1990s, young Kong Pov accompanied her husband who was a Khmer Rouge soldier. The battles decided their destinations.
Read more...
Read more...
Poor farmers who cooperate and share their knowledge harvest more. That is the philosophy of the Farmer Field School.
Read more...
"It is about empowering the poor to fight for their universal rights,” says International Director Christian Friis Bach. In DanChurchAid’s partner-based programme work, there are more and more examples of a rights-based approach in action. The rights-based approach is about identification, influence and assisting poor people in organising and involving themselves. It is about enabling the poor to fight for their universal rights.
Read more...
Read more...
DanChurchAid fears that Ethiopian military intervention in Somalia will result in prolonged fighting and thus many civil victims – and thousands of new refugees in the war-torn country on the Horn of Africa.
Read more...
A multiplication effect is one way that Linda Tiongco, who is working for the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International in Sri Lanka, describes the progress that has been made in the recovery from the December 26, 2004, tsunami.
Read more...
Since the tsunami hit Sri Lanka and destroyed the livelihood of thousands of people and killed several thousands, DanChurchAid has been working through local partners to provide emergency assistance and to assist the affected population in recovering and rebuilding their lives. The work is challenging as Sri Lanka is also very much affected by the ongoing conflict between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE).
Read more...
The Philippines is threatened with another typhoon. The residents have not yet recovered from the impact of Durian, which hit on November 30. As of December 14, more than 3,769 families were still being accommodated in evacuation centers in Albay province. More than 68,617 families lost their houses, while 45,199 families’ homes received partial damage. Food and non-food items are being distributed to the affected families in the evacuation centers and villages.
Read more...
Darfur: Over the past two months, more than 10,000 people have arrived in Otash camp, fleeing attacks on their homes in the Tulus and Buram localities in Sudan’s South Darfur province.
Read more...
Among the greatest needs currently being expressed in villages in Lebanon are non-food relief items. DanChurchAid in Lebanon supports approx. 3,000 families with non food items and is also clearing mines and unexploded ammunition.
Read more...
To mark World AIDS Day (December 1), the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), a local partner of ACT-Caritas, has organized three days of events in Nyala town, the capital of South Darfur state.
Read more...
World AIDS Day, 1 December is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV and AIDS. DanChurchAid marks World AIDS Day by focusing on the AIDS pandemic, the young people and the role of the church in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Read more...
Rights-based approaches in Cambodia: International Director of DanChurchAid, Christian Friis Bach, has just visited LWF Cambodia programme in Sleng Village, where rights-based approaches begins to work successfully.
Read more...
Gunfire, fields alight and homes burning. Around 40,000 civilians have been forced from their homes in the eastern region of South Darfur in the past month.
Read more...
The normally jammed-packed streets of Beirut during rush hour were even more frantic yesterday as residents scrambled immediately following the news that Christian politician Pierre Gemayel had been brutally gunned down in the streets of a Beirut suburb.
Read more...
28 years ago Khmer Rouge lost power in Cambodia. Only now the country seems ready to face the confrontation with the leaders responsible for the death of more than two million Cambodians.
Read more...
DanChurchAid’s humanitarian mine action programme in eastern DR Congo has recently created a new team for Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) tasks. During the first week's work in Uvira the team destroyed 108 UXOs - and that is only the beginning.
Read more...
Danchurchaid urgently requests the Danish government to support the Norwegian initiative on Cluster Munitions and to participate in a conference that Norway is hosting at the beginning of 2007.
Read more...
With the break down of the peace talks between LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka, many internally displaced persons (IDPs) have little hope of returning to their home villages. A lot of IDP camps are cut off from access to humanitarian aid as Sri Lanka conflict escalates. Mrs. Kosala, an IDP in Northern Batticaloa, tells her story.
Read more...
Sri Lanka is in a state of chock after unidentified men killed the Tamil National Alliance Parlementarian Mr. Nadarajah Raviraj on Friday 10th of November. A number of civil society organisations have issued a concerned statement on the deterioating human rights situation. DanChurchAid supports the statement 100 %.
Read more...
Momentum is growing in Geneva for new negotiations towards a new international law on cluster munitions. Support for this new cluster munition treaty has jumped from 6 to 18 states in the first week of the Conventional Weapons Review Conference and comes as a new accord will enter into force on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) that does not sufficiently address the problem of cluster munitions.
Read more...
Many cultures around the world have a time set aside each year for communities or families to gather and give thanks for what they have. Some of these traditions are celebrations that occur around the time of the harvest. One community in El Salvador was especially thankful this year as members gathered to share in work and in a meal - to celebrate the harvest again, after their supply of food was cut off last year during Tropical Storm Stan.
Read more...
Scan the faces of children gathered for a break outside Souane Elementary School and you see that life is slowly returning after the traumatic 34-day Israeli-Hezbollah conflict that left Lebanese villages bombed, roads destroyed and thousands injured and dead. DanChurchAid is currently clearing mines and unexploded ammunition in Lebanon.
Read more...
Read more...
When companies invest in third world countries, they often forget that their activities can have serious consequences for the local inhabitants' access to water. Access to water is limited for millions of poor people. Corporations have an important role to play as their investments may also effect water supply and access.
Read more...
In Batticaloa district in Sri Lanka, DanChurchAid is currently working on a project to improve the living conditions for the most vulnerable tsunami and war affected persons.
Read more...
With the explosion of the last landmine in the remote mountainous area in north eastern Albania, DanChurchAid marked the exit of Albania with a blast after working with humanitarian mine action in the country since 2002.
Read more...
DanChurchAid’s partners in Cambodia behind pressure for a legal confrontation with the leadership of Khmer Rouge. Local partner DC-Cam (Documentation Center of Cambodia) has for years been active in the Khmer Rouge Trial and has collected 1.6 million stories from survivors to be presented at the trial.
Read more...
"Working rights-based is a major challenge, but organisations like DanChurchAid can help combat this challenge by commiting to long-term support," states DanChurchAid's Indian partners Jagori and Sahanivasa.
Read more...
The hidden fallout from conflict in Lebanon: For two hours, Mahmoud Yacoub sat disoriented in a field, waiting for help to come. The 36-year-old farmer had taken his herd of goats out at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon when he stepped on something that exploded. Bleeding and in pain, he made his way to a small shrub, where he sat and waited for rescue.
Read more...
Development of the mine clearance system WADS enters a new and exciting phase. During the past twelve months, the big mine clearance system WADS has been tested in very difficult areas in eastern Angola. When the system is fully developed, the WADS should be able to clear roads much faster than ever before and thus open areas for development and traffic. And the need is huge in the country stricken by civil war for decades.
Read more...
Burmese minorities are being given shelter in the border region between Burma and Thailand since 1984. Their situation is difficult: they are not allowed to work in Thailand and it is impossible for them to live in Burma because of the aggressive Junta regime there. DanChurchAid has a long history of offering support to TBBC, the organisation that has been responsible for the reception of the ever-increasing influx of refugees right from the start.
Read more...
After many months of hard work, the new DanChurchAid demining team in Angola is now ready to do their first official hand-over of a piece of land. With detectors, small shovels, brushes, and hands, the 40 deminers have inch by inch gone through every spot of the more than 3.3 hectare large area.
Read more...
Seminar programme, 9 November, 2006, on the challenges and experiences in working with rights-based approaches in development. DanChurchAid and other Danish NGOs debate lessons learnt from rights-based work.
Read more...
Read more...
There will be a special tax on all flights from a number of destinations this year. The returns from the taxes are to support the fight against tuberculoses, malaria and HIV/AIDS all over the world. These three diseases kill millions of people each year, and are a great hindrance for development in poor countries.
Read more...
Read more...
Human trafficking can be described as a modern-day form of slavery. Trafficking involves the transport or trade of people within and across borders for the purpose of forcing them into slavery conditions. Trafficking is a serious violation of human rights. In Cambodia, DanChurchAid works for the recognition of trafficked persons, especially women and girls, to be seen as victims with rights - in need of protection and assistance - rather than as offenders or illegal migrants.
Read more...
DanChurchAid works with progressive forces within Israeli and Palestinian civil societies to reinforce democracy and respect for human rights, and to support efforts for sustainable peace and justice.
Read more...
For some of the internally displaced people living in camps in Darfur, it is now safe to go home. However, those who can go home are not Darfurians; they are the displaced from southern Sudan who, two decades ago, fled fighting in their homeland.
Read more...
A series of fires have since mid June until the end of September ravaged and destroyed an estimated 1.500 houses in 8 villages in and around Salamabila in Southeastern Maniema Province in the eastern DR Congo.
Read more...
Life is slowly returning after the traumatic 34-day Israeli-Hezbollah conflict that left Lebanese villages bombed, roads destroyed and thousands injured and dead. DanChurchAid is currently clearing mines and unexploded ammunition in Lebanon.
Read more...
Sunday 8 October was the first anniversary of the worst earthquake in Pakistan for 100 years. The rebuild process is slow and almost 1.8 million survivors are facing yet another winter in makeshift accommodation and other temporary shelters. They need immediate help.
Read more...
In September, DanChurchAid DR Congo programme based in Kalemie, Katanga Province, received an important visit by Miss Monika Tortschanoff, Human Rights and Civil Society representative of the European Commission Delegation in DR Congo and Mr Harouna Ouedraogo, Programme Manager for United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center (UNMACC) in DR Congo.
Read more...
A toolbox and basic training in a trade can be a big help for the future of quake survivors in Pakistan. After a passed trade test, the workmen can participate in the rebuilding process of their provinces affected by the earthquake, which struck Pakistan last year on October 8, 2005.
Read more...
In a field, 5 km outside of Kalemie in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, 14 men and 13 women have been training for more than three weeks. Ten of these trainees will form part of two new teams that are to work with humanitarian mine clearance under the "Humanitarian Mine Action Program", funded by Europeaid with 940 000 Euros and running from the April 1, 2006, until March 31, 2008.
Read more...
As winter approaches the north of Pakistan once again, many of those left homeless by last October’s crippling earthquake are growing increasingly frustrated and newly afraid. Some even consider leaving their mountain villages once again to seek safety in the country’s burgeoning cities.
Read more...
Despite intense world pressure, Sudan still resists UN force in Darfur. Sudan faces escalating world pressure in coming weeks to reverse its dogged opposition to the dispatch of a large UN force in war-torn Darfur where UN officials are warning of a worsening humanitarian crisis, writes ReliefWeb.
Read more...
In Kitgum, the relationship between the Church of Uganda and the Uganda country program of the Lutheran World Federation is a good example of ACT members' close working relationship. There is an old adage that says, “Two heads are better than one.” Adapted to a case of humanitarian organizations working in situations of emergency relief - two working together is better than one - the adage rings true.
Read more...
Yanjin and Daguan Counties in Yunnan Province are located on an earthquake belt and have suffered several quakes (two of magnitude 5.1 and one of 4.7, with aftershocks of 2 to 3 on the Richter Scale) in July and August 2006. Although these quakes were not of a high magnitude on the Richter Scale, they were shallow (4 to 9 km in depth) and consequently caused widespread damage.
Read more...
DanChurchAid and 20 other Danish NGOs call on the Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs Per Stig Møller to place conflicts, which are based on trade with natural resources such as coltan used in mobile phones, on the agenda of the Security Council.
Read more...
Muslims and Christians find bonds during the war between the Lebanese Hezbollah and Israeli forces. A million Lebanese fled the war zones to safer places in Lebanon. The majority of those who fled were Shia Muslims, many of whom received protection in Christian areas.
Read more...
DanChurchAid works with access to health care in Israel/Palestine. The right to access humanitarian aid and services is a human right that includes access to adequate and affordable primary health care. In the context of marginalisation of international humanitarian law in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Palestinian population is effectively deprived of this right.
Read more...
DanChurchAid supports ACT member the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) in Beirut. MECC is cooperating closely with other NGOs and with the Lebanese authorities.
Read more...
People living in camps in Darfur depend on humanitarian aid agencies for all their basic needs: food, water, shelter and essential household items. But with community centers in eleven camps, ACT-Caritas is providing something more: These centers help people overcome trauma.
Read more...
ACT members responding to floods in several Indian states have turned their attention to the flood situation in southern and southwestern districts of Rajasthan, which has worsened since the third week of August.
Read more...