Tdh is getting ready

At the moment the Tdh teams are preparing to act fast if ‘Mahasen’ hits the Patharghata area. At a material level, stocks of jerrycans, hygiene kits, candles and matches are in position, as well as tarpaulins to serve as shelters for 1,700 families, and reserves of chlorine so as to ensure a daily supply of drinking water for 1,000 families. On the human level, Tdh can count on its local Patharghata staff as well as a team of specialists for healthcare, sanitation, water and hygiene who came from Kurigram in the north of the country to help in the emergency feared.

An area at risk

Bangladesh is notorious as one of the countries most vulnerable for natural disasters. For this reason, Tdh has installed itself in the south and runs projects for prevention and disaster management there. For example, thanks to the construction of wells, latrines and raised kitchen gardens, Tdh anticipates the consequences of flooding and enables communities to benefit from drinking water, basic sanitary installations and alternative food resources when a disaster strikes.

Although the impact of this new cyclone cannot yet be assessed, every precaution must be taken in this region that is far from being spared by natural disasters such as the cyclones Marian (1991) and Sidr (2007) – that remain in people’s memories as having taking the lives of hundreds of thousands of victims.

Even before this sad incident, all the players in child protection and the Ministry for Social Affairs got together in 2012 to develop a huge project to benefit these children, whose workload is too heavy for their age. In view of the economic ravages caused by the fire, the existence of this project is a great help for the hundreds of children who were its victims. Following the disaster, the teams quickly went to identify the children affected by the fire. 514 children were found from the 615 beneficiaries of Tdh’s project at the Great Market, and research was continued in the market and the schools situated close to it.

Today, these children are supported in accordance with the aims of the project of Tdh and its partners. Meals are provided daily for some hundred children whose parents had no means of feeding them after the fire. The youngsters, shocked by what they had suffered, have since then been followed up by psychologists so they can talk about the drama and their everyday life. Finally, they continue to receive school and healthcare support as well as taking part in games and educational activities that allow them to find their feet again and to have a little fun.

These meetings were attended by the UNICEF, international NGOs such as Plan Togo and Terre des hommes, national NGOs such as the National Catholic Office for Children (BNCE), and the Action Movement for the Reintegration of Marginalized Children (MAREM), with strong involvement of state services like the Regional Management for Social Action, Lomé community, the Union Observatory for the fight against Child Labour (OSLTE), and the Town Council of the first arrondissement.

For their part, members of the Ministries for Social Affairs and Educations gave speeches highlighting respect for international agreements on child rights as well as the necessity of developing cooperation between all the players to stop the exploitation of children. Tdh, through its delegate Jeremie Bron, also sent a message emphasizing that Tdh will go on fighting to defend the rights of Palestinian children for as long as it takes. Thanks for its support were in addition given to the Foundation for its work and its fruitful collaboration with the authorities since its arrival in the Palestinian Territories in 1973.

In the Palestinian Territories, Tdh collaborates closely with Swiss Solidarity, the Ministries for Social Affairs and Education, as well as with the local organization BLDA (Beit Lahyia Development Association).

Source: 24 Heures, Tribune de Genève

The challenge is huge. Half the 420,000 Syrians in Jordan are children, according to the UNO. “They have gone through terrible events: bombing, destruction of their homes, people killed under their very eyes, torture and violation,” says Juergen Wellner from Terre des hommes. “Each of them reacts in his own way. Some of them close themselves off, others become aggressive. They are affected to a very varied degree. Confronted by the same occurrence, one child is not deeply scarred, whilst another requires psychological care. Most of them, however, although affected, have the ability to find their feet again when they find a little stability.”

Thanks to the donations given to Swiss Solidarity by the Swiss public, the NGO can develop weekly structured activities for the youngsters, of whom many do not have immediate access to Jordanian schools. Here, they can make friends. “This is essential, as after the war many parents tend to over-protect their families. The youngsters have to stay in the house, amongst themselves, in an often depressing atmosphere,” says Juergen Wellner. Coming to the centre to take part in the activities is getting out, moving, having fun, interacting with other kids, learning through games to trust and to work together, and also to express what’s in their hearts without always knowing how to say it. This can be done by drawing pictures or acting in playlets where they can pick a role to play. Loss, suffering, anger, or frustration can be expressed in this way.”

Parents who are nervous wrecks

A breath of fresh air? Far more, declares this mother we can call Hana, not to give away her identity. Her husband stayed at Deraa, in Syria, where he is searching for their eldest son, arrested by the forces of Bachar el-Assad. When Hana arrived here three months ago with her six other children, they lived in two damp rooms, without drinking water or electricity . . . and where her sister and five children descended upon them. “Four of my little ones go to the activities. They adore them. Once, having missed the bus that should have taken them, they begged me to go with them on foot to the Terre des hommes centre. I am also in a group of mothers with similar experiences. There I can let my emotions out, rather than letting them out on the children. I’m hard pushed to cope with the situation; sometimes I haven’t a penny to feed my children!”

Azzam and his wife, Khetam, also go with their family to the centre. “Just to get away from the war atmosphere – my children have nightmares . . . and so do I,” confides the father. With their two children they live on the first floor of a building under construction. The owner lets them live there for free, as the windows and doors have not yet been put in. So as to get out of the cold wind and to insulate the bare floor a bit, here and there they have put down blankets and rugs with the UNHCR logo, the UN High Commission for Refugees. But even this precarious shelter is a comfort after the dangerous journey that brought them from Homs, “the capital of the rebellion”, to the Jordanian frontier. Although Lebanon was quite close, they did not dare to set foot there, as, like many Syrians, they fear the Shite militia of the Hezbollah. Encountered in Al-Mafraq, other refugees from Homs assured us that they had actually seen the Lebanese support the soldiers of the Syrian regime. They also told about having heard people speaking Iranian . . .

A barbaric conflict

A few kilometres away from Al-Mafraq, in the refugees’ mega-camp of Zaatari, where 120,000 of the 420,000 Syrians are massed, 6-year-old Mohamed is waiting in his wheel-chair for his consultation in the courtyard of the small physiotherapy centre run by an NGO. His leg bones were shattered when a bomb exploded in Deraa. But now, after fifteen operations and several weeks of physiotherapy, he’s ready to jump around again. His mother sighs. “I thought they were going to amputate his leg in Syria. My family got the full impact of the war, and several of my sons are part of the rebellion. One of them was slaughtered in my house by soldiers who afterwards forced me to get them a meal. They are barbarians.”

Appeal for donations. Swiss Solidarity is launching a fund-raising campaign. CCP 10-15 000-6 ‘Syria’.

So as to improve the conditions for water access for the people in the region, Tdh launched a project to supply water to the schools and health centres in the villages of Baraki, Gurufa and Shanta Abaq, with the installation of new infrastructures. 80% of the equipment was out of order and also had to be renewed: “In a region where there are only four functional wells in 80km, it is not the construction that poses problems, but their maintenance”, explains Bruno Pascual, Tdh’s specialist for water, sanitation and hygiene. Hand in hand with improving access to water, the project aims to build basic sanitary installations, in particular latrines, to avoid a part of the population having to defecate in the open. Community workers will also be made more aware of the issue and given training in the most usual practices of hygiene. They will act as intermediaries for Tdh and will have the role of explaining these practices to the communities in their turn.

Schools at the heart of the work

Parallel to this, Tdh supports 11 schools with 3,750 pupils. People will be made responsible for supervising the cleanliness and smooth functioning of the new installations. The pupils will have sessions on hand-washing, personal hygiene, use of the toilets, drinking water and maintaining the environment. But the youngsters will also have a big part to play and will themselves watch over hygiene in the district. Thanks to the programme ‘Child to Child’, which has already been successful in other countries of Tdh’s intervention such as Pakistan, the children will be able to put on plays or organize concerts on the issues of water that they can present in other schools.

After all is said and done, the project will enable this area, supporting some 20,000 people, to be better prepared to respond more effectively to the droughts that regularly occur in this province, by benefiting from access to water and basic sanitary installations. In an area that is extremely vulnerable to climate vagaries, by developing the skills of the people on the ground, Tdh enables the communities to be less dependent and to take their own destiny into their hands.