Africa Archives - Page 69 of 70

ACT/Caritas prepare for the coming rains

3/11/2008 Africa, Conflicts and Disasters, Disaster Preparedness, Emergencies, Emergencies in Darfur and South Sudan, Sudan by Caritas Communications

By Emad Eldin Ali, with contribution from Catherine Dennis Life in Darfur can be harsh at the best of times, but during the rainy season it can be particularly challenging. Many families who have lost their homes because of the conflict are now living in makeshift mud huts and straw shelters. Ensuring people have shelter, ...

Aid against the odds in Darfur

3/11/2008 Africa, Conflicts and Disasters, Disaster Preparedness, Emergencies, Emergencies in Darfur and South Sudan, Peacebuilding, South Sudan by Caritas Communications

This is some of what Caritas and its partners have done in Darfur from January to March 2008: Helped 250,000 people Given household items to 12,700 who’re without homes Drilled 18 boreholes and got 106 handpumps working Treated 50,000 illnesses Fed nearly 9000 pregnant women, new mothers, babies and toddlers Set up eight sports teams ...

Desperation in Zimbabwe

3/11/2008 Advocacy, Africa, Conflicts and Disasters, Emergencies, Humanitarian Crisis in Zimbabwe, Peacebuilding, Zimbabwe by Caritas Communications

The Catholic Church in Zimbabwe says that the country’s leaders are playing politics while the people suffer. They point to a failure to announce a new inclusive Cabinet as going against the will of the people for coordinated action. Zimbabwe’s Bishops say that a power sharing agreement signed in September could transform the country’s bleak ...

Mounting atrocities in northern Congo

3/11/2008 Africa, Conflicts and Disasters, Congo, Democratic Republic of, Emergencies, Emergencies in Congo, Peacebuilding by Caritas Communications

Their villages have been burnt, their friends and neighbours killed and their children kidnapped from schools. Tens of thousands of people are now on the move in northern Congo, trying to stay one step ahead of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels who are hacking their way across the countryside, going from village to village ...

Fear and mourning in Chad

3/09/2008 Africa, Chad, Conflicts and Disasters, Emergencies by Caritas Communications

By Caritas staff Although some calm has returned to eastern Chad after violence earlier in the year, Caritas staff and the people face hard times In eastern Chad, there are more than 240,000 Sudanese refugees from the conflict in Darfur. Fears of fresh fighting are at the forefront of people’s concerns. An attack of the ...

Facing an uncertain future in Zimbabwe

3/09/2008 Advocacy, Africa, Conflicts and Disasters, Emergencies, Humanitarian Crisis in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe by Caritas Communications

“The UN must also act proactively by sending observers to Zimbabwe to monitor any human rights abuses,” said Caritas Internationalis President Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga. He is urging the UN Security Council to impose an immediate arms embargo on Zimbabwe. Church leaders in the country said that without international intervention Zimbabweans face genocide. “As Pope ...

Fighting Kala-azar: Caritas Somalia Health Centre changes lives in Baidoa

3/09/2008 Africa, Conflicts and Disasters, Emergencies, Food, Malnutrition, Middle East & North Africa, Somalia by Caritas Communications

by David Omwoyo Seated outside the Caritas health centre in Baidoa, Mama Habibo Salad Habibo waits for help. After walking 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 two-year-old daughter looks emaciated and sleepy. Yet her stomach ...

Investing in safe delivery, life-saving training for women in Darfur

3/09/2008 Africa, Conflicts and Disasters, Development, Emergencies, Emergencies in Darfur and South Sudan, SDG by Caritas Communications

“There was no one around in the village to help when my pregnant sister told me, ‘I want to deliver.’ I assisted the delivery and after that I became a birth attendant,” recalls Hawa, a traditional birth attendant now called ‘grandmother’. In the rural areas and camps of Darfur most babies are born at home, ...

Make aid work at Accra summit

17/08/2008 Africa, Development, High-Level Meetings and Events, Poverty Elimination, SDG by Caritas Communications

About 29,000 children under the age of five die every day, that’s 21 each minute, mainly from preventable causes. Caritas has joined African Churches and international faith based organisations to say that we can do something about this by using aid as a hand up rather than a hand out. The power to do that ...

African Church calls for better aid

17/08/2008 Advocacy, Africa, Development, High-Level Meetings and Events, Poverty Elimination, SDG by Caritas Communications

Church leaders in Africa say development aid to the poorest must not just be measured in quantity but also in the extent it transforms the lives of the poor. In a ecumenical statement released ahead of a key aid effectiveness summit in Accra, Ghana, 2 – 4 September, the AACC (All Africa Conference of Churches) ...