Conflicts and Disasters

ACT/Caritas prepare for the coming rains

ACT/Caritas prepare for the coming rains

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, ...

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Lives saved in Myanmar

Lives saved in Myanmar

Caritas says that 80,000 people have received some form of assistance through its relief operations following the deadly cyclone that hit Myanmar 2-3 May, 2008. Over 7 million people lived in the area affected by Cyclone Nargis.  The latest figures put the death toll at 84,537 people, with the number of missing at 53,836 people.  ...

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Aid against the odds in Darfur

Aid against the odds in Darfur

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 ...

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Myanmar Archbishop praises Caritas relief efforts

“Without Caritas and the Church in Myanmar, many people would have starved after Cyclone Nargis hit,” said Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon on a recent visit to the Caritas offices in the Vatican. Cyclone Nargis hit the Ayeyarwady Delta region of Myanmar (also known as Burma) on 2 May 2008, causing death and destruction beyond ...

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Facing an uncertain future in Zimbabwe

“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 ...

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

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

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 ...

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

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

“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, ...

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