Concern Blogs

Anne a mother of four and guardian of seven came to Nairobi as a teenager in search of economic opportunity. Photo: Kenya, Concern Worldwide

By Kirk Prichard, Advocacy Officer, in Nairobi for Concern Worldwide US

World Humanitarian Day recognizes the sacrifices and contributions of those who give others help and hope. This year, it is a celebration of people helping people. In Nairobi, where I have been deployed on short notice to support Concern’s emergency response in the Horn of Africa, I see evidence of people helping people every day. And though international staff like myself are called on to contribute to the relief effort, it is almost entirely powered by Kenyans.

Concern’s Kenya team works in partnership with local organizations that are Kenyan-run, Kenyan-staffed, and crucially, implement Kenya-appropriate programs. It is through these partners that so-called humanitarians and aid workers—too often mistaken as solely western—are enabled to reach the poorest of the poor. Concern’s role is to monitor and assess programs, to provide technical expertise when and where it is needed, and to build the capacity of these local partners. We have been in Kenya since 2002, and we will be here for as long as that role is necessary. Read the rest of this entry »

Feargal (left) on his last day with the team before taking up a new challenge with Concern in Kinshasa. Photo: DRC, Concern Worldwide

By Feargal O’Connell, Assistant Country Director of Programs, Democratic Republic of Congo

Today is World Humanitarian Day.  According to the United Nations, today is  ’a celebration of people helping people’ and the day ‘recognizes the sacrifices and contributions of those who risk their lives to give others help and hope.’

Today is when I started biting my fingernails again.

Today at 10.21 am local time Concern’s team was stopped at a checkpoint and refused passage until 11.27 am.  The team had decided that with rising tension in an area prone to conflict, it would be prudent to temporarily relocate to the nearest city.  Read the rest of this entry »

By Joan Bolger, Communications Officer, Concern Worldwide US

3-year-old Zahida with son Sanam at the Concern-run Oral Therapeutic Care center in Rahuja Village, Sindh Province. Photo: Pakistan, Concern Worldwide

13-year-old Zahida tells me she cried through the night when her father came back from an evening of gambling and told her he had found a suitor for her in marriage. “I was used as the payment. He insisted because he had no other money to give,” she explained, clutching her 12-month-old son Sanam at a Concern-run center established to treat malnourished children in Rahuja village, in Sindh, Pakistan’s southern province.

Zahida walked for one hour to get to the center so that Sanam could be treated. Here, staff record weight and arm circumferences to determine the severity of child malnutrition. The rates in Sindh province are 18.8 percent, well above the World Health Organization’s emergency threshold of 15 percent. In the worst affected areas in the province, Concern nutritionists tell me that malnutrition rates are as high as 50 percent.

Read the rest of this entry »

Refugee children at Dosseye Camp, Southern Chad where Concern is meeting the needs of refugees from Central African Republic. Photo: Francesca Reinhardt, Chad

By Francesca Reinhardt, Program Support Officer, Chad

Fatou Yali dreams of the herd of cattle her family once had, and the day she can start building up her own herd in her new home in Chad.  Fatou is one of 76,000 refugees from the Central African Republic now rebuilding their lives in neighbouring Chad.

“Many people left ahead of us, when they heard the rebels were approaching,” she says, “but we wanted to stay.  Even when they took our cattle, we wanted to stay.  But when the shooting came to our door, we had to leave.”

Fatou comes from near the town of Paoua, northern CAR, which has seen heavy fighting between rebel and government forces since 2003.  She is from the Fula tribe, which stretches across west and central Africa, and who make up a large part of the Dosseye refugee camp, near the town of Goré, Southern Chad.

They have been here for four years, and as the situation in CAR remains volatile, many have little hope of returning.  The government and local communities have generously donated land to the refugees, allowing them to take the first steps towards self-sufficiency.  Read the rest of this entry »

Women farmers cut animal fodder for domestic livestock in Basti Machi village. Photo: Pakistan, Concern Worldwide

By Joan Bolger, Communications Officer, US

Standing on the 6-foot-high embankment that encircles the village of Basti Machi in Punjab Province a three-hour drive from the city of Multan, it’s hard to imagine the destruction wrought by the Indus located not 200 meters from here. Just one year ago, super monsoon rains completely submerged large swathes of this province in six feet of water flattening crops, destroying houses and wiping out livelihoods. For the poorest, the effect was catastrophic.

Nastabebe a 25-year-old mother of one and the appointed leader of this proud village recalls the devastation in quiet, hurried tones. “We rushed, men and women together to build the walls higher around our village after we were warned the waters were coming. With our hands we packed mud to make the walls bigger and wider. We worked day and night, but we could not beat the speed of the river. Everything was lost.” Read the rest of this entry »

Dosseye Refugee Camp, Southern Chad. Photo: Francesca Reinhardt

By Francesca Reinhardt, Program Support Officer, Chad  

At 6:30 am on the dot the rain begins to fall in Goré, southern Chad.  It sounds like an avalanche clattering down on the tin roof overhead.  This is the sound everyone’s been waiting for with bated breath, because it’s already mid-May and the rains should have started a few weeks ago.  But after twenty minutes it stops.  Is it a false alarm?  There’s no more rain, but the air is thick and heavy and clouds still hover in the distance, promising more.  So after a long, hot dry season, the farmers swing into gear.

When to plant is a serious gamble for farmers.  If the rains don’t start in earnest, the soil will dry up and precious seeds will get blown away.  If they wait too long, it might be too late, and food stores from the year before will have to last even longer.  For many subsistence farmers, the months between the end of the harsh dry season and the first harvest are known as the “hunger gap,” when they have to survive on the last of the cereal crop, foraging, and loans.

There is an added danger that if families get too hungry, they will eat the seeds they need to plant for the next harvest, thus threatening their food supply for the following year.  Some families hide their seeds in trees, or anywhere else that will keep them out of reach of hungry children.  This is obviously a difficult choice for families to make: to have their children go hungry now, or risk starvation the following year. Read the rest of this entry »

Maria Otero, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs speaking on June 13 during the morning session of the 1,000 days event in Washington, DC. Photo: Washington, Concern Worldwide

By Tom Arnold, CEO, Concern Worldwide and David Beckmann, President, Bread for the World

Today we join more than 350 high-level government officials, leaders of civil society organizations, and activists from all over the world to galvanize political momentum to scale up nutrition initiatives that will help save the lives of at least 1 million children annually.

During “1,000 Days to Scale Up Nutrition for Mothers & Children: Building Political Commitment,” we’ll discuss the critical importance of proper nutrition, particularly during the 1,000 days from pregnancy to 2 years old. Conclusive evidence points to the devastating impact of malnutrition on infant and child mortality, and its irreversible, long-term effects on health and cognitive and physical development. Read the rest of this entry »

Concern promotes the growing of vegetables such as cabbage. Above, a farmer, Mufungulwa Kalunga, explains his success story to fellow farmers during a field day in Mongu. Photo: Zambia, Concern Worldwide

By Rakesh Katal, Concern Worldwide Country Director, Zambia

Zambia’s economy continues to show encouraging growth, which now stands at seven percent. And in the past year, Zambia’s agricultural sector produced a record food surplus, with a grain harvest of 2.8 million tons that literally overwhelmed storage capacity. This surplus was underpinned by subsidies for small-scale farmers, generous minimum price guarantees offered by the Zambia’s Food Reserve Agency and good rainfall in previous years.  Nonetheless, the very poorest and most vulnerable families are still struggling to survive.

The terrain in remote areas of Zambia is rough; to reach communities you must cross rivers, wetlands and vast swathes of sandy territory.  Concern is the only development organization working in some of these remote areas, such as districts in the Western Province. Read the rest of this entry »

Concern Worldwide is investing in women farmers in Malawi like Ariema Benetala to improve nutrition of mothers and children during the 1,000 days from pregnancy to age 2. Photo: Kathyothyo, Malawi, Pieternella Pieterse for Concern Worldwide

By Anita McCabe, Country Director, Concern Worldwide Malawi

As the hot, dry breeze wafts through the lakeside district of Nkhotakota, Malawi, a group of women sing as they take turns to water their near-ripe crop of maize. Further downstream, another group is busy making seed beds in preparation for another crop.

Like many women in developing countries, these women face a particular set of responsibilities and vulnerabilities when it comes to providing food for their families. Not only are they the primary caregivers, they are also the producers of food and the income earners. Women farmers in rural areas of Malawi grow, buy, sell, and cook food in order to feed their children. In fact, in all the countries in which I’ve worked during my time with Concern Worldwide, I’ve seen how very hard women must work to ensure the survival of their families, and the burdens they bear. Read the rest of this entry »

Girls in Phombe Primary School, Nsanje District in Malawi, where Concern is supporting the community to encourage the education of girls. Photo: Malawi, Concern Worldwide

By Joseph Scott, former Communications Officer with Concern Worldwide in Malawi

For some years, daily life in the community of Mtumba village in Nsanje district was dictated by the darker side of local culture. Years of upholding traditional practices, such as girls leaving school to get married, produced a vicious cycle of illiteracy that has severely hampered the development of Mtumba as a community. Literacy levels in Mtumba  are very low. In a community of about 1,500 people, only three girls have completed their primary school education.

And, unfortunately, these are now married: “It’s disappointing to note that all girls in our village are rushing or are being forced into marriage,” says Lilian Kastomu, one of the girls who completed primary school but is now a mother of two, adding, “that’s why I decided to join the Mother Group to encourage girls in my village not to make the mistake I made.”

Read the rest of this entry »