Concern Blogs

By Nicki Sugrue

Jean Kwizerimana, 15, is a sixth-year student at Rugendo Primary School in Burundi who received a school uniform and supplies from Concern Worldwide.

September is the beginning of the school year in Burundi, but for many children it is just like any other month. Twelve years of civil conflict, which ended in 2005, left the country scarred. Reconstruction has been slow, significantly impacting the quality of education and the standard of schools available. Many families do not have the means to send their children to school and, even when they do attend, there is a high drop-out rate due to large class sizes and a lack of school materials and infrastructure. Read the rest of this entry »

In the absence of school buildings, children in South Sudan attend class under the shade of trees. Photo: Nina Gehm, Concern Worldwide

For nearly two years now, I have worked in South Sudan, helping Concern empower the poorest of the poor through programs in education, farming, nutrition, and water.

Even though I live here and I witness daily examples of the hardships people face just trying to survive, the statistics never fail to dishearten me.

Consider for example that a 15-year-old girl has a greater chance of dying in childbirth than of finishing school.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hadija (left) pictured with her mother at new water point supported by Concern. Photo: Isla Gilmore, Concern Worldwide.

Water has always been readily available to me

As a city girl it’s hard to imagine life without clean water. Being in Tanzania I have had to adapt to not being able to drink it, and constantly being cautious about boiling, filtering and washing food in clean water. But I live in Dar es Salaam and I have access to all the water I need.

Life in rural villages in Tanzania is completely different

I visited Concern Tanzania’s water programme earlier this month. Biharamulo District is in Kagera Region, close to Rwanda. It looks a bit different to other parts of the country where we work because the villages are located in hills and valleys. Read the rest of this entry »

My Concern guest house room, and everything I brought with me to the field.

DENVER, COLORADO - This is going to be an interesting trip: Denver to Washington DC to Rome to Addis Ababa. I arrived at my gate in Denver to find four other people travelling straight through with me to Ethiopia.  Read the rest of this entry »