Concern Blogs

Supporters of Concern Worldwide Michael Londra, Susan Finucane (Concern worker), Patty Mulvihill McMenamin and Kathy Adler attended a pre-event celebratory reception for the 2010 Women of Concern Brigid Awards. All proceeds will go to Concern's relief efforts in Haiti.

I was obliged to return to base in New York last week in order to fulfil my role as Program Officer. It was a difficult decision to make as I felt like I was abandoning the team and the people in need in Haiti, but our programs in other fields beckon, and sadly, time waits for no man. Read the rest of this entry »

Patients at Wesleyan Hospital on the island of La Gonâve lie on outdoor beds, both by choice and because of overcrowding. Photo: Ed Kenney, Concern Worldwide.

There are thousands of families who have fled the mainland to the small island La Gonâve, just 20 kilometers off Haiti’s northwestern coast, and their numbers are growing.  In a place where the supply of food and clean water for the normal population is uncertain at the best of times, and where the hurricane season is four short months away, the challenge for organizations like Concern is immediate and massive. Read the rest of this entry »

Feargal will be based in North Kivu, one of three provinces in DRC where Concern is working.

There are many pitfalls, bumps in the road and unexpected obstacles when you’re changing job and moving country all in one go.  That’s to be expected.  Especially when the country you’re moving to is the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Canadian immigration, however, was not a hurdle I was expecting.

I knew I was in trouble when the border agent asked me what country I lived in.  I stuttered a little but the confused look on my face was the deal-breaker. Read the rest of this entry »

Since the early days of its founding, the UN has designated days and weeks to draw the world’s attention to critical global issues. The yearly calendar, approved by the General Assembly, has almost 50 UN days listed ranging from the well -known “World AIDS Day” to more unusual ones, such as “International Mother Tongue Day.”

This Wednesday Aug. 19, at a ceremony in the lobby of the UN, a new day will be formally added to the calendar when UN Secretary General Ban Kii Moon launches “World Humanitarian Day.” Read the rest of this entry »

Currently, Chad is hosting some 268,000 Sudanese and 74,000 CAR refugees and attacks by armed militias and rebels, inter-ethnic violence and tensions over land access have led to the internal displacement of more than 170,000 Chadians.

Aid agencies are trying to provide assistance to as many people as possible according to key humanitarian principles, such as impartiality, independence and neutrality.

But access to the affected populations can be very difficult and even dangerous for humanitarian workers. Just recently two humanitarian workers were kidnapped in the border town of Adé and so far only one has been released. Last year, the head of an international NGO was shot dead while travelling in eastern Chad. Read the rest of this entry »

Concern’s Afghanistan program focuses on the areas of agriculture and environmental protection, water and environmental health. It is a combination of humanitarian and development projects.

In the first six months of 2009 over 1,000 civilians had been killed through conflict in Afghanistan. This is a 24 percent increase in the rate from last year. Through the line of work five humanitarian aid workers were murdered and five were seriously injured. This is the context in which we operate. Read the rest of this entry »

As World Humanitarian Day approaches, I have just returned from a five-day visit to Masisi, in North Kivu Province – part of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that’s been hardest hit by conflict over recent decades.

Tens of thousands of people, who have been displaced numerous times by warring national and regional groups, are eeking out a living on what should be fertile soil. Many are not so lucky. There are more than 200,000 internally displaced in Masisi. Some 10,000 of them are living in camps in the Masisi town center. Read the rest of this entry »