Raising awareness

doctorswithoutborders:

100,000 People Without Essential Health Care in North Darfur

MSF Forced to Suspend Lifesaving Medical Activities After Restrictions Imposed on Its Work

As a result of increasing restrictions imposed by Sudanese authorities, MSF has been forced to suspend most of its medical activities in the Jebel Si region of North Darfur State in Sudan.

Increasing obstacles over the past year led to the suspension of MSF’s activities. No shipments of drugs or medical supplies have been authorized since September 2011, and MSF has encountered growing difficulties obtaining work and travel permits for its staff. Transport options to and from Jebel Si have also been drastically reduced. MSF has been the sole health provider in the region.

“With the reduction of our activities in Jebel Si, more than 100,000 people in the region are left entirely without health care,” said Alberto Cristina, MSF operational manager for Sudan. “If we are not allowed to deliver medicines and supplies to our hospital and health posts soon, disease outbreaks are likely to occur, and maternal and prenatal deaths are likely to increase and may even reach emergency levels.”

Photo: Mothers and children at an MSF facility in Jebel Si, where obstacles threaten MSF’s continued operation

Sudan 2012 © MSF

aweeee

(via generalskeletor)

visiblechildren:

Truly extraordinary. This appears to be an example of some mind-blowingly misleading video-editing from Invisible Children.

Skip to 3:00, featuring an event last week in Gulu, N. Uganda, screening KONY 2012. In the video, it looks like people are rallying in support of Invisible Children. Here’s what really went down, from the Daily Monitor, a Ugandan newspaper:

“At least 10,000 people gathered at [the stadium] to watch the Kony 2012 video. Dissatisfied with the content, the crowd pelted the organisers with stones, injuring a police officer identified as Pamela Inenu and two musicians hired to sing at the event. Police fired teargas at the crowd, and live bullets in the air, injuring dozens, who also lost valuables including phones and money.”

Looks like this bit didn’t make it into their video. Fun project: Tweet @invisible if you’d like an explanation from them. You can also tweet at famous people!

this is pretty sickk

cheatsheet:

superpunch2:

How the Tupac hologram worked.

Watch 13 other hologram wins and fails. (Or watch video of Hologram Tupac here.)

(Also, “Snoop Dogg should be in every diagram” is a thing now.)

(via newsweek)

crisisgroup:

NPR | Young People Turn From Kony To Spooning Record 

The chapter of Invisible Children on Messner’s campus broke its ties with the group, changing its name and deciding to donate funds directly to children’s programs in Uganda.

But not everyone has given up on the cause. Around the country, thousands of young people will still turn out on Friday to placard Kony’s image and stencil his name in chalk.

“At least on our campus, interest appears to be relatively strong,” says Christopher LoCascio, editor-in-chief ofHighlander, the student newspaper at the University of California, Riverside.

Even at the height of the video’s popularity, there were questions about whether teenagers tweeting it would turn awareness into action. Still, the amount of attention it received arguably worked as intended, making Kony and the LRA something policymakers had to address in places like Washington and Brussels.

Last year, President Obama dispatched 100 troops to Uganda to help with the hunt.

“Certainly, the video raised the issue of the problem with the LRA to a much higher level than it had been for quite some time in Washington, D.C.,” says E.J. Hogendoorn, Horn of Africa project director for International Crisis Group.

Its message may have been “simplistic,” he says. But, he adds, “The fact that this has increased the U.S. administration’s focus on this issue probably has some lasting value.”

FULL ARTICLE (NPR) 

Source:

theadventureproject:

Through training and supporting community leaders to be well mechanics, The Adventure Project is working to ensure clean water for thousands in rural India. Learn more at www.theadventureproject.org.

unicef:

A Syrian girl refugee stands in the town of Ma’an. She, her parents and three siblings have sought refuge in Jordan. Since arriving in the country, her father has secured temporary employment as a cook, but his income is insufficient to sustain the family.

Jordan, 2012 © UNICEF/NYHQ2012-0205/Giacomo Pirozzi

In March 2012 in Jordan, an estimated 7,000 refugees from violence in Syria are in need of assistance. By mid-March, the yearlong conflict inside Syria has claimed the lives of more than 500 children and 244 women, killed some 9,000 people and wounded many others. An estimated 1.7 million people have been affected by the violence, which has extended into at least half of the country’s 14 governorates. Education and health services have also been disrupted. Some 150,000–200,000 people have been internally displaced. An estimated 30,000 refugees – half of them children – have fled to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. While most have registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), others have not, fearing possible retaliation against them or their family members remaining in Syria. UNICEF is participating in an inter-agency assessment of needs in conflict-affected parts of Syria and has requested US$7.4 million to – with governments, UNHCR and local and international NGOs – address the needs of an anticipated total of 40,000 refugee children, including in host families, in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, over the next six months. In Jordan, UNICEF supports the Government’s decision to extend access to education to Syrian refugee children and is assisting with related school fees, supplies and other costs. UNICEF is also supporting child-friendly spaces for refugee children, psychosocial assistance for children who have witnessed or been subjected to violence and advocating for access to primary health care services for child and women refugees.

http://www.unicef.org/

(via crisisgroup)

BREAKING: George Zimmerman to be charged in Trayvon Martin shooting, official says

breakingnews:

From The Washington Post:

“Florida special prosecutor Angela Corey plans to announce as early as Wednesday afternoon that she is charging neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, according to a law enforcement official close to the investigation.

It was not immediately clear what charge Zimmerman will face.”

totally agree :)

(via do--what-makes--you-happy)

crisisgroup:

Nairobi — A ruling by the International Criminal Court (ICC) finding former Congolese rebel leader Thomas Lubanga guilty of conscripting child soldiers in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Ituri region is good news in the fight against impunity but more crimes there should be prosecuted, say analysts.

Lubanga had been indicted by the ICC for conscripting child soldiers in Ituri between 2002 and 2003 while serving as leader of the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC) militia. The UPC claimed to be acting on behalf of the ethnic Hema population in Ituri during the armed conflict that pitted them against the Lendu ethnic group between 1999 and 2003.

“Finding him [Lubanga] guilty is good news for Congo and for the people of Ituri. It shows that impunity can be stopped and is not tolerated by the international community,” Marc Andre Lagrange, a senior analyst for central Africa with the International Crisis Group, told IRIN.

FULL ARTICLE (allAfrica.com)