Update Against Hunger - January 4, 2006
Field Notes:
Holiday (?) in the Field
Dear Action Against Hunger Team Member,
The recent holiday season brought back memories of my first Christmas in the field for Action Against Hunger. We were in Lubumbashi, D.R. Congo, setting up a new Therapeutic Feeding Center, which opened on Christmas Eve. The inevitable snafus of a new installation coupled with the urgent needs of beneficiaries kept us working non-stop until midnight. We finally sat down to our holiday dinner (scheduled for 8:00 p.m.) at midnight, when we were too exhausted to celebrate.
Oddly, that's a happy memory, as my teammates in the field will fully understand.
Cathy Skoula
Executive Director,
Action Against Hunger USA
New from US Headquarter:
Tree Sprouts from Desk
When teammates at our New York headquarters travel to the field or leave on vacation, their desks instantly become community property. Usually this means that volunteers or interns move into their chairs and take over a temporarily available computer. Recently, however, resident program officer David Blanc spent the holidays at several of our missions in Africa. His desk was immediately commandeered by the Christmas spirit.
Sorry you missed it, David.
News from the field:
Next Crisis: Malawi
We recently conducted a nutritional assessment in central Malawi, which found that 5.5% of six- to nine-month-old children in the region suffer from severe acute malnutrition, and 8.6% suffer from global acute malnutrition. These figures are higher than usual for the hunger season (between January and March, when stockpiles of food traditionally run low between harvests). Moreover, admissions to our nutritional rehabilitation units increased by 15% in August 2005. Compared with the same month in 2004, admissions are 70% higher in the region. Says Alicia Garcia, a representative of Action Against Hunger-Spain: "We expect a progressive degradation of the population's nutritional status over the coming months."
The increase in vulnerability is related partly to a decrease in casual jobs that can help poorer households afford sufficient food. Worse, maize prices in rural markets have more than doubled over prices one year ago. "While the international community is concentrating its efforts in the Southern Region," says Manuel Sánchez-Montero, operations director for Action Against Hunger-Spain, "many families remain without assistance in the Central Region. The media is barely reporting on the crisis, and the public hasn't been mobilized or doesn't seem to care due to donor-fatigue." Adds Tony Martínez Piqueras, desk officer for Malawi: "In recent years, international support was around 70% of the national budget. This year, such funds won't be sufficient to respond to the crisis."
Despite media indifference, we're trying to drum up increased support from the international community so that we and other aid organizations can respond to Malawi's spreading crisis. So far, it's an uphill campaign.
Person Profile:
Profile Abdinoor Ani Khansoy
Back from Darfurand Ready for More
If you were in Kenya recently watching TV, you might have seen news reports about humanitarian aid in the drought-wracked Mandera district and about President Mwai Kibaki's visit to our feeding centers. In many of these reports, Abdinoor Ani Khansoy spoke on our behalf. He's our assistant administrator/finance officer in Mandera, and he's especially appropriate as a spokesperson for us because he grew up among the beneficiaries he now helps.
Like most of Abdinoor's compatriots in his part of Africa, he was born into a nomadic/pastoralist family. His uncle forced him to finish school, he says, then Abdinoor became a pastoralist himself, driving his livestock through parched land from pasture to pasture throughout the year. But in 1992, a severe drought destroyed his livelihood, and he was helped by a humanitarian organization. He decided that he too wanted to aid everyone in his community who faced hardship, so in 1993 he went to work for Doctors Without Borders as an administrator in Mandera.
Not only was Abdinoor pleased to be returning the humanitarian favor, but also for the first time he worked with people from new and different cultures, which he finds stimulating. Since his first job with MSF, he has worked for other aid organizations, and two years ago he responded to an ad that we circulated locally seeking staff members to bring assistance to Mandera. As assistant administrator/finance officer, he says, "I have to be focusing and planning," and the close attention he pays to making the system work, he says, is "interesting and challenging."
Abdinoor has "five children and one wife," and he still raises livestock. In fact, he's a nature lover interested in both wild and domestic animals. But since working with us, he says, what gives him particular pride are the letters of gratitude he has received from community leaders. Of our efforts in Mandera, Abdinoor says, "It's great, great work."
