70 million people forced away from homes

 The International Red Cross has a new report that takes a look at the forced migration throughout the world. The Red Cross has found that over 70 million people have been forced away from their homes because of armed conflict or disaster.

From the Guardian, writer Mark Tran unpacks the report.

The World Disasters Report 2012 said most forced migrants are displaced for the long term or are permanently dispossessed, requiring governments and humanitarian agencies to adopt more flexible approaches to migration and integration. The cost to the international community of forced migration is at least $8bn (£4.9bn) a year, according to the report.

"The nature of forced displacement is much more unpredictable than in the past and much more complex," said Professor Roger Zetter, the report's editor. "The headline figure of 70 million – one in every 100 people – is significant in itself. It refers not just to people displaced by general conflict but to those displaced by disaster and by development itself – the hidden losers of resettlement projects and increasingly of land grabs."

The report highlights how forced migration has become increasingly "urbanised" as cities and urban areas become the main destinations for refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs), and those affected by disasters and conflicts. That marks a change from the 1980s and 1990s, when displacement was synonymous with camps. Now, about half of the world's estimated 10.5 million refugees and at least 13 million IDPs are thought to live in urban areas.

"The mere mention of the term 'refugees' invokes images of tents and camps in most people's minds, but our new report may get us to think differently as we have noted marked movements of refugees into cities. This is not a new trend, but it is one that is increasing," said Barry Armstrong, British Red Cross disaster response manager. "The situation in Syria and surrounding countries is a case in point, but there are many other places where people have left home to escape violence."

In the past decade, cities and towns in Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Yemen and Haiti have absorbed large numbers of people fleeing conflict or disaster. In Sudan, the 40-year civil war that culminated in the declaration of South Sudan's independence last year contributed to massive urbanisation – despite the absence of industry and commerce.

450,000 people yet to return to the Ivory Coast

It happens over and over again in an armed conflict, the people are quick to leave but slow to return. The displaced people often go on living as refugees for years and years. They begin to grow dependent on aid groups because they can't establish their own livelihood in a different country.

OXFAM tells us that 450,000 people still remain refugees after the Ivory Coast conflict from earlier this year. With the story no longer in the international headlines, the aid groups are running out of food and water to provide for them.

From Reuters Alert Net, we read the latest assessment of the Ivory Coast refugees.

Although some half a million Ivorians have returned to their homes since the end of the conflict in April, 450,000 Ivorians remain displaced inside and outside the country -- the world's top cocoa grower -- according to a report by aid agencies Oxfam, the Danish Refugee Council and Care.

The International Rescue Committee said on Wednesday some of the displaced were sheltering in communities within Ivory Coast while others were in camps in neighbouring Liberia.

"Six months on, the majority of the 170,000 Ivorians who fled to Liberia are reluctant to go back due to persisting insecurity in parts of western Ivory Coast and concerns about targeted attacks by ethnic or political rivals. They remain in precarious conditions in camps and communities," the IRC said in a statement.

Ivory Coast's five-month post-election crisis ended when former president Laurent Gbagbo, who tried to cling on to power despite losing an election in November, was ousted by forces loyal to current President Alassane Ouattara.

Video: Meeting Dadaab's education demands

From Al Jazeera, a video about the education efforts within the vast Dadaab, Kenya refugee camp.

Tropical Storm Emily bears down on Haiti's tent dwellers

In a city where a large population still live in tents, a tropical storm can be very threatening. That is the reality now for those that still live in the tent camps in Part-au-Prince, Haiti.

Tropical Storm Emily was near the south coast of the island this morning, and threatened to pass over Haiti this afternoon. The storm so far has caused flooding and damage to homes for Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

From the Associated Press, writer Trenton Daniel explains the treat the storm poses for the Haiti's homeless.

In Haiti, about 600,000 people are still in flimsy tents and shanties because of the January 2010 earthquake, strong winds whipped through palm trees in the capital while heavier rains fell further north, damaging homes as well as a cholera treatment center, said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, the country's civil defense director. But there were no reports of deaths.

In the capital, which has most of those left homeless by the earthquake, the rain was relatively light so far, but the government evacuated a few families from a camp for quake victims to a school that is being used as a storm shelter, said Jean-Joseph Edgard, an administrator in Haiti's Civil Protection Department.
...

There was reason for concern. A slow-moving storm in June triggered mudslides and floods in Haiti and killed at least 28 people. Widespread poverty makes it difficult for people to take even the most basic precautions.

Joceline Alcide stashed her two children' birth certificates and school papers in little plastic bags that aid groups handed out. It was her only means to protect herself.

"There really isn't much more we can do. We just got these bags," the 39-year-old Alcide said, standing outside her teepee-like tarp shelter.

Rains help the parched land, but add misery to refugees

There has been some rain in Somalia over the last couple of days but it has only added to the misery of those living in the refugee tent camps surrounding Mogadishu. The rain and wind have swept away a lot of the tents, leaving the people who were sleeping under them cold, wet and asking for more help.

From the Guardian, this Associated Press article gives us the latest update on the famine.

Suffering refugees said more aid was vital but agencies have limited reach in Somalia where Islamist militants, including the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab, are waging an insurgency against the country's weak UN-backed government.

"We are living in plight, we left our homes, lost our animals and farms so we ask everyone to help us to survive," Abdi Muse Abshir said.

Lul Hussein, a mother of five, said her family had a sleepless night after their makeshift home crumbled.

"We are starved and we don't have enough help," she said. "Who's helping us? No one! So we are already between death and bad life."

Al-Shabab, the most dangerous group among the militants al-Shabab, has barred major relief organisations from operating in the territories it controls.

The UN said tens of thousands of people have died in Somalia in areas held by the Islamist rebels because food aid could not reach them.

Misery continues at famine relief camps

A mass of misery is begging to collect at the refugee tent camps outside of the Somalia border. People are fleeing the famine-stricken and war-torn areas of Somalia hoping to find some relief at the camps. Overwhelmed with the amount of people arriving each day, aid and food distributions have been slow. The people who traveled far for relief and then have to wait longer once they arrive are beginning to get frustrated.

From the Guardian, writer Matteo Fagotto reports from one of the camps.

Several hundred people have gathered at the registration point at Daghaley, one of three refugee camps around Dadaab. The family-run businesses of these small farmers and cattle herders from Somalia have been wiped out by the worst drought in the Horn of Africa for 60 years. They patiently wait to be registered by agents of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Most came here after weeks on foot in the desert, unable to afford any transport. They walked for days at the mercy of bandits in the porous border area between Somalia and Kenya.

This year alone, more than 100,000 Somalis have fled from the lack of rain in their country to shelter in what has become the biggest refugee camp complex in the world. They are escaping a war zone. The Islamic militants of al-Shabab, who control much of the country outside the capital, Mogadishu, and are fighting an insurgency against the transitional federal government, have vowed to keep most international aid workers away, despite the situation.

The UN warns that 800,000 children could die from starvation, and last week declared a famine in some parts of the country. For thousands of desperate Somalis, the only solution has been a long march in the hope of reaching refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Set up at the start of the 1990s for victims of the Somali civil war and designed for a refugee population of 90,000 people, Dadaab, some 60 miles over the border in Kenya, now hosts more than 380,000 refugees. According to Doctors Without Borders, the number could reach 450,000 by the end of the year. As more arrive every day, the camps are becoming appallingly overcrowded. Delivery of food has become erratic.

Tensions and frustrations have begun to spill over. Yesterday, angry young men stoned the UNHCR compound in Daghaley, enraged by the endless waiting and their place at the back of the queue. Many come every day, only to be told to return next morning. Given the enormous demands on resources, people are screened according to their vulnerability. Families with more than eight members and with old people are prioritised, said social worker Aden Sirat Olow, who works in the UNHCR centre in Daghaley. "They are first fed, then given food items, blankets and a tent. Single men and young people have to wait more because their cases are not as serious. We are registering more than 1,000 people a day in this camp alone."

A tale of two children fleeing the Ivory Coast

Once the armed conflict in the Ivory Coast began, people began to flee the country to safety. The armed conflict in Cote d'Ivoire began earlier this year when two political rivals contested an election and took to fighting to gain power. 175,800 people crossed into Liberia alone and that does not include the many who escaped into other neighboring countries. To this day, most of those people stay in refugee camps operated by the United Nations and the International Red Cross.

From the Guardian, writer Liz Ford has this story of two children who had to flee to a camp without their parents.

It was when armed men appeared in town that 13-year-old Israel Gbehe knew it was time to run.

The town of Toulepleu in Guiglo county, Ivory Coast, was under attack. Israel didn't know if the fighters were supporters of Laurent Gbagbo, the country's deposed president, or Alassane Ouattara, his successor. What he did know was that he needed to find his five-year-old sister, Pacifique, and join the crowd of people fleeing the town and heading to the Liberian border.

"I just saw armed men that came to the town. I didn't have time to see my family," says Israel, who at the time was living with relatives in the town while he and his sister attended school. "We walked through the bush back to my parents house, but when we got there I didn't see my parents. We met other people escaping to Liberia so we joined them."

The next day Israel and Pacifique were at a UN refugee transit point in the north-east of Liberia and eventually transferred to Bahn refugee camp in Nimba county.

That was in March. By the end of May, Israel had still not heard from his parents or knew their whereabouts.

Israel and Pacifique are among more than 2,000 children now at Bahn camp, situated 52km from the Ivory Coast border. The camp was built in January in an attempt to ease the pressure on the border towns that were filling up with Ivorians fleeing post-election violence. Bahn is built to accommodate 15,000 people, although by May only around 5,000 had arrived. The majority of people have chosen instead to stay a little closer to home, and in many cases have been offered shelter in the homes of Liberians living in villages dotted along the border (Liberian families are returning the favour for the support they received from Ivorians when they were forced to escape civil war).

Video: Squatters camp near Moi's farm

From NTV Kenya, a video about ousted squatters that are looking for justice after being removed from their land.

Cameras for kids initiative in Palestinian refugee camps

From IRIN, a story about a program to take a pictorial diary of life in Palestinian refugee camps.

A Beirut-based NGO is training children in Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian refugee camps to take photographs of camp life in the belief that the exercise is cathartic for the children, will benefit the camps financially and lead some of the trainees to work professionally as photographers.

The idea of getting children to photograph camp life struck Ramzi Haidar after a visit to a Palestinian refugee camp, and led him to start the Zakira project.

"Kids are kids, they are the same everywhere,” he said. “They have the same needs, regardless of whether they are Iraqi, Palestinian, Lebanese or something else. And, if they go through war or other difficult experiences, they need to express what they have seen."

Haidar believes suffering in the Palestinian camps is on a par with what he had seen in Iraq where children had to put up with things no child should, and without any creative or intellectual outlets to deal with them. "I started thinking about how to work with photography in order to express such experiences,” he told IRIN.

Through Zakira, hundreds of children now have the chance to do this through photography. The NGO has carried out two projects so far: `Lahza’, which means “glimpse” or “moment” in Arabic, and the sequel, ‘After Lahza’.

During `Lahza’, Zakira organized workshops in all of Lebanon’s Palestinian camps; 500 children were taught basic photography skills, given disposable cameras and asked to photograph camp life.

A selection of the pictures taken, capturing everything from the distinctive narrow alleys and grey concrete houses in the camps to family and friends, were published. The income generated, which goes back to the Palestinian community, has so far helped pay for a football field and the floor and mirrors of a `Debke’ (folk dance) studio in Lebanon’s largest camp, Ein el-Helweh.

The ‘After Lahza’ project uses photography as a means of expression and to bring people together. More than 250 teenagers - Lebanese and Palestinians – have gained advanced photography skills at three-month workshops in Beirut, Tripoli, Saida, Sur and Baalbek.

Economic opportunity

Zakira is also looking ahead: “What we hope to do next is to set up photo studios in Beirut, Tripoli, Saida, Sur and Baalbek's camps,” said one of the founders, Rima Abushakra. “Many of the teenagers who we worked with during After Lahza are high school dropouts. They discovered that they have a talent for photography and now want to develop it and gain income from it.

"This is great, because in the camps, just like everywhere, there is a market for photographers," she added. "People need photos for their ID cards, and when they get married and want wedding pictures."

The workshops are an opportunity to improve photography skills, and build new relationships. The skills learnt also represent an economic opportunity in the camps: As a stateless community, the refugees have a tough time accessing education and employment.

"We saw many things in the youth we trained: Talent, determination, a quest for self-expression," Abushakra said. "Many of them are now enthusiastic about working with photography.”

One trainee has had several of her pictures published in a Lebanese newspaper, and another has been assigned as an events photographer in his camp. The project has held exhibitions in Dublin, Athens, Washington and Paris.

Palestinians make up nearly 10 percent of Lebanon’s population of about 4.2 million, but live on the margins of society, according to observers. Despite having lived here since 1948, most still live in camps and face poverty, discrimination and social exclusion.

Video: Move to buy land for IDPs a con

From NTV Kenya, a video about an attempt to buy land for internally displaced people which has become embroiled in controversy.

An Italian village that welcomes refugees from North Africa

Many people leave the North shores of Africa on boat searching for a better live in Europe. The numbers of people cramming into boats to make the unsafe trip has only increased during the riots and civil wars throughout the area. Many times the migrants are instead penned up into refugee camps until the governments and their laws decide what to do with them.

One community in Italy has welcomed the refugees with open arms. Because without them the community would have become a ghost town.


Photo of Calabria, Italy taken by PhotoLab XL at Flickr Creative Commons

From the Guardian, writer Salvatore Aloïse tells us how the village of Calabria has integrated the refugees.

A non-profit organisation looks out for empty homes and refurbishes them to accommodate refugees. While they wait for the grants given to asylum-seekers, which are subject to long delays, the migrants can use a local currency in Riace, with vouchers bearing portraits of Gandhi, Martin Luther King or Che Guevara. When funds arrive, the shops send the vouchers to the local council for payment.

While they wait for formalities to be completed, the refugees are gainfully occupied. The silence of the streets is broken by the hum of workshops helping them to acquire skills in dressmaking, joinery, pottery or glass-blowing, set up as part of an integration scheme funded by the regional government.

Lubaba, who works at the glass factory, arrived here from Ethiopia three years ago after a long journey. From Libya she travelled to Lampedusa, then started another long trail through various Italian reception centres. Her journey ended in Riace, where she decided to stay. "I have a home, enough to live on, I'm learning a trade, and my daughter was born here," she says.

Around 6,000 refugees have passed through the village over the years. Many move on, but some of them stay and try to start their own craft or retail business.

It is not easy, as we heard from an Afghan woman from Herat who left home with her two children when her husband died, finally opening a shop selling knitwear in the village. "We make a living. In the winter it's OK, but selling woolly jumpers in the summer is a struggle," she explains, knitting as her daughter Faeze looks on.

Faeze is in no doubt about her future here in Italy. Speaking Italian with a powerful Calabrian accent, she says she feels "like the others at school". More than 200 refugees like herself and her family have chosen to settle permanently in Riace.

Video: IDPs' double blow

From NTV Kenya, a story about possible evictions to internally displaced families.

Video: New Transit Camp Addition in Tunisia

From the Associated Press, a video about a baby born at a Tunisian transition camp with an uncertain future.

Civil war and humanitarian crisis... in Côte D'Ivoire

Another African country besides Libya is on the verge of civil war and humanitarian crisis.Over 200,000 people have fled Côte D'Ivoire to escape fighting over a disputed presidential election.

From the IPS, writer Fulgence Zamblé collects first person reports from a few of the refugees.

Where people have remained behind, they have been deprived of food by the closure of markets. Water and electricity supplies have been cut off and schools are effectively closed throughout the territory.

In the west of the country, according to international humanitarian organisations, around 65,000 Ivorian refugees have crossed the frontier and been registered in neighbouring Liberia in the last two weeks.

All of these are people fleeing the escalating violence and confrontation over the past two months between the two rival parties who claim victory in the presidential election of November 2010 in Côte d'Ivoire. Laurent Gbagbo was announced as the winner by the Constitutional council, while Ouattara was declared winner by the Independent Electoral Commission and is recognised as such by the international community.

"We have spent three sleepless nights because of fighting. It's impossible to find food," Adrienne Tohoua, 35-year-old mother of four told IPS. Tohoua abandoned her house in Abobo PK 18, a precarious precinct in the north of the capital, home to more than 50,000 residents.

"We left several people behind who didn't know where to go and they would have been exposed to the fighting. Mortar shells fell among the houses and would have spared no one," she said, tears in her eyes.

Three hundred refugees have taken shelter in the Saint-Ambroise de Cocody-Angré parish in the city's northeast. Some 500 others have already passed through, on their way to other locations. Every day, displaced people file along the road towards this religious site.

"I have come eight kilometres to reach here. I'm going to rest briefly before returning to the road to reach my older brother who is already sheltering 13 people at his house," explained Séraphin Téty, holding his sixty-year old father by the hand. "He suffers from hypertension, so we need to find a health centre so we can manage his condition."

Many of the displaced lack the financial means to pay to flee. "I have a little in the bank, but it's closed. I have to move part of my family to the village and I find myself unable to pay for it," said Marcellin Tanoh.

Three million people could be displaced by the violence in Libya

The violence within Libya is creating a massive humanitarian crisis. Observers are warning that as many as three million people could seek refuge from the fighting. The UN is calling on governments to airlift people out of the border areas to prevent an overpopulation of human misery.

From the National Post, writer Peter Goodspeed covers the emerging humanitarian crisis.

"We may be facing a historic human tragedy," Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), said Tuesday as she toured a border crossing between Tunisia and Libya that has been swamped with 15,000 refugees a day. Other UN agencies and international groups say Libya may already be on the brink of a catastrophe.

The World Health Organization says the health situation inside the country is "precarious;" aid agencies warn its food supply chain is "at risk of collapsing;" and Britain's Save the Children Fund says up to one million children trapped in the capital Tripoli and western Libya are in danger of becoming war victims.

Things could get worse if Col. Gaddafi's troops try to cut off food to opposition-held cities and towns. They have already attempted to bomb some of the huge pipelines that carry water to Libya's main cities from aquifers buried deep beneath the Sahara Desert, hundreds of kilometres south of the populated Mediterranean coast.

The WFP was rushing assessment teams to Benghazi in opposition-controlled eastern Libya Wednesday to determine if the port can be used for emergency food deliveries.

The Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Charlottetown also set sail from Halifax on a six-day voyage to join a U.S.-led naval task force off the coast, where it will help in any humanitarian mission.

Europe is watching the unfolding tragedy with consternation, fearing a massive regional displacement could trigger a tidal wave of illegal migration from North Africa.

The tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, just 160 km off the coast of Tunisia, has already been swamped with more than 6,000 would-be migrants seeking resettlement in Europe.

Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, announced a tripling of the European Union's humanitarian aid, to ease the crisis.

Video: Angelina Jolie urges safe passage for refugees

From ITN News, a video about UN Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie visiting refugees in Afghanistan.

Video: The people of the Mae Sot dump site

From Reuters Alert Net, a video about a garbage dump in a Thailand border town that is home to many Myanmar refugees.

Somali refugees; From a life of fear to a life in limbo

From IRIN, a story on the long period that Somali refugees spend away from home.

Fleeing Somalia may mean an end to dodging bullets and living in fear, but for many Somalis who manage to cross the border into Kenya, it is also the start of a long and difficult journey as a refugee.

"We have refugees who have been in Kenya since 1991," said Salam Shahin, registration officer with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Dadaab, the world's largest refugee complex, home to more than 300,000 people, mainly Somalis.

"On average, more than 5,000 mainly Somalis seek asylum in Dadaab per month but only about 8,000 are processed for resettlement [annually]; and only around 3,000 are actually resettled to third countries every year."

Asylum-seekers have often experienced extreme hardships on the way to Dadaab. Sirad Tahilil, 65, has been in the camp for a year. She initially fled the southern coastal city of Kismayo after the Islamist Al-Shabab group killed her son-in-law. She travelled for days, avoiding Al-Shabab roadblocks, to reach the Kenyan border.

"I was with 30 other people, including eight members of my family, my very sick husband, and taking care of two grandchildren," Tahilil told IRIN. "We arrived in Amume [town on the Kenya-Somalia border]; the police asked us where we were going. We told them we wanted to go the [refugee] camps but they refused to let us in until we paid them money.

"Each of us paid 1,000 [Kenya] shillings [US$12.50] and the truck owners paid them KSh20,000 [$250]. We had no choice; it was either pay them or get caught by those we were running from.

"After we arrived at the refugee camp in Hagardheer [one of Dadaab's three camps], we stayed with relatives for a few days until we were registered by UNHCR."

The process begins with registering asylum-seekers, which is followed by an interview to determine refugee status.

"Refugees from south-central Somalia are granted refugee status on a prima facie basis on the grounds of the long-running conflict in the region; those from the more peaceful northern regions of Somaliland [self-declared republic in the northwest of Somalia] and Puntland [self-declared autonomous region in the northeast] must provide evidence of persecution under refugee law in order to be granted status," said Shahin.

Verifying asylum-seekers’ identities and places of origin is hugely difficult. UNHCR does what it can, and asylum-seekers are required to sign a document attesting to the truth of their statements.

With basic necessities in limited supply, it is vital to ensure only legitimate claimants are able to receive food and other supplies. Dadaab is in Kenya's arid northeast, where drought and extreme poverty mean thousands of Kenyan Somalis have also been known to attempt to claim refugee status.

"Any person claiming to be a refugee can register with UNHCR. The introduction of fingerprinting in 2007 prevented persons from holding more than one record," Shahin said. "Together with the government, we have run all fingerprints through their database to ensure no Kenyans are registered; we also now hold verification exercises regularly."

After registration, a ration card is given to each refugee, along with a proof of registration form and an ID card with the bearer's name, photo, fingerprint, place of origin and other pertinent information. The ration card entitles the holder to non-food items such as tents, soap, jerry cans and mosquito nets, and to a bi-monthly supply of food, depending on family size.

"We get food and shelter but the food is never enough. The biggest problem is health," Tahilil said. "Up to now, I have not had a doctor to see my husband. But at least I don't have to worry about someone coming to my house and shooting me or a member of my family."

An agonizing wait

In the meantime, Tahilil waits to be resettled, a process that can be excruciatingly long. Hodan Ali Hussein, now 30, has been in camps for more than 20 years.

"We took a boat from Kismayo to Mombasa [on Kenya's east coast]; I was around 10 years old," Hussein said. "They took us to a refugee camp called Utanga near Mombasa. My mother and I stayed in that camp until 1997 when it was closed and we were sent to Dadaab.

"I know no other life than the one in the refugee camp... the worst thing is not knowing whether you will ever get out of the camp. There is no one you can ask.

"We finally went through a resettlement process," she said. "I am hopeful that we will be resettled and my children will have a better childhood than I had."

Several countries receive refugees from Dadaab: the US, Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and UK.

Resettlement lottery

Given that the number of annual arrivals vastly outstrips annual resettlements, UNHCR has to make some tough decisions when deciding who to put forward for consideration by resettlement country authorities.

"Somali households are chosen from the group of earliest arrivals - from the years 1991 and 1992 - using a computerized programme," Daniele Tessandori, UNHCR resettlement officer in Dadaab, said. "The programme chooses households on a random basis, ensuring that all blocks in each camp are given equal attention in the selection process.”

UNHCR estimates it will take up to eight years to consider all Somalis living in Kenya since 1991 and 1992 for resettlement. Not everyone will be lucky: individual refugees with acute protection issues are fast-tracked, regardless of nationality and date of arrival.

The camps are rife with rumours about the resettlement process, so UNHCR and the NGO, FilmAid, are developing a film to inform the refugees about the process and what they can realistically expect.

For Tahilil, who arrived a year ago, the prospect of resettlement remains remote. "I don't know whether I will get resettlement or not, but I am not optimistic because I found out that there are people who have been in the camps for over 20 years," she said.

Meanwhile, the stream of Somalis fleeing to Kenya continues unabated. According to UNHCR, there have been no new plot allocations for refugees since 2008; some newcomers stay with relatives, while more than 20,000 have spontaneously settled on the outskirts of the camps.

"There is tension with the host community as a result of the spontaneous settlements. Many of the refugees are living in flood-prone areas [and] congestion is increasing all the time," said Bettina Schulte, UNHCR external relations officer for Dadaab.

Introducing Overnight Links for December 8th

One of the struggles we constantly have with this blog is trying to do more posts than we already do. Since we do this on sort of a volunteer basis we seem to only get to three or four posts a day. That means there are some relevant stories that don't get linked to on the blog. Most of the stories that we miss are the ones that break during the overnight hours.

To try to remedy this, we will start each day with a digest form post of the overnight stories. A brief sentence will summarize the story which will accompany a link to read the entire story. We hope that by doing this, that we can become a more thorough source of stories regarding poverty. So here we go...

First, a gruesome Associated Press story that we found at KXAN-TV, deals with serial rapists stalking women in Somali refugee camps.

The Partners in Health blog has this video about bringing health care to Liberia.

Inter Press Service another story on the conflict between lack of government funding and efforts to improve health. Writer Souleymane Faye says that Senegal is facing cutbacks to a community material health program called Bajenu Gox.

Haitian tent camps could remain for another year

In a a press conference about the Haiti tent camps, the United Nations said that many of the tent camps will remain for at least another year. Nigel Fisher, who works as the United Nations representative for the secretary-general; says that 120,000 temporary shelters will be ready to replace the tents by August 2011.

From the IPS, writer Beatrice Paez attended a press conference at the UN that touched on the next rebuilding Port-au-Prince.

Six months after Haiti's devastating earthquake, U.N. aid agencies say they are entering the challenging phase of replacing the tents that are home to the estimated 1.5 million people who remain displaced.

Nigel Fisher, the deputy representative of the secretary- general in Haiti, told the press at a briefing Monday that by August 2011, about 120,000 temporary, transitional shelters will be ready. Experts have also been testing new ways to repair homes that have not been structurally destroyed.

"They will be in tented camps for months and maybe years to come," Fisher told reporters. "This is the biggest urban disaster that the world has seen in living memory."
...

Critics charge the progress has been slow, but Fisher disputed this, citing issues of land claims and tenure that need to be ironed out before settlements can be inhabited across the affected areas.

He added that after the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan, which claimed 6,000 lives, it took a nation with abundant resources seven years to make a full recovery.

The bigger picture is less bleak, he said. Safe water has been delivered to 1.2 million people, millions are being fed daily and the temporary schools are on their way to restoring some sense of a normal routine to the lives of children.

Outside the capital, farming families have also been provided with seeds, roots and tubers and tools for agriculture. "Crops are starting to grow again," said Fisher.