Telling the ECSA Story

William, Joyce's husband One night, 26-year-old Joyce watched in fear as her husband continued to drink and his behavior became increasingly erratic. Ever since they’d fled the war in South Sudan, her husband’s drinking had gotten worse and sometimes led to violent outbursts. As he became more intoxicated, he started yelling and hitting her. Suddenly, he grabbed a machete and threatened to cut her. Terrified, Joyce grabbed their six children and ran to a neighbor’s house. The neighbor let Joyce and the children stay the night, but encouraged Joyce to report the incident to CARE who would be able to help. Joyce took the neighbor’s advice and stayed with her children at CARE women’s shelter for several weeks where trained staff provided counseling, food and access to health care for her son who had pneumonia. CARE staff also engaged the local pastor to work with Joyce’s husband on the trauma and issues that were triggering his violent behavior. “The South Sudanese peop

Christine looks much older than she is. Every word spoken by the 17-year-old is preceded by a shameful look on the ground. She is one of many unaccompanied children who came to Imvepi refugee settlement together with her three sisters. Christine has been in the camp for two months and fled from armed forces who have killed her father and brother in South Sudan. It took them five days to come to Imvepi from Yei, their hometown in South Sudan. Just before Christine’s parents were killed, they had sent their children away knowing their lives were in danger. A few days later, Christine received a phone call saying that her biggest fear came true. “I miss my parents but I’m happy we left the people with the guns behind,” she says. But although she moved to Imvepi, she is still not safe. Her family was connected to government forces in South Sudan, which still poses a threat to her own life and that of her sisters. A few days ago, Christine and her sisters were attacked in the middle

“ With the coming of GPSA-SSAES initiatives I saw myself gaining hope again and seeing a brighter future ahead of me ,” Said Sarah. Sarah Sarah Austin has been a student from grade one up to grade eight at Namiwawa Primary School and g ot selected to Providence Secondary School in Mulanje in the 2016 academic year.  Namiwawa primary School in Mwanza district is not exceptional among other primary schools that face a lot of challenges in delivery of high quality education services in Malawi. One of the major challenges that affect service delivery in the education sector is shortage of teaching and learning materials that results to high dropout rates and children walk long distances in search of schools with quality and better learning environments. Furthermore, the shortage of teaching and learning materials affects performance of learners, as the learning environment becomes a challenge to access information. In addition it increases workload on teachers as they are f

In Northern Tanzania, close to the boarder of Kenya, Halima Daodi lives with her husband and two children. She is one of many Tanzanians who have bought solar panels, which is placed on the roof of her small house. The solar panel system does not only give her great light in the night, she can also charge her phone and radio from the solar battery. Halima Daodi and her husband, Hashim Hemed, rent a small house in Mandaka Mnone in the Kilimanjaro Region of Northern Tanzania. In their small house they keep the few belongings they have and sleep in a bed with their two children. The landlord grows rice and Halima and Hashim work on the rice fields every day. Halima and Hashim are members of a VSLA group established by CARE. Hashim has been a member for two years and Halima one year. The group meets once a week, they save together and whoever needs it the most, can take a loan. Recently it was Halima and Hashim who took a loan from their VSLA group, as they wanted to buy a

Hodu, in her 20's, lives in Oodweyne village in Burao in Somaliland. She is a mother of three children. Her oldest child is four years old, her youngest one year. She is also expecting her fourth child. Her family lost all their 20 goats and sheep during the drought. “We struggled putting food on the table. There were many days when we had nothing to eat and we went to bed hungry,” Hodu says. Somaliland has faced many crises in recent times including drought and an outbreak of cholera. Thousands of subsistence farmers have lost all their livestock, and with it, their livelihoods and their food source. And of course they too are without water due to the drought. In total, more than 18 million people across the region are facing food insecurity. Hodu and her family depended on the animals to have food to eat. They went for days without food. On many days, she gave her children black tea. That was their only meal in the evening. Sometimes their neighbors shared maize with

I am in my hotel room in Mbujimayi,  in the Oriental Kasai province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the past year, more than 1.4 million people had to flee their homes because of continuous armed conflict.  The crisis is not easy to understand and has multiple causes. But what is clear is that people are in urgent need of assistance in this unprecedented humanitarian crisis. A study conducted [1] by our team shows that internally displaced people’ need support in all areas of life.  People do not have enough to eat, they often don’t have a safe place to stay, they often lived through traumatic experiences and need medical and psychological help. When I met nurse Freddy in one of the health centers CARE is supporting, I realized just how difficult it is to provide assistance in an ongoing conflict, when health clinics themselves become the target, medication and technical equipment is not available and staff are not always trained for the difficult tasks ahead of them.

During my visit to Kasai in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I was visiting a health center in Miabi Heath. I was accompanied by a nurse who was trained by CARE on sexual and reproductive health.   Like many other health staff supported by CARE, she also received training on sexual and gender based violence. Like many health facilities I visited, this one is once again very poorly equipped. The teams do not have enough medication and technical equipment. According to a recent survey, more than 1,400 survivors of sexual violence have accessed services providing treatment on sexual violence in Kasai provinces between August 2016 and May 2017. The majority of incidents reported (68%) were cases of sexual violence against girls between 12 and 17. Nonetheless, the number of cases is estimated to be much higher, given the stigma associated with rape and the few service providers where women and girls can seek help. The nurse tells me that cases of sexual violence have been steadily incre

The Prime Minister’s Office National Economic Empowerment Council (NEEC) hosted the inaugural VICOBA day meeting. VICOBA (Village Community Banks) are off shot of the VSLA model and it is estimated that in Tanzania there are approximately 100,000 savings groups with TZS 1.2 Trillion (USD 533,688,000) in circulation. The event was an opportunity to discuss how we can do better and the challenges that savings groups face. Scholastica (Director for Gender Equity and Women’s Empowerment) participated in a panel debate where she discussed the guidelines for VSLA groups and shared information and data on how we can further improve the operation of the groups. D uring the event CARE International Tanzania was awarded a certificate of appreciation in recognition of our contributions in the Formation and Development of Financial Groups in Tanzania - and our overall contribution to the Tanzanian economy. When CARE Tanzania was awarded the certificate, the Minister of Finance highlighted C

I have lived and worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo for almost four years. But during my recent visit to the Kasai region I realized just how much of a nightmare the daily life for many women, men and children is. The region has seen unrest, conflict and instability for the past year, resulting in more than 1.4 million internally displaced people. I spoke to many women, men and children. Each and everyone has their own sad story of suffering. Many of the girls I spoke to who were raped did not complain about the psychological and physical pain they are going through. They try to keep going, try to forget, try to survive. This conflict is hard on everyone. People go to bed hungry, they have lost their loved ones, they had to leave their homes. But the amount of suffering many women and girls have to go through – sexual violence, rape, the stigma associated with it – is immeasurable. From our work with women and girls who have experienced sexual violence, we know that they

“You women and girls are inferior human beings. This is God’s will and nothing can be done to change that”, an old man in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) recently said to me. I was furious and thought about one of my Congolese friends, who keeps saying that women in Congo are “slaves in a female body”. I had to think of the many strong Congolese women and men I know, who work hard to improve the situation for women and girls. I have been working in DRC for almost four years and I know how important the fight for gender equity and women’s rights is. In the past months, the situation for women and girls in DRC has become even more difficult. The lingering violence in Kasai in the Democratic Republic of Congo has uprooted more than 1.4 million people – DRC is now leading the unenviable top of the list of countries with most internally displaced people in Africa. The conflict has made women and girls even more vulnerable to physical and sexual violence. They have to fear

  Joyce is the chairwoman of a women’s group in a refugee settlement in Uganda.                                                                                                             © Peter Caton/CARE Since violence erupted in South Sudan in 2016, the number of people who have fled to safety in Uganda has exceeded one million. Where some countries turn refugees away, the Ugandan Gov ernment is welcoming them. CARE’s Refugee Response Team Leader Carly Sheehan is in Uganda and shines a light on how, with support, refugees really can start again. The refugee settlements are like nothing I’ve ever seen before. When refugees arrive, they are registered, vaccinated, given a hot meal, given the right to work, and allocated a plot of land to settle on - they are even given resources to begin constructing their new home. And the Ugandan Government allows them to stay for as long as they like. This does not feel like a refugee camp. My team i