Telling the ECSA Story

For months, refugee women in Uganda had been asking humanitarian actors to move food distribution points closer to where women lived. The women were tired of walking 10 kilometers to get to food and 10 km home, often getting attacked along the way. But the months rolled by, and nothing happened. So women took charge. The Yoleta Women’s Group organized a sit-down strike at the food distribution point, boycotting food distribution. They got men who support women’s rights to write a memo to UNHCR explaining why they were on strike. Now, UNHCR, WFP, and others deliver food directly to communities, and women don’t have to walk. Better yet, everyone in the community sees women as leaders who get things done and gets them involved in humanitarian decisions. Women Lead in Emergencies  is a small pilot inside a Global Affairs Canada project supporting South Sudanese Refugees in Uganda from 2018-2020.  It worked with 5 local women’s groups to help them build the networks and confidence to l

It’s hard to believe the changes in the world today. They are coming so fast and so completely that we can lose track of what’s happening. It can be hard to feel hopeful as COVID-19 cases rise, economies crash, and underlying inequality skyrockets. In the upheaval, there is also hope. The answer now is the same as it was in March: the only way out is through, and the only way through is together. We’re seeing extraordinary examples of  women leading through crisis . In some places, men stuck at home during quarantine are  starting to help with childcare  for the first time in their lives. Savings groups are building CARE packages for the poorest people in their communities and providing shelter for women at risk. We’ve had to transform our responses, too. This isn’t just a health pandemic—it’s a global crisis on every dimension. So how are we stepping up to meet the challenge? How are we changing to better serve the people who need it most? How have we grown our COVID-19 respons

"Youth are rarely informed about their rights. During COVID, we’ve imposed ourselves so even the most disadvantaged young people have access to information about COVID. We hold sessions for young beggars and street children so they have information. I’ve been a part of that, and it makes me very happy.”  Bizo Rachid is 25, and getting a degree in Law and Communication in Niger. Even though mortality rates are lower for young people, COVID-19 is still devastating their lives—from job prospects to education to finding food. But they aren’t waiting helplessly for older people to fix it. Youth are getting organized. Of the nearly 12 million people CARE is currently helping respond to COVID-19, more than 3.3 million of them are under the age of 18. In many countries, youth is defined as up to 30 or 35, so many of our stories include people in their twenties. “For this rainy season, I should have been in the village helping my parents with work in the fields. I should have been pr

*Names have been changed to ensure the safety of CARE staff and clients When South Sudan was celebrating its independence nine years ago, *Grace was months away from having her first child after an unexpected pregnancy that meant she had to leave her family home and get married to a boyfriend she had known at school. The marriage quickly became abusive, with Grace doing small jobs to provide for the family and pay for school fees and hide from her husband, a soldier, who would take the money to buy alcohol. “All the time you are in fear. All the time you are not happy and you have that in your mind and have to make money and then he will come and take it,” recalls Grace. In late 2013, just two years after independence, civil war broke out in South Sudan’s capital Juba and spread across the country. To date, the fighting has caused 2.25 million people to flee to refugee camps in neighboring countries and displaced 1.6 million people within the country. South Su