Someone has made a very well-received independant film called, "Littlerock"... about 2 Japanese tourists who get stranded... in my home-town... Here is the trailer. Looks pretty awesome.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
A few articles about South Sudan
2 quick things:
This was written by our communcations officer about Western Equatoria: http://allafrica.com/stories/201103211219.html
This is the latest from Maggie Fick, a journalist living and working in Juba:
http://maggiefick.com/2011/03/22/off-on-the-wrong-foot-in-the-soon-to-be-state/
Copied here:
This was written by our communcations officer about Western Equatoria: http://allafrica.com/stories/201103211219.html
This is the latest from Maggie Fick, a journalist living and working in Juba:
http://maggiefick.com/2011/03/22/off-on-the-wrong-foot-in-the-soon-to-be-state/
Copied here:
Off on the Wrong Foot in the soon-to-be-state?
Here is my latest Dispatch for ForeignPolicy.com:
JUBA, Sudan — Southern Sudan’s earliest post-referendum days were bound to be rough. But in the past month since the official landslide results of January’s vote in favor of independence were announced, the oil-rich region has experienced much more than its fair share of turmoil. There has been heavy fighting between the Southern army and an intractable local rebel movement, clashes between fractious units of the northern Sudanese army deployed in the south, an ugly police abuse scandal, and the assassination of a government minister in his office (a crime of passion by an in-law, but one that nevertheless highlighted the new country’s widespread availability of small arms and its lax security in government offices).
It may not seem like much when compared with the tumultuous events sweeping across the Arab world, but there’s plenty of reason to be concerned by the way that this soon-to-be country in the Horn of Africa is responding to its opening challenges.
Sadly illustrative is the way the South Sudanese government has responded to recent allegations that its only police academy is the site of rampant sexual abuse, physical abuse, and the recruitment of child soldiers. After receiving a detailed and damning letter from the human rights unit of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Sudan, the inspector general of the Southern police — who was named in the letter as one of the prime perpetrators of abuse at the academy — sat on it for more than a week.
According to international officials in Juba, U.N. officials were then forced to physically bring the letter over to the minister of internal affairs, who was compelled to respond only after every single international donor suspended its funding from the police academy. On Feb. 2, the internal affairs minister sent a letter to Southern President Salva Kiir asking him to appoint a commission to launch an independent investigation. More than a month later, the commission has not been appointed, and Kiir has issued no formal statement on the issue, which has now been widely publicized in the local and international media. The president, however, has found time to appoint a nine-minister high-level commission to determine a location for Southern Sudan’s new capital city, a project whose price tag is expected to reach billions of dollars.
The government has shown the same approach toward other pressing issues. In the Southern state of Jonglei, an armed rebellion that was temporarily subdued with a cease-fire agreement just before the January referendum has exploded once more. The recent fighting led to more than 240 mainly civilian deaths, including women and children, in a single brutal incident on Feb. 9 and 10. It also sparked anger in local communities and among some government officials, who believe the Juba government “brought the problem into their area” with a shoddy cease-fire deal that didn’t provide for adequate security in places where the two sides to the conflict were to gather and begin a tense reintegration process. Only two months after the historic independence vote, the political and military hierarchies of the south show signs of beginning to divide along internal fault lines that led to so much of the deadly south-on-south violence during the north-south civil war.
Southern Sudan’s ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) — the former guerrilla movement that fought a two-decade struggle against a repressive regime in Khartoum — has staked its reputation abroad on being everything that the Khartoum regime is not: not violently opposed to basic human dignities and rights; not repressive and intolerant of opposition forces, independent voices, and minority groups including women; not dictatorial and patrimonial in its approach to governance.
For this reason, the leaders of Southern Sudan have a great deal to lose by continuing down their current path. The behavior of the south’s ruling party since the peaceful and successful Southern independence vote may cause diplomats, donors, and everyday Sudanese citizens to recall the ugly side of Southern Sudan’s independence struggle. The leaders of the south’s liberation struggle were not grassroots democrats. Devastating internecine fighting among Southerners was an oft overlooked feature of the civil war. Many Southern lives were lost as the SPLM and its army asserted control over a messy patchwork of ethnic groups and powerful Khartoum-backed local warlords. The result was ingrained, lasting grievances among Southerners that have not yet healed.
Although some have argued that Southerners are “their own worst enemies,” the nefarious influence of Khartoum in the south should also not be underestimated, even if there’s not always hard evidence to support Juba’s claims of northern interference. The Southern government needs to avoid alienating potential rivals because the north may well seize every opportunity it gets to destabilize its newly sovereign neighbor.
Southern Sudan is not an unabashedly authoritarian state. It is unlikely that the young Southern government will kick out international journalists, eschew foreign aid, or close its borders as it forges its new country. The soon-to-be state is too big, too oil-rich, and too relevant to slide into the quiet chaos that has enveloped neighboring Eritrea since it gained independence in 1993.
But if the Southern government wants to continue to enjoy the moral high ground over its northern “peace partners,” then it must start acting like an accountable, responsible, rights-respecting enterprise. This will require its senior leaders to swallow some bitter pills: to start cleaning house and establishing accountability in the president’s cabinet, to take a hard look at government spending and priorities, and to investigate the abuses of its vast and ill-disciplined security forces. No one claimed it would be easy for Southern Sudan on its “final walk to freedom,” as the billboards in Juba call it. But everyday citizens of the south deserve better leadership than they are currently getting.
Maggie Fick is a freelance journalist based in Juba, Sudan
Heading South
South Sudan, Africa’s newest country, is starting off on the wrong foot.
BY MAGGIE FICK | MARCH 21, 2011
JUBA, Sudan — Southern Sudan’s earliest post-referendum days were bound to be rough. But in the past month since the official landslide results of January’s vote in favor of independence were announced, the oil-rich region has experienced much more than its fair share of turmoil. There has been heavy fighting between the Southern army and an intractable local rebel movement, clashes between fractious units of the northern Sudanese army deployed in the south, an ugly police abuse scandal, and the assassination of a government minister in his office (a crime of passion by an in-law, but one that nevertheless highlighted the new country’s widespread availability of small arms and its lax security in government offices).
It may not seem like much when compared with the tumultuous events sweeping across the Arab world, but there’s plenty of reason to be concerned by the way that this soon-to-be country in the Horn of Africa is responding to its opening challenges.
Sadly illustrative is the way the South Sudanese government has responded to recent allegations that its only police academy is the site of rampant sexual abuse, physical abuse, and the recruitment of child soldiers. After receiving a detailed and damning letter from the human rights unit of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Sudan, the inspector general of the Southern police — who was named in the letter as one of the prime perpetrators of abuse at the academy — sat on it for more than a week.
According to international officials in Juba, U.N. officials were then forced to physically bring the letter over to the minister of internal affairs, who was compelled to respond only after every single international donor suspended its funding from the police academy. On Feb. 2, the internal affairs minister sent a letter to Southern President Salva Kiir asking him to appoint a commission to launch an independent investigation. More than a month later, the commission has not been appointed, and Kiir has issued no formal statement on the issue, which has now been widely publicized in the local and international media. The president, however, has found time to appoint a nine-minister high-level commission to determine a location for Southern Sudan’s new capital city, a project whose price tag is expected to reach billions of dollars.
The government has shown the same approach toward other pressing issues. In the Southern state of Jonglei, an armed rebellion that was temporarily subdued with a cease-fire agreement just before the January referendum has exploded once more. The recent fighting led to more than 240 mainly civilian deaths, including women and children, in a single brutal incident on Feb. 9 and 10. It also sparked anger in local communities and among some government officials, who believe the Juba government “brought the problem into their area” with a shoddy cease-fire deal that didn’t provide for adequate security in places where the two sides to the conflict were to gather and begin a tense reintegration process. Only two months after the historic independence vote, the political and military hierarchies of the south show signs of beginning to divide along internal fault lines that led to so much of the deadly south-on-south violence during the north-south civil war.
Southern Sudan’s ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) — the former guerrilla movement that fought a two-decade struggle against a repressive regime in Khartoum — has staked its reputation abroad on being everything that the Khartoum regime is not: not violently opposed to basic human dignities and rights; not repressive and intolerant of opposition forces, independent voices, and minority groups including women; not dictatorial and patrimonial in its approach to governance.
For this reason, the leaders of Southern Sudan have a great deal to lose by continuing down their current path. The behavior of the south’s ruling party since the peaceful and successful Southern independence vote may cause diplomats, donors, and everyday Sudanese citizens to recall the ugly side of Southern Sudan’s independence struggle. The leaders of the south’s liberation struggle were not grassroots democrats. Devastating internecine fighting among Southerners was an oft overlooked feature of the civil war. Many Southern lives were lost as the SPLM and its army asserted control over a messy patchwork of ethnic groups and powerful Khartoum-backed local warlords. The result was ingrained, lasting grievances among Southerners that have not yet healed.
Although some have argued that Southerners are “their own worst enemies,” the nefarious influence of Khartoum in the south should also not be underestimated, even if there’s not always hard evidence to support Juba’s claims of northern interference. The Southern government needs to avoid alienating potential rivals because the north may well seize every opportunity it gets to destabilize its newly sovereign neighbor.
Southern Sudan is not an unabashedly authoritarian state. It is unlikely that the young Southern government will kick out international journalists, eschew foreign aid, or close its borders as it forges its new country. The soon-to-be state is too big, too oil-rich, and too relevant to slide into the quiet chaos that has enveloped neighboring Eritrea since it gained independence in 1993.
But if the Southern government wants to continue to enjoy the moral high ground over its northern “peace partners,” then it must start acting like an accountable, responsible, rights-respecting enterprise. This will require its senior leaders to swallow some bitter pills: to start cleaning house and establishing accountability in the president’s cabinet, to take a hard look at government spending and priorities, and to investigate the abuses of its vast and ill-disciplined security forces. No one claimed it would be easy for Southern Sudan on its “final walk to freedom,” as the billboards in Juba call it. But everyday citizens of the south deserve better leadership than they are currently getting.
Maggie Fick is a freelance journalist based in Juba, Sudan
Monday, March 21, 2011
Green thumbs are not genetic
I decided to plant a vegetable garden... things were going so well... and then, the rains didn't come. The sun beat down, and one tragic morning, I forgot to water.
What's left is a desolate expanse of rocky soil. Devoid of vegetable life. So sad. so, so sad.
Will try again after my next R&R...In the meantime, I give you a slideshow of the rise and fall of the Western Equatoria Livelihood Diversification and Food Security Project... i.e. my veggie garden
What's left is a desolate expanse of rocky soil. Devoid of vegetable life. So sad. so, so sad.
Will try again after my next R&R...In the meantime, I give you a slideshow of the rise and fall of the Western Equatoria Livelihood Diversification and Food Security Project... i.e. my veggie garden
Father Mario
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| 4-year old Gangsta! |
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| Happy, curious faces! The camera is always a big hit! |
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| Father Mario's Kindergarten classroom |
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| Playing a ball game at recess with the teacher |
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| Seriously cute kids. The two expat aid workers were a real distraction... |
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| They could all say, "Welcome. How are you?" in english. This was the best behaved group of 4-year olds, ever. |
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| No matter where you are... little brothers will annoy big sisters. |
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| Along with Father Mario, the heroes of the day. These are the schools teachers. The one on the right is probably 8 months pregnant, she had so much energy! It was amazing. |
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Construction paper mango trees
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| What I looked like in elementary school... Can you say, "princess"? |
At the start of every year, there were sharp pencils, new pink erasers, heavy textbooks with shiny covers and pages that always smelled so comforting to me.
I remember walking into my second grade classroom; Mrs. Hoffman was my teacher. There, above the chalkboard was a shiny cardboard strip of letters… in cursive! Each letter had a picture next to it to help us remember what sound that letter made.
Elementary school was full of learning and playing-- of recess on jungle gyms and limitless crayons. There was construction paper and safety scissors. We played kickball during PE. We had music class once a week; I was in the school play every year. There were cupcakes for birthdays and paper valentines in February. It was glorious.
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| A little boy walking in the yard of the Napere Primary School. |
In Sudan, for those students who are lucky enough to have a school within walking distance and who have parents who don’t need them to help at home, elementary school is not like this. Not even close.
I interviewed the headmaster of the Primary School in one of the refugee camps, he and his 8 teachers have 6 grades of 600 students in 8 classrooms. Kids get a pen and a small exercise book every semester. There is one set of textbooks—for the teachers. This school has walls and a roof, pit latrines out back, and a water pump in the yard. There are no jungle gyms, monkey bars, slides or tetherballs. In fact, the yard resembles that of a prison more that a school. Most kids don’t come to school in the afternoons, because after they walk home for lunch, its too far to go back a second time.
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| Makpandu Primary School |
As sparse as these resources are its still one of the best schools in the State. In fact, since refugees often receive more assistance from the international community, the school in the refugee camp is much better than anything the host communities’ children have available to them.
My colleague asked what subjects were taught at the school. The students are taking Math, English, French, History and Geography.
How do you teach geography without maps?
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| The school desks in Napere. To be fair, school is on a holiday break, its not normally this dusty. |
Its hard for me to reconcile my life with the lives of these children. UNHCR did an assessment here a few months ago, and they asked children 8-12 years old what they felt their biggest need was.
They asked for school supplies.
If someone had asked me that question when I was their age, I’d have asked for Lisa Frank stickers and a new pair of LA Gear high-tops. I’m here living my dream. They’re here living a nightmare. And, yet, they’re not… its strange, but life goes on. Kids still giggle when something is funny, little girls still chase little boys (or is it the other way around?). I think its these commonalities that make us a human family.
If you hear that I’ve quit my job to teach elementary school under a mango tree… don’t be too surprised… just send maps.
Napere refugee camp
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| In the CAR. No passport required. |
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| Some young boys fetching water at the hand-pump in Makpandu refugee camp. |
Napere refugee camp hosts several thousand men, women and children from the neighboring countries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. In fact, in the adjacent town, there is a market that straddles all three countries. There’s no actual border to speak of, just dusty roads and jungle. The same tribe (the Azande) lives in all three countries, so linguistically and culturally there isn’t a difference. On the left-hand side of the main road between Dabio and Ezo is the Congo, on the right side, South Sudan. For some time, a rebel group, called the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been active in these areas. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes because they’re afraid of violence. Those who flee across an international border are refugees (and therefore under the protection of UNHCR); those who flee within their own country are called internally displaced people (IDP’s).
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| The WFP warehouse where we store the food that we distribute to refugees |
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| Bags of lentils, donated by the US government to support refugees in Sudan. |
In addition to spreading violence and fear, these attacks have created a situation of food insecurity. Western Equatoria should be an incredibly fertile place. Enough food can be grown here to feed the whole of South Sudan. Yet, the World Food Program (WFP) and many other multi-lateral and non-governmental organizations have had to step in and provide food aid to the population. The reason for this is that farmers are fleeing their homes and aren’t planting. Even those who are planting are not planning as much for fear of the risk of having to flee before harvest and losing their investment. So, as families flee to peri-urban centers,
there is less cultivation and higher
population density in towns. All of this leads to higher malnutrition among children, poorer sanitation, worse health outcomes, higher maternal mortality, the spread of STD’s including HIV, and a greater pressure on schools—not to mention the incredible toll such conditions have on people’s mental health.
In the refugee camps, organizations such as the one that I work for, are trying to alleviate these negative consequences. We support health clinics and a primary school, distribute food and do some activities around water and sanitation. This is an effort that involves a lot of people and a lot of money… and it’s woefully insufficient. Yet, without international assistance, things would be far, far worse.
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| A baby girl waiting with her mother at the refugee health clinic |
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| I took this photo in the camp. This little boy is infected with intestinal worms. When you see a kid with a tummy like this, you know its worms. |
To me, the most striking thing about these camps is the number and state of children. There are so, so many of them and most of them are obviously sick. Because of a lack of family planning knowledge, contraceptives and a very traditional culture the birth rates are very, very high. I can’t tell you exactly how high. (As a public health person, a relief worker and someone who is supposed to monitoring these things, this is very frustrating) Babies are born at home, and a skilled birth attendant attends only about 20% of births. None are attended by a nurse or doctor. Babies are not registered at birth. If you are a refugee mother, you can register your child at the UN, and it is in your interest to do this since your family receives a larger food ration with an increase in household members. However, not all babies survive until its time for them to be registered. With the highest infant mortality rate in South Sudan, and one of the highest in the world, there are a significant number of babies whose time on our planet goes completely undocumented.
Those who do survive will be exposed to intestinal worms, malaria, respiratory infections, malnutrition and a good amount of neglect. The issue of intestinal worms is one of the most troubling to me. Intestinal worms leech the vitamins and minerals as well as calories from a child. It is estimated that these worms take up to 20% of a child’s nutritional intake every day. They are often home sick, have trouble concentrating at school, and don’t develop physically or mentally as well as they would otherwise. In high prevalence areas, like the refugee camps, it is recommended that children be dewormed at least 2x a year. It costs 50 cents to deworm a child.
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| These boys were getting water in the yard of the Primary School. The little one in the teal t-shirt and his brother both have worms. |
Dikdik a variant meal- and corresponding paperwork
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Not to spoil the surprise... but this is what I ate at the end of this day. |
*** If you’ve spoken to me or read my blog in the last few months, you know that I am desperately looking for creative ways to vary my diet of goat and rice. I think that moving to Sudan may have been the universe’s way of restoring a balance in me after the over indulgence of New Orleans. All those creamy sauces, spices, fresh seafood, farmer’s market veggies and cocktail soaked dinners have been replaced with boiled meat, tasteless ugali and occasionally lukewarm Coca-Cola. The next few blog posts are about my journey towards a variant meal.
(actually they’re about bureaucracy, soldiers, refugees, speaking bad French, negotiating the return of a mattress… and a variant meal…)***
On Monday, I went to Napere refugee camp in Ezo County to conduct an assessment of refugee health and education. The day started bright and early-- with paperwork.
Lots and lots of paperwork.
This paperwork is supposed to ensure good stewardship of resources, transparency and order. In reality, it ensures high printing and storage costs, forging of signatures and receipts, (not something I personally do), lots of running around and high levels of frustration.
Paperwork in NGO’s permeates everything that we do, it saturates your inbox, clutters your desk, finds its way into your room and is always, always in need of just one more signature. For example, in order to take a car for a day trip I have to fill in 7 different forms. These forms require the signature of 5 different people, in 5 separate departments, plus myself, plus anyone who I pay along the way.
It goes like this: I decide I need to go on a trip. I fill in a “Travel Authorization form” which needs to be signed and stamped by my manager. Then I fill out a “Pilot Requisition Form” to request funding and arrangement of a hired car and a military escort. (Unfortunately, this form has nothing to do with actual pilots). This has to be approved by my manager and the finance department. If that is approved, I have to get admin to book said car and said soldiers.
Then, I need to find a car. After talking to admin, the head driver and our mechanic, I determine which car is a.) functional and b.) available for the day.
Then, I fill out an “Internal Vehicle Request form”. This form needs to be signed by the administration officer. I tell him that I want that car in 1 hour (after telling him the day before… twice) and that it needs to be fueled. He says, “OK” I come back to check 20 minutes later. It still hasn’t gone to be filled. I get annoyed. I get a driver into the car to fuel it. 20 minutes after that, he comes back with an empty car, because he forgot to get the “Fuel Request Voucher” signed and stamped by the regional manager. I tell him to go do it. I check on him 10 minutes later and he is still standing outside her door… I get the form signed myself. I tell him to wait; we will all go for fuel together and leave straight away. I am stopped. Another group from our office was supposed to travel to Napere that morning with a UN convoy, but since they were going through the same rigmarole as I was, they were also running late, so they missed it. This meant that we had to wait for them to get going… and they hadn’t fueled yet. I decided that we would leave, get fuel, and pick up the escort. They could meet us along the way. When we arrived at the army barracks, only 1 of 6 soldiers was ready and the hired car to drive them wasn’t there yet, so we waited another 20 minutes. Of course, cell phones don’t work there, so we couldn’t call admin or the supply chain officer to ask them what was happening. One of our staff members was tagging along because he has to stop at a village called Diabio to talk to a local chief about something for a project. So, we decided to carry on without the soldiers to Diabio, and wait for them there.
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This was a temporary clinic in Diabio. They do vaccinations, maternal and child health, distribute drugs, treat malaria, worms, eye infections and do minor first aid. |
We were supposed to be in Diabio for a maximum of 20 minutes, 20 minutes turned into 2 hours. I should mention that I was getting antsy at this point because we're had to leave Napere by 4 in order to make it back to our camp in Yambio before dark. Every minute on the road was eating into my time to do my assessment.
We are about to leave when another one of my colleagues calls, says he’s on the way from a northern county, and he will be in Diabio in 10 minutes. Can we wait for him? He wants to catch a ride with us and send his car back to Yambio. We wait. Another 45 minutes passes. The second car arrives. We wait for the third car. Another 30 minutes. We decide not to wait any longer and go. The truck that carries the soldiers won’t start. We wait. Another 20 minutes. The soldiers go for a drink. Still no third car; still a broken truck. I make the decision that we will go and the truck will catch up with us. It’s pointed out to me that time constraints and frustration at inefficiency are harder for me to deal with than the threat of an LRA attack. I agree. We go. At 2 pm, we actually make it to Napere…
I'm left with 2 hours to do an assessment on the health and educational needs of thousands of refugees and host community members… if this sounds frustrating, it is.
…But the time in the camp was some combination of heartbreaking, awe-inspiring and exhilarating…
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Spa-like atmosphere in Lancaster...
I have my Google account set to send me an alert everytime my hometown makes the news... This was today's tidbit. I don't even have the words... what on earth were we thinking...
_______________________________________________________________________________
Since Antelope Valley can get super-stressful with all that heat, commutes, and the Flat Earthers, Lancaster is working on ways to chill out the mood a little. Last year the city renamed a stretch of Lancaster Boulevard to the more clubby-sounding The BLVD, and now it's piping soothing music and spa sounds (chirping birds, lapping water) through 70 speakers in the business and arts district, reports the Daily News. Mayor R. Rex Parris' came up with the idea, which he hopes gives Lancasterians "a heightened sense of well-being." In 2008, Lancaster and Honda tried to bring a little fun to Avenue G with a "William Tell Overture"-playing musical road, but it is apparently poorly-tuned
_______________________________________________________________________________
Since Antelope Valley can get super-stressful with all that heat, commutes, and the Flat Earthers, Lancaster is working on ways to chill out the mood a little. Last year the city renamed a stretch of Lancaster Boulevard to the more clubby-sounding The BLVD, and now it's piping soothing music and spa sounds (chirping birds, lapping water) through 70 speakers in the business and arts district, reports the Daily News. Mayor R. Rex Parris' came up with the idea, which he hopes gives Lancasterians "a heightened sense of well-being." In 2008, Lancaster and Honda tried to bring a little fun to Avenue G with a "William Tell Overture"-playing musical road, but it is apparently poorly-tuned
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Incident report: snake sighting #2
Event time:
2 pm. Just after lunch.
Location:
In the office bathroom. About 15 feet from my office door.
Witnesses:
Office full of people.
Situation:
Damn cheeky snake.
Result:
Serpent clubbed to death by office staff.
2 pm. Just after lunch.
Location:
In the office bathroom. About 15 feet from my office door.
Witnesses:
Office full of people.
Situation:
Damn cheeky snake.
Result:
Serpent clubbed to death by office staff.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
UN Scary Statistics
Something I came across that the UN published last year... and, yes, they actually called it "Scary statistics"
September 2010
Poverty | · 50.6% of the population live on less than 2.5 SDG a day. Poverty is highest in Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal state with 75.6% of the population living below the poverty line.[2] · 4.3 million vulnerable people will require food assistance in 2010. Of this number, 1.5 million will face severe food insecurity.[3] |
Maternal Mortality | · 40.6% of mothers do not receive antenatal care at all.[5] · Only 10.2% of deliveries are attended by skilled birth attendants. · There are only 13.6% institutional (hospital) deliveries.[6] · Contraceptive prevalence is only 3.5%. · There are only an estimated 100 certified midwives.[7] |
Child Mortality | · Although the infant mortality rate has decreased, it still stands at 102 per 1,000 live births. · While the under-five mortality rate has decreased, one out of every 7 children will die before their fifth birthday (135 per 1,000 live births). |
Immunisation | · Southern Sudan has one of the lowest routine immunisation coverage rates in the world. · Only about 10% of children are fully vaccinated.[8] · Only 28% of children receive measles vaccination before their first birthday. |
Malaria | · Malaria is considered hyper-endemic in Southern Sudan, accounting for more than 40% of all health facility visits and 80% of household do not have treated bed nets.[9] |
HIV/AIDS | · HIV awareness stands at 45.1%, however only 8% have knowledge about HIV prevention. · More than 70% of women aged 15-49 have no knowledge about HIV prevention. |
Water and Sanitation | · More than 50% of the population do not have access to improved drinking water. · Only 6.4% of the population have access to improved sanitation facilities. |
Primary Education | · Less than 50% of all children receive 5 years of primary school education. · While 1.3 million children are enrolled, only 1.9% complete primary school education. · For every 1,000 primary school students there is only one teacher.[10] · 85% of adults do not know how to read or write.[11] |
Gender | · 92% of women cannot read or write.[12] · Only 27% of girls are attending primary school.[13] · A 15 year-old girl has a higher chance of dying in childbirth than completing school. |
Displacement | Since the beginning of 2010, an estimated 190,000 people have been displaced by inter-ethnic and armed conflicts in Southern Sudan. In 2009, the figure was 391,000 - more than double the number for 2008 which stood at 187,000.[14] |
[1] All data unless referenced are from the Sudan Household Survey 2006 t0 2010.
[2] SSCCSE 2010
[3] ANLA Report 2010.
[4] Based on reporting from WHO 2010
[5] WHO Report 2010
[6] WHO Report 2010
[7] MOH Survey 2009
[8] WHO Report 2010
[9] South Sudan MDG Report 2005, UNDP 2006
[10] UNESCO 2009
[11] Alternative Education Systems Unit in the Ministry of Education, UNESCO 2008
[12] Ibid
[13] SSCSE
[14] OCHA EP&R 2010
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Dispatch from the field for a friend
I just wrote this email to a friend, giving him an update on Yambio and life in Sudan-- thought I'd post it here as well.
_______________________________________________________________________________
...Definitely lots of adventure. My brain is busy every day. I go to bed at night thouroughly tired, and wake up early every morning ready to go and looking forward to my day (at least most days). Its a nice feeling. My consulting gigs were good training for this. They foced me to learn a lot of new things all the time, and that is what I am doing here as well. The living conditions are really pretty good. I mean, the food is terrible (but then I was spoiled and I do apprecaite a good meal) but the accomodations are fine.
Termite season has started, and these termites are HUGE. At night, every night I wake up because there are people outside collecting the termites to eat them.-- reminds me of that time we went to the Insectraium.
Last week we killed a snake that was trying to get into the kitchen. You know how I feel about snakes, yuck!
We have lots of donors coming to visit this month- will be taking them around, as well as doing some
monitoring visits this month. To give you an idea of the variety, in March, I am designing frameworks for implementing projects on family planning, protection of girl-children, market access for farmers, and good governance training for county leaders. I'm monitoring a vaccination campaign and honey production of a local bee-keepers association. I am also doing an assessemnt next week in 2 refugee camps about health, water and education needs. Every day its something new, and its all a challenge and its all fun.
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| At a market in Tambura, doing an assessment. |
Tomorrow, I've hired someone to come and dig a vegetable garden for me. (at 10 Sudanese pounds for a day of work, I couldn't complain... its about $3) I planted some seeds already and in just 2 days they've sprouted. I'll plant everything in the garden this weekend. Since I can't find vegetables in the market, I'm goind to grow my own!
I've made some good friends as well. I like the people that I work with. They're a good bunch. Also, there is an Italian NGO that has some fun people working for it. We go out sometimes. On Saturday nights, the UN military observers have a barbecue. Its a lot of fun, the food is yummy and the dancing is good-- Lots of Latins , awesome salsa dancers!
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| rockin' and rollin' at the UN in Yambio. |
There is also a new "club" that opened in Yambio. (I know, shocking!) Its on the "lake"... really just a big pond where people wash their cars and bathe. But, the music is good, the beer is cold and the crowd is having a good time. Unfortunately, like every other public venue in Sudan, there are a lot of guns here. A lot. Its hard to get used to so many automatic weapons. Especially since they are so casually slung over the shoulders of teenage boys. But, I'm much less bothered by it now than I was when I first arrived, I suspect that in another few weeks, I won't even notice anymore.
I'll be home for Easter, and then for the first 2 weeks in May. Though I am having a blast here, I do miss my family and friends. It will be good to see them. I also miss sushi, salads, hot dogs and prosecco. :) It will be good to see those things too.
Jen
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