Your One Euro Is Worth Seven 2 Contents
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10 North Korea – Famine threatening six million people 12 Bulgaria – Meat, potatoes Mission East and an education NUMBER 2 / AUTUMN 2011 FOCUS Your one Euro is worth seven 2 Contents 4-7 Disaster Risk Reduction 8-9 – Climate changes lead to wilder weather incidents Tajikistan “Excessive rainfall, severe – When storms, and extreme droughts mountains have become more and crumble, women more common and have stand strong the harshest impact on the During the season world's poor. We must act when most disasters right now to prevent and happen in Tajikistan, minimize the impact of these many men are abroad, events – especially those leaving women to take that have devastating effects action themselves. on the world’s most vulne rable,” says Mikael Jarnvig, Meteorologist and Mission East Ambassador, in this North Korea 10-11 magazine’s focus on disaster – Famine threatening risk reduction. six million people How did it happen that about one million people died of starvation in North Korea in the nineties? Can we prevent 12-13 such a disaster from happening again soon? Bulgaria – Meat, potatoes and 14-15 an education The opening of a new Pakistan community centre in – Pakistan team goes the extra mile Bulgaria's capital provides Poverty is so profound in Pakistan’s Swat Valley that the elderly with a place staff from Mission East’s partner organisation resorted to satisfy their hunger and youth with an to contributing from their own pockets during a recent opportunity to educate themselves. distribution of aid. Front page photo: Mission East is a Danish international Head Office in Hellerup, Denmark Board A stone wall protects 1,100 aid organisation. We exist to deliver relief Managing Director Dr. Kim Hartzner Chairman Carsten Wredstrøm pupils from the river nearby, and development assistance to vulnerable Communications Director Jesper Holst Karsten Bach which threatens to flood their communities with a primary focus on Eastern Liaison Officer Filip Buff Pedersen Brian Nielsen Europe and Asia. Journalist Tania Rusbjerg Joachim Nisgaard school (in the background) Based on Christian values, Mission East aims Journalist Maria Callesen René Hartzner during the springtime in to support the most vulnerable, making no Bookkeeper Carina Joy Gates Afghanistan racial, political or religious distinction between HR Karsten Hetland Editorial staff those in need. Kim Hartzner Mission East currently operates directly or Mission East Office in Brussels, Belgium Tania Rusbjerg through local partners in Afghanistan, Armenia, Operations Director Peter Drummond Smith Nepal, North Korea, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Finance Director Marianne Le Floch Production Romania and Bulgaria. Finance Manager Nazik Avagyan Rosendahls, Esbjerg The assistance offered by Mission East is sup Information Systems Support Richard ported by a range of private and public donors Peppiette ISSN 09082042 such as the Danish Ministry of Foreign Afffairs, Desk Officers Saskia de Smet, European Union and the United Nations. Alex Ramos Peña, Kendrah Jespersen www.miseast.org Mission East has been verified compliant with and Joohi Haleem. the People in Aid Code of Good Practice in the management and support of aid personnel. EDITORIAL 3 A stitch in time saves nine It is a normal human In a quote for the news risk of landslides, and helps response to help when we agency Reuters, the EU them to form their own see the huge devastation Commissioner for huma- rescue teams. that results when a tsunami, nitarian aid, Kristalina drought, earthquake or flood Georgieva, suggests that For more than a decade strikes. But this devasta- prevention is simply not as Mission East has deliberately tion can be minimized by quick to grab your attention. ensured that disaster risk prevention measures. So reduction plays an increa- if small amounts of money The World Bank estimates singly important role in our can make a big difference that it costs seven times more projects. And we will conti- through prevention, why do to respond with emergency nue this focus on prevention. we wait until disaster strikes aid – when, for example, Through prevention, we can before we act with empathy floods force people to flee make a lasting difference and generosity? from their homes in Asia – with your support. than it costs to prevent the consequences of the disaster before it occurs. If we work on preventing the devasta- tion that disaster can cause as If small amounts of money we work to help those who can make a big difference are most vulnerable, then we through prevention, why do can make a bigger difference we wait until disaster strikes with our resources. It is for before we act with empathy this reason that Mission and generosity? East helps communities build protection walls and earthquake-proof houses, teaches villagers that cutting down trees will increase the Dr. Kim Hartzner, Managing Director of Mission East Photo: Christophe Belperron, Mission East 4 DISASTER RISK REDUCTION Climate changes lead to wilder weather incidents 89 percent of the total number of natural disaster victims in 2010 was one of the worst community have the will to 2010 lived in Asia. years in two decades in terms do something about it, we can of the number of natural decrease the human contribu- coincidence. We must disasters around the world. tions to climate change, but it prepare ourselves for increas- will take many years to regain ingly “wild” climates around Natural disasters are becom- “the old balance”. the world. Extreme rainfall ing increasingly frequent and deforestation has sig- By Mikael Jarnvig, Some causes we do not know nificantly increased the risk Meteorologist and and strike with such great Mission East strength, that we forget the about, but others have been of more catastrophic floods, Ambassador previous one when the next brought to light by science. mudflows and landslides. occurs. There is a risk that For example, we know that we simply assume that this the still increasing emission While we can make changes is just how the earth works. of greenhouse gasses (mainly in our lives to limit our CO2 But there is both a cause and CO2) leads to a destabilisa- emissions with hope of slow- a solution. tion of the atmospheric heat ing down the overall trend of balance. It is a scientific fact climate change, we must also Excessive rainfall, severe that the temperature has gone in the meantime, act right storms, and extreme droughts up one degree over the last now to prevent and minimize have become more and 100 years on average around the impact of these events that more common and have the the world. In the Arctic it is are already taking place as a harshest impact on the world's more. One weather record result of the current changes poor; 89 percent of the total after another has been beaten in our climate – especially number of natural disaster in recent years. And there is those that have devastating victims in 2010 lived in Asia. no indication that this could effects on the world’s most If we and the international just be a passing vulnerable. “It has not always been like this. I have been living in this village for years and a flood had never struck before,” says Sayed Shah, whose home in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan Province was destroyed by a flood last spring. “There is a greater risk of floods and landslides in particular. Among other things, overpopulation, overgrazing and deforestation have increased the number and extent of disasters,” says Jonathan Bartolozzi, Mission East’s Province Manager in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan Province. 5 Riskreduction by radio If you turn on your radio song teaches people that they in the mountain villages of should not cut down all the Mission East Nepal, you can hear people trees on a mountainside if contributes to a new singing about natural they want to avoid dangerous publication about disasters. mudslides. Information natural disasters about how to build a good Songs and radio drama protection wall is also being Mission East has recently have taught 80,000 villagers spread. Radio journalists contributed to a new book in the remote mountain have interviewed survivors on disaster risk reduction. areas of Nepal about floods, of recent disasters and shared “Risk Returns”, published mudslides and earthquakes. their stories on air so that by the UN secretariat of Each year these disasters others can learn from their the International Strategy destroy harvests, block experience. for Disaster Reduction, paths, or in the worst cases, gathers a large amount of take the lives of residents of In most of the mountainous international experience on these mountainous areas. regions of Nepal, 70 percent disaster prevention. Mission of the population is illiterate. East contributed a chapter The short melodic jingles that But most people have a small about disaster risk reduction play on the radio are easy to radio which is their way of in the remote mountain remember and remind people gaining new knowledge: in areas of Nepal. about good risk-reduction this case valuable knowledge practices. For example, one about preventing disasters. With support from Mission East, radio journalists have been able to visit remote villages to interview the villagers about their experi ences with natural disasters. 6 DISASTER RISK REDUCTION Your one Euro is worth seven How can your money grow to books or chalk? What good Water moving closer seven times its value? is a pile of rocks for the The school has cost about children, who could buy a 67.000 Euros to build and While you are reading this, large amount of pencils and is located in the province a stone wall is being built in books for the same amount of Badakhshan, where the Afghanistan. Not far from the of money? The explanation is population struggles with an wall is a school where 1,100 very simple and illustrates the increasing number of lands- Afghan girls and boys from kind of work, which increa- lides and floods.