PLEASE HELP US TRANSFORM THE FUTURE OF SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOST VULNERABLE CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE BY LEAVING A GIFT TO Y CARE INTERNATIONAL IN YOUR WILL THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL ISSUE SIX MARCH 2010
Leaving a legacy to Y Care International From Peru to Palestine and Sri Lanka is your way of making a lasting difference to Senegal, we work at the heart of to some of the most deprived children communities, supporting young people and young people. whose lives have been torn apart by You will have read in this magazine poverty, conflict and natural disaster. about some of the amazing work we are We are giving these young people the already doing thanks to the support of chance to have an education, to learn people like you. If we are doing all this new skills and to ensure that they don’t with your support today, imagine how die of preventable diseases. much more we could do with a gift to Y Care International in your Will. Legacies are a vital part of our funds. Much of our work is only possible because of supporters who choose to give in this special way. pockets of hope TO TALK TO SOMEONE IN CONFIDENCE ABOUT LEAVING A CHILDREN IN CAMBODIA’S SLUMS ARE GIVEN AN EDUCATION LEGACY, PLEASE CALL ZOË WILSON YOUNG ON 020 7549 3176. FOR A FREE GUIDE ON HOW TO LEAVE A LEGACY, PLEASE EMAIL: Y CARE INTERNATIONAL SUPPORTS VICTIMS OF HAITI EARTHQUAKE [email protected] RECOVERING FROM CONFLICT IN SRI LANKA
Y Care International is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales Charity no: 1109789. Company no: 3997006. Registered office: Kemp House, 152-160 City Road, London EC1V 2NP. www.ycareinternational.org CONTENTS LOBBYING FOR JUSTICE Young people held an historic youth justice event in one of Togo’s prisons 11
HOMELESS THE MAGAZINE OF AGAIN Y CARE INTERNATIONAL ISSUE SIX Our President, Terry Waite MARCH 2010 reports on a recent visit to Sri Lanka, where families have 4 been made homeless by conflict YOUTH IN CRISIS Young people in Madagascar have been facing political and economic turmoil 10POCKETS OF HOPE Contributors: Gemma Abbs (Editor), Nina Baltes, Sara Fowler, Celine Grey, We’re giving young people in Gemma Hayes, Harriet Knox, Chris Roles, Cambodia an alternative to Luiza Sauma, Terry Waite, Sophie Willmington Y Care International is the international and Zoë Wilson Young relief and development agency of the working on the streets Design: Ian Dunn Design YMCA in the UK and Ireland. We work in Y Care International partnership with YMCAs in Africa, Asia, Kemp House the Middle East, Latin America and the 152-160 City Road Caribbean to empower young people London EC1V 2NP United Kingdom and their communities to find alternatives Tel. 020 7549 3175 to a future of poverty and disadvantage, [email protected] and to build lives and communities www.ycareinternational.org marked by hope and positive change. Insight costs just 16p to print
Please note that for the purposes of confidentiality, some names appearing in this magazine have 12 been changed.
AFTER THE 7 HEADLINES HAITI EARTHQUAKE We’ve been supporting Cover picture: Phirun, from Cambodia is 14. He children and young people lives in a small house in a slum community with his mother, father and four siblings. He spends part of We have been supporting victims of the on the Indonesian island of his day scavenging for rubbish or selling flowers devastating earthquake in January on the streets of Phnom Penh. He attends YMCA Nias which has been affected classes each afternoon, where he is learning by natural disaster English and Khmer. Credit: Sara Fowler. 14 2 INSIGHT THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL INSIGHT THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL 3 Words: Gemma Abbs. Pictures: Harriet Knox Below: The slum community in Nekena is 19. She comes from a poor family Ankazomanga near the YMCA centre. in Ankazomanga. Her father sells herbal tea and insecticides in the streets and finds it difficult to provide for his family. Nekena left school before finishing primary school. As the first-born, she had to help her SET IN THE INDIAN OCEAN, TO MANY, THE ISLAND OF MADAGASCAR IS AN IDYLLIC HOLIDAY DESTINATION parents to make ends meet, so she worked as WITH A DIVERSE CULTURE AND EXOTIC WILDLIFE. BUT BEHIND THIS FACADE, IT IS ALSO ONE OF THE a laundry girl and sometimes as a water fetcher. POOREST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD, WITH 70% OF ITS POPULATION LIVING ON LESS THAN $1 A DAY. She barely earned 2,000 Ariary (60p) a week. As a child, Nekena frequently visited the YMCA and was given vegetables and rice once a week, which would provide meals for two days for her family. She married at the age of 16 and now has a two and a half year old daughter. Her husband works transporting coal, wood and cement and earns between £1.30 and £2.00 a day. They live in a very deprived neighbourhood, which can often be violent and Nekena constantly worries about the effect this has on her child. Nekena and her husband live in a wooden house with a roof made out of iron sheets, which leaks during the rainy season. The house is only 2m squared and is in the middle of a rice field, which means it’s permanently humid. This impacts on the family’s health and they are always catching colds. Since the political crisis, Nekena’s family has had financial problems because her husband’s job has become unreliable. There have been times when he has come home without being paid. Things have become so difficult that they have had to buy food on credit. But everyone is in the same situation and shopkeepers are becoming more and more reluctant to give credit. Wanting to improve her family’s financial situation, Nekena is taking sewing lessons at the YMCA so she can become a dressmaker. She hopes to find work when she finishes her training so she can help put food on the table and be able to send her daughter to school in the future.
Youthe have been working in trapped inside finor a number of days. crcome to theYMCiA centsre tend to livie s Madagascar since 2006 “It has been very distressing for all of us. in one-parent families and their houses – The ‘Youth in Crisis’ project is through our partner, the Most people are shocked at what has been some of which are built next to open helping young people like Marie WYMCA of Madagascar, happening; nothing like this has ever sewers – are made out of wood or to face this difficult situation and providing education and nutrition to happened here.” (Lantonirina cardboard. Parents find it difficult to to improve their financial situation disadvantaged children and young people, Rakotomalala, National General provide for their families as they don’t for the future. But unfortunately, and raising awareness of HIV/AIDS. Secretary, MadagascarYMCA). have stable jobs. there is a risk that this vital project However,theworkwehavebeensupporting Since then, Madagascar has descended Many of the young people at the may have to be scaled back. We has become all the more vital in the past into a serious economic crisis, as many YMCA are unemployed and finding jobs have experienced an unexpected year since the island was engulfed in a international donors withdrew aid. is extremely difficult. But our‘Youth in shortfall in income from the gifts political crisis, which remains unresolved. Some young people resorted to stealing Crisis’project is providing vocational people generously leave us in their In early 2009, the country experienced and looting, just so they could feed training to the most disadvantaged, so Wills. This means that we may be scenes of violent political unrest, when their families. they can learn the skills they need to forced to significantly scale back a fierce power struggle for the country’s In the immediate aftermath of the find employment. our work in Madagascar and that presidency saw people take to the streets. crisis, theYMCA provided young people Seventeen-year-old Marie,talks about other projects, including our project These violent protests were almost and their families with food. They also the effect last year’s crisis had on her in Southern Sudan, may face closure. So, despite the generosity of our unprecedented, and dozens of people lost helped young people who were family: “My father works as a pousse pousse supporters, we must urgently raise their lives as protests and demonstrations traumatised by the rioting that took man (‘pousse pousse’ is a traditional cart), £65,000 in order to keep all our continued on a daily basis. place in the area around theYMCA. transporting goods. As the tradesmen now established projects open and The protests led to the temporary The recent situation has made things don’t sell much, there are fewer things to continue helping the children and closure of theYMCA centre in even harder for young people in transport. Before, he used to earn 15,000 young people who really need Ankazomanga on the outskirts of the Madagascar.Even before the crisis,poverty Madagascan Ariary per week (£4.60), but our support. capital,Antananarivo.As gun battles in Ankazomanga was widespread. It is now he’s earning just 5,000 (£1.50).We still between the police and the army raged one of the poorest slum communities in manage to eat twice a day, but we have To donate visit: outside,YMCA staff and volunteers were Antananarivo. The young people who all had to decrease the amount we eat.” www.ycareinternational.org/appeal or call: 020 7549 3175
4 INSIGHT THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL INSIGHT THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL 5 Haiti earthquake appeal
On Tuesday 12 January 2010, a devastating earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale hit Haiti. It was the strongest earthquake the country had seen for 200 years. Over 200,000 people were killed and 1.5 million people were left homeless. The impoverished Caribbean country, which has experienced years of political turmoil and unrest, has struggled to deal with an emergency of this scale.
HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE TO PUT DOWN ROOTS IN COLOMBIA
Above: Women line up to collect food from the World Food Program during a massive distribution in Port-au-Prince. Below: Two girls look out from their family’s ‘home’ in a camp for homeless families set up on a golf course in Port-au-Prince. Credit: Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance. A C M Y c i l
Above: Children at YMCA Bogotá decorate their b ou may remember that at neighbourhoods of Bogotá, making a u Christmas tree with the decorations you sent in. p Christmas, we wrote to tell you total of four locations where we help e Top: A view of Bogotá. R n
Credit: Bogotá YMCA. about Pablo and how, with help children and young people who are a c i n
from our partnerYMCA in escaping a troubled home life. i m
Y o Colombia, he is no longer facing a life We also asked you to write messages D
on the streets of the capital, Bogotá. on Christmas decorations to children at , e c
Thanks to your generosity, we have theYMCA centre in Bogotá. Many of the n a i l been able to help more children and young children at the centre have coloured in l A
people like Pablo who would otherwise the cards you sent. Here, we’ve included T C A
be working or living on the streets. some pictures of them putting them : s e
We have been able to expand our project on their Christmas tree. r u t
and are now working in two more c i P . s b b A a m m e G : s d r o W
6 INSIGHT THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL INSIGHT THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL 7 he capital, Port-au-Prince, bore the brunt of the earthquake. Hospitals, schools, and government buildings were destroyed.A city which was already Tbeleaguered by poverty is going to have to be rebuilt from scratch. It is clear that it will take years, not months, for Haiti Prior to the earthquake, we were supporting YMCA to recover. But the most immediate need has been to give shelter, Haiti’s After School Programme, helping the most food and water to those who have been left with nothing, and are disadvantaged children and young people in grieving the loss of their loved ones. Port-au-Prince to stay in formal education. Young volunteers help them with their studies Appeal for help and also provide them with a meal. We launched an emergency appeal on 14 January. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, Building Societies and the general public, we have raised over £546,900 so far. Funds raised by the appeal have been sent to ourYMCA partners in the region and “I can’t help thinking about what will happen when people awake from their mourning. I can see our partner, the ACT Alliance, who work with church-based some very difficult times ahead for us all.” Gweneal Appollon, General Secretary of Haiti YMCA partners on the ground. Just days after we launched the appeal, our partner, the Dominican RepublicYMCA, drove a convoy of relief items across the border to Port-au-Prince. The 20 tonnes of food and blankets were distributed to 500 families byYMCA staff and volunteers. A second convoy of vital supplies has since been sent. Following this relief effort, Gweneal Appollon, General Secretary of HaitiYMCA, said, “YMCA Haiti is grateful to Y Care International and everyone involved in this distribution effort. As the country is slowly awakening from this nightmare, our greatest wish at theYMCA is to find a place where we can resume our activities and start receiving our youth, who are now on the streets with little or no support.”
The challenges HaitiYMCA had been operating from central Port-au-Prince since 2001, in a building that now lies under the rubble. They have managed to find an office to operate from and have been providing shelter to the homeless and displaced in another YMCA centre on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. The challenges of working in this situation are huge. For staff and volunteers at theYMCA, even moving from one place to the other is extremely difficult; a journey which once took minutes now takes hours. One of the greatest problems people are facing is the lack of security.Allegations about child trafficking have been well publicised in the media, and children and adolescents have to be particularly cautious. The education system has completely collapsed in Port-au- Prince and children are not going to school. TheYMCA is trying to support the community to deal with some of these issues, but their most immediate need is to find a place where they can start working again, so that they can provide recreational activities and vital psychosocial support to the young people and their families who have been left traumatised by this disaster. We are grateful for all the support for this appeal which will MARIE’S STORY enable us to provide ongoing assistance to the people of Haiti, long after the earthquake has left the headlines, as they begin Marie last saw her husband Andre in the moments that followed the earthquake. The family’s home was destroyed to rebuild their lives. and Marie remembers seeing a wall fall on her husband; three weeks after earthquake, she presumes that he is dead. Twelve We would like to thank the following Building Societies for days after the disaster, she gave birth to her fourth child, supporting this appeal: Cambridge Building Society, Coventry McAnley, in the ruins. Although her son’s birth has given her Building Society, Cumberland Building Society, Kent Reliance hope, Marie is facing an uncertain future for herself and her children. The family are now living at a camp in the Belair Building Society, Norwich & Peterborough Building Society, neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, and Marie has no immediate Nationwide Building Society, Northern Rock Building Society, prospects for work. Even so, she remains positive about her Progressive Building Society, Skipton Building Society, Stroud baby son’s future, saying that “everything that comes his way & Swindon Building Society,Yorkshire Building Society. will be good.”
If you would like to donate to the appeal,visit Our partner, the ACT Alliance is providing assistance to people like Marie in Belair, a camp for displaced and homeless people. They www.ycareinternational.org or call:020 7549 3175 are providing tents, water, hygiene kits and baby kits. ACT Alliance staff are also working with local partners, community leaders and the Haitian government to ensure that children who are vulnerable Main picture: A woman walks in Port-au-Prince sniffing orange to trafficking are identified and protected. peel to mask the smell of decomposing bodies trapped in the rubble. Top right: Staff and volunteers from the Dominican Republic YMCA Source: ACT Alliance, www.act-intl.org distribute boxes of food and blankets.
8 INSIGHT THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL INSIGHT THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL 9 Pictures: Young people in Sierra Leone and South Africa Homeless once again demonstrate about youth justice issues as part of our campaign.
early 2,000 men, most of them young, are packed into a sandy Ncourtyard smaller than half a football pitch. Surrounding it are the s e l doors to cramped communal cells where o
R up to 80 men are forced to lie on their s i r
h sides in order to sleep. C : For months and often years, many of s e r them are detained without charge and u t c
i with no idea of how long they will be there. P That’s the reality of Lomé Civil Prison in the capital of Togo,West Africa. By Terry Waite CBE everal years ago when families donation.Well, I can say with certainty Hardly the most suitable space in which across the world were enjoying thatYCI used these generous gifts wisely. to hold a public event! But that’s exactly their Christmas or end of year As if the Tsunami wasn’t enough, Sri what TogoYMCA and a group of young holiday, tragedy struck.An Lanka has suffered years of conflict, which prisoners managed to do with great enormous tidal wave swept came to a head in 2009. The conflict led success in December 2009. Sacross the ocean and totally destroyed to thousands of people being displaced, Prisoners huddle together to allow thousands of homes.Countless lives were some of them from the housing YCI enough room for several rows of chairs lost and even more people were made had provided, just as the construction to be placed in front of a makeshift stage. homeless.This tidal wave became known was completed. I met families who were From here, the struggle and injustice of Lobbying for as a Tsunami – a word most of us had just returning to these homes, three years their day-to-day existence is played out, never heard of before, though within after leaving them, refugees in their own led by a group of young prisoners hours we all knew what a devastating country as a result of conflict. They were supported by theYMCA. justice in Lomé natural disaster this had been. Chris Roles, happy to be back and able to fish again in Seated in the audience are key figures the Chief Executive of YCare International a familiar place, but for some there was in the Togolese justice system, including Words: Céline Grey and Harriet Knox (YCI),which I helped found some 25 years sadness too – they had become separated the Secretary General of the Ministry of ago,rushed to his office and began drafting from family members when they were Justice and Director of the Prison Service, an appeal and contacting our partners in fleeing the fighting and had to live with as well as a representative from the European Union. They watch as the group Lomé prison has possibly never been so Sri Lanka and India to see what could be the terrible uncertainty of not knowing The social and economic situation done to help. whether their loved ones were dead of young men perform a powerful drama quiet.As everyone watches and listens, in Togo has led to a rise in crime, and YCI supporters and the British public or alive. about life as a detainee in Togo, and then the silence is only broken when prisoners this has created an urgent need for responded magnificently and soon Sri LankaYMCA, through which read out their hopes for change. “We, the cheer in response to the demands made better social care for young people work started to rebuild what had been Y Care International works, has been detained, have a role to play in ensuring by their peers. who come into conflict with the law. destroyed. Care for children orphaned by active throughout the country,not just in that our rights are respected and fulfilled. After the Secretary General of the The justice system in Togo does not respect international laws surrounding Below: This family have been able the disaster, houses to replace those that the north, bringing relief to those in need, We would like to take this opportunity to Ministry of Justice has spoken, the cheers to return to their home after being youth justice in a number of ways: forced to flee during the conflict. had been destroyed, and that could better helping young people to develop despite present our grievances and hopes”. become louder. He announces that the withstand the elements, health care, skills the difficult circumstances, and seeking Among these wishes are that every following day, 71 prisoners will be young people are often locked training, employment opportunities – to build peace and reconciliation. This is person’s case should be fairly and quickly released. It seems so simple, so arbitrary: up for long periods without trial the scale and breadth of the response was the most important need of the moment, processed by a judge.Of the 1,874 people in an excellent result for any lobbying they may be held with adults in greater than many of us had seen before. andYCI is working closely with theYMCA prisonthatday,onlyabout300hadbeentried exercise. overcrowded and poorly and sentenced. They also ask for sufficient But this alone won’t be enough to maintained prisons In December last year, I visited one of in Sri Lanka to devise a new programme there is little or no provision for the areas that had suffered so badly – the that will address these needs throughout food to be provided at least twice a day to change the system and to prevent further rehabilitating former offenders or north of Sri Lanka. Chris and I travelled the country. all prisoners. Currently, they are given only injustices from occurring. That requires a preventing young people from along the coast and met many of the In developing countries all around one meal a day of poor quality food. fundamental change to the judicial system, coming into conflict with the law fishermen and women who had been the world, theYMCA is at work meeting from the time it takes for cases to get to re-housed thanks to the generosity of our people’s basic needs for food, shelter One of the young prisoners expressed court, to the availability of lawyers to deal Togo YMCA is one of six campaign his frustrations through a poem: partners in our Youth Justice in Action supporters. It was all very moving.At each and security and helping young people with them.And that’s exactly what Togo campaign, which calls on governments house we were greeted with flowers and to develop in body, mind and spirit. I am YMCA will be advocating for. around the world to make justice smiles, but there was still a hint of sadness proud to be associated with this work – Justice, where are you? Over the next three years, with support systems fairer for young people. in the air. One lady had a tear in her eye as for what could be more worthwhile? Arrested, beaten, transferred to prison fromY Care International, TogoYMCA she told us of her son who had been swept Sometimes without signing will continue working to ensure that fewer away when the wave struck. Often, we give A version of this article appeared in Sometimes with no statement to sign young people get caught up in the justice money to one charity or another and Northern Life magazine,Feb/Mar 2010. Once in detention, how long for? system in the first place and that those who wonder what has happened to our www.northernlifemagazine.co.uk No one knows. do are treated with dignity and respect.
10 INSIGHT THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL INSIGHT THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL 11 pockets of hope in
IN NOVEMBER 2009, OUR ASIA & MIDDLE EAST PROGRAMME COORDINATOR, SARA FOWLER PVISITED OUR PARTNERhIN CAMBODIA. HEREnSHE WRITES ABOUToHER EXPERIENCES. m Penh r e l ambodia’s capital Phnom Penh is WORKING ON THE STREETS CHANGING HEARTS AND MINDS w o a bustling Southeast Asian city. Rather than being in school like most teenagers, When the work first started, the young people F a r Motorbikes and tuk-tuks crowd the these young people spend their days selling flowers were coming to theYMCA centre to attend classes – a
S streets, weaving in and out of the busy on the streets or at the city’s rubbish dumps. They but as they were coming from all over the city, many : s e traffic. The streets are lined with shops collect scraps of plastic and metal, which are sold of them had to walk 5-6km, then take a tuk-tuk to r u t and food vendors, and the air is thick with smog for measly sums of money to recycling companies. get there. c
i C p and pollution. There are about 17,000 street children in Phnom So theYMCA has changed its way of working. d n Penh alone. On average, when children get to seven They are now running the project in the slum a s
d A NEW PARTNERSHIP years old, they usually start working 8-10 hours a communities. The staff hope that this will mean r o This is my first visit to CambodiaYMCA, which is day to help their families who desperately need theYMCA is more visible, and they plan to set up W a new partner forY Care International. They are an money just to put food on the table. support groups for parents to get them more involved emerging organisation, founded in 1999, as nearly Many of the children and young people I met in running the project. But the staff are not naïve; three decades of brutal civil war came to an end in look much younger than they are because they are they know that things won’t change overnight. It’s Cambodia.We started supporting them in 2009 malnourished. Some told me that they drink a lot hard to get‘buy in’from parents who see the time to help young people who are forced to work on the of water at bedtime so they can trick themselves their children spend in classrooms as taking away streets of Phnom Penh – one of the most dangerous into feeling full enough to sleep. a vital income on which they rely. Changing hearts cities in the world. Children growing up in the slums are unlikely and minds in the communities will take time and The work focuses on young people aged between to have any kind of education and usually can’t read considerable determination and – whilst theYMCA 12 and 17 who live in slum communities. These or write. Because government teachers are paid so has this in abundance – this is only the beginning of tend to be small strips of land sandwiched between little, children have to pay their teachers each day a long and arduous journey. suburban houses, but the government is trying to to be able to attend classes. On top of this, costs TheYMCA delivers all of this with just six staff move all the slums to the outskirts of the city, away such as transportation, uniforms and books make and a group of committed volunteers. But they are from the eyes of western tourists. it impossible for a family to send their children overstretched and whilst they are currently reaching I was taken to a slum which has been built to school. over 200 children, they know how many more they dangerously close to a railway line. There are huge TheYMCA is providing these children and could reach with more staff.With so many children piles of rubbish at one end of the slum; the only young people with an education outside of the being forced to work on the streets, going to bed place where people can deposit their household school system. They have two trained teachers hungry at night and never learning to read or write, waste. The houses are wooden shacks, big enough who run classes in Khmer and English.A volunteer there will always be many more who need our help. for barely one person, yet home to at least six. These also provides a hot nutritious meal each day.A shacks cost each family $10 (£6.70) a month in rent counsellor runs life skills sessions where young Phirun (pictured here with his younger sister) – a huge strain on the finances of a family with so people can talk about the challenges they face and used to live outside of the city, but because his many mouths to feed. how to cope with them. They live in a world where parents didn’t have enough work to support the it is easy for them to be exploited by adults – young family, he and his siblings were sent to live with people working on the streets face dangers such as his grandfather in Phnom Penh. violence, disease, the threat of trafficking or being But Phirun ended up becoming a rubbish picker forced into the sex trade. By talking through these because his grandfather couldn’t afford to feed them all. When he was working on the streets, he suffered difficult issues, theYMCA can prevent young from physical violence and older people would steal the people from getting into dangerous situations and money he earned from picking rubbish. Because he is so educate them about how to stay safe from bullying, small for his age, Phirun often felt scared on the streets. abuse and HIV/AIDS. He picked rubbish for two years before coming to the YMCA. Now the YMCA has taught him how to read and write Khmer and English, and he gets a daily meal. Phirun lives in the slum built beside the railway line. His house is too small for so many people and when it rains, the water comes through the roof, which means he can’t sleep. He says he is worried about Main picture: Phirun (featured on the front cover) with his his younger sisters and brothers who don’t have sister in his home. Top left: children collect rubbish from a enough food to eat. rubbish dump in Phnom Penh. Top right: the slum built dangerously close to a railway line.
12 INSIGHT THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL INSIGHT THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL 13 Words: Gemma Abbs and Luiza Sauma. Pictures: Sophie Wilmington
Long after an emergency or disaster ceases to be front-page news, we continue to support long-term programmes through our YMCA partners in some of the most disadvantaged places in the world.
Above left: A YMCA volunteer running recreational Care International has been working on activities with children in the village of Mazingo. Below: A house which hasn’t yet been rebuilt since the Tsunami. the Indonesian island of Nias since the 2004 Tsunami, supporting tens of thousands of Y people who lost their homes and livelihoods. Nias is an isolated island off the west coast of Sumatra; mainland Sumatra is at least a 12-hour boat ride away. After the People in Nias are living in abject poverty, in poor sanitary conditions and lacking access to clean drinking water. Over half of the islanders also have no electricity. The island was seriously affected by the Tsunami. Many buildings sustained earthquake damage and hundreds of people were left homeless. Just over a year s later, when they were still recovering, disaster struck headline again and Nias was hit by the Sumatran earthquake. Thousands of people lost their homes, over 800 people died and 2,000 were injured. Although there was an influx of NGOs and aid agencies following these disasters, conditions on the island remain dire. Many of the NGOs have now left or are reducing their activities. But there are so many issues to be faced in Nias that we are continuing our work through our partner, MedanYMCA.We began implementing a new three-year project in early 2009, to improve the health, education and livelihoods of children and young people in seven villages across the island. There is very little healthcare provision in Nias and mothers often lack awareness of child health, basic nutrition and hygiene. MedanYMCA has set up a Children’s Committee in each village, for mothers, volunteer teachers and nurses. These groups act as forums where mothers can come together to discuss the needs of their children. Two nurses visit each of the villages twice a week to provide basic medical treatment for children. They also identify children who are not being cared for properly and offer their mothers advice on basic hygiene, common ailments and how to improve their child’s nutrition. The nurses are already seeing the impact of their work, as the mothers are now making an effort to prepare nutritious meals. Although each village has a primary school, many children don’t attend school because their family can’t afford it.Although primary education is free, there are other costs involved, such as buying a school uniform. Alternative education classes are provided for children aged between one and 12 years old. Once a week, YMCA volunteers teach classes of 80 to 150 children. As a result of this, many of the children can now read and write and have developed greater self-confidence; a quality they will need to draw on as they face the challenges that lie ahead.
14 INSIGHT THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL INSIGHT THE MAGAZINE OF Y CARE INTERNATIONAL 15