The Mercy Corps Blog

Blog Post Posted October 23, 2009, 3:50 pm by Dan Sadowsky

A mother in search of peace

Isdud Al Najjar manages Mercy Corps' programs in Gaza. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

It's big news around the Portland headquarters this week that one of our most senior field workers, Isdud Al-Najjar, is in town. That's because her home is in the Gaza Strip, where the odds of getting out are about the same as winning Powerball.

For Isdud and her four-month-old son, Mahmoud, to make it this far required both political muscle — the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem intervened with the Israelis on her behalf — and patience. Bureaucratic delays caused her to miss a gathering of Mercy Corps leaders from all over the world held here earlier in the week.

But she got here in time to receive the Ells Culver Leadership Award, named for our late co-founder, for steering the agency's emergency response to the 22-day Israel-Hamas conflict that broke out last December. We transported and distributed more than $1 million of food, non-food items and medical supplies to the Gaza Strip.

This afternoon she spoke to a packed conference room of Mercy Corps employees, laying out Gaza's dire economic circumstances: 80 percent of the population in poverty. About half unemployed. Fishing, farming and industrial output ground nearly to a halt; she estimates 5,000 factories have shuttered since June 2007, when Israel imposed its ongoing blockade of construction materials.

Today, Isdud and her team — now 50 strong — are helping Gazans make ends meet. Putting people to work making snacks for preschoolers and sewing school uniforms. Offering psychosocial counseling to young people and their parents who witnessed the horrors of the conflict. Helping young Gazans leap across their closed border by connecting them online with peer groups in the Middle East and the U.S.

These programs have made Mercy Corps one of the most transparent and accountable humanitarian-aid outfits in the Strip, Isdud told us. But her fellow Gazans, she reminded us, would much rather hold a job than take a handout. "Humanitarian assistance is required. But a political solution is the most important thing to us."

She'll have a chance to press her case next week in Washington, where our advocacy staff has lined up meetings with Members of Congress and State Department officials. She kept her Mercy Corps audience spellbound for an hour with a single Powerpoint slide (a map of Gaza). With luck, this 33-year-old mother of three will have the same effect on our nation's policymakers.

Because for all our missteps in the Middle East, Gazans still pin their hopes on us. Their initial burst of optimism about Obama may have faded, Isdud said, but they remain hopeful that this administration will broker a political solution. "There is still time," she says. "We will see."

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Blog Post Posted August 21, 2009, 10:15 am by Dan Sadowsky

Displaced Pakistanis head home

Here's the latest from our team in Pakistan, which continues to help families from northwest Pakistan displaced earlier this year by the fighting between Taliban militants and the Pakistan army.

Nine-year-old Zafar Ali left his home in the district of Dir when fighting broke out between the Pakistan army and Taliban militants. Zafar was one of more than 1,300 kids who participated in a Mercy Corps program to provide a variety of games and toys to displaced children under the supervision of community volunteers. Photo: Mercy Corps

An average of 500 to 1,500 displaced families are returning to their homes each day. According to government data, 228,768 families of the 329,000 "verified" as displaced have returned to their homes in the districts of Swat, Buner and Dir.

Despite the high volume of returnees, the security situation in parts of Swat and Buner remains tenuous. While most of the major roads are open for traffic, reports of armed Taliban along the periphery are common. The military continues to conduct operations in many parts of Swat. Despite these risks, people are returning home to start rebuilding their lives and livelihoods.

We've sent several assessment teams to Swat to determine how we can best support returning families. In Mingora, we are working to improve water supply for more than 25,000 people. And we've submitted a proposal to bring clean water, improved sanitation and employment assistance to more residents of the district.

Our activities for displaced youth engaged a total of 642 boys and 743 at six locations. Under the same project, six nutrition trainings for 241 mothers. The tents, chairs, tables, whiteboards and electric fans were handed over to the schools, and the kids were allowed to take home toys and sports equipment.

We improved sanitation conditions and water access for 400 families living in 22 schools and one "spontaneous camp." Our teams constructed or rehabilitated 18 wells handpumps, 55 latrines, 61 bathrooms, 38 washing platforms, 14 drainage facilities, 27 waste-bins and 13 electric water coolers. They also distributed 16,000 water purification tablets, 400 hygiene kits, and 300 buckets and ablution pots.

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Blog Post Posted July 16, 2009, 10:00 am by Dan Sadowsky

Update from Pakistan

Holden Basch is leading our emergency response to the Pakistan IDP crisis.

Holden Basch is visiting our Portland headquarters this week after spending the last two months running our emergency program in Pakistan for families displaced by fighting between the army and Taliban militants.

Our short-term programs there continue to aid families living far from home: We're making improvements to water and sanitation systems at overcrowded schools, providing kids with structured activities and safe places to play, and staffing birthing clinics and mobile health teams to treat pregnant women.

Some families have begun moving back home, and we're planning to follow them to ensure they recover their livelihoods after several months in limbo.

Basch, who previously worked for Mercy Corps in Helmand, Afghanistan, reflected on the crisis and our work.

Q. Reuters reported today that, "The Swat exodus was one of the biggest human migrations of recent times." Did it feel like that on the ground?
It is not immediately visible because so many people were absorbed by local communities. When we did distributions I saw 3,000 people in one place, but generally you didn't see that kind of "television" moment. With 80 percent of the people staying with host families, you don't see the displacement as a collection of people in one place.

Q. What did you think of the phenomenon of people sheltering strangers in their home?
It's amazing. Most of the people were sustained by the communities where they took shelter. It wasn't NGOs, it wasn't the Pakistan government, it wasn't the UN. It was the Pakistan community helping them. When you think that 80 percent of the people found a home, that's pretty amazing. I couldnt imagine it happening in the U.S. or in most other places in the world.

Q. The government is beginning to send home about 2 million people, according to news reports. Is this happening?
The government is cutting some services in the camps, and people are getting tired of staying there because it's hot and uncomfortable and the rains will start soon. They're thinking it's better to take a chance and go home. We haven't yet seen people going back in the same numbers that are being reported. Even if the government is starting to provide transportation for people back to their villages, when you think of the logistics, even if 10,000 people returned each day, it's going to take months to move millions of people.

Q. The programs we have are all due to end in the next two months, but do any of them provide a disincentive for families to return home?
No. It's not like Sudan, where people were so badly off that the camps are better places to live than their homes they left behind. Most of the families who've been displaced in Pakistan had a decent life, clearly better than where they have taken shelter, regardless of what we can offer them.

Q. One of our biggest emergency relief programs was distributing cash vouchers to more than 21,000 families. That seemed to go really well.
It was very successful, and somewhat of a new wave in development work. When you're working in a place where the banks are functioning, the shops have something to sell, why disrupt the market by trucking in food or non-food items like mosquito nets or mattresses. With cash, people get to decide for themselves what they need most. It’s good for the people who are displaced, and it's good for the local economy and the communities that are sustaining the displaced.

Q. What kinds of things will Mercy Corps try to do as people return home?
We have started assessing the areas that were abandoned to prepare for the returnees. What we'll have to do is look at how to help them regain a steady livelihood. There might be some animal health initiatives to help replace livestock that was abandoned or sold as people fled. We could also look at doing something to help the farmers who missed an entire harvest. But most projects will be connected to livelihoods.

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Blog Post Posted July 10, 2009, 1:50 pm by Dan Sadowsky

Update on kids' psychosocial program

A quick update of the numbers on our kids' psychosocial program:

So far we've distributed 14 tents measuring 75 feet square to shelter children and provide safe play areas in a half-dozen locations. We've enrolled nearly 1,400 children in the program, and provided them with toys and sports equipment. And we've trained 30 onsite monitors on how to work with children to relieve stress and offer them positive outlets.

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Blog Post Posted June 19, 2009, 10:45 am by Dan Sadowsky

Displacement figure tops 3.5 million

From the latest situation report submitted by our emergency-response team in Pakistan:

Government of Pakistan figures show the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has risen to an estimated 3.584 million.

The situation still remains unpredictable. Many civilians are trapped in the conflict zone and unable to move, and on the other hand, small numbers of IDPs have left camps and returned to villages.

75-80% of the IDPs remain out of camp. The absorptive capacity of host communities is severely strained. To date, most IDPs living outside of camps have received little or no assistance.

Reports are that temperatures in tents for IDPs in camps are unbearable. However, Monsoon rains are not far away — predicted late June, early July. This will add a new set of challenges, mostly to camps, but also to other IDP communities.

We've distributed cash vouchers to more than 18,000 registered IDP families. With our disbursement systems strongly in place, we plan to achieve the goal of 20,000 families by Tuesday.

We've identified 20 locations and on-site child monitors for our youth psychosocial program. Staff have been hired. Procurement of tents, floor mats, art, sports equipment and games should be completed by Saturday. Nutrition training for trainers to begin Monday and will be conducted by our Islamabad-based health team.

A workplan for improving water access and santitation at schools overcrowded with IDPs has been finalized; work begins next week.

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Blog Post Posted June 12, 2009, 9:12 am by Dan Sadowsky

Questions for Holden Basch

Holden Basch is leading our emergency response to the Pakistan IDP crisis.

This morning I talked with Holden Basch, who is leading our response to the Pakistan displacement crisis. He spent Friday in a village called Lundkwahr, speaking to displaced families to whom we'd given $45 vouchers to buy food, clothing and other essentials. It was about 9:30 p.m. local time in Islamabad when I spoke with him.

How many cash vouchers have we handed out so far?
We've distributed vouchers to about 10,000 people, mostly IDPs but also some host families. We'll distribute to the remaining 10,000 IDPs whom MC has registered next week.

The vouchers are exchanged at our distributions for bank checks that are redeemed at local banks.

Our distributions have been orderly because we first register the IDPs and provide them with vouchers to exchange at our distributions. This prevents a rush of unexpected people showing up, but in any distribution there is the possibility of chaos.

What have people been using the money for?
According to the group we talked to today, the majority bought food. The second-most mentioned items were clothing and medicine. And the third was kitchenware and local transport.

Mercy Corps is disbursing cash vouchers to families affected by the fighting between the Army and Taliban insurgents. At this distribution in the Mardan District, men are holding vouchers which are redeemed for a $45 check the next day. Photo: Holden Basch/Mercy Corps

Where are we focusing our efforts?
We're staying out of the official camps because they're getting so much attention. We're working mainly in schools, which have become sort of informal camps. And we also go to the host families, people who are taking on two, three, four families. We find them through community leaders and local organizations.

How are people faring?
Considering what they've gone through, they're managing well. But you can see tempers getting short, people are tired, some people are looking thin, beards are a bit untrimmed, clothing looks a bit worn.... It's just getting progressively harder for people, and not enough aid is getting to IDPs living outside the camps.

What are the issues for families taking shelter in schools?
One big problem is that these schools were set up to take 50-60 students a day, and now they've got hundreds of families living in them. The water tanks don't hold enough water, the pumps are broken, latrines are overflowing, so people have stopped using the latrines and are now using the school grounds for open defecation.

We don't know how long people will be there, so we don't want to go in and start digging new wells, or making permanent and dramatic changes to the school grounds. But there are pumps on wells that have broken or need repairing, or we can build separate wash stations so people aren't washing baby clothes and eating utensils in the same area. We're looking for the simplest and quickest ways to remedy the water and sanitation problems. We're working on improvements that will benefit close to 6,000 people.

Voucher distributions are segregated by gender: women collect their checks, then the men. And women only show up when no men in their household are available. Photo: Holden Basch/Mercy Corps

What's the sense of when displaced families might be able to return home?
Well for a while, people were talking about "early return," and the government was trying to encourage people to come back and saying they'd restart electricity and gas service. But there is fear that there's still a lot of Taliban hiding in the countryside, and when Pakistan Army pulls out the Taliban will return.

So we're seeing some hesitation on the part of the IDP families. They are living in unpleasant conditions. The fact that they're not going back says there's still security concerns.

Our best guess is that these families will stay until at least mid-July, but longer wouldn’t surprise us. By July the weather will start getting really hot — families from Swat are used to cooler weather — and the monsoon season will be right around the corner, so it's possible they'll decide to pack it in and try their luck back home. But we just don't know. They may just decide its better to suffer the weather than return.

Anything else you'd like to mention?
It's not easy to register 20,000 IDPs as quickly as we have under these conditions. They're hidden in houses, they're in schools, scattered in area of several kilometers in one community. And then to set up distributions for up to 3,000 people a day, at maybe five different locations, and make sure everything is orderly. The host communities have been very helpful, and our emergency-response team here deserves a lot of credit. We've been working 16-hour days, seven days a week to get it done.

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Blog Post Posted June 11, 2009, 12:19 pm by Dan Sadowsky

Updates from Pakistan

Our team in Pakistan continues to distribute $45 vouchers for families living in schools, public buildings and makeshift camps to buy what they need. We distributed checks to 1,250 families on Saturday, as well as another 1,550 on Monday.

We're also assessing where we can improve the overburdened water and sanitation situation at some of the schools where displaced families are staying. Some of these same schools are being evaluated for youth psychosocial program sites. We're selecting 10 schools where we'll be organizing activities for displaced children.

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Blog Post Posted June 5, 2009, 2:41 pm by Dan Sadowsky

Helping kids displaced in Pakistan

Mercy Corps has begun providing sports and social activities to 1,200 displaced school-age children in Pakistan. Our goal is to provide kids in 20 schools-turned-displacement-camps with positive activities during the day, and reduce the stress associated with fleeing their homes to uncomfortable and unfamiliar surroundings.

The three-month program will take place in three communities in the Mardan District of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, where fighting between the Army and Taliban militants has displaced more than 2.6 million people.

Each child will receive an activity kit that includes a backpack, crayons and paper. We're also giving each of the 10 schools money to purchase additional materials — such as puzzles, sports equipment and art supplies — and to erect a shelter for shade.

Another part of the program involves dispensing health and nutrition advice to 500 parents. This will include cooking demonstrations using local flavors and available resources to demonstrate simple and economical food choices — such as making chapatti, porridge, pakora and halwa.

The program will draw heavily from past experience after earthquakes in China and Peru. Our "Moving Forward" methodology uses sport, local games and dance to help alleviate the grief and trauma children suffer as a result of natural disaster and conflict.

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Blog Post Posted May 29, 2009, 9:09 am by Dan Sadowsky

Rising temperatures exacerbate displacement crisis

Our team reports that the coming days will bring searing temperatures to areas heavily populated by displaced families. Reports that temperatures in tents for IDPs in camps are unbearable.

The cooling monsoon rains are not far away; they're expected to start in late June or early July. But this will add a new set of challenges and could exacerbate already-poor conditions in camps and other spontaneous settlements (schools and open fields, for example), especially if it causes flooding.

Other news from our response team today:

• The number of IDPs in North West Frontier Province now numbers more than 2.65 million (including 500,000 people displaced before this month)
• Pakistan has requested international assistance to help with the IDP crisis, but to date has received only about one-fifth of their funding request.
• Needs remain in all sectors of emergency response: health, water and sanitation, food, essential non-food items such as soap and bedding, and psychosocial assistance.

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Blog Post Posted May 27, 2009, 12:40 pm by Dan Sadowsky

Taking steps to help pregnant women

Mercy Corps staff distribute cash vouchers to families affected by violence in Pakistan. Photo: Holden Basch/Mercy Corps

We issued a news release today detailing the nearly $1.2 million grant we received from the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. The money will help us deliver cash vouchers to 120,000 people over the next four months.

We're also taking steps to help some of the estimated 70,000 pregnant women who've been displaced by the current fighting. These efforts make sense given our current health work in Pakistan, which includes running nutrition programs to help new mothers and underweight infants.

Our plan now is to set up a number of birthing stations in Mardan to help deliver babies and provide post-natal support to mothers. Stay tuned.

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