Voices from the Field - IRC Blog

Trying to Save the World, One Congressman at a Time

Tim Lash - IRC — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:43:27 +0000

Andrea Romero

Guest post by Andrea Romero, IRC Advocacy Intern

From April to August of this year I worked as an unpaid intern in the Washington, D.C. office of the International Rescue Committee. I traveled to Washington from Stanford University where I am a student because of my interest in the IRC’s global humanitarian work. I joined the IRC’s government relations and advocacy team that works with – and attempts to influence – U.S. government agencies, Congress, and international agencies.

The job of our team is to understand the needs of people who have been uprooted by war, civil conflict or ethnic persecution and then lobby the U.S. government to come to their aid. We work to garner support for IRC programs and for the issues we care about: health care, child survival, stopping violence against women, post-conflict development, and good governance. And if that isn’t hard enough, we work with government officials who are notorious for having a short attention span for anything that’s not easily translatable into a five-second sound bite.

The most important lesson I learned while working in Washington, much to my surprise, is that the majority of Congress people are extremely accessible and ridiculously ordinary. I do not say this out of disrespect or to shock anyone, but only to say that our government is more democratic and open than I ever thought it could be. Anyone can walk into a government office, in their home district or in Washington, and set up a meeting with their senator, representative or a member of their staff.

This fact completely changed my idea of government being detached from everyday life. This is why the IRC has advocates on behalf of our humanitarian efforts in saving those who need it most. Some members of Congress care about nuclear warheads, others care about energy policy, healthcare, farmers, pets, or what have you. The IRC, in particular, seeks out Congress people and state officials that care about refugees and the other victims of war who are left displaced, vulnerable and in need of help.

That means whoever is working in our office is doing the best to set up every meeting, attend every forum, basically be everywhere at once where people gather to debate U.S. policy toward global hotspots, in order to prove to politicians that we are doing the best job in the whole world at protecting refugees and seeing that the world’s most vulnerable have a place to turn. The IRC and many other NGOs and government supported organizations all have an interest in influencing the debate on humanitarian issues.

What makes the IRC different? Call me crazy, but I think the IRC has some of the most educated, driven, experienced and well rounded people in Washington, DC. We are no nonsense. We get down to the nitty-gritty programming and execution. We have to communicate back and forth on the ground to countless countries where our personnel are hard at work, often risking their lives for the lives of others. Our experienced field workers are the cornerstone of our organization upon which we ground our advocacy. Before we speak, we want our work to precede us.

Even with all this on their plates, my colleagues somehow manage to stay sane. They are working, quite simply to save the world. And they know that as long as they keep pushing, progress can be made little by little. Ever so slowly, that battle for awareness or funds or equipment that initially seemed as steep as Mt. Everest becomes more like a rolling hill.

There are billions of ways we can make change just by speaking our minds about issues to government decision makers. If it’s not starting at a monetary donation, it’s creating ‘awareness’ — and from there, hopefully, information and involvement will spread like wildfire. It’s really that simple. Go figure.

A new way to heal / Boise

Wynne Boelt — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:47:59 +0000

Artwork created by a child resettled by the IRC in Boise Photo: The IRC

The IRC’s Boise office is helping refugee children cope with mental anguish and trauma in a new program that combines art therapy and a psychotherapy technique called Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing, or EDMR. The program gives small children who have fled war and persecution a chance to work through traumatic memories without actually having to talk about them.

IRC Boise resettlement director Leslye Boban told The Boise Weekly that she hopes the program can one day be used to help adults cope with trauma too. “We’re working with a counseling group to also do the same technique with the parents, because you can’t work with the kids and open them up like that and go home to a chaotic, unstable environment.”

Northern Iraq: Waiting to go home

jessmalter — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:26:37 +0000

Jessica Malter blogs from a region of Northern Iraq bordering Iran and Turkey where she joined an IRC team bringing clean water to displaced villagers.

In the remote Qandil mountain range in Northern Iraq, Turkey and Iran have been conducting military maneuvers to rid the region of Kurdish separatist groups believed to be based in the area. The ongoing bombing and shelling has terrified hundreds of villagers who live there, disrupting their tranquil way of life and sending them running.

Over the past several months 120 families have fled the fighting and are living in what has come to be known as the Mangory Bridge Camp.

“We hid in the caves around our villages for 20 days hoping the shelling and bombing would stop, but it only got worse so we came here,” Mer told me, pictured here with her daughter. “It is only a few hours from our home, but it is peaceful. Now we are just waiting. We want to go home as there is no life for us here, but it is still too dangerous.”

One of the biggest problems the families face in the camp is a lack of clean water. Warda, pictured outside of her hut, told me she thinks her daughter is sick from drinking dirty water.

“We know the water is dirty because we have to use it to wash clothes and dishes,” she says. “The children play in it and sometimes end up drinking it, even though we have told them not to.”

When the IRC learned that residents of the camp were in need of drinking water, they moved quickly to get three water tanks installed the area. The tanks were delivered the day I visited the camp and are being connected to a nearby spring, which will provide the much needed clean water.

The women in the camp say they are very happy about the arrival of the new water tanks. They say it will make their daily routine easier and will keep their children healthy. They say their main concern now is where they will go when they are forced to leave the Mangory Bridge Camp.

In a month’s time the water will rise and the families will have to abandon the area. “We don’t know where we will go if the bombing and shelling hasn’t stopped by then,” said Seimya, pictured on the right. “It would be best if we could go to the town a few miles away, but we have no money to pay for rent. We are hoping the local authorities will help and provide us with some simple houses if we can’t go home.”

After four months of being away from their village, the children in the camp are bored and desperate to get home. They say they have very little to do here and back home they can at least help their families tend to their sheep and crops and have more space to play. This summer, their main activity has been racing across the stream that runs through the camp.

With the new school year just weeks away, parents in the camp are extremely concerned about the children missing school. Some are wondering if they should take their chances and go back to their village or try to find a place to settle that’s close to a school that would welcome the children. The children are anxious about the situation as well. “I like school,” Peshraw told me. He’s the one on the far left. “I want to be there on the first day. I don’t want to fall behind.”

The IRC is now speaking with local authorities on behalf of the displaced villagers to try and come up with a relocation plan that will enable the children to attend school and provide a safe place for the families to live until the violence subsides and they can safely return home.

Georgia Crisis: A trip to Gori

Kate Sands Adams — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:45:00 +0000

The IRC surveys homes destroyed by recent bombings in Ruisi, one of the villages surrounding the town of Gori, in Georgia. Photo: Eric James/The IRC

Eric James The IRC

Eric James blogs from Tbilisi, Georgia, where he is coordinating International Rescue Committee programs for people uprooted by crisis in the region.

“We won’t go back until it’s safe,” is the refrain I hear every day from people who fled for their lives nearly three weeks ago amid intense fighting between Georgian, Russian and assorted other forces. Roughly 160,000 people are newly uprooted in addition to a sizeable group of 250,000 displaced from conflicts dating back to the 1990s. Those who fled the most recent crisis left with little more than the clothes on their backs. In some communities, 95% of the population hit the road. The city of Gori, which had 50,000 residents, is one such place. An hour west of the capital Tbilisi, we went there to see conditions this week and look at the possibility of helping people return and recover.

The main motor-route through Georgia, which connects the capital with the western part of the country, was busy with traffic on this day. There were large commercial trucks, mostly from Turkey, along with a number of security and aid vehicles. We also saw some displaced people returning to towns and villages that no doubt escaped major damage. On the horizon, a large black cloud rose from a train that had reportedly hit a landmine left by Russian forces.

Immediately upon entering Gori you can see bombed out apartment blocks. They are scorched black all over and turned inside out. Streams of paper and other personal belongings litter the front grounds. In the center of town, most buildings are intact, unlike the town centers just to the north in South Ossetia where there was heavy fighting. Instead, it seems that a few bombs were dropped here to scare people and make a point. Then, troops entered with their tracked vehicles, shooting buildings at random and ordering residents to leave. Apparently the threat from landmines in Gori has been assessed as “low” because troops did not have much time to place them. Yet we were told that a woman who was out picking grapes and two children had been killed by landmines only the day before.

Eric James (right) takes notes on what’s needed to help communities like this one in Gori rebuild. Photo: Jason Snuggs/The IRC

Gori and villages surrounding it are ever so slowly coming back to life. In the center of town we visited the City Hall. There, a hundred or more people, ready to go home, were waiting on the steps for buses to nearby villages. We talked to a few families who told us they are eager to restart their lives, but remain very worried about the future. “Look, the Russians are still only 7 kilometers away,” said one man with alarm.

Our team traveled further west to Ruisi, a village of 6,000 people. Already a dry place at this time of year, fields were burning and smoke was rising as we drove past scorched trees and underbrush. In Ruisi, we met with the mayor and talked about the crisis over homemade cherry juice. He told us that the fighting disrupted the farmers’ harvest. He also said the farmers are afraid to go to their land, which is so close to the Russian troops. On August 12th, the Russian military dropped several bombs in the area and then occupied Ruisi. The mayor took us to see one of the houses that was destroyed. It was a direct hit which made it look like Hollywood had done it up as a set. Part of the house was burnt and ripped open. The rest had been vaporized. Houses across the street were also badly damaged. We looked into one living room which had debris and dust everywhere. All glass was shattered and the ceiling sagged with its panels ripped apart. We met an elderly man and woman there. The man told us he was inside the house when the explosion happened. I imaged that his ears must still be ringing. The woman dressed in black, I suppose his wife, could only shake her head and motion to the ground and sky. “Why did they do this?” she finally asked.

Vote for two important refugee projects

The IRC — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:53:16 +0000

The IRC is supporting two projects nominated for the American Express “Members Project,” a charitable giving contest.Please vote to get them into the top 25 where they’ll have a chance for a share of $2.5 million in funding from American Express.

Malaria Prevention for Refugees in Thailand
Providing bed nets and other simple and cost-effective malaria control activities to significantly reduce the incidence of malaria among Burmese refugees in Thailand.
Vote for this project >

Refugee Career Development
Providing career development activities to increase job readiness, job retention and earning potential for newly arrived refugees in the U.S.
Vote for this project >

The deadline is next Monday, September 1, so please click now and vote!

Back to school for refugee kids in Atlanta

Wynne Boelt — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:39:08 +0000

IRC staff and volunteers in Atlanta stuffed backpacks with donated school supplies for refugee kids. Photos: Ashton Williams, Andrea Jones/The IRC

Going back to school is always an adjustment, especially for refugee children recently resettled in the United States. To help them start the school year, the IRC’s Atlanta resettlement office collected donated school supplies, stuffing 175 backpacks full of notebooks, pencils, glue, rulers and other essentials.

“Volunteers played a key role in gathering supplies, stuffing the bags and distributing them, as well as in getting community support for the project,” Ellen Beattie, the IRC resettlement director in Atlanta, says.

Ellen says the IRC’s goal is to give one backpack to every school-aged refugee child resettled by the IRC in Atlanta. This year the IRC expects to resettle some 250 refugee children in Atlanta.

Andrea Jones, IRC volunteer coordinator, helped to organize the supply drive and says it was great seeing some of the refugee children so happy with their new backpacks.

“To give a kid this full backpack, they open it up and some of the stuff, the glue they don’t really even know how to use it sometimes and it’s just so much fun to see kids excited about their education,” she told WAGA-TV, which reported on the supply drive (video).

How to get involved: There are various ways you can help the IRC help refugees adjust to new lives in 24 U.S. cities. Learn more here.

The siege of Sarajevo and beyond [IRC at 75]

Kate Sands Adams — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:15:37 +0000

A wounded Bosnian refugee boy Photo: The IRC

As we observe our 75th anniversary this year, IRC president George Rupp is blogging about one moment from our rich history each month.

Sarajevo. Winter 1993. The Bosnian capital is under siege by Serbian nationalist forces. Artillery pieces entrenched in the surrounding hills lob shells and mortars at hospitals, markets, and schools. From rooftops, snipers mow down civilians as they fill water buckets or line up for bread. All roads leading into the city are blocked, as are shipments of food and medicine. Water, electricity, and heat are cut off.In their offices in the heart of the beleaguered city, a small group of IRC aid workers hit upon an innovative plan: a seed distribution program to help the increasingly desperate Sarajevans grow fruits and vegetables in their backyards or apartment terraces. It is the first step in what will become the IRC’s most heroic relief effort—an effort that will continue for 14 years and involve lifesaving work throughout the Balkans.As one former IRC staff member in Sarajevo said at the time, “We were seeing an industrialized country descend into chaos. It was an environment for which none of us had any previous experience.”

In response, the IRC improvised and adopted unorthodox methods.

In order to cope with the logistics of moving tons of aid into battered Sarajevo, for example, the IRC contracted with local factories to produce as many supplies as possible inside the city. The IRC also provided seed grain to farmers to reduce the number of food convoys. In a city gripped by panic and starvation, this economic activity helped people to withstand some of the miseries and also helped them to resist fleeing their homes.

One project was deemed so risky few considered it feasible. Braving withering sniper fire, IRC engineers drew water from the Miljacka River, which winds through the center of Sarajevo, and piped it to safer areas of the city as drinking water. They hid the pumps and filter systems in tunnels to protect them from shelling. By August 1994, the daring project—which was funded by financier-philanthropist George Soros and enlisted the leadership of legendary disaster-relief engineer Fred Cuny—had succeeded in restoring water to Sarajevans’ taps. No longer would they have to dodge sniper fire while queuing up at dangerous central water taps.

Meanwhile, the engineers painstakingly repaired Sarajevo’s bombed out electrical and heating systems, projects that took two years to complete. Over 600 tons of supplies were transported over treacherous Mount Igman on a narrow, winding dirt track controlled by Serbian gunmen.

By the time the 1995 peace accords ended the siege of Sarajevo, the IRC had saved thousands of lives and brought food, water and light to the city’s populace.

We then shifted our focus to the victims of war and to destroyed communities in Bosnia and elsewhere in the Balkans.

In 1998, when clashes between advancing Serbian forces and rebels in Kosovo ignited the last of the Balkan wars, the IRC launched one of its largest aid programs, providing extensive humanitarian aid and repairing thousands of homes, electrical facilities, roads, hospitals and schools. The IRC distributed food and medicine to tens of thousands of people in Croatia, lent assistance to Serbian refugees fleeing Croatia and Bosnia, and established emergency aid and reconstruction programs in Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro

As peace gradually returned to the Balkans, the IRC began closing its programs, having assisted millions displaced by conflict. The IRC’s program in Serbia and Montenegro and Kosovo closed in 2004, followed by Croatia in 2005. The Bosnia program closed in April 2006.

The IRC’s years in the Balkans were without a doubt some of the finest in our history.

And that story has continued in the United States. Since 1993, the IRC has resettled 21,804 refugees from the Balkans here. Some have joined us as IRC staff members at our headquarters in New York and in many of our resettlement offices across the country. These cherished colleagues remind us every day of the IRC’s legacy in and from the Balkans.

Postscript: Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader who oversaw the killing of thousands of people by sniping and shelling in the siege of Sarajevo and later directed the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 men and boys, was arrested last month on war crimes charges after 13 years as a fugitive.

What makes a Ugandan warrior lay down his gun?

Joanne Offer — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:53:07 +0000

Women from an IRC peace committee sing a song about how raiding hurts communities and how peace can unite them instead. Photo: Joanne Offer/The IRC

Joanne Offer is in Uganda, where the International Rescue Committee is working with Ugandan communities affected by conflict as well as refugees from neighboring Sudan.

This piece was originally posted on Reuters AlertNet on 18 August. You can read all of Joanne’s posts from Uganda here.

What makes a warrior lay down his gun? I got the intriguing chance to find out when I met the Nadunget peace committee – a group of 40 or so men and women, many of whom were once involved in or affected by armed raids, but who now promote peace across Moroto district in the Karamoja region of northern Uganda.

The committee members go to nearby villages to sing peace songs, play out dramas and use their own experiences to explain why fighting benefits no one. Women who’ve been widowed by raiding talk of the emotional and financial hardship of losing their loved ones. Children who’ve been orphaned tell others that life is precious. It’s heartbreaking stuff to hear.

It’s quite a culture shift for many of the committee, which is one of nine formed with the help of aid agency International Rescue Committee (IRC) to maintain peace in a region formerly troubled with violent raids to steal cattle.

As one man told me: “I was only young when I started going on raids. I was in Primary 2 when my father told me to stop going to school. He said there was another school in the bush where I could get a real education. So I started raiding.

“Between 50 to 100 of us used to go on a raid together. We were indestructible. Me, I used a big gun and it felt great. I was ready to shoot and I had a lot of bullets.”

So what made the difference? How does a former warrior end up on an IRC peace committee? It’s clear that it wasn’t an overnight change for these men, but they slowly realised that raiding was destroying their communities.

“Guns have finished many of our people,” says one man, “we’ve all lost someone in the raids.”

Another committee member tells me: “In the past, people raided because of poverty, and it’s still a huge problem in our area. But I tell them that we should look at our neighbours. They’ve done better than us because businesses have gone there. Businesses won’t come here because they are scared of raids.”

Big-scale raids are now more unusual in Karamoja, although there’s still a threat from smaller groups of thieves. These thieves are often young men, struggling to survive in a region hit by drought and with few opportunities to make a living. But maybe the committees can help to persuade them that the gun is not the answer.

Swimming lessons for refugee kids / Phoenix

Wynne Boelt — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:35:06 +0000

Burundian refugee children in Phoenix take a summer water safety class. Photo: The IRC

Since 2007 the International Rescue Committee has partnered with the Foundation for Aquatic Safety and Training (FAST) to teach refugees about water safety. 236 swimmers, including two Bhutanese refugees resettled by the IRC in Phoenix, set a new Guinness World Record for most participants to swim one pool length each in one hour on August 10 as part of the Kids Saving Kids Relay, which raised funds and awareness for FAST.

Joe Zemaitis, FAST founder and president, answers questions about FAST, its partnership with the IRC’s Phoenix refugee resettlement office, and breaking the world record:

Why did you start FAST?

The idea came from one of my swimmers, Braxton Bilbrey, who at age eight became the youngest swimmer to complete the swim in San Francisco Bay from Alcatraz. Braxton’s goal was to help stop kids from dying in pools in the community. FAST developed soon after.

Swim safety class in Phoenix. IRC photo

How did you become involved with the IRC’s resettlement office in Phoenix?

Lori Lause, the mother of a swimmer I coach brought us the idea of outreaching to the refugee community in Phoenix. We learned that most refugee families live in apartments with swimming pools. Refugee children, however, have had an extremely limited exposure to pools and open water. With regard to drowning prevention it is tremendously important to teach these children, who don’t know how to swim and are in particularly risky situations, about water safety.

Do you plan to continue to work with IRC teaching refugee children?

Absolutely, we have had such an outpouring of community support for this project in particular. The Phoenix-based Hubbard Swim School has given us 100% support, by offering a location for the class to take place, as well as suits for the kids courtesy of Bob Hubbard. It has been remarkably rewarding for the kids, and it works both ways. It is fun for me to see our competitive swimmers’ growth through teaching this program and so many refugees grow through learning and building confidence on both ends.

What was the Kids Saving Kids Relay?

The Kids Saving Kids Relay was an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for most participants to swim one length each in one hour. The record was previously held by a group from England with 204 participants. We intended to top that record by one, with 205 participants, but we were extremely pleased with our success of 236 swimmers in one hour, two of which were refugees resettled by the IRC.

Why did you want to break the world record?

We saw a great opportunity to raise awareness because August is Drowning Impact Awareness Month in Phoenix, and with the Olympic Games happening, it seemed like a perfect fit. But the world record here is really just Phase One. In 2009, on May 1 and 2, FAST will host another Guinness World Record attempt for most people swimming one length in a 24 hour relay. This event will require the participation of over 3200 people. As a truly community-wide effort we will raise a great deal of awareness for drowning prevention.

Missing persons / North Ossetia

Peter Biro — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:42:49 +0000

Photo: Thomas Hill/The IRC

The IRC’s Caucasus director Thomas Hill took this picture of South Ossetian refugees looking at lists of missing persons outside a shelter in neighbouring North Ossetia. On 12 August, Hill traveled with a group of colleagues from the North Caucasus aid community to assess refugee needs in Alagir, an industrial town west of the North Ossetian capital Vladikavkaz. Alagir is one of the first entry points for the many thousands of refugees who have poured over the border from the embattled Georgian enclave.

How You Can Help: Donate now to help the IRC assist victims of the crisis in the Georgia region and other displaced people around the world.