Residents of war-torn South Sudan are enduring “unspeakable abuse and violence” as well as the threat of famine, said a report from the International Rescue Committee. From AFP:
“Yet again we are seeing a humanitarian catastrophe where the most vulnerable are bearing the lethal brunt of a man-made political crisis that must be resolved immediately,” IRC president David Miliband said.
“Other global crises and the narrow avoidance of famine this year are no excuse for policymakers to allow this emergency to drift into the ‘too difficult box’. The civilian population is systematically targeted with unspeakable abuse and violence and near constant threat of looming starvation while the parties to the conflict re-arm.”
The IRC report detailed food shortages and rising food prices that are “threatening tens of thousands of children with starvation”, “shocking failings to prevent ethnic slaughter and sexual violence”, aid agencies unable to reach hundreds of thousands of people and the country left with a “dangerous dependency on aid”.
“Without an end to conflict… the crisis in South Sudan will turn into a hopeless cycle of aid dependency, ethnic slaughter and shameful sexual violence,” it said, calling the situation “desperate”.
According to the IRC’s Melanie Teff, many South Sudanese said they had “suffered and witnessed even greater horrors than during their country’s many decades of wars with the north.”
—————————————-
Global Health and Development Beat
The United Nations said it has sent its first aid convoy from Sudan into South Sudanese territory, with enough supplies to feed 45,000 people for a month.
A World War One British soldier – long after his death – may provide clues to finding new treatments and a possible vaccine for dysentery. The disease continues to be a major problem in developing countries due to unsanitary conditions and conflict.
Mali is preparing to release 108 people from Ebola quarantine in a tentative step towards declaring it has contained an outbreak.
Doctors Without Borders called Monday for a change of strategy in the fight against Ebola in Liberia, to fund rapid response teams rather than huge isolation units.
The United States has opened the first of 17 Ebola treatment units it is building in Liberia.
Musician and philanthropist Bob Geldof, who in 1984 inspired a generation of rock stars to record a charity single for Africa, will raise money to combat Ebola with a new version of the song.
Google launched a campaign Monday to raise money to fight Ebola, tossing $10 million into the pot and saying it will match donations to the fund two to one.
WFP says it has enough donations to stay open in North Korea for the rest of this year but is uncertain whether it will be able to operate there beyond next March.
The FAO warns that an additional $38.5 million in support is urgently needed to prevent Iraq’s agricultural sector from collapsing and an already-worrisome food security situation from further degenerating.
—————————————-
Spotlight on PSI
Samrawit Gougsa describes a recent call with PSI Ambassador Mandy Moore, Mom Bloggers for Social Good Founder Jennifer James and PSI Vice President of External Relations and Communications Marshall Stowell on their recent trip to Tanzania. From the blog:
“I think it’s really about our support and our voices helping to mobilize health workers around the world,” said Mandy to those who dialed in, which included members of Mom Bloggers For Social Good and the ONE Campaign’s Girls and Women Team, “so that when a baby is born or where a woman lives doesn’t have to dictate how many years she will live.”
Several of the participants submitted questions, such as a blogger from Bizmommy.com who asked if Mandy or Jennifer witnessed any government or religious group resistance to contraception education in Tanzania. “I saw actually no resistance,” Jennifer answered. “[It was] great to see these women knew they had options, knew that they could get whatever birth control they wanted. They could space births and therefore have more options for their lives.”
Go here to listen to audio clips from the conversation.
—————————————-
Buzzing in the Blogs
USAID’s DART team leader Bill Berger tells photojournalist Morgana Wingard that the Ebola crisis requires a lot of learning to respond. From the USAID Impact blog:
“There is no book on responding to this Ebola crisis… we’re writing it now,” says Bill Berger, Team Leader for the Ebola Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) in West Africa.
A seasoned disaster expert, Bill has responded to more than 30 large-scale emergencies across the globe and led several DARTs for USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance.
But how exactly are Bill and his team fighting this unprecedented Ebola epidemic?
“Day by day, pushing at a maximum speed on all fronts,” he says, and with every ounce of compassion and disaster knowledge they have.
As the DART Team Leader, Bill strategizes alongside the local governments and U.S. Ambassadors in the affected countries, the United Nations and NGO partners on the ground to mount the most effective aid effort possible. With Ebola, there are many complex technical pieces that need to come together to help save lives.
“We know the basic things that need to happen, such as building treatment centers, training health care workers, providing testing capabilities and coordination — but we also have a real opportunity here to transfer that capacity and boost national health care systems in West Africa.”
The DART is working across the region in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – each a unique country with its own dynamic for responding to Ebola. While there are challenges of navigating unknown territory for this unprecedented crisis, Bill draws strength from having the opportunity to help those affected by this tragedy. He’s also inspired by his team and the chance they have to contribute to such a critical and historic global issue together.
“Every DART is like living a full lifetime; you have many experiences and feelings in a short period, with so much confronting you daily,” he says. “Working with others during a crisis brings about wonderful and special bonds.”
—————————————-
Capital Events
Tuesday
6:00 PM – Africa: Crisis or Rise? – SAIS
7:00 PM – A Conversation on USAID’s Women’s Empowerment Initiatives in Afghanistan – Elliott School
Wednesday
8:00 AM – 2014 Global Security Forum – CSIS
9:00 AM – Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education: Lessons Learned from a Decade of Research and Practice in the Asia-Pacific Region – SID
3:30 PM – The Ebola Crisis: U.S. Leadership and International Response (feat. USAID Admin Shah) – Brookings
Thursday
12:30 PM – Launch Briefing: Critical Opportunities to Consolidate Gains in Madagascar – Search for Common Ground
5:30 PM – The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: Life in Biomedical Science – Fulbright Canada
Friday
9:00 AM – Mexico’s Energy Reforms: Tracking Progress – Wilson Center
—————————————-
By Mark Leon Goldberg and Tom Murphy
Subscribe to receive the Daily Impact in your inbox each morning!
Have a news or story tip? Email us at [email protected].
Disclaimer: Opinions presented in this email do not necessarily reflect the views of PSI.