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Blog Posts by Melanie Teff

Uganda: Donors must step up to help agencies address domestic violence
July 29, 2008 Melanie Teff Uganda

On our mission to northern Uganda we were told that the biggest immediate danger for women in the displacement camps is domestic violence. My colleague, Camilla Olson and I heard that the stressful overcrowded conditions in camps and the lack of livelihood opportunities for men and women contribute to this violence, which puts the physical and mental health of so many women at serious risk.
Northern Uganda: Mixed messages in uncertain times
June 24, 2008 Melanie Teff Uganda
These are confusing times for people in northern Uganda. We have been here only one week, and have already heard so many contradictory statements. We can only imagine how difficult it must be for local people to decide which messages to believe.
Dominican Republic: Of Baseball Players and Migration Laws
May 28, 2008 Melanie Teff Dominican Republic, Statelessness
The New York Times recently highlighted the story of a young Dominican baseball player, Ángel Luis Joseph, who had been offered a contract by the San Francisco Giants. Sadly he lost this contract because the Dominican civil registry office refused to give him an official copy of his birth certificate, without which he could not get a passport or US visa.
Dominican Republic: Will All Dominicans Be Able To Vote on May 16?
May 02, 2008 Melanie Teff Dominican Republic, Statelessness
Imagine living in a country all your life and believing you are a citizen of that country. Then, when going to renew some documents, you are informed that your birth certificate and identity document were given to you by mistake and all your documents are invalid since they are “under investigation”. That is what is happening now to many people in the Dominican Republic.
Southern Sudan: “They call us the ‘after peace’ people”
February 06, 2008 Melanie Teff
Yesterday we met with a group of young Sudanese people who had spent most of their lives as refugees in Uganda because of the war in their country. They recently returned home to southern Sudan after the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was reached between North and South Sudan. They had all grown up in refugee settlements in Uganda, and they talked about their appreciation of the schooling they had been able to receive because of international humanitarian assistance to the refugees in Uganda. But they emphasized the fact that life had not been easy for them as refugees.