While the ongoing El Niño has been impacting countries across the globe, in Zimbabwe, a country where 72 percent of the people live in chronic poverty and 70 percent rely on rain-fed agriculture to survive, the impacts of the prolonged drought and repeated crop failures have been severe.
“Look at my children: they have nothing:” Hard Times for Burundian Refugees in DRC
In March 2015, the first Burundian refugees began arriving in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), fleeing persecution and fearing an all-out war at home. Since then, just over 20,000 have come – a relatively small number, compared with today’s other refugee crises. But donors and the United Nations have struggled to meet the needs, leaving many refugees feeling frustrated and abandoned.
The Difference a Market Makes: The Case of Syrian Refugee Camps in Jordan
A refugee camp is a place of harsh contradictions – one that is temporary yet protracted, vast yet overcrowded, and fluctuating yet stagnant. A place for the displaced, but where they are hijacked of their basic means of living.
Amal, a Young Dinka Tribesman of Sudan
While teaching at Pima College, I had the honor of working with Amal, a young Dinka tribesman from Sudan. As an assignment, I asked my students to document their unique cultural geography. However difficult it was for Amal to discuss what he and his people experience, he put it in words. Amal has sadly passed away since the assignment. However, I would like to share his story.
Boko Haram – One Survivor’s Story
I met Amara earlier this week in the office of a local grassroots organization in Borno state’s capital, Maiduguri. Amara, a pretty, cherub-faced girl, was accompanied by her mother with whom she had been reunited just six weeks prior, after a one year-long separation. Their separation was not voluntary. Over a year ago, Amara had…
The Ones That Got Away
Since 2009, Boko Haram insurgents have been terrorizing civilians in northeastern Nigeria. The group gained international notoriety when they abducted hundreds of girls from a school in Chibok, in Borno State, and over the years has abducted thousands of men, women, boys, and girls to use as soldiers and sex slaves. An estimated two million…
Nigeria’s Forgotten Crisis
I am in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State, and the home to approximately 1.6 million people who have been displaced by the terrorist group Boko Haram. For the past few days, I have been meeting with some of those displaced, and hearing their stories of the attacks that forced them to flee.
Disable And Displaced: The Plight Of Somalia’s Most Vulnerable
Despite the overwhelming local and international aid organizations working in southern and central Somalia, there is not a single one dedicated to supporting disabled people, only small, self-organized groups of disabled people advocating for their rights
The Great Walk Now or Never
The black rubber dinghy had just landed on Mytileni’s rocky beach on the Isle of Lesvos, Greece. The 41 people crammed precariously dropped their orange life jackets and looked around to make surefriends and relatives had gotten to shore.
Europe’s Refugee Crisis: A Melting Pot of Governments, Politics, and People on the Move
As of November 19, more than 850,000 refugees and migrants arrived by sea into Europe this year, and more than 80 percent of them — around 735,000 — through Greece. While the majority are Syrian, there are also asylum seekers from many countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, Somalia, and Morocco. In addition to war,…