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The IRC's Roxanne Paisible and Pierre Clavens Jean Marie during an activity
One of the groups working on sexual violence issues develops talking points
The IRC's Anne-Carine Larèche (left) with representatives of Kay Famn Limye Lavi
Serge André-Louissaint of CHREDHU and Cleanne Louissaint of SOFA present
Natalie Parke shows Haiti advocacy workshop
A group presentation on gender based violence advocacy strategy.
The group gave the workshop high marks. One participant said, “We like the IRC approach because it reinforces local efforts and works in partnership with them.”

Advocacy in Haiti

Haiti
02.17.2011

In January, the IRC hosted an advocacy workshop in Port-au-Prince for our local partners and their Haitian staff members working on clean water, health, and women’s and children’s issues. The workshop was part of an IRC initiative that seeks to bolster Haiti’s civil society organizations.

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Phung worked as an electrician in Burma before coming to Charlottesville as a refugee in August 2009. He now works as a Grill Cook at UVA’s Runk Dining Hall and hopes to go into electrical work again in the future.
Clementine, originally from Rwanda, is a very hard worker. She currently works at the University of Virginia Hospital and is pursuing her Associate's Degree at the local community college.
Before he started interpreting for the US Army in Iraq in 2004, Zouzek studied nursing. Here in Charlottesville, Zouzek works as a medical technician at Morningside Assisted Living and frequently serves as an Arabic Interpreter for the IRC.
Phul Maya, a refugee from Bhutan, spoke no English when she first arrived with her family in January 2009. Phul now works as a Housekeeper at the Hampton Inn and her English has dramatically improved.
After fleeing Sierra Leone, Joseph was resettled in Charlottesville by the IRC in 2004. That year, he began working at the Omni Hotel as a Bell Attendant and has worked there ever since. When asked about Joseph, the Omni's HR Manager said, “Having a diverse workforce has made a very positive impact on our entire staff and has been a win-win situation!”
As a Burmese refugee in the Tham Hin Camp in Thailand, Joyna worked as a nurse for Doctors Without Borders. Now, Joyna enjoys her work as a full-time Housekeeper at the Doubletree Hotel in Charlottesville.
Ahmad arrived in Charlottesville in June of 2009 after fleeing Iraq. He now works at the University of Virginia Hospital transporting patients by stretcher and wheelchair.
Byu Lar and her husband arrived in Charlottesville from Burma with their four children and little English between them. Now, Byu Lar is working as a Table Attendant at UVA’s Runk Dining Hall.

Refugees at Work in Charlottesville

US - Charlottesville, VA
02.04.2011

The IRC in Charlottesville provides vocational counseling, resume preparation, job search and placement services, and financial assistance to refugees with the goal of helping them find their first job in America.  For many refugees, earning a livelihood is not only essential to gaining control over their future, but vital to regaining a sense of personal dignity.  Hundreds of refugees have become valued members of Charlottesville's workforce by contributing their diverse skills to over sixty local employers.

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Ma Aye Myint and Pa Pu Yu, Burmese refugees in New York City
Map of Thailand and Myanmar
Mae La refugee camp in Thailand near the Thailand, Myanmar border
Ma Aye Myint, Pa Pu Yu, Ler Pwe Htoo, Mya Thein and Saw Paw Kay at JFK airport
Pa Pu Yu and Ma Aye Myint share photos of their daughters and grandchildren
Burmese refugee Pa Pu Yu rides a New York City bus
Ma Aye Myint tries out an electronic fare card in the New York City subway.
Burmese refugee Ma Aye Myint at her new home in the Bronx
Kids at their new home in the Bronx
International Rescue Committee's Dah Thu checks in on the Mynt family
An International Rescue Committee staff and family with clothing donations
IRC resettlement staff brief the Myint family on school in the U.S.
The youngest Myint children visit the neighborhood school
Staff at the Bronx school welcome the family.
Pa Pu Yu and Ma Aye Myint pick up Saw Paw from his school in the Bronx
After resettling in New York City, the Myint family moved to San Diego, where they were reunited with one of their daughters who was eventually given permission to come to the U.S.. Ler Pwe Htoo -- Pa Pu Yu's oldest son -- now lives in Texas and works at a food processing plant.

One family’s journey

United States, US - New York, NY
02.04.2011

Refugees have been fleeing Myanmar for decades to escape civil strife, political upheaval and economic stagnation. IRC volunteers Steven Carbó and Jaya Jiwatram share the story of one family's first days in the United States after 20 years in a refugee camp in Thailand.

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Leontine Dehoua Lato with other Ivorian refugees in Blemieplay
This room and an adjacent corridor houses 24 refugees.
An IRC medical team carries vaccines and drugs to Blemieplay
An Ivorian refugee receives oral polio vaccine.
An IRC staff member in Blemieplay prepares a vaccination
IRC medical workers assist Liberian health workers and community volunteers
An Ivorian refugee suffering from with malaria is examined
David Ghiah, a health worker, examining an Ivorian refugee
Children are being examined for symptoms of malaria
Ivorian refugee children

Refugees in limbo

Liberia
01.20.2011

Waves of refugees have fled to Liberia after widespread violence broke out in Ivory Coast following disputed presidential elections there. The IRC is assisting uprooted people on both sides of the border.

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A muddy street in Nairobi's Eastleigh neighborhood
A widow from Somalia sits by a sewing table in an IRC-supported shop.
A Somali refugee woman sits next to a table piled high with colorful fabrics
A Somali refugee woman sits in front of a wall of colorful textiles
The front of a school for refugee women supported by the IRC
A young Somali woman shows the henna designs on her hands
A Somali schoolgirl in Nairobi, Kenya

Urban refugees' plight

Kenya
01.19.2011

Today, almost half of the world’s refugees live in cities.  Among them are refugees from Somalia living in precarious circumstances in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.
 

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Polling site flag in Juba, Southern Sudan on January 9, 2011
Alexander Oyet, 78, holds up his voter's card
Line outside polling site in Juba, Southern Sudan
A little boy carries a plastic chair at a polling site in Juba, Sothern Sudan
Pasquale Ongwen smiles at the entrance to the polling site
Pasquale Ongwen casts his vote
Pasquale Ongwen and his wife Margaret (with one of their six children)

A historic vote

South Sudan
01.13.2011

The IRC's Sophia Mwangi spent the day with a friend and IRC colleague, Pasquale Ongwen, as he joined millions of others in Sudan to vote in the referendum on self-determination on January 9, 2011.

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The most important prevention is to provide clean drinking water. The IRC provides water in several camps around Haiti.
It is also important to disinfect water once it is collected since many people are using buckets that are already contaminated. IRC teams stand by water collection points and squirt pre-mixed doses of chlorine into people's buckets. This is one of the most effective ways to prevent the disease and ensures that water is safe right up until people drink it.
At each camp where IRC works, the teams check the chlorine levels of drinking water in people's homes to make sure that they are drinking safe water.
Haiti receives a lot of rainfall and unfortunately this increases the spread of the disease. As you can see, many of the channels and water run-off canals are clogged with waste and litter.
IRC teams are also working on clearing these canals.
IRC sanitation teams also build latrines in each of the camps to make sure that human waste is deposited in closed collection areas that cannot infect water supplies.
At the IRC clinic, patients are screened for diarrhea and dehydration. Patients are also instructed in how to prevent diarrhea and how to treat dehydration.
In each camp, the IRC has constructed bright yellow kiosks. This is where residents can come to get oral rehydration solution for sick family members. They receive small rehydration packets filled with minerals and sugar to mix with water. For someone with dehydration, this simple liquid will replace their lost fluids and save their life.
In a cholera epidemic, there is often panic, superstitious rumors, and misconceptions about the illness. One of the most important things that IRC teams are doing is intensive health education in each of the camps. Crowds gather around the IRC educators and are taught clean water handling, mixing rehydration fluid, hand-washing, and the importance of using latrines.
Hand-washing is a critical way to prevent the spread of the disease. IRC teams give a detailed demonstration on how to aggressively clean your hands to make sure you don't catch or spread the disease.
These smiling children have escaped the cholera outbreak and if they keep IRC's health education messages in mind, they will be free from this disease until the epidemic is over.

Cholera after the quake

Haiti
01.12.2011

IRC cholera response teams are working in 30 camps throughout Port-au-Prince, Haiti teaching earthquake survivors about the deadly disease, how to treat it and how to prevent it. 

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Run-down buildings in the Eastleigh neighborhood of Nairobi, Kenya
Adult students in a classroom being used by the IRC for English lessons
IRC vice president Anne Richard and six young Somali women in Eastleigh
A Somali refugee woman sits by a sewing machine in a craft shop in Eastleigh
Schoolboys in Eastleigh
Schoolgirls in Eastleigh

Somali refugees in Nairobi

Kenya
12.17.2010

Far away from home and family, and subject to harrassment by police, Somali refugees living in Nairobi, Kenya are in a precarious situation. The IRC and our local partners are working to ensure that refugee rights are respected, and that these Somalis and other refugees in Kenya get the help they need.

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Farmers including Obaid Ullah, 44, (center) happily load their wheat seeds onto a cart to take them to their fields for planting the next day. Failure to plant would mean another year without crops, food and income.
Haji Khan, 50, (right) helps Obaid Ullah (center) load a bag of wheat seeds onto a wheelbarrow. Khan says that he had carefully saved seeds from previous crops, but that they had all washed away in the floods. "These seeds make me very happy," he says.
Loading wheat seeds onto a cart to take to home. The IRC is also providing Khan, Ullah and other farmers in the area with 12,000 bags of fertilizer.
Azra (in red) and her friends watch as their fathers collect the wheat seeds for planting. These seeds will grow into much needed crops that will provide income for many families, Azra says with a hopeful smile.
Obaid Ullah with his wheat seeds.

Race against time

Pakistan
12.06.2010

Farmers in flood ravaged Pakistan are in a race against time to plough fields and sow seeds before the end of the winter planting season.  Failure to plant will mean another year without crops, food and income. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, the IRC is rushing to provide some 3,500 farmers with 300 tons of seeds.

 
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A fresh outbreak of fighting in eastern Myanmar has forced more than a thousand refugees to flee across the border into Thailand. More than 20,000 refugees have fled to Thailand since the fighting first erupted three weeks ago.
Many of the refugees are from the village of Phaluu, about 40 kilometers south of the Thailand-Myanmar border. Some of the refugees are sheltering in a Buddhist temple and at a school in Thailand's Tak Province.
The IRC is providing the refugees with health services and distributing clean water and emergency supplies. Here, the IRC's Dr. Nyunt Naing examines a patient.
Many of the refugees are suffering from injuries and medical problems. IRC doctors are travelling with a mobile health team from the Mae Tao clinic to treat the sick and ailing. An IRC medical team is also assessing the refugees overall medical needs and sharing the information with Thai health authorities.
Most of the refugees are members of the Karen ethnic minority group in Myanmar. Minority groups living in border regions of Myanmar have been fighting the central government since 1948 in one of the world’s longest-running insurgencies.
People arrive at the temple compound dehydrated and exhausted. Some also sustained injuries as they were fleeing their homes.
<P>A refugee woman decorates her daughter's face with <I>thanaka</I>, a pale yellow paste derived from tree bark.</P>
<P><I>Thanaka</I> can double as makeup or sunscreen.</P>
Thai soldiers guarding refugees at the Wat Maha Wong pagoda near in northwestern Thailand. Some 700 refugees have sought shelter at the pagoda.
The recent influx of more than 20,000 refugees from Myanmar into Thailand is the greatest in 21 years. Violence broke out inside Myanmar the day after its November 7 general election.

Crisis on the border

Thailand
12.03.2010

A fresh outbreak of fighting in eastern Myanmar has forced more than a thousand refugees to flee across the border into Thailand. The IRC is providing the refugees with health services and distributing clean water and emergency supplies.

Text and photos by the IRC's Peter Biro
Peter's blog >

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