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A daily look into the work, thoughts and ideas of our team around the world.
Blog Post: Posted September 2, 2010, 2:58 pm by Rebecca Girma
My introduction: Rebecca Girma
Country: Ethiopia
Editor's note: This is the third in a series of profiles about the participants in this week's writing and photography training in Kitgum, Uganda. They've written introductory pieces about themselves to share with Mercy Corps readers.
Rebecca Girma interviews a Mercy Corps beneficiary during the recent writing and photography workshop in Kitgum, Uganda. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
My boss was right when she told me “Trust me, Rebecca, Mercy Corps is an organisation you will enjoy working with.” It was true - I love every day of my life in Mercy Corps. I work as a project support officer in Mercy Corps Ethiopia’s head office and it has been two years and three months since I got employed.
In another non-governmental organisation where I worked as an intern for six months - a place that almost started to feel like home – one day my boss came to me and told me that she wanted me to have an interview with Mercy Corps. She was sure that I would love it and I obeyed her as she was the boss, but I was not happy about it. But I went to the interview and Mercy Corps took me.
My job at Mercy Corps engages me in different programmes like emergency, livelihood and peace building - I am so inspired every time when I get a chance to write a story, do an assessment, a survey and/or any kind of support that the programme team may need. I’m looking forward to using already-developed systems, like the Mercy Corps Intranet and Blog, as well as new means of publicizing Mercy Corps’ deeds to the rest of the world.
Blog Post: Posted September 2, 2010, 2:57 pm by Safiya Mohamud Said
My introduction: Safiya Mohamud Said
Country: Somalia
Editor's note: This is the second in a series of profiles about the participants in this week's writing and photography training in Kitgum, Uganda. They've written introductory pieces about themselves to share with Mercy Corps readers.
Safiya Mohamud Said stands a village garden as a colleague takes a picture during a field exercise for the recent writing and photography training in Kitgum, Uganda. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
Life was fair enough when I got a job as soon as I finished school. It was my first time in the world of non-governmental organisations and there was a lot to expect in such a challenging environment.
I started working with Mercy Corps as a Project Assistant in an emergency response programme to internally-displaced people and urban poor host communities in the eastern region of Somalia.
It was a great challenge for me to work with such vulnerable communities that have lost everything they had in their lives. It made me fall apart whenever I heard their stories. This made me feel sad and sometimes traumatized, but it did not stop me from doing my work and helping my people.
I started dealing with these issues, day after another, until it became a part of my life. This work shaped me in a way that taught me more about myself and others. It helped me solve my own issues without waiting for someone to come and help.
I love my job and my colleagues. The workplace is wonderful and it makes me want to stay for longer and come back eagerly again.
Mercy Corps is a learning environment and I am grateful for the opportunities it has given me.
Blog Post: Posted September 2, 2010, 2:56 pm by Job Matseshe
My introduction: Job Matseshe
Country: Kenya
Editor's note: This is the first in a series of profiles about the participants in this week's writing and photography training in Kitgum, Uganda. They've written introductory pieces about themselves to share with Mercy Corps readers.
Born and raised in an extended family had its fair bit of fun and challenges that must be credited with having given me the experience to tolerate and understand other people. In our family, we had all kinds of people: I had three brothers, two sisters and an endless cast of cousins, uncles and aunties that would come and go. This taught me — albeit in a crude way — that there can be positive competition for resources and attention. Being the last-born, attention was very paramount to my joy and happiness.
This upbringing in a "competitively hostile" setting has proved to be my asset in the peace building efforts that Mercy Corps Kenya is currently undertaking in the Rift Valley province of Kenya. Ironically, I was a trouble maker in the family — with constant arguments and fights among my siblings — but this also served as a learning experience for future tasks.
Over the last days, I have had to travel by bus miles away from my home — Kenya — to Uganda and then across Uganda, another long and gruesome bus trip to the remote northern town of Kitgum. Here it feels like I am back to my extended family that I so loved and cherished: 22 participants from across Africa are here with me to learn how writing and photography complement each other.
It has been a great experience and as we group together from 10 African countries where Mercy Corps works — Kenya, Somalia, Central African Republic, Sudan, Ethiopia, Niger, Liberia, Congo, Zimbabwe and our hosts, Uganda — I can only remember with nostalgia the days of my extended family, full of fun, love and diversity.
Blog Post: Posted September 2, 2010, 2:17 am by Tara Noronha
Truly, skills for employment and skills for life
Country: Uganda
A few weeks ago, I was honored to serve as the Chief Judge at an interschool debate on HIV/AIDS prevention. Under a perfect blue Ugandan sky, youth from two neighboring schools prepared to deliver remarks on the importance of abstinence, safe sex, delayed marriage and healthy life choices.
A young woman delivers her part of the debate. Photo: Tara Noronha/Mercy Corps
I expected some of the young debaters — Peer Educators in Mercy Corps’ Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP) — to display at least some signs of anxiety and nervousness over the event. These youth were orating not only before a panel of judges, but also an audience comprised of more than 150 peers and key members of the community. Even though the Peer Educators had organised the event as part of YEP’s life skills programme, I anticipated seeing some beads of sweat, perhaps a little stuttering and maybe even a few tears. After all, public speaking terrifies most adults I know!
However, as the debate began, my predictions were quickly shattered. One by one, the young participants — all neatly dressed in crisp uniforms for the occasion — shared articulate, passionate messages about the effects of HIV/AIDS in their community. With loud, clear voices, they not only delivered powerful remarks, but also adjured their peers to share the information with their families. Members from the two debate teams also replied to complicated rebuttals with calm, thoughtful responses.
I was ineffably impressed by the confidence and aplomb of these youth. And I wasn’t the only one. With wide-eyes, their classmates keenly observed the dialogue in silence and in complete admiration. In addition to creating social awareness, these Peer Educators were empowering their fellow students, by displaying leadership skills and by serving as responsible, positive role models. Admittedly, I had a very difficult time selecting a “winning” team.
Youth deliver a radio broadcast to one million listeners on Pader's Luo FM. Photo: Tara Noronha/Mercy Corps
Just yesterday, I observed ten YEP Peer Educators from Wimunu Pecek school deliver a live radio broadcast on the popular Luo FM, summarizing messages from the earlier debate. Once again, I was astounded by the poise, confidence and thoughtful leadership displayed by the youth. After rigorous research and preparation, the students each gave eloquent, structured remarks on the topic, fully aware that their voices and messages were reaching more than one million listeners in eight Ugandan districts, as well as parts of southern Sudan.
So why are these activities, these life skills, so important for Ugandan youth in their transition to adulthood and in their quest for economic engagement? After all, YEP strives to enhance the employability of youth.
Over the past two months, I have been studying the factors preventing youth from gaining employment in northern Uganda. During a recent focus group discussion, a young woman named Concy shared that she had participated in a vocational training course, with the hope that the skills would provide her with both job security and a steady income.
“I completed an intensive, nine-month course in tailoring,” she told me in an exasperated voice. “But I have never been able to use the skill because I do not have money to buy a sewing machine.” Concy added that she has since forgotten the technical knowledge learned through the training. While pacifying her infant on her lap, she told me that she is still seeking work.
I have listened to many similar stories of frustration.
One male youth told me that a non-governmental organisation sponsored him to spend an entire year learning Information Technology skills; however, since graduating, he has been unable to find employment due to lack of demand for the skill in his community. (Pader Town, the capital of this district, just received electricity a few months ago.)
What I have learned through my conversations with youth — as well as local employers and consumers — is that a solid education and a mastered technical skill are certainly helpful in a securing a job or running a business; however, many other factors and resources contribute to preparing youth for business success. The lack or presence of basic life skills, such as effective communication and the ability to make critical decisions, have a profound and often overlooked impact on the “employability” of youth.
Okidi and Akanyo, Peer Educators from Wimunu Pecek School. Photo: Tara Noronha/Mercy Corps
Along with support for income generating activities, an integral part of YEP is training in life skills, or soft skills. Together, these two components holistically prepare youth for becoming successful entrepreneurs and employees. In addition to effective communication and problem-solving skills, YEP’s life skills activities encourage leadership techniques, punctuality, conflict negotiation, strong work ethics and proper hygiene, topics which differ from hard business skills and are often not fully addressed in schools.
These skills are truly life skills, as they are always marketable and transferable, even in a stagnant labour market. These personal and interpersonal skills are particularly important for youth who were former child soldiers during Uganda’s civil war and for those who spent prolonged periods in camps as internally displaced persons (IDPs). Life skills training allows youth to gain confidence and skills which will help them throughout their careers: in interviews, in managing customers and with making difficult decisions.
In Uganda, many young people feel that they are not respected or appreciated by adult figures and employers. YEP’s life skills programme encourages youth to gain confidence in their workforce capabilities and in their role in society. Through life skills activities such as the debate and radio broadcast, youth are able gain the respect of their elders and their community by demonstrating that they are capable, confident and prepared for responsible economic engagement.
Blog Post: Posted August 31, 2010, 6:49 pm by Dan O'Neill
The Headless Horsemen ride again (this time for Mercy Corps)!
The Headless Horsemen (HH) a Northwest-based band of bikers, rode to benefit Mercy Corps last Saturday, Aug. 28. The 27 riders logged 300 miles through the Puget Sound area of WA. Bill and Melba O'Neill, Mercy Corps supporters in Shelton (and my parents!), hosted a thirst-quenching pit-stop and were presented with an honorary certificate of membership in the HH. The ride raised several thousand dollars (and rising) for children and families in flashpoints of need including Haiti and Pakistan.
Legendary Seattle radio personality Ichabod Caine is the founder of the Headless Horsemen. Photo: Courtesy Ichabod Caine
It was just the latest benefit outing for HH founder, Ichabod Caine, Harley-riding, Seattle rock/country radio personality. And, yes, that is his legal name. "Icky" has been a good friend since the mid 80s and told me back then he would one day own a Harley Davidson motorcycle like mine. Decades later, he bought a fire-engine red Harley from a Seattle fireman and soon launched the HH for the purpose of sharing the passion of motorcycling with folks who ride all kinds of bikes for a number of charities. The first HH fundraiser was the Seattle "Ride for Kids" in 2007.
"The Mercy Corps ride was an opportunity for us to have a global impact," says Marty Conrad, a 911 dispatcher and HH coordinator. "This was a great first annual ride!" Pierce County Police officer, Ken Board, served as the official HH photographer and agrees there will be more rides for more charities in the future, including Mercy Corps.
In 1999 I organised a Harley ride for Kosovo war refugees with the help of Eastside Harley Davidson in Bellevue, WA. In spite of driving rain, 70 riders turned out and helped to make a positive difference in the lives of homeless people half a world away. It has been a long, dry spell for charity riding for me but I am back in the saddle and ready to hit the road at a moment's notice. And now that I am a full member of the HH, more road trips are on the horizon.
Donations can still be made! Click here and weigh in.
It's hard work, this motorcycling business. But someone has to do it!
Twenty-seven Headless Horsemen pose with Bill and Melba O'Neill (donors since 1980) in Shelton, Wash., during the Mercy Corps benefit ride, Aug 28. Photo: Ken Board for Headless Horsemen
Blog Post: Posted August 31, 2010, 11:03 am by Roger Burks
An African kilometer
Country: Uganda
In most parts of the world, a kilometre is shorter than a mile — but not in Africa. Here, a kilometre feels many miles long.
Maybe it has to do with the condition of the roads: in northern Uganda, you mostly find soft-packed clay roads that devolve into deep mud with any measure of rainfall. Maybe it has to do with road width, often so narrow that tall savanna grass and scrub brush scrape your truck on both sides as you careen by. Or maybe it’s the unpredictability of what will cross the road —chickens, cows and goats are everywhere.
Whatever it is, I’ll tell you this: when you see a sign that indicates seven kilometers (a little over four miles) to your destination, you don’t celebrate and say, “Wow, we’re close.” Instead, you ponder and worry about what might happen over those next few kilometers to slow you down or, indeed, keep you from reaching your destination entirely.
However, as with most anything in life, overcoming challenges has much to do with the attitude you bring. And so it was today: we were two groups of Mercy Corps staff trying to get to villages where our programmes are underway, so that we could interview and photograph beneficiaries for our storytelling workshop. The roads didn’t make it easy. Those African kilometers seemed longer than ever.
Case in point: on one group’s way out to the village of Odoko Mit today, it took two hours to go 40 kilometers. That’s about four miles an hour. I think maybe people can walk about that fast.
Unsticking the bus from sticky African mud on a tiny African road. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
The other group’s bus got stuck in a morass of mud. But neither the mud nor sun nor long kilometers kept these workshop participants from action: they filed out of the bus with determination to get it back going again. All of a sudden, there were determined men and women from several African nations trying to dislodge several tons of metal from some of the stickiest mud in the world.
The mud won that round. But the participants had someplace to go and work to do, so they found and mounted motorcycles for the last few endless kilometers to the village. For some of them, it was their first time ever on a motorcycle. The smiles on their faces showed that neither the mud nor the road had defeated them.
And so maybe that’s one thing that those long African kilometers: fellowship. Teamwork. Building friendships. Because I know that, long after everyone returns to his or her home country, they’ll be talking not only how long it took to reach those villages, but how we laughed along the way and the work we did together once we got there.
Blog Post: Posted August 30, 2010, 8:24 am by Roger Burks
Three days, 22 people, 10 countries and many untold stories
Country: Uganda
After a long day of traveling almost the entire length of Uganda — from the shores of Lake Victoria nearly all the way north to the Sudanese border — we arrived in the sweltering city of Kitgum last night. This is where, for the next three days, I am teaching a Mercy Corps-sponsored writing and photography workshop with my colleague Thatcher Cook.
The 22 workshop participants with whom we shared a bus on that upcountry ramble, on dusty roads through bustling towns and tiny villages, come from all different parts of Africa — 10 countries altogether. Two participants came from West Africa: Liberia and Niger. Another came all the way from Zimbabwe. The rest are from Mercy Corps offices in East Africa: Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia and Uganda. None of them are full-time writers or photographers; rather, they are programme officers or field staff who are out on the front lines of our projects every day. Most of them were born in the countries where they now work for Mercy Corps. All of them are deeply committed and connected to the work they're doing and the people they're helping.
So Thatcher and I are here to help empower them as storytellers, to give them practical and philosophical advice on how to take more compelling photos, conduct more in-depth interviews and write stories that connect the work they do — and the people they serve — to the wider world.
Over these three days, we will lecture in the classroom and take tough questions from very enthusiastic participants — in fact, in the writing session I taught this morning, I fielded a couple dozen questions that had me really thinking. We will travel to villages to interact with Mercy Corps programme beneficiaries, which will help participants hone their documentary field skills. They'll write stories from their notes and choose their best photographs to share with these newly-met colleagues. Then Thatcher and I will help them edit and polish that work.
And in the coming days, we'll share all of that work here, on this website: a portfolio from 22 participants who hail from all across Africa. I'm anxious to help them bring you their stories — both from our work together here in Uganda and when they return home to some of the world's most challenging and fascinating places.
I hope you'll come back soon to check it out.
Blog Post: Posted August 28, 2010, 8:56 pm by Roger Burks
Moving all over the place
With Labour Day fast approaching, I’m sure many of us are wondering where our summers went. I know exactly where mine has been spent: all over the place.
This has been my family’s nomadic summer, and here’s how it started: with the help of very friendly neighbors in Orem, Utah, we packed all of our belongings into a 17-foot moving truck and headed eastward, me driving that gigantic thing while my wife and son followed in our car. We made it over the Rockies and onto the Great Plains, where we spent a week with my parents in Kansas. There, we unpacked most everything we owned into a smallish storage unit and turned in the moving truck – even though Kansas wasn’t the end of the line.
Leaving our 12-year-old cat with my parents, we packed up our little car as best we could and continued due east. We rolled across eight states before arriving in Baltimore, Maryland, where we’d be spending the next three and a half weeks for my wife to finish her Masters degree. And, after that, it got even more complicated: my wife and son headed south while I flew west. During a 15-hour stretch back in Kansas that included unloading the storage unit, loading the truck, reuniting with the cat and briefly visiting my parents, I was on the road yet again — on my way to Atlanta, Georgia to move into a house where we’d never been before.
That’s another thing about our nomadic summer: we sublet a row house in Baltimore and this bungalow in Atlanta sight unseen, except for a few pictures that those respective landladies sent us. We had no time to travel to either city beforehand, so we just had to hope that the photographs were fairly accurate when we walked through the door (they were).
This summer felt all kinds of crazy, but of course there was a goal to it all: we moved here because of a school for our son’s special needs. I am relieved that we were able to pull it off because, at some points along the way, I honestly didn’t know if we could. But we had three things working for us this summer: choice, opportunity and planning.
And that’s more than millions around the world have going for them.
Over the course of this nomadic summer, I’ve often thought about families — and entire communities — who’ve had to move under much more difficult circumstances, often at a moment’s notice. And I realize, as challenging as my family’s move might have been, there were two very important and fortunate facts:
- Despite not knowing exactly what it would be like, I did know the precise address where we were going.
- I had just about everything we owned in the back of those trucks — everything we needed to remake a home.
That’s very different than the reality faced by more than five million flood-displaced people in Pakistan, most of whom have no idea of when they’ll be able to return to their villages —or what they’ll find when they return.
It’s very different than what happened five years ago to thousands of families along the U.S. Gulf Coast as Hurricane Katrina neared.
It’s very different from what happened to Majok, a young Sudanese man who I sat next to on my plane flight yesterday from Washington, DC to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Like many of Sudan’s orphaned and displaced “Lost Boys” who sought to survive civil war, Majok walked hundreds of miles through Hell to safety and then — in 2001 — boarded a plane to Atlanta, Georgia to begin a new life. That’s sight unseen. That’s truly starting over. This is only his second trip back to his homeland, to see his remaining family, in nearly a decade.
And my family’s nomadic summer is very different from the daily realities of life in northern Uganda, where I will be spending the next several days on assignment. The last time I was here — four years ago — millions of people were displaced from a generation of conflict and terror. Since then, most of them have returned to what was once their home villages to try rebuilding a life from scratch.
All moves are hard; they truly uproot us and we have to plant ourselves back on solid ground to begin growing again. But, in the case of my family’s nomadic summer, our move was a choice to go somewhere where all of us — especially my son — could flourish. Every day, in all kinds of places around the world, millions are moving to simply survive.
I know I will meet many of them as I travel through Uganda and then to Ethiopia during these next two weeks. I will let you know what I find over the course of this most recent trip.
Blog Post: Posted August 25, 2010, 1:01 am by Brad Myers
Friends in the field
Country: Kyrgyzstan
Alymbek Nasyrov in front of the Bishkek office where he cheerfully greets staff with giant genuine smile.
He has worked for Mercy Corps and Kompanion as a security inspector since 2005. Photo: Brad Myers/Mercy Corps
The airline representative tossed my duffel bag crammed full of funky felt slippers and Kalpaks — traditional Kyrgyz hats — onto the conveyor belt. Early for my flight, I found a seat near my departure gate with a view of the tarmac. I glanced at my watch — it was just before 8 a.m. I knew Alymbek, the security inspector for Mercy Corps/Kompanion’s office in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan was greeting staff with that same giant smile he gave me every morning I passed him on my way into the office.
Every day across the globe, heartfelt goodbyes are exchanged between foreign and local humanitarian staff. Employment contracts begin and end. Grants are awarded and spent. Programmes are implemented and completed. And, in this case, interns come and go. According to the statistic around the world, 95 percent of Mercy Corps team members are nationals of the countries in which they work. Belonging to the other five percent I realize friendships formed with local staff, although inherently transitory, are an invaluable reward of fieldwork.
Friends in the field are often defined by the sum of very simple moments. A genuine smile, like Alymbek’s daily greeting, can make all the difference when working in remote locations under stressful conditions. Even a spontaneous trip to the rural reaches of a country to monitor a programme or survey beneficiaries can be a catalyst for making an unexpected friend. I enjoyed the name-dropping by Mercy Corps staff members who referenced their enduring friendships they have with expatriate staff, some dating back to 1994, when Mercy Corps opened its first office in Kyrgyzstan.
The plane climbed above snow-capped peaks as I watched massive mountain ranges slip beneath the cloud cover. Thoughts of friends and family had me anticipating their amusement and interest in the souvenirs and anecdotes I’ve collected from this fascinating region of Central Asia. Surely some will ask what I miss most about my time in the field. Recalling cherished moments and loud laughter traded with local staff members, I will reply without hesitation — my friends.
Blog Post: Posted August 24, 2010, 5:20 am by Pete O'Farrell
Homemade signs and help
Country: Pakistan
This medical tent, operated by Mercy Corps' emergency team here in Sindh Province, is serving about 150 flood-displaced women every day. Photo: Pete O'Farrell/Mercy Corps
For the most part, it looked like all the other tents in this growing camp for internally-displaced persons (IDPs), currently populated by more than 3,000 people who've been driven from their homes by Pakistan's floods. The non-descript white canvas triangular tent was no more than eight feet by 10 feet, with some basic red carpets on the bottom keeping the dust at bay. The only thing that separated this tent from the hundreds of others was a small homemade sign saying, “Mobile Medical Unit.”
In the hundred-plus degree heat, a Mercy Corps team has set up mobile medical tents for women inside this burgeoning camp in Sindh Province. Our team works for days before moving to another camp to provide medical aid. The doctors — working with donated medicines — treat all different types of illnesses such as rashes, water-borne diseases, eye infections from the dust and symptoms of dehydration from the intense heat. Twenty-five women sat in the waiting room, which was no more than a tent with some basic floor mats to keep people out of the intense sunlight. Before the day is over, more than 150 women will be treated.
On the other side of the tent, another Mercy Corps colleague was leading 50 women in a two-hour hygiene lesson. These classes teach women basic hygiene for their new living conditions where the dust, heat, shared water sources, latrines and new surroundings present challenges very different from their home villages. At the conclusion of the course, the women received a hygiene kit with soap, bandages, cloths and other essentials.
The floods in Pakistan are the worst in well over 100 years. The UN says that more than 20 million people have been affected and at least four million are homeless and displaced. Thousands of camps just like these have been set up in cities and the countryside across Pakistan.
Mercy Corps has worked in Pakistan since 1986 and responded to previous disasters such as the 2005 earthquake and 2009 Swat Valley displacement crisis. The experience gained from those previous crises has allowed our teams to efficiently and effectively respond to the immediate needs of the people.
I arrived in Pakistan just two days ago from Portland to lend any and all assistance to our teams on the ground, and I am in awe of all they have done in such a short time.
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