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Ethnic tribes in Myanmar receive aid

Ethnic tribes in Myanmar receive aid – 13 Apr 2011

Tearfund partners are successfully managing to bring vital aid to thousands of isolated villagers hit by a powerful earthquake in eastern Myanmar (Burma) nearly three weeks ago.

About 100 people died and another 150 were injured after a 6.8 magnitude tremor struck Eastern Shan State at the end of last month. Assessments put the number of people affected at 18,000 across 90 villages, with widespread damage to roads, bridges, schools, churches and monasteries. In the 50 most severely affected villages, more than half of all buildings have either been damaged or destroyed.

One church building in the Lahu ethnic community of Kya Kuni collapsed while a large gathering of women were inside, with 25 people reported to have been killed and many more badly injured.

Three Tearfund partners have been working in the affected areas since the immediate aftermath of the quake. Isolated ethnic Akha and Lahu communities, which have received no other outside help, are being assisted by two partners.

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Leprosy

Food, water, medical kits, temporary shelter and non-food items, such as cooking utensils, have been supplied and work is progressing to set up a trauma care and support service for those affected. From an initial response in five villages, relief work has spread to 22 villages.

Another partner is offering help to five villages where leprosy is heavily prevalent, once again offering food aid, water and sanitation.

Partner staff also plan to set up Village Relief Committees which will help implement recovery activities, with special attention towards people with disabilities, the elderly, women and children. Using partner expertise on reducing the impact of disasters, homes will be rebuilt so they are better able to withstand future earthquakes and villagers will receive disaster response training.

Land restoration and repairs to water supplies will also be carried out.

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Setting the captive free – Karishma’s story

Setting the captive free – Karishma’s story – 11 Apr 2011

It’s estimated that 575,000 children are trapped in sex trafficking in India. Tearfund’s local partner Freedom Firm is battling to stamp our sex trafficking. While the laws in India against sex trafficking are strong they are rarely applied. Freedom Firm investigates brothels suspected of soliciting minor girls, works with the police to raid these brothels, prosecutes the brothel keepers and helps to restore the girls. The work is dangerous and often disheartening but they are seeing successes. Without the intervention of Tearfund’s local partner Freedom Firm, Karishma would still be in captivity.

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Karishma, a young girl age thirteen was discovered in a brothel by a Freedom Firm undercover investigator. She was ‘for sale’ for 70 rupees (€1.20).

Freedom Firm reported it to the police and requested that they intervene. But when they raided the brothel Karishma had been moved. She was no-where to be found. Freedom Firm investigators searched for her over the next five months with no success. Then a local informant gave a tip off that she had been taken to the Sadar Bazaar, a red-light district in the city of Kolhapur. However it’s a massive slum with thousands of people. It seemed she might never be found.

Then the miracle happened. After days of searching, equipped with only scant information and an old photograph of Karishma, an informant was found who recognized her from the photo. The investigators were led to a brothel on the edge of town. The building was raided and Karishma was found, traumatized but alive.

That was over four years ago.

The brothel keeper was arrested but after a long trial was unjustly acquitted despite the overwhelming evidence. It has been discouraging for the team but an appeal has been made. It is hoped that the brothel keeper may still be convicted but bringing justice requires perseverance.

Karishma now lives at a Freedom Firm aftercare home. The scars of her past are deep and recovery from her awful experience takes time. With six other rescued girls she is experiencing emotional healing through counselling and prayer. She is learning to look after herself and receiving a basic education and skills training to set up her own small craft business. Finally she is experiencing the goodness of life.

She is free at last.

Will you help us to bring freedom? Only €22 per month can pay for an undercover investigator to raid a brothel & set a girl free.

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Ivory Coast Crisis – 8 Apr 2011

Well over 130,000 Ivorians have fled their country into neighbouring Liberia amid fighting caused by a disputed presidential election last November. One million people have been displaced, creating massive humanitarian need and placing an increased strain on border communities that are ill-equipped to deal with such an influx.

‘The situation in Ivory Coast is extremely worrying as it has potential to destablise the entire region’ says Tearfund Ireland Chief Executive Reuben Coulter, who worked in Liberia for two years ‘We have excellent local partners who have been able to provide vital assistance to the refugees.’

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Agencies involved in medical work are reporting an alarming caseload of people needing treatment for gunshot and machete wounds. Of the refugees registered, 60 per cent are under the age of 18 and 54 per cent are female. Most are living with host communities in overcrowded conditions without adequate access to food, water and sanitation.

Tearfund partner Equip is supporting 40,000 refugees in Liberia’s Nimba County by offering healthcare, which includes screening children for signs of malnutrition and treating diseases such as malaria.

Please help them to respond to this immense human need. Give what you can today.

Only €31 can provide a tarpaulin for shelter for a family and €55 can provide a family of with emergency household items,water containers and blankets.

Myanmar earthquake - church responds – 1 Apr 2011

Tearfund partner’s are helping people hit by strong earthquakes on March 24th in north east Myanmar (Burma). Tearfund Ireland Chief Executive Reuben Coulter visited these partners in January of this year and met with Burmese church leaders.

Three powerful tremors struck close to northern Thailand and the border with Laos, and more than 100 people died. One of the biggest losses of life was at a church in north east Myanmar where the whole building collapsed killing 25 members and injuring 50 others.

Tearfund partner agencies – Myanmar Baptist Convention (MBC) and Mekong Minority Foundation (MMF) – have jointly initiated an emergency response. They have assessed the imediate needs and are now working in five badly affected communities – providing temporary shelter, food and medical help to affected people. Initial assessments show that the greatest damage and loss of life is in and around the Shan town of Ta Lar, where several dozen structures collapsed.

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Tearfund is making emergency funds available to support MBC, MMF and other partners. They are planning immediate relief such as temporary shelter, food rations and meeting basic medical needs – as well as continuing longer-term support for the region. This will include working with communities to reduce the risks when facing further earthquakes and other disasters.

Slavery & St Patrick

Slavery & St Patrick – 16 Mar 2011

March 17th, St Patrick’s Day is celebrated across the world. But few people remember how his life in Ireland began as a child slave.

When he was about 16 Patrick was captured from Britain by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland. He was forced to work looking after pigs for six years before escaping and returning to his family. Patrick later returned to Ireland as a missionary after a vision where he saw the Irish people calling out for him to come and share the good news of Christ. The history of Ireland was irrevocably changed because of one slave boy.

Ways to get involved
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Run for Freedom – 6th June Women’s Mini-marathon

Modern-day Slavery

There are 27 million people in slavery today. This means that there are more people in slavery today than at any other time in human history. Slavery has existed for thousands of years, but changes in the world’s economy and societies over the past 50 years have enabled a resurgence of slavery.

One hundred and forty-three years after the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed in 1865 and 60 years after the U.N.‘s Universal Declaration of Human Rights banned the slave trade worldwide, slavery — or, as it is euphemistically called, human trafficking — is actually thriving. It is, as Hillary Clinton has said, “the dark underbelly of globalization.”

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Slavery has many forms — debt bondage, forced domestic servitude and forced prostitution — still exists is, indeed, shocking, mostly because it is invisible to those of us who don’t know where to look for it.

This new slavery has two prime characteristics: slaves today are cheap and they are disposable.

Cheap, Disposable People

  • An average slave in the American South in 1850 cost the equivalent of $40,000 in today’s money; today a slave costs an average of $90.
  • In 1850 it was difficult to capture a slave and then transport them to the US. Today, millions of economically and socially vulnerable people around the world are potential slaves.

Slavery in Ireland today

Sadly it is also happening in Ireland today; people are being trafficked into our country to provide slave labour or forced into prostitution. Others are being trafficked through Ireland to other destinations.

The 2008 US State Dept “Trafficking in Persons Report” says “Ireland is a destination country for women, men, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor… Women from Eastern Europe, Nigeria, other parts of Africa as well as smaller numbers from South America and Asia, have reportedly been trafficked to Ireland for forced prostitution. Labour trafficking victims reportedly consist of men and women from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, and the Philippines”. Find out more about trafficking in Ireland from Ruhama or Tirzah

Rescuing girls from slavery

When she was 13, Farheen was sold to a brothel owner in Mumbai for 5,000 rupees (€65). Her captivity lasted for years and years.

But, one day, outside the brothel, Farheen met staff at Tearfund’s partner Aruna. The Aruna team worked tirelessly for eight years to secure her freedom. Now, Farheen is a cleaner at the Aruna drop-in centre in the mornings and works as a counsellor for a government organisation in the afternoon, visiting girls who work as prostitutes.

Tearfund partners in India are successfully working together to end child slavery. They are raiding brothels to rescue girls, prosecuting brothels which are involved in trafficking and providing care and rehabilitation so that these girls can once again lead a live of freedom.

Will you help us to bring freedom? Only €22 per month can pay for an undercover investigator to raid a brothel & set a girl free

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Massive earthquake hits Japan – 11 Mar 2011

Please pray for the people of Japan after a massive earthquake struck off their north east coast early today.

The tremor occurred 250 miles from Tokyo and registered a magnitude of 8.9, prompting immediate fears of a tsunami. The quake is the biggest to hit Japan since records began 140 years ago.

Massive waves, measuring 30ft high, have already swept inland, deluging large areas, sweeping away property, knocking out power supplies and communications. Early reports say at least 26 people have died and many more are missing.

With the scale of the damage still emerging, the Japanese Prime Minister has urged his people to help each other. Fears of further destructive waves have prompted tsunami alerts as far away as the US and Australia. In particular, there are concerns for the impact on smaller and poorer Pacific nations which could be affected in the hours to come.

Rob Schofield, Tearfund’s Disaster Management Director, said, `We know from our experience responding to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami of the devastating consequences of such destructive natural forces, particularly on poor communities that are often ill-equipped to respond afterwards. ‘We will continue to monitor events in the Pacific region, particularly in poorer nations, and to pray for all those affected by this disaster.’

  • Pray for the people of Japan as they face this major disaster and that the loss of life is minimal.
  • Pray for those who have been injured and that they can get medical help quickly.
  • Pray for God’s comfort to all those who are fearful around the Pacific basin.
  • Pray for wisdom for the leaders of the countries around the Pacific basin as they plan for a response to the potential approaching tsunami.

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