Haiti – After the Earthquake - Vulnerable populations need protection

Haiti is no longer in the news, but the earthquake that devastated the country, killing more than 100,000 people and making more than million homeless, is obviously going to have long-term consequences. One major consequence is the resurgence of violence and the government, severely weakened by the earthquake, is powerless to ensure the rule of law.

The country’s main prison, the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, was destroyed in the quake and violent criminals escaped. They are now trying to regain control of the most deprived and vulnerable communities, according to Amnesty International. In response, some community members have formed vigilantes to protect themselves, and AI received reports of lynching and killing of looters. There are also reports of looters being shot by the police.

But the most vulnerable people in a situation of spiraling violence are women and children, AI warns. With families separated and schools destroyed, thousands of children need protection from trafficking and irregular adoption. Women, too, are vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers, as well as increased risk of sexual violence.

Protection of human rights should be at the core of relief and reconstruction efforts, the organization urges.

Save the BBC - Avaaz' petition

After attacks by the Murdoch media empire, the BBC is considering sweeping cuts, cutting its website in half and dropping TV and radio stations.

According to a story in the Times, the proposal is a bid to "shrink" in order to "appease the BBC's rivals."

The BBC isn't perfect, but the people pushing for these cuts want to destroy it, not to improve it. Today's cuts are proposed in a "strategic review" written by John Tate -- co-author of the Conservative Party's manifesto, and now a BBC executive. If the goal is to reduce competition to corporate media outfits, this may just be the beginning.

Murdoch -- the global media magnate -- has long seen the BBC as his biggest rival, and his media outlets have assaulted the Labor government. Now, with the recession hurting profits and a UK election coming soon, he and his allies are on the attack.

The BBC is a global treasure. We need greater investment in quality and originality by the BBC, not death by a thousand cuts.

Public outcry has prevented BBC cuts before, now we can save it again! Sign the petition and pass it along -- let's get to 100,000 signatures before we deliver it to the BBC Trust later this week, so they know the UK, and the world, want the Beeb to stand strong. Sign and spread the word to everyone

The Bleeding Wound of Nepal: sex trafficking

This is a story I am researching and hope to be able to cover on location:

Draped along the spine of the Himalayas, Nepal is a land of sublime scenery and deep, rich culture. It is also a country from where some 10,000 girls disappear each year. Most never come back.

The majority of them, aged 14 to 16, are trafficked to India, where they are sold into slavery or debt bondage to brothels in Mumbai and Kolkata .These tsukris, as these young slave prostitutes are called, are totally confined within the brothel for an average of two years, after which they are allowed out only with guardians. They end their period of bondage at 18 to 22 years old when they have “repaid their debt.” During that time, the brothel owner has made a profit four to 20 times the price paid for the trafficked girl.

When they are finally freed, the tsukris are no longer girls, but older, shop-worn women with “less market value” - often mentally and physically scarred, ill or HIV positive. Unable to return home to Nepal because of the stigma of prostitution, most remain in India. There, illegal, isolated and with no other means of surviving, nearly all return to sex work, this time as independents. The most entrepreneurial of them become brothel owners, buying their own tsukris - and so the system perpetuates itself. A few, however, have managed to go back to Nepal, where they patrol the border, trying to prevent other girls from being trafficked.

Although slavery was long ago legally abolished in the State of Nepal, and despite national and international efforts to prevent trafficking, the number of girls trafficked from Nepal has significantly increased over the last decade. A Nepali newspaper called it: “The Bleeding Wound of Nepal.” UNICEF estimates that 300,000 Nepalese women and girls have been sold into forced prostitution mostly to India, but also within Nepal and to Gulf countries, and their numbers are swollen every year by new arrivals.

Girls are trafficked from all over the country, but mostly from poor rural villages. Rural communities live in extreme poverty and life for women is harsh. (Nepal is one of the rare countries in the world where men outlive women). Women are expected to work harder than men, but are considered an economic hindrance and have no voice. They are also poorer and have limited access to education and health care. Their precarious situation makes them more vulnerable to being lured away with promises of employment, marriage or a better life across the border. Others are simply sold by their families, who may not know the full horror of what awaits them in India. The border between Nepal and India in vast (1,100-miles long) and porous and towns across the border create a natural market for trafficking. Trafficking, of course, is immensely profitable...

A few women are fighting back: Maiti Nepal, a local charity in Danghadi, Kaili, is trying to intercept trafficked girls at the border before they can reach their final destination in Indian brothels. They rely on young women - some are former trafficked persons - patrolling the border at checkpoints, working in conjunction with the police to interrogate suspicious parties. Former trafficked women say they can always spot a trafficked girl, having been there themselves.

Maggie, the Gypsy Queen - preserving Gypsy culture

Depending on whom you ask, Maggie Smith-Bendell is a grandmother from hell or a tireless campaigner for Gypsy rights. For the past decade, this feisty, self-taught 68-yer-old Romany grandmother has been helping Gypsy families securing private land - sometimes by stealth - and advising legislators on planning issues.

Now, “the grandmother of land grab” has written a beautiful memoir to “try to explain to house-dwellers who we are and how we live.” She also wants to record a way of life that has more or less vanished. “I didn't want my father's memory and the era of the wagon and horses and our ancient ways to die out,” says Maggie, who was born on the edge of a pea field near Bridgwater in Somerset in 1941.

I've found her book fascinating because it vividly describes the transition from the early decades of the twentieth century, when Gypsies were still able to live according to their own rhythms and follow seasonal work, through to the period when agriculture changed and councils began to clamp down on Gypsies who stopped on the roadside or common land, and finally to the present situation where Gypsies try to buy their own land on which to live outside the restrictions of council-run sites.

“So much of our way of life is over,” she told me when I went to interview her in Somerset a few weeks ago. “I miss being on the move, the rhythm of our horses' feet and the comfort of our wagon, or running alongside it with our little Jack Russell rabbiters. Summer or winter, we would wake up on a morning and fall out of the wagon to sit beside a good, hot fire. That fire was the centre of our lives.

“That's part of my hope for the families I get planning for. On a private site, we can return to our traditions, for to have an outside fire to cook upon and sit around is forbidden on authorised council sites as a hazard. If you sing and dance on a council site, you're likely to get your marching order for making noise; if you bring a horse back to the site you're causing a nuisance to others.”

I wrote a piece on Maggie for the Guardian (published last Saturday). Read it here.

Our Forgotten Years: A Gypsy Woman's Life on the Road by Maggie Smith-Bendell is published by University of Hertfordshire Press, £8.99. To order a copy for £8.99 with free UK p&p, go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846

Know someone over 60 who is changing the world?

I’ve just received this request and it sounds interesting and it's great to see older people being celebrated, so I am passing it around:

Know someone tapping their experience to improve the lives of others? Nominate yourself or someone you know for the 2010 Purpose Prize. Nominations are open until March 5, 2010.

The Purpose Prize provides ten awards of up to $100,000 to social innovators in encore careers, 60 years and older, who are solving some of our most pressing social issues – from health care to the environment, poverty to education.

The Purpose Prize is accepting nominations, including self-nominations until March 5th.

See who has won the Prize:

Judith Broder, a psychiatrist who combined her experience and passion to recruit mental health professionals to provide free, confidential counseling to veterans, active-duty military personnel and their families through The Soldiers Project.
Don Coyhis, a former computer executive who built a nationwide substance abuse recovery program based on Native American beliefs and traditions.
Connie Siskowski, a former nurse who founded the Youth Caregiving Project to support a hidden population of pre-teens who shoulder adult-sized responsibilities caring for chronically ill relatives.

Please nominate, get inspired by watching a brief video, and help us spread the word by posting information about The Purpose Prize on list serves, blogs, or by emailing your friends and colleagues.







Haiti Earthquake

What is it with Haiti? Things were starting to get a bit better there: the country was slowly recovering from devastating floods in 2004 and 2009, gang violence was subsiding and there was more political stability – a few foreign investors were even coming back, and now this! The worst earthquake in 200 years struck the country yesterday, devastating the capital city, killing thousands and threatening over 3 million people in this desperately poor country.

I went to Haiti a few times, the last one in 2007 to report with photographer Caroline Irby on a group of poor, uneducated, HIV-positive mothers who care for and support some 250 HIV positive families in the slums of Port-au-Prince. (Our article was published in the Telegraph Magazine in June 2007). These mothers suffered every possible hardship, but remained feisty, fighting and surviving – just like their country.

Such a devastating earthquake would be a disaster anywhere, but in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas and one with no infrastructure, it is a tragedy. Bill Clinton, the UN special envoy for Haiti, said the quake was "one of the great humanitarian emergencies in the history of the Americas".

While in Haiti, Caroline and I worked with Plan, an international children’s organization, which has been in Haiti since 1973, and were very impressed with their work and approach.

Plan Haiti Director Rezene Tesfamariam said the devastation in the capital Port-au-Prince was on an “unimaginable” scale. “I’ve seen villages destroyed by floods but this is something else. I’ve worked for Plan for 27 years and have seen all kinds of tragedies. I’ve seen refugees fighting for their lives and floods destroy communities, but I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Plan is working closely with government, emergency services and other organizations to respond to the immediate to the immediate needs of children in the region and assess the situation. To make a donation to Plan's emergency work in the country, call their freephone 0800 1300230 or make an online donation.

Iran – Release Mourning Mothers!

Amnesty International has urged the Iranian authorities to release a group of women who were beaten and arrested during a peaceful vigil in Tehran at the weekend.

The 33 women, members of a group known as the 'Mourning Mothers', were seized during their weekly Saturday meeting in Laleh Park, Tehran, according to media reports. All 33 women are now being held in Tehran’s Vozara Detention Centre. Several of the women were beaten and 10 were taken to hospital. Nine of the women are believed to suffer from illnesses, increasing concern for their well-being.

The 'Mourning Mothers' are women whose children have been killed, disappeared or detained in post-election violence in Iran since last June, and their supporters. The group meets in silence for an hour each Saturday near the place and time of the killing of protester Neda Agha-Soltan, whose death was shown in footage circulated around the world in July.

Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme, said:

"Women who are grieving for children killed by security personnel should be able to count on support from the state to uncover the truth about what happened and to ensure redress for them, not face arbitrary detention and beatings.

"These women should be released immediately and unconditionally and an investigation launched into their treatment."