9

5

2

Desperate Move

Mothers, especially, bind their stomachs to lessen hunger pangs: ‘Only the rich around here don’t tie a rope in times like this,’ says Zippora Mbungo (above) of Makima, Kenya…

“I tie this rope around my waist to hold my stomach in and avoid feeling hungry. Most of the time we have very little food, so I give it to my grandchildren first, leaving little or nothing for me. That is why I tie this rope around me. Only the rich people around here don’t tie a rope in times like this.This is one of the worst droughts I have ever seen in my life.”

-86-year-old grandmother from Makima, Kenya, told the agency’s workers..

“This practice shows just how desperately hungry women are. But it can be lethal – women have died after suddenly untying their stomachs once food is available.”

-Philip Kilonzo, of ActionAid Kenya..

Somalia Famine

 

from: aljazeera

UN urges massive action for Africa drought | Aid agencies discuss “catastrophic” situation in Horn of Africa amid calls for urgent aid at emergency meeting in Rome.

Reblog: (csmonitor)

PHOTO: A newly arrived refugee girl walks into the Baley settlement near the Ifo extension refugee camp in Dadaab, near the Kenya-Somalia border, Wednesday. The first in a series of UN famine relief flights is scheduled to land in Somalia’s capital Wednesday. (REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya)

The first UN plane in two years is scheduled to go into the Somali capital’s airport Wednesday carrying food aid. Some 3.7 million people, including more than 2.3 million children under age 5, in Somalia alone need help.

The chartered aircraft will be the first United Nations plane into Mogadishu’s international airport since Islamists banned the organization from working there two years ago. It is loaded with Plumpy’nut, a patented high-nutrition, peanut-based paste designed to help children so malnourished that it is often too late for ordinary food to make any difference.

Negotiations continue between Western humanitarian organizations and Al Shabab, the pro-Al Quada Islamists who are refusing access to several UN agencies and international charities.
READ: International groups accelerate effort to relieve East Africa’s famine

01.

:D

this made me teary-eyed :((

International Harry Potter posters at the Arclight :)

HP

it all ends. . .

LMFAO!

Libyan children suffering rape, aid agency reports

• Libya

Children as young as eight have been subjected to sexual assaults, according to accounts given to Save the Children

Benghazi, Libya, where children who have fled from sexual abuse are living in temporary camps. Photograph: Bernat Armangue/AP
Libyan children as young as eight have suffered sexual assaults, including rape, amid the worsening conflict across the country, a British aid agency has warned. Although Save the Children said it could not confirm the reports, the charity said the accounts by children were consistent and they were displaying signs of physical and emotional distress. The allegations come from 200 children and 40 adults who have fled from Misrata, Ajdabiya and Ras Lanuf and are now in temporary camps in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. The families told the charity's staff that children as young as eight had been sexually assaulted, sometimes in front of their relatives. In one reported case, mothers claimed a group of girls had been abducted, held hostage for four days and raped, and were unable to speak when they were released. Michael Mahrt, Save the Children's child protection adviser, said: "The reports of sexual violence against children are unconfirmed, but they are consistent and were repeated across the four camps we visited. "Children told us they have witnessed horrendous scenes. Some said they saw their fathers murdered and mothers raped. They described things happening to other children, but they may have actually happened to them and they are just too upset to talk about it – it's a typical coping mechanism used by children who have suffered such abuse." Mahrt said some children were displaying signs of physical and emotional distress: being withdrawn, refusing to play and waking up crying in the night. The charity, along with other agencies, is conducting a 13-day assessment of the situation. It called on "the international community to ensure that all parties respect children's right to be protected from violence and abuse". The charity said it was increasing its child protection work in Benghazi, training social workers to provide youngsters with psycho-social support
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/23/libyan-children-suffering-rape