Video: Jesuit Refugee Service Italy

 

Learn more about Jesuit Refugee Service on our website:

http://www.jrsusa.org/

Multi Purpose Hall Serves Refugees in Ethiopia

[https://vimeo.com/64842102]

UNHCR chief warns Security Council of “terrifying” situation for Syria

(GENEVA) April 18, 2013 – UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, warned the United Nations Security Council today that without an end to the fighting soon, almost half of Syria’s 20.8 million people could be in need of humanitarian help by the end of this year.

In an address to the Council by video-link from Geneva, Guterres said 400,000 refugees had fled Syria in the last seven weeks, bringing the population of Syrians registered as refugees or waiting to be registered to 1,367,413. If current trends continue, he said, then by the end of the year there may be up to 3.5 million Syrians refugees, together with 6.5 million people inside Syria who may be in need of help.

“These figures are terrifying,” he said. “This is not just frightening, it risks becoming simply unsustainable. There is no way to adequately respond to the enormous humanitarian needs these figures represent. And it is difficult to imagine how a nation can endure so much suffering.

“I know that, as High Commissioner for Refugees, I should confine my remarks to the scope of my mandate,” he added. “But as a citizen of the world, I cannot refrain from asking: Isn’t there any way to stop this fighting, to open the door for a political solution?”

NGO alliance warns sequestration cuts will cost lives

WASHINGTON (March 1, 2013) – NGO alliance InterAction urged members of Congress and the administration to restore support for life-saving foreign assistance programs in continued budget negotiations, warning that sequestration cuts that take effect today will cost lives.

Under sequestration, programs that provide food aid, support for refugees, HIV/AIDS treatment, primary school education and other poverty-focused and humanitarian assistance will be cut by approximately 5.3 percent – a move that not only risks lives, but turns back the clock on years of investment and progress, said Samuel A. Worthington, president and CEO of InterAction.

“These cuts to foreign assistance programs, which make up less than 1 percent of the budget, are not going to address the federal deficit,” Worthington said. “But they will translate into real human suffering, at a time when crises in Syria, Mali, Sudan and elsewhere desperately need our attention. The U.S. government would be hard-pressed to respond to any unexpected crises that might erupt during the 2013 fiscal year.”

More people are displaced around the world by conflict now than at any other point in the last 15 years. In Syria, one in five people needs food, heat and other humanitarian assistance as the situation continues to deteriorate and the number of refugees in neighboring countries nears one million, according to the United Nations.

The sequestration cuts also mean:

•   2.1 million fewer people would have access reduced or denied to lifesaving food aid.

• 605,625 fewer children who will receive nutritional interventions designed to save their lives and help prevent the irreversible damage to their brains and bodies caused by malnutrition.

• 1.2 million fewer insecticide-treated mosquito nets will be procured, leading to over 3,200 deaths due to malaria; 2 million fewer people will receive treatment.

• 67,200 fewer HIV-positive pregnant women will receive services to prevent mother-to-child transmission, leading to nearly 12,800 infants being infected with HIV.

“Congress needs to take the responsible path here. People’s lives depend on it, both here and abroad,” Worthington said.

**************************************************************************************************************

Jesuit Refugee Service/USA is a member of InterAction, the largest alliance of U.S.-based nongovernmental international organizations, with more than 190 members. Our members operate in every developing country, working with local communities to overcome poverty and suffering by helping to improve their quality of life. Visit www.interaction.org.

U.S. NGOs urge administration and Congress to increase humanitarian funding

WASHINGTON (Feb. 21, 2013) – Current funding levels for Fiscal Year 2013 for international humanitarian assistance are insufficient to meet escalating humanitarian needs, said leading NGOs in letters sent this week to U.S. lawmakers and the administration.

“With more people displaced by conflict around the world than at any other point in the last 15 years, we simply cannot afford to roll back our humanitarian assistance programs now,” said Samuel A. Worthington, president and CEO of InterAction. “As the administration continues to negotiate the continuing resolution and sequestration with Congress, it is critical that humanitarian accounts are not only protected, but increased. Without additional funding, U.S. agencies that oversee humanitarian response may be put in the impossible position of having to choose between saving lives in one country over another,” added Worthington.

Syria continues to descend into chaos, reaching new depths of human suffering as more communities are uprooted and displaced. As of this month, nearly 770,000 people have poured into five neighboring countries, with the total expected to rise to over one million by June. This is up from 70,000 refugees last May.

Lanzamiento de la Conmemoración del 12 de Febrero, Día de la Mano Roja

¡PARE! NO MÁS USO Y RECLUTAMIENTO DE NIÑOS, NIÑAS Y ADOLESCENTES EN LA GUERRA

Bogotá, 7 de febrero de 2013. El Servicio Jesuita a Refugiados (SJR) en Colombia lanza este año las actividades de conmemoración del 12 de febrero, Día de la Mano Roja, con el propósito de manifestar rechazo al reclutamiento y uso de niños, niñas y adolescentes en las guerras y conflictos armados.

Según Naciones Unidas, hay más de 250.000 niños y niñas (cifra de 2007) que están siendo utilizados como soldados, en países como Afganistán, Uganda, Iraq, Israel, Somalia y Colombia.

A pesar de las distintas luchas y campañas que se vienen realizando cada año contra la vinculación de menores a conflictos armados, ejércitos oficiales e ilegales continúan reclutando niños y niñas en sus filas, tanto de manera forzada como voluntaria, obligándolos a realizar tareas peligrosas que vulneran sus derechos fundamentales como vivienda, salud, educación, recreación, etc., y ocasionando en ellos y ellas traumas trascendentales en su desarrollo emocional, psicológico y de relaciones interpersonales entre otras.

La hospitalidad no ha sido siempre la respuesta al clamor de los migrantes haitianos

(Bogotá) 4 de febrero de 2012. A comienzos de este nuevo año, del norte al sur del continente americano los migrantes forzados haitianos buscan cielos menos inclementes que su país de origen, continuando su peregrinación por tierra, mar o aire.

Sin embargo, la hospitalidad no ha sido siempre la respuesta de los Estados de llegada a su clamor, al tocar las puertas de las tierras, las fronteras o los mares adonde acuden.

Algunos Estados les cierran la puerta y otros los repatrían a su país de origen, cuando dichos migrantes huyen de él a causa de la agudización de la crisis humanitaria y la estagnación del proceso de reconstrucción tras el terremoto del 12 de enero de 2010.

A continuación un panorama de la situación migratoria de los migrantes haitianos en el continente, a inicios de este nuevo año….