An American family moves to war-torn Mosul – Part 1

The Eubank family has a guiding principle–if other families are forced to live in war zones, there should be no issue with theirs being on hand to help.  And so as Iraqi forces pushed into the last pockets of western Mosul still under Islamic State control, an American mom was home-schooling her three children in a room above a medic station deep inside the city.

Sahale, 16, and Suuzanne, 14, sat in a corner near their mother, Karen, working on their laptops and occasionally bursting into song. Peter, 11, lay on a camping mat on the floor doing math. They sleep in a house a short drive away, but spend their days at the medic station to assist and give supplies to fleeing Iraqis.

About a mile away at the front line, their father, David, who says he served for a decade in the U.S. military including in the Army’s Special Forces, evacuated families as they came under sniper fire from Islamic State militants.

It was just an average day for the Eubanks, who describe their work as a calling from God. The family has spent much of the past 20 years in the jungles of Burma, where David Eubank founded the Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian organization that provides emergency medical care, shelter and food supplies in the country’s long-running civil war. They traveled to Iraq two years ago, at first working alongside Kurdish peshmerga forces in the war against the Islamic State. The family has also worked in Sudan and made two trips to the Kurdish areas of Syria.                                                              [Continued]

An American family moves to war-torn Mosul – Part 2

The war in Mosul is more intense than anything this American family has experienced, Karen Eubank says. The eight-month battle has taken place in a densely populated city, home to more than a million people when the Iraqi operation began.

Families face a gantlet of risks. U.S.-led airstrikes and sometimes indiscriminate artillery and mortar fire by Iraqi forces bombard neighborhoods held by the Islamic State. Families that attempt to escape risk being targeted by militants’ sniper and machine-gun fire, with the increasingly desperate extremists mowing down hundreds of civilians in recent weeks.

“They’ve been shelled, shot at, they’ve grown up like this,” David Eubank said. “Our deal is that if there’s another family there, we can be there. Americans aren’t worth more than anyone else.”

His team of Free Burma Rangers–including medics from Burma’s minorities who have traveled from their own war to help in Iraq’s–prepared their equipment for an expected afternoon push by Iraqi forces.

The rest of the family usually stays a step back from the front line. “I don’t want my kids to die. I don’t take them purposefully to the fighting,” Eubank said. “We pray and think about every risk.”

The group is being hosted by Brig. Gen. Mustafa Sabah, a brigade commander with the Iraqi army’s 9th Armored Division.  Sabah said that he initially was surprised that Eubank brought his whole family with him. “I thought, ‘This is not the right place for children,’” he said. “But then when I got to know them well, I realized this is what makes them happy, and they really believe in what they are doing.”

Sabah said that by just being there, the family is doing enough “because they give positive energy to everyone around them,” but that along with the rangers, they have effectively become a logistics battalion.

[Washington Post]

Humanitarian leaders to gather at Aid & Development Asia Summit

More than 250 high-profile representatives from NGOs, businesses, government and UN organizations are set to convene at the Aid & Development Asia Summit in Myanmar June 14-15 to exchange innovative and sustainable solutions for improving aid delivery and development strategy in Southeast Asia.

Southeast Asia is particularly vulnerable to severe climate change related disasters. Out of 65.3 million displaced people around the world, 14% are being hosted in Asia and the Pacific. Despite significant progress made over the last decade, hunger, malnutrition, disease and poverty are still among the notable challenges particularly facing the region.

Over 130 million people in Southeast Asia do not have access to basic health services. Communicable diseases, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB), remain a major public health challenge. The region has the lowest density of health professionals with a deficit of 6.9 million health workers. As a result, Southeast Asia has one of the highest rates of child mortality in the world with 1 in 19 children dying before their fifth birthday.

[ReliefWeb]

Hackathon to find solutions for humanitarian problems

“Tech for Humanity”, to be held in Tallinn, Estonia June 9-11, will be devoted to finding innovative solutions to aid humanitarian catastrophes. Organised by the Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol and Garage48 the Tech for Humanity hackathon will focus on three areas: finding new implementations of technology to aid the refugee crisis; natural disasters; and developing countries.

100 contributors are expected to be involved. In the first stage, the teams will develop a prototype of the product or service that they can then introduce to the sub-committees of the UN such as the Global Humanitarian Lab and the International Committee of the Red Cross. From there on, the product development can continue in collaboration with the Global Humanitarian Lab or the Red Cross and the best solutions will be put to work.

“Better solutions in logistics, information gathering and distribution are essential to ensure that help would quickly reach the ones who need it the most. Sustainable solutions in education and psychological help are needful to ensure the normal quality of life for displaced people. These are just a few examples of areas in need of innovation – we await everyone who wants to help to solve these problems in collaboration with UN experts,” the organizers said.

Since 2010, the Tallinn-based Garage48 has been organizing hackathons where participants create prototypes to test their business ideas in 48 hours. At a hackathon, everyone can pitch their idea on Friday; the most popular ones attract teams that will start executing them; and on Sunday evening, the teams present their prototypes. So far, over 60 Garage48 events have taken place in 17 countries and four continents.

[Estonian World]

India’s humanitarian assistance and disaster relief

The Indian Navy is currently assisting the Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan governments in dealing with a devastating cyclone and flood, respectively.

In previous years, India has rendered similar assistance, most notably in in April 2015, when Nepal was hit by a massive earthquake.

Also in 2015, the Indian Air Force was deployed in Yemen. During that relief effort, India rescued nationals from 41 countries apart from bringing home a large number of Indian citizens. Last July, India was quick to get its citizens out of South Sudan as well.

The Indian mainland is not very far from these disaster zones. Hence, India could deploy its military assets more effectively than in other parts of the world. The Indian military is the strongest force in the region; its geographic advantage is coupled with material capabilities like naval warships and long range aircraft.

[The Diplomat]

Turkey Humanitarian Fund achievements

In terms of allocations, in 2016 the Turkey Humanitarian Fund (THF) became the largest of all OCHA Humanitarian Funds globally, disbursing US$93.5 million to 144 projects, targeting 7.3 million beneficiaries.

37 per cent of this money went to directly funding the projects of Syrian National NGOs.

Of the 7.3 million beneficiaries, 55 per cent (or over 4 million) have been women and girls reflecting the HFs support to partners on the use of the Gender Marker.

Of course none of this would be possible without the generosity of the donor community who have provided over $67 million to the THF in 2016. This represents an increase of nearly 40 per cent or ($18 million) from 2015, in addition the THF’s donor base grew from 8 to 12 donors an increase of 50 per cent.

[UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs]

Statement to UN Security Council concerning humanitarian help for Syria

Excerpts of statement by Stephen O’Brien, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs & Emergency Relief Coordinator:

Close to seven million children in Syria live in poverty. Nearly 1.75 million children remain out of school and another 1.35 million are at risk of dropping out. 7,400 schools – one in three across the country – have been damaged, destroyed, or otherwise made inaccessible. And even if the schools were intact, many would be unable to open, with almost one quarter of the country’s teaching personnel no longer at their posts.

Outside Syria, hundreds of thousands of Syrian children are left to face an uncertain and traumatic future on their own; they have become stateless, abandoned by the world but for the generosity of neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey, as well as Egypt.

For these suffering children, what’s at stake isn’t politics. It’s their lives and their futures. It is their innocent voices, their suffering that need advocating.

We also must not lose sight of the fact that – all over Syria – millions of people, in locations inside and outside the four de-escalation areas, continue to suffer because they lack the most basic elements to sustain their lives. We must not stand silent while violence flares up elsewhere in the country and parties continue to use starvation, fear tactics and the denial of food, water, medical supplies, and other forms of aid as methods of war.

I call on members of the Security Council to use their influence to see that these actors respect humanitarian principles and allow the unfettered delivery of aid. We are also greatly concerned at cross-border restrictions and regulatory impediments imposed on the NGO community operating in northern Syria and are troubled by increasing reports indicating that IDPs fleeing are being kept for prolonged periods in screening camps and subjected to restrictions on their movement by the self-proclaimed Democratic Self-Administration in northeastern Syria.

Sri Lanka flooding after worst torrential rains in 14 years

Rescuers in Sri Lanka on Monday pulled out bodies buried in the mudslides triggered by the country’s worst torrential rains in 14 years, taking the death toll to 164. The Disaster Management Centre said 104 people are still missing while 88 remain in hospital.

The incessant rains experienced since Thursday night have driven nearly half a million people out of their inundated homes in the southern and western regions.

Police said a Sri Lankan Airforce helicopter (SLAF) MI-17 carrying relief aid for flood victims crashed in the southern Galle district, the worst hit of the 14 districts by flash floods and earth slips in the on-going monsoonal rains, while carrying out relief operations in the flood-stricken areas.

Following India’s lead in sending out emergency relief to Sri Lanka, more countries have started pledging assistance to provide relief to the flood victims.

China is to donate relief items worth of $ 2.2 million.

[First Post]