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Don't Miss A New Leaf! March 8, 2013
Last week, Development and Peace sponsored a series of premieres of the new Salt and Light documentary A New Leaf, which features the response of Development and Peace to the food crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa, in five Canadian cities across the country. Read more here |
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A New Leaf: the show is on the road! February 27, 2013
We just launched our "Cross Canada Tour" (5 cities) Monday night in Ottawa and it was with a lot of pride that Mgr Terrence Prendergast (Archbishop of Ottawa) hosted the premiere of the documentary A New Leaf. Mgr Prendergast made the opening remarks of the one-hour panel discussion following the film screening. The hundred participants had the opportunity to ask all their questions to our guests: Fr. Read more here |
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A New Leaf: A timely reminder that a crisis does not just disappear February 27, 2013
This summer, I travelled to Niger and Mali to report on the food crisis that was gripping the Sahel region of West Africa, as well as the impact that political instability in Mali was having on the population. Accompanying me for the Niger part, was a crew from Salt and Light Television, who we had invited to come to document how the population was coping and our response. Together, we visited villages where the threat of hunger was a daily struggle. We also visited a refugee camp for Malians fleeing the violence in their own country. We could see the despondency of the people in the camp, having been completely uprooted from their homes and without any real idea as to when they would be able to return, if ever. It was a journey of discovery for all of us, and I was anxious to see how this story would be told in the documentary.
Read more here |
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Mali Emergency: Development and Peace is supporting Caritas in the Sahel February 26, 2013
The ongoing conflict in Mali is the result of a complex series of events in which each player has defended their own interests. Secessionist ambitions, control of natural resources, the imposition of sharia, are all claims raised by a variety of national and international actors. After launching a military offensive in early January 2013, French troops supported by African troops have now taken control of almost the entire territory, but the instability persists.
More than 300 000 displaced persons Read more here |
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Mali: growing number of refugees in neighbouring countries January 30, 2013
According to figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 7,500 Malians have fled their country in the last two weeks. The intensification of fighting has compelled entire families, some of them in car or truck, others on foot or on the backs of donkeys, to seek refuge in neighbouring countries (mainly in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania). Read more here |
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In Mali, hundreds of thousands of people threatened by clashes January 16, 2013
The French military intervention currently taking place in Mali has been making headlines. Although supported by the vast majority of Malians, it also carries with it the risk of worsening the humanitarian situation for the population, especially for those in the North. The 200,000 people still living in this area are now even more affected by the state of emergency, as declared by President Dioncounda Traoré. "I fear for the people of the North today. We know that this population is in a very precarious situation. Read more here |
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Sowing the seeds of solidarity October 23, 2012
Apparently, it is never too early to teach the concept of solidarity, nor does it have to be difficult. When the Director of our 3-year-old boy’s daycare informed me that she intended to put together an awareness-building project on Africa for the 2-5 year-olds and that the exercise would culminate in a fundraising activity in support of our West Africa appeal, I was both moved and surprised. Read more here |
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D&P discusses Sahel crisis on Salt + Light TV October 3, 2012
The food crisis occurring in the Sahel region of West Africa has gone relatively unseen in the media, but on a recent episode of Perspectives Weekly, which airs on Salt + Light Television, it was featured as the main topic of discussion. Read more here |
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New video on food crisis in the Sahel August 31, 2012
Over 18 million people are suffering from food shortages in the Sahel region of West Africa and Development and Peace is helping. To learn more about our response with our partners in the region, watch On the Brink: Hunger in the Sahel, a new video produced in collaboration with Salt+Light TV. Read more here |
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There is no home for the displaced in Mali August 21, 2012
On my last day in Mali, I went to visit a centre in Bamako that is hosting 16 displaced families (98 people) who have fled the North of the country due to conflict there. Rebel groups have taken over several cities and have declared independence of this northern region, which stretches out towards the desert. In addition, some of the rebel groups are transforming the territory into an Islamic fundamentalist state by imposing sharia law. They have desecrated churches and even destroyed ancient mosques that they view as idolatrous. Read more here |
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When you are in difficulty, to find someone to help you is a joy August 17, 2012
In the early morning Malian sun, members of Caritas Mali are getting organized for the first food distribution to take place in the Diocese of Sikasso. They are setting up rows of chairs, scales to measure out the beans, maize and oil that will be distributed to 93 households in the region and even some speakers to play music. Already, people are beginning to arrive with their carts pulled by donkeys, parking them one next to the other. Even the mayor has come to help launch the distribution. Read more here |
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When there are no seeds left to plant August 15, 2012
The Sikasso region in the South of Mali is dominated by the wide berth of the Niger River, making it favourable for the cultivation of rice. After a few days of rain here, the river is full and ready to irrigate the rectangular rice paddies nestled at its banks. But for rice to grow, there need to be seeds to plant. And this year, many farmers simply don’t have any because as a last resort to stave off hunger, they went through their reserves. Read more here |
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When the market is too expensive August 13, 2012
Karya Sagare’s granddaughter is sticking close to the skirt of her grandmother. Despite the heat, she is wearing a sweater with a hood that covers her head. Her eyes are listless as she quietly follows her grandmother through a church courtyard Karya explains that her granddaughter is not feeling well. She brought her to the doctor once, but can’t afford to bring her again. The trip to the doctor also ate into what little money Karya had put aside to purchase food for her family, which includes four children and two grandchildren. Read more here |
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A crisis during a crisis August 8, 2012
Last year, when the rains didn’t come for the harvest in Mali, it could already be foretold that a potential food crisis was on the horizon. What was less predictable, however, was that the country was on the brink of a political crisis.
Read more here |
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Trying to understand a food crisis August 7, 2012
One of the main questions I had when I left for Niger, was why the country has been experiencing food crises more frequently. After a near famine in 2005, serious peaks in food insecurity have occurred in 2008, 2010 and now 2012. Professor Alpha Gado, a specialist in food crises in the Sahel at the University of Niamey, helped me to understand the complexities of a food crisis in a country like Niger.
Read more here |
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Making the land work August 6, 2012
In Niger, where 80% of the population depends on subsistence farming for its livelihood, getting the land to produce is essential. To see stretches of earth that are rocky and caked dry, languishing with little purpose, feels like an enormous waste, especially at a time when there is not enough food to feed the population.
Read more here |
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Not enough food when it is needed the most August 3, 2012
Niger, like most of the countries in the Sahel, only has one rainy season, which means that the harvest that is cultivated from that rain is crucial to survive through the coming year. The time to plant the harvest, however, comes at a time when last year’s crop is nearly depleted and there is little, if anything, left to eat. It is a time when there is not enough food when it is needed most. To plant a field and work the soil requires energy, energy that is hard to find when there is nothing to eat.
Read more here |
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More refugees are arriving every day July 31, 2012
"There are more refugees arriving every day." These were the words of Nassar, the Caritas Niger representative who accompanied us to the Tabarey Baley refugee camp in Ayourou, close to the Malian border. It is the beginning of the desert here, where the air is dry and the sun is strong. In early February, Malians began to cross the border into Niger to escape violence in their villages by fundamental Islamist groups that have taken over the North of the country.
Read more here |
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Food distribution and speculation July 29, 2012
We are in the Sae Saboua commune, in the Maradi Diocese. Today, 234 households from four villages are each receiving 80 kg of millet, 21 kg of "niébé" (dried beans) and 5 litres of cooking oil. This ration is intended to feed a family of seven for a month. As the men are in the fields, it is largely the women that gather at the distribution points. It is now the rainy season in this part of Niger and the millet that was planted with the initial rains in June is already well along and needs to be weeded. If all goes well, that is if the rainy season does not bring floods, if the crop doesn't dry up from lack of rain, or if caterpillars don't ravage the crop as was the case last year, the harvest is due at the end of September.
Read more here |
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Maradi July 28, 2012
We are in Maradi about 650 km away from Niamey, Niger's capital. Maradi is the country's breadbasket, which also makes it its economic capital. However, we are also 25 km from Nigeria and everything from sugar to cars here comes from Nigeria. Boko Haram is also rampant in northern Nigeria and its influence in the area is very much felt, for example with the full veil being predominant. Tensions with the Christians are such that the Church failed to issue its traditional pre-Ramadan greeting on July 21st this year.
Read more here |
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A village gets a boost July 27, 2012
The village of Garbeygourou is found off an uneven dirt road that stretches over red sandy earth that has turned even brighter after a recent rainfall. The village itself only seems to be formed of a small cluster of huts, yet when we arrive and the village chief comes out to greet us, people begin to trickle out, slowly grouping in the middle of the village. Before we know it, there are at least 100 men, women, children and babies milling about behind us, with more arriving by the second. The village is receiving support from Caritas Niger because of food insecurity. Many families do not have enough to eat, and a there have been a few cases of severe malnutrition in some children.
Read more here |
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Finding Niger July 26, 2012
Niger is one of those countries that seems forgotten on the map, a place at the edge of the world that feels like it has been lost in time. The imagination can't even seem to conjure what it would look like because we hear so little about it. Yet, this large African country is currently experiencing a food crisis that is affecting 6 million people.
Read more here |
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New video shows reality of hunger in Niger July 11, 2012
Caritas Internationalis has just released Niger: On the Hunger Frontline, a new video about the current situation in Niger, where over 6 million people are touched by food shortages and at risk of suffering from malnutrition. It shows how Caritas Niger, who is supported by Development and Peace, is making a difference with its program to help communities cope with this hunger crisis.
Read more here |
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2012, the year of all dangers in Mali July 4, 2012
You might have read lately about the destruction of 7 of the 16 sacred mausoleums in Timbuktu in Mali by the islamist group Ansar Dine who is controlling the city since April 1st, 2012.
We received last week an analysis from Théodore Togo, General Secretary of Caritas Mali (which we support in the actual food crisis), who presents 2012 as the year of all dangers in Mali.
Read more here |
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Catholics across Canada mobilize for West Africa June 22, 2012
The drought and food shortages currently affecting 18 million people in six countries in West Africa are signs of a growing humanitarian crisis in the region. Although this situation is receiving little media attention, Catholics are not waiting for the crisis to worsen in order to start acting. Most Rev. Read more here |
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June 17th: World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought June 15, 2012
This Sunday marks World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. It was on June 17th 1992 that the UN adopted the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). It is a day to remember the dangererous impacts of desertification and drought in the world. For the 18 million people currrently threatened by food shortages in West Africa, the dangers associated with desertification are all too real. Read more here |
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Development and Peace and its Church partners are mobilizing to prevent a crisis in West Africa May 30, 2012
Since the month of May, we at Development and Peace have joined our voice with those of our sister agencies within the Caritas Internationalis confederation to sound the alarm on the situation in West Africa.
Today, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) announced their full support for this campaign, by appealing to all Canadian Catholics to show solidarity with the communities threatened by a major food crisis in the coming months.
Read more here |
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Food aid in Burkina Faso May 15, 2012
I have arrived in Burkina. It was more or less of a chaotic arrival! I was meant to fly to Bamako, Mali, to later travel to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, but the situation being what it is, the flight to Bamako was cancelled and I landed directly in Ouaga. Fortunately, our partner OCADES knew what to do and I found myself in good hands!
Read more here |
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Back in Montreal May 7, 2012
I am writing my last blog post from home in Montreal. With the airport in Bamako closed, I was driven by our friends at Caritas Mali to neighbouring Burkina Faso (14 hours) so that I could fly back to Montreal from Ougadougou.
Read more here |
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Agitation in Bamako May 1, 2012
Monday 4 p.m. and the first shots are heard. In these circumstances, we always ask ourselves if this noise is simply a car engine exploding. But after the 10th detonation in 15 minutes, we no longer ask ourselves this question. For a moment, there is a lull, but the shots begin again around 7 p.m. I was at a restaurant with Gaston Goro, Emergencies Coordinator with Caritas Mali. We were meant to go pick up Ary from the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB), who was arriving that night, but his flight was delayed by a sand storm that hit Bamako. Read more here |
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A Sunday in Bamako April 30, 2012
I spent my first day in Bamako with Gaston Goro, the Emergencies Coordinator at Caritas Mali, and Mamadou Diakité, an accountant with the organization. Caritas Mali was the first Caritas in the region to launch an appeal for aid to go towards the current food crisis here, but the response of the Caritas network – and the international community - has been slow. Read more here |
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Returning to the source April 26, 2012
It seems like just yesterday that I was 20 years old and a law student at the University of Laval in Québec. I had just been selected by Canadian Crossroads International to go to Africa – Mali to be precise. I was leaving North America for the first time. In fact, it was the first time that I was travelling by plane! Was I excited? I can still remember singing with the nuns next to me on the Alitalia flight! They were on their way to visit Rome, which for me was just stopover on my way to Bamako. Read more here |
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Situation worsening in Mali and West Africa April 5, 2012
Since this past January, over 200,000 people have fled their homes in Mali, mainly due to rebel offenses in the north of the country. Of this number, 107,000 have taken refuge in other parts of the country, while the rest have fled to neighbouring Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Algeria. Read more here |
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Development and Peace's work in the Sahel in the media March 15, 2012
Guy Des Aulniers, Emergency Relief program officer at Development and Peace, was interviewed by Geoffrey P. Johnston from the online news magazine Christian Week for an article on the Christian response to the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa. Read more here |