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So I’ve been perusing the paper NYTimes more often lately because I’m curious to see what makes it into print and what doesn’t.  While there’s inches and inches dedicated to how much Obama’s personal life has changed now that he’s the president-elect (his barber has to come to him now) there is now no longer any mention of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

I’ve been meaning to cross-post all of HEAL Africa’s updates here, but just have been swamped with travel, etc.  I suppose it’s not too late to start.  Here’s the latest update from Judy Anderson’s conversation with Joseph Ciza:

November 14, 2008. 

I just spent time with Joseph Ciza on the phone.  (He’s in Goma, I’m in Seattle).  You haven’t heard from HEAL Africa for a few days.  It doesn’t mean that things have “settled down” in Goma.  The military action continues all around, people are increasingly unsettled, and troops from Angola and Zimbabwe are reportedly in Congo.  This doesn’t bode well at all.   Joseph said he’d heard from someone that military troops were heard in the dark, so they wait to hear what will happen in the morning.

I don’t want to inundate you with email.  We are working to consolidate our databases so you won’t get four messages from us, but thank you for your patience with us!  Thank you for your support; we need it!!!

Joseph has spent the past week and a half visiting with nurses, clinics, Nehemiah Committee members, IDPs, military and militia and rebel leaders, and with humanitarian organizations assessing the needs for their own organization to begin work in Goma, North Kivu, DR Congo.

It is deeply personal work for him.  For the past many years he has been involved in providing training and equipment to rural health clinics in North Kivu.  He has been a tireless advocate and encourager; he has visited every military group that operates in North Kivu.  In the past week he has visited looted clinics, visited community leaders in hiding, in IDP camps.  They cannot go home.  The future is very uncertain, especially with foreign troops coming in from various countries.

He has picked up wounded and brought them to the hospital for treatment.  Today he was southwest of Goma, visiting the hospital at Kirotshe, and stopped at Bweremana.    He was taken to see two women, and said “They  were shot in the legs by FARDC soldiers as they were retreating from Goma toward Bukavu.  The women were in a car coming from the market; the soldiers stopped them to commandeer the car.  The women suffered severe injuries when they were shot in the legs by the soldiers.”  The women are now at HEAL Africa’s hospital.

The number of wounded related to the present crisis today at the hospital is 127.   This is in addition to the normal number of around 180 patients.  He continued,   ” 82% of the new cases are raped women.  45 women are victims of rape from Kibati refugee camp.  45 were raped in town.  There are about 30,000 extra people in Goma town right now.”  This is in addition to the IDP camp on the northern edge of town, Kibati.  And does not include the camps to the west and southwest of town…Mugunga, Bulengo and others.

I asked him how he sees the future, “The best hope I see is that we get good leadership.  I don’t see who can lead correctly.  Both leaders (Kabila and Nkunda) were in the same military movement in 96-98″ (that displaced the Mobutu regime and installed Laurent Kabila as President, father of the present elected Joseph Kabila).   “This is a very complicated, complex situation.  We are condemned to live together. The challenge is how to live in peace and be reconciled, especially with all the violence that is happening on all sides now.  That is the real work of HEAL Africa”.

When I asked him how we can support him, he mentioned: 

• Financial support for HEAL Africa.  “The people who are coming to the hospital are very vulnerable people.  They cannot pay for the care they get; we cannot refuse to treat them.”    www.healafrica.org .
• Pray for the people working in such conditions.  Pray for Joseph and the various HEAL Africa teams.
• Pray for the ONE MILLION people in North Kivu who are displaced or lost, children and parents as well as the inhabitants of Goma.  Many parents are affected.  Joseph said, “FARDC soldiers came to rob my neighbor.  They also took the daughter from the hands of the parents.  They were unable to protect their daughter…you can understand how they feel.  What if it happened to me?”

 .

Thank you for standing with our Congolese sisters and brothers.

Peace for Congo, peace to you.

Judy

For those of you that think that I should post stuff about me on my blog - the my school just posted a piece about an award I just got on the website. It’s really cool - the Foundations for Change: Thomas I Yamashita Prize supports young activists that make social change happen. If you get a chance, you should read about Yvette Marie Robles and Lina Hu, the Honorable Mention awardees - they’ve done (and continue to do) amazing work in Oakland and China.

Rabin was nice enough to do an audio recording of parts of the ceremony.

• Intro of the awards:
• Divya’s (on behalf of Rowena) intro
• My acceptance speech

If you are bandwidth limited, there are lower bitrate versions also here:
http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu/resources/media/yamashita/

NPR’s All Things Considered recently interviewed Nicholas de Torrente of Doctors Without Borders (the American branch of Medicins Sans Frontiers) about their recently published their top ten under-reported humanitarian stories of 2007:

• Displaced Fleeing War in Somalia Face Humanitarian Crisis
• Political and Economic Turmoil Sparks Health-Care Crisis in Zimbabwe
• Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Spreads As New Drugs Go Untested
• Expanded Use of Nutrient Dense Ready-to-Use Foods Crucial for Reducing Childhood Malnutrition
• Civilians Increasingly Under Fire in Sri Lankan Conflict
• Conditions Worsen in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
• Living Precariously in Colombia’s Conflict Zones
• Humanitarian Aid Restricted in Myanmar
• Civilians Caught Between Armed Groups in Central African Republic
• As Chechen Conflict Ebbs, Critical Humanitarian Needs Still Remain

Read the rest of this entry »

Fulfillment Elusive for Young Altruists In the Crowded Field of Public Interest

By Ian Shapira
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 2, 2007; Page A01

A friend pointed out this article for me. I have to wonder that if in our efforts to look at ICTD academically if we’re going to create another glut of idealists with nowhere to go. But there’s so much to do! I have been watching interest in this area grow over the past three years, and have high hopes that the entrepreneurial spirit of this generation of b-school and international relations graduates will be able to look beyond the traditional NGO positions and forge ahead with their own grassroots efforts. And of course, that this crop of people will be well trained to listen and live with the communities they want to help, and genuinely provide services that the communities need in a way that they can sustain them.

I’m not sure what all the schools are that have a good focus on information technology and international development. It seems that most Poli Sci, Public Health, and Public Policy programs are fairly cognizant of the theoretical issues around development, but are not always as well versed in technology. Haas Business school at Berkeley is fairly experiential in this area and actually sends students (where possible) to developing countries like Ghana. They are also part of the Global Social Venture Competition, along with London Business School and Columbia Business school, which have given rise to entrepreneurial efforts like World of Good and many other socially-minded organizations. Cornell’s Johnson School of Business also has a Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise which sends people to developing countries, knowing that while not everyone will continue to work on sustainable development post-graduation, the experiences they have as part of the program will be useful no matter where they end up. And of course I have to mention the Blum Center for Developing Economies, which sponsors a lot of my research and has recently started a new minor for undergraduates.

From a computer science perspective - developing new technologies explicitly designed for the infrastructural, economic, political, and social realities in developing regions, there is (of course) the multi-disciplinary TIER group at UC Berkeley, some work being done at University of Washington, and Keshav’s Tetherless Computing group at University of Waterloo, in addition to the very capable individuals scattered throughout other universities.

An interesting (although not altogether informative) article on how handheld GPS devices are being used by a logging community in Congo-Brazzaville…

Logging with care in Congo
By John James
BBC News, Congo-Brazzaville

The Mbendjele people of Congo-Brazzaville are using the latest satellite mapping technology to stake claim to a rainforest, two-thirds of which may be gone in 50 years.

…

For example, there is one for hunting, another for a cemetery, and another for a sacred tree. When these icons are pressed, the handheld device makes a note of the satellite co-ordinates.

The women of the village take obvious pride in pointing out these features on their newly printed maps.

They don’t need the maps themselves of course, but for the first time they have a record of how they use the land that can help them discuss their land rights with companies and the government.

…

My good friends at the University of Waterloo Tetherless Computing Research Group just released KioskNet, an open-sourced, live-cd’d solution for setting up sneakernet-style terminal server kiosks.

One of the things that stands out in my travels in Africa (more so in Ghana than Uganda) is the prevalence of the charismatic pentacostal megachurches. They have their pluses and minuses (Phillipians 1:17-18 comes to mind), and I have some hesitations about the “prosperity gospel” as well as how much they seem to revere the American pentecoastal leaders, but at least there are large organizations encouraging entrepreneurship and self-motivation, as well as providing the educational resources to enable their congregations to lift themselves out of poverty…

I’m not sure whether this was a scam or if it was actually a toy intended for his daughter, but this pastor is being accused of trying to con his congregation into believing he is passing on the Holy Spirit using a static-electricity joke toy. I guess the thing that counts though is noted by the Ethics minister in the article below: “But Mr Buturo said that most of the new churches, known in Uganda as “balokole” were “contributing to the stability of our country.”

Uganda pastor denies miracle scam (BBC News)
Thursday, 12 July 2007, 11:27 GMT 12:27 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6294666.stm

The Indian government is collaborating with a number of African countries on a pan-Africa e-Health network, aiming to encourage collaboration between Indian and African doctors over VSAT. Ghana’s included in this program, I believe starting with the Komfo Anoyke Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. The project is funded for 5 years - I’m not sure what will happen after that, but hopefully they will be able to fall to the much more financially sustainable land-based fiber by then (assuming the sub-marine cables get deployed). The project also includes the donation of new diagnostic equipment, including DICOM (a medical image standard) compatible x-rays and CT scanners.

For the BBC News article on the topic, see:

Ethiopia’s high speed hospitals
By Elizabeth Blunt
BBC News, Addis Ababa

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6295044.stm