Caritas Kenya prays for the fate of the Westgate Mall hostages

By Stephen Kituku, in Nairobi

As images of a shopping mall in smoke are on every news channel around the world, the fate of many hostages is still unknown four days after a group of armed gunmen attacked the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya.

On 21 September at noon,  Westgate Mall in Westlands, became the centre of world attention as fighters from Al- Shabaab stormed into the crowded mall, killing and injuring shoppers. The death toll has risen to 69 with 175 persons injured and more than 1000 rescued by Kenyan police. As the siege drags on, the exact number of people still held is unknown.

Bishop David Kamau gave a statement of solidarity to Kenyans, condemning the act of terror and commending the efforts of many Kenyans who have showed up in large numbers to donate blood to save lives of hostages or wounded.

The Catholic Church has urged Kenyans to give donations to help victims and their families through this difficult and trying moments. Caritas Kenya responded immediately by donating 1,000 blood bags, 10,000 gloves, soft drinks, glucose and crates of bread to assist many Kenyans who responded to the call to donate blood at Uhuru Park.

The Caritas family in Kenya continues to pray for the victims and bereaved families hoping that those held hostage will be released safely.

We also call up all Catholic faithful and people in Kenya and beyond to come forward and support this cause in any way possible. We thank all the Caritas members for their timely solidarity messages.

May our Good Lord protect Kenya and her people.

‘Everything has been destroyed and nearly everyone has been robbed’ – Central Africa Republic

Woman and child displaced by fighting in Central Africa Republic. They now receive aid from the church. Credit : Caritas

Pictures are said to speak a thousand words, but sometimes a paragraph works just as well. This is the picture that Bishop Juan José Aguirre of Bangassou recently painted of the Central African Republic in an email to Cordaid (Caritas Netherlands).

“Roads are closed and officials cannot get to their places of work. People in Bangui are isolated and institutions in the rest of the country remain unmanned,” wrote Bishop Bangassou towards the end of April.

”Salaries are no longer being paid, families have become even poorer, people have less to eat, and school contributions can no longer be paid. Gasoline supplies have also dried up. This means that traffic will come to a standstill and generators will no longer work. As a knock-on effect there will be no electricity to charge mobile phones, no power to operate oxygen and other equipment in hospitals. There will also be no transport for medication, so no ARVs (anti-retrovirals) for AIDS patients and no medication for patients in a terminal phase. And in all municipal town halls birth certificates have been systematically destroyed.”

Since the Seleka rebels seized power in the Central African Republic the country has spiralled downwards into chaos and lawlessness. The capital, Bangui, fell on 24 March and since then the international community has called for a stronger peacekeeping force.

People have been seeking refuge where they can. This week the United Nations refugee agency urged countries to refrain from repatriating refugees to CAR, amid worsening violence and human rights abuses.

Working in CAR has been a risky business for Caritas ever since armed groups started to advance from the north last year.

The violence and looting makes delivering aid extremely difficult and also dangerous. This leaves communities cut off and without help. But two weeks ago Caritas went to offer support to the injured and distressed in Bangui, taking them food which included rice, sardines, milk and beans.

The mission was led by Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui and he was accompanied by the secretary general of Caritas CAR, Abby Elysée Guédjandé, and the head of Caritas Bangui, Sr. Flora Guerekopialo. Those who received help sang hymns in thanks and but also to keep their spirits up.

But other Caritas member organisations have had to stop programmes and/or evacuate staff when the situation has been too unstable.

“There were moments throughout the day when we were not sure we would survive,” said Maribeth Black, a Catholic Relief Services (a US member of Caritas)  staff member of her last day in Bangui. “Grenades and bullets were whizzing by outside the gate and angry looters were banging.”

Around the same time, Cordaid colleagues had to be evacuated from Bangui too as there were fears for their safety.

Speaking from Cameroon, to where she and other CRS staff were evacuated, Maribeth said, “All petrol stations (in Bangui) have been destroyed. All main stores looted. Vehicles have been stolen. The local economy has certainly taken a huge hit and it will be weeks, perhaps even months, until it functions again as normal.”

Reports coming out of Bangui paint a brutal picture of fear and violence with no end in sight. No one feels safe and help and comfort are hard to come by as the violence persists.

“It will be difficult to get this country back on its feet,” says Bishop Bangassou, “Everything has been destroyed and nearly everyone has been robbed.”

Senegal migration conference: opportunity and risk

Caritas representatives from all over the world and a range of high-level migration experts from international organisations will discuss trafficking, exploitation and abuse at the conference "The Female Face of Migration" in Saly, Senegal, from 30 November-2 December 2010. Credit: Caritas/Michelle Hough

By Michelle Hough

The Atlantic Ocean is a graveyard. I was reminded of this during the Mass to close the first day of the Female Face of Migration conference when we were asked to pray for all the migrants who had drowned in it.

Every year hundreds, possibly thousands of immigrants die trying to cross the seas from West Africa to Europe – not just the Atlantic, which was just 30 metres from where we were attending Mass – but also the Mediterranean.  Most of us aren’t really aware of this and these people remain anonymous – barely a blip on the international news.

Réaffirmer l’engagement de l’Eglise de la Région des Grands Lacs

Par Pierre Cibambo, International Liaison Officer pour l’Afrique chez Caritas Internationalis

La Conférence de l’Episcopat Catholique de La Région des Grands Lacs pour la Paix et la Réconciliation a ouvert ses travaux ce mardi 19 octobre dans la capitale burundaise Bujumbura. Pierre Nkurunziza, le Président de la République du Burundi, a ouvert les travaux en souhaitant la bienvenue aux différentes délégations et en reconnaissant l’important travail de l’Eglise de la Région dans le domaine de l’action humanitaire, le développement et l’édification de la paix et la réconciliation.

World AIDS Day – 1st December 2008

By Francesca Merico, CI International Delegate in Geneva

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), HIV has inflicted the “single greatest reversal in human development” in modern history. In 28 years, HIV and AIDS has become a global emergency, responsible for the deaths of some 25 million people. In sub-Saharan Africa, the region most affected by the epidemic, approximately 60 percent of adults living with HIV are women. 

The pandemic continues to cause untold physical, emotional, and spiritual pain, exacerbates human rights abuses, and disrupts family integrity and harmony. In the countries most heavily affected, HIV has reduced life expectancy by more than 20 years, causing dangerous consequences for the transfer of knowledge and values from one generation to the next. It has slowed economic growth, and deepened household poverty.

Today, despite the fact that 33 million people are living with HIV, many more do not know whether or not they have the virus and others do not know the difference between HIV infection and AIDS – the stage where a person’s immune system is seriously damaged and they may be unable to fend off serious infections, cancers, and other illnesses. Although special medicines to treat HIV have been developed, 70 percent of adults and 85 percent of children living with HIV lack access to much needed treatment.

Even though the transmission of HIV from an HIV-positive mother to her child can be avoided, 90 percent of the children living with HIV contracted the virus from their mothers.

World AIDS Day is an occasion to reflect on all these challenges as well as to reflect on the significance of HIV and AIDS for each and every one of us and especially for the Caritas Confederation which is called upon to serve the most vulnerable and marginalised members of our human community, including those living with or affected by HIV and AIDS.

For me, HIV and AIDS means the little hands and faces of the children I have met, hugged and spent time with. AIDS is their smiles, but also their suffering. It is the sadness and despair of the mothers queuing at the Lea Toto center in Kariobanghi or at the Korogocho clinic in Kenya hoping for some help for their babies; it is the distress of young men who have no more energy left to work and support their loved ones. It is all the grandmothers taking care of their grandchildren orphaned due to AIDS.

The theme for World AIDS Day this year is “leadership”. Leadership highlights the discrepancy between the commitments made to halt the spread of HIV and the actions taken to implement such promises.

This theme makes me think of the many people working for Caritas and other Catholic organisations, who are leading the AIDS response: Ann, Jane and Montserrat from CAFOD, Fr. Anthony and Fr. John from Caritas Vietnam, Klemens from MMI, Hernan, Rebecca and Juan Bosco in Mexico, Bob with CI, Nina at Misereor, Maria and Encarna in Kenya, Deirdre, Caroline and Finola at Trocaire, Ana Isabel from Caritas El Salvador, Vincent from Uganda, Rabia from CMMB, Burchard from Missio, Claudia from Kindermissionswerk, Fr. Michael Czerny from Africa Jesuit AIDS Network, Sr. Donata from the Health Commission of the Unions of Superiors General, and Greg from CRS.

Today, I am grateful to all of them for their engagement, commitment and passion for fighting HIV and AIDS.