The nutritional situation is very worrying in CAR.

205,642 children are in need of urgent treatment for global acute malnutrition (GAM). 62,327 children aged 6 to 59 months suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and are at risk of dying without immediate treatment[1].

In response, Première Urgence Internationale, in partnership with the French Red Cross (FRC) and Action Against Hunger (Action Contre la Faim, ACF), has been conducting a project to support the health system and provide medical-nutritional assistance in the city of Bangui, the country’s capital, since July 2018. These actors have coordinated to intervene in 14 health centers in the capital, where malnourished children can be treated.

FREE CARE FOR MALNOURISHED CHILDREN

But the fight against malnutrition also involves informing the population in advance. The community relays, people identified by Première Urgence Internationale, ACF and FRC, within their neighborhoods, ensure the identification and awareness of the nutrition of infants and young children, especially among young mothers.

When cases of malnutrition are detected, the children concerned are taken to the nearest health center, where more complete examinations are carried out. Children with uncomplicated malnutrition are directly treated by the health staff. They are given “plumpy nuts”, a high-energy peanut-based paste, to be consumed regularly. A monitoring is then carried out in order to note the evolution of the children’s weight and to avoid the abandoning of the program.

A malnourished child eats a “plumpy nut” received at the health center | © Gwenn Dubourthoumieu

Children suffering from severe acute malnutrition with complications are referred to the Therapeutic Nutritional Units (TNU); special healthcare structures with more advanced capacities, which will take care of them. Finally, nutritional assistance will be complemented by psychosocial support for the child and his or her carer; in order to explore the potential causes of malnutrition, which can be very diverse.

All the care provided in the centers supported by Première Urgence Internationale, the French Red Cross and Action Against Hunger is intended for all children suffering from malnutrition and their support is entirely free.

Investing in the health care system

In order to ensure the continuation of health care for children in the future, the targeted health centers are equipped with materials; and the health personnel are trained to take care of their patients.

The community relays are also supported technically, financially and with materials. Regular monitoring and supervision visits are carried out to ensure that theoretical training is put into practice. The consortium of three NGOs also supports the health centers in ordering, transporting and stocking nutritional inputs.

As part of the detection of malnutrition, a child is weighed at the health center.

In one year, 116,739 children were detected for malnutrition. 3469 were treated for severe acute malnutrition, and 351 children with complications were referred to hospital. 4326 parents and accompanying persons, with their children, benefited from psychosocial care.

This project was set up thanks to the support of the Bêkou fund.

[1] Humanitarian Needs Overview, Central African Republic, 2021

Cet article Central African Republic : Responding to the urgent needs of malnourished children est apparu en premier sur Première Urgence Internationale.

The Global Handwashing Day ceremony lasted all day. First, the village chief of Adoumindou gave a speech thanking Première Urgence Internationale and urging the community to listen to the awareness messages. PUI’s Field Coordinator then reminded the audience of the importance of handwashing at key moments (after going to the toilet, after cleaning a child, before preparing food and eating, after feeding a child). The simple act of hand washing can save lives and reduce the number of missed school days for children. The Prefect of Bamingui-Bangoran also reminded the audience of the importance of hand washing and thanked PUI at the beginning of the ceremony.

37 leaders were present (29 men and 8 women). Among them, the prefect of Bamingui-Bangoran, the sultan-mayor of the town of Ndélé, the representative of the Bamingui-Bangoran Health District, village chiefs, women’s representatives, youth, religious leaders from Adoumindou and the villages of Kotissako, Kaka and Bissingou, had made the trip. The travel of the village chiefs near Adoumindou had been facilitated by Première Urgence Internationale, so that they could attend the celebration and then spread the message to their communities.

In addition to the community leaders, 422 participants (90 men, 210 women, 50 boys, 72 girls) were present, mostly residents of Adoumindou.

Awareness-raising skits

After the speeches, the theater company The Parrots of Bamingui-Bangoran gave an awareness skit. The skit featured a child who learned about hygiene at school. Once back home, he sees that his father does not wash his hands at key moments and makes him notice. His father does not understand the importance of the message, so the child provokes a discussion between him, his mother and the village chief.

This show was very much appreciated by the audience; they found it a light and funny way to get the hygiene messages across.

The Parrots of Bamingui-Bangoran’s skit showing a child raising awareness on the key steps of handwashing to his family | Première Urgence Internationale

The community mobilizers from Première Urgence Internationale then recalled the key messages of handwashing and demonstrated how to do it as recommended by the World Health Organization (handwashing with soap and water, in a circular fashion, etc.)[1].

Following the demonstration, the PUI team launched a quiz with questions such as:

• When is the right time to wash your hands?
• Demonstrate the proper steps for hand washing

All 60 participants won a hygiene kit. For the 30 winners (20 women and 10 men), the kit consisted of a bucket, a plastic watering can, soap and detergent. The other 30 (21 women; 9 men) received a canister, soap and detergent.

Testimony of a participant

Elisabeth is 25 years old and came to attend the activity; with her seventeen-months old daughter Stephanie. Elisabeth has 5 children in total and lives in the village of Adoumindou. She participated in the game to win a kit.

“I was asked the question: why do you need to wash your hands with soap? I answered: to avoid diseases. It was a good answer so I received my WASH kit as a reward! I understood the awareness messages given by the NGO and by the company the Parrots of Bamingui-Bangoran. I will use my kit wisely; to implement good hand washing practices and store clean water. I really enjoyed the activity and I am very happy that I won! Thank you very much to the NGO Première Urgence Internationale.”

The celebration of the day ended in a nice note with a speech by the prefect of Bamingui Bangoran.

In general, this celebration was a success. The Global Handwashing Day is a good opportunity to recall the importance of this gesture; in the reduction of waterborne diseases and mortality.

The Iboungbi project is funded by the French Development Agency.

[1]See World Health Organization (2014) | Rapid recommendations: hand hygiene during care in the response to a filovirus disease outbreak, p.12.

Cet article Central African Republic: In Ndele, Global Handwashing Day was celebrated with demonstrations est apparu en premier sur Première Urgence Internationale.

Violence in the Central African Republic has grown in scale, although in truth, in recent years, the country has not truly known periods of calm. The situation became highly unstable, resulting in crisis after crisis, following the coup d’état in 2013.

Within the country, there are a number of different and long-standing conflicts. Their intensity varies over time, and they have a major impact on the population:

• Ethnic conflicts, such as in the north-east of the country, between the Gula and the Runga people.
• Problems between the Northand the South of the country
• A cultural conflict between ‘Arabs’and Bantus
• A community-based and religious conflict between Christians and Muslims

The crisis between Christians and Muslims did not exist before the 2013 coup d’état. It has resulted in a number of acts of violence and large population displacements in the Central African Republic, both within and outside the country. In September 2017, there were around 600,000 displaced persons within the country and around 500,000 refugees.

Violence in the Central African Republic is the result of increasing confrontation between different armed factions. These groups are also growing as a result of alliances between their members. These alliances are made and broken based on the interests of each party, such as conquering and controlling mining areas or forests.

The situation has worsened since 2017. Areas that have until recently been relatively stable have become home to crisis. In the last few months, the north-east and south-west of the country have seen unprecedented violence.

WHAT CONSEQUENCES WILL THIS VIOLENCE IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC HAVE ON THE POPULATION?

Currently, two thirds of Central Africans do not have access to primary healthcare. Almost half the population eat only one meal a day. These figures reveal a population in extreme suffering. Armed conflicts result in violence against the civilian population that is fleeing the combat, often returning to find their homes have been pillaged.

The international community, which maintains a presence in the country, is also affected by the violence. Recently, a health centre managed by humanitarian agencies was attacked. Convoys carrying equipment and supplies are regularly attacked, and aid workers experience difficulties accessing populations that are in need.

WILL THIS VIOLENCE IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC CONTINUE?

The CAR is at risk of a flare-up of violence. In Bangui, for example, residents are very tired and frustrated by the situation. At the end of November, a traffic accident resulting in the death of a student triggered a wide-ranging series of demonstrations in the city. The situation is unstable and fragile.

We have also noticed a growing ‘anti-NGO’ sentiment. The population is not seeing any improvement to their country’s situation, and does not understand why Westerners are in the country.

SO IS THE HUMANITARIAN COMMUNITY EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTIES WORKING IN THE FIELD?

Access difficulties that NGOs are experiencing, whether for reasons of humanitarian space or logistics problems, make it difficult to support the population.

It’s also essential to work with the population and with the authorities on raising awareness of humanitarian principles in order to ensure that NGOs’ and UN peacekeepers’ mandates are fully understood and that there is no confusion between the two.

NGOs need to negotiate humanitarian access. They also need to coordinate themselves to ensure their work is as complementary as possible. Pooling resources is key. For example, in Bangui, we have developed a warehouse project. This allows humanitarian stakeholders to store humanitarian equipment and supplies in a secure location before being sent to the country’s provinces.

Première Urgence Internationale is also implementing a pilot project providing logistics assessments and support to warehouses located outside the capital.

In the CAR, it is difficult to predict where will be affected by violence or mass population movements. What is a stable area today can become a hotbed of violence overnight. We need to be able to provide a rapid response to populations in need.

Cet article VIOLENCE SHAKES THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC IN 2017 est apparu en premier sur Première Urgence Internationale.

Agriculture – the cornerstone of the Central African Republic’s economy

Cassava, kidney beans, peanuts, maize – the country’s economic revival hinges above all on supporting local agricultural production, a cornerstone of the economy. In its work, Première Urgence Internationale gives priority to the most vulnerable farming households. Over 63,000 people currently benefit from the programme*.
In these areas, teams from Première Urgence Internationale provide beneficiaries with training to enable them to get better-quality harvests. Teams explain the farming calendar and temperatures to them so they can optimise their crops’ yield. They are also given high-quality seeds and farming tools. Throughout the season, the NGO’s teams monitor the harvest and provide farmers with technical advice. Alongside their monitoring of subsistence crop harvests, the teams have also launched market gardening activities in suburban areas around Berbérati and Nola.
Finally, in Berbérati, Première Urgence Internationale is developing an innovative grain purchasing and redistribution system, buying grain produced by groups of farmers to help them overcome storage difficulties. 25% of the grain produced by these farmers is purchased by the NGO and stored in the warehouse the organisation manages to ensure optimum preservation. Première Urgence Internationale then gives beneficiaries access to this stored grain during the seed multiplication period. The first aim of this agricultural programme is to help to revitalise farming among the most vulnerable households in Mambéré-Kadeï and Sangha Mbaéré, followed by improvements to food security and livelihoods for those affected by conflict.

Developing income-generating activities

How best to stimulate the local economy of a population affected by years of armed conflict? Première Urgence Internationale has adopted an integrated approach to provide a sustainable response to the many needs that Central Africans have. This means that the mission does not focus solely on food security, but also provides sustainable solutions to allow communities to recover their independence and ensure the long-term recovery of the local economy. The mission uses the principle of Cash for Work. In Berbérati, more than 3,800 Central Africans have been employed to carry out renovation and reconstruction work, which will have a positive impact on activities around Berbérati, the regional capital, which has been badly affected by conflict. Temporary repairs have been made to two bridges to facilitate the transportation of farming tools, helping the development of agricultural production.
This economic recovery programme also includes an Income-Generating Activities (IGA) element, such as drying and selling dried fruit and vegetables, palm oil production, and soap-making. These activities have the benefit of giving beneficiaries a level of financial independence once more, something that, until now, they have been deprived of.
This project from Première Urgence Internationale is part of a number of other projects being carried out in the country by the NGO to provide an appropriate response to the long-running humanitarian crisis.

* This programme is funded by the OFDA.

Cet article Helping communities affected by the conflict in the south-west of the Central African Republic est apparu en premier sur Première Urgence Internationale.

A salary helps people to raise their heads a little higher. As a result of one crisis after another in the Central African Republic, Luteur, a farmer in Sibut has been left with nothing. Everything he owned was looted, his tools taken from him and his crops ruined. As a beneficiary of the ‘Cash for work’ project, he will receive a salary and be able to get tools, buy some chickens and even foresee future harvests.  This farmer is one of 400 beneficiaries of the programme launched by Première Urgence Internationale and financed by EuropAid in the Sibut region. The programme’s principle is to employ local people for projects that are useful for the wider community and revive the local economy through these cash injections. These people are paid by the organisation and their work will be of benefit to the surrounding villages.

Luteur, for example, has been helping to reopen a blocked road between Sibut and Boambali. Première Urgence Internationale teams selected people according to criteria including economic vulnerability, and trained them in road repair work. Maintenance committees have been trained and set up on Première Urgence Internationale’s initiative. They will be able to maintain the completed roads and continue with the work.

In this region where three quarters of the population grow cassava, peanuts or vegetables, Première Urgence Internationale has overseen the construction, by beneficiaries, of warehouses and a covered market. The NGO’s teams provided the materials such as bricks and mortar, and paid the trained workforce. The warehouses, open to farming groups, now give them the chance to store their harvests, and also to barter and to share information. A covered market has also been built, so that local people can come and buy what they need. ‘In this area, people are just surviving. This project is giving hope to people who can receive some money and benefit from meeting places. So we are targeting two types of beneficiaries: those who are working, and those who will benefit from the work being done’, explains Thibaud Saint Sébastien, former ‘Cash for work’ reconstruction manager in Sibut.

Through this programme, Première Urgence Internationale is helping people to have access to an income and as a result reviving the local economy.

Cet article Working for the community in the Central African Republic est apparu en premier sur Première Urgence Internationale.

Her house was set on fire and her village was devastated by popular militias. Gripped by panic, Célestine was forced to abandon her home and go into exile with her husband and her eight children. In their rush, they took no clothes or food with them, and they had to travel a long way on foot before reaching Amada-Gaza, a place of transit and safety. Located close to the border with Cameroon, this town has now taken in almost 800 uprooted people, including Célestine and her family.

When they arrived they were completely destitute, like the majority of the other displaced persons there. The villagers of Amada-Gaza showed their solidarity, taking the new arrivals under their wings and welcoming them into their homes for a few weeks. Première Urgence Internationale then stepped in to improve the situation and guarantee satisfactory access to medical care and sanitary facilities for everyone. In particular, teams on the ground built latrines and showers, and handed out emergency kits.

Célestine’s husband quickly got on with building a house to help his family return to a semblance of ordinary life. Now, in this accommodation, which was fitted out by Première Urgence Internationale, the ten members of the household can cook, wash and sleep under their own roof.

The young mother categorically refuses to go back to living in Bombo. Although she remains attached to the village where she grew up, the insecurity which prevails there means that she feels increasingly distant from her roots. She does not want to take any risks for her children, so from now on she is living in Amada-Gaza.

*Name has been changed.

This intervention has been carried out thanks to the UNICEF-financed Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) and the support of the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department and USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.

Cet article Célestine, a young mother from the Central African Republic, is a victim of displacement in the West of the country est apparu en premier sur Première Urgence Internationale.

6^th October 2015 | News

Population cornered, aid workers targeted – On the morning of the 26^th of September, violence flared in the PK5 neighbourhood following the murder of a young Muslim motorcycle taxi driver. Despite regular tensions in this neighbourhood of Bangui, the forces of the MINUSCA peacekeeping mission were very slow to act, allowing existing resentment among the population to take an extremely violent turn. This lack of responsiveness and anticipation in the action plan of the peacekeeping forces contributed significantly to letting the security situation degenerate, giving way to scenes of punitive and opportunistic violence. Since then, there has been fighting on a daily basis and the resentment of the community has given way to political demands, with speeches blaming the entire international community.

1. Deliberate attacks against humanitarian organisations and State structures, resulting in inability to access basic services, in particular healthcare.

As Bangui becomes caught up in recurrent violence, around ten national and international humanitarian organisations have been victims of looting, in their offices and residences, sometimes with violent attacks on employees present.

– Beyond opportunistic “economic” looting, genuine episodes of destruction have been observed, with a desire to destroy intervention resources and response capacity.

– Lack of access to ambulances prevented the retrieval of bodies and the transfer of casualties, who have had to try to get to medical centres on their own, confronting danger and the barricades.

– Those already in hospital sometimes preferred to leave medical centres because of the instability, in spite of the risks. This was the case for ¾ of the patients in the Bangui Paediatric Centre.

– When it was time to go back to school, schools were unable to open. Some have become sites for displaced persons like the Benzvi school, and are likely to not be in a position to allow students back for several months.

2. Worsening humanitarian situation, while NGOs are left without access.

The humanitarian consequences, particularly with regard to the new dynamics of displacement, are tragic. Meanwhile, the majority of organisations have been forced to suspend their activities or to keep them to a minimum and evacuate part of their staff.

– In Bangui, the number of displaced persons has almost tripled in just four days of violence. According to current estimates, they number more than 69,890; 61% of these are newly displaced. This figure is even higher than that of last January (50,398), when more than 23,000 were able to travel home accompanied by humanitarian actors.

– They have settled at known sites like MPoko, which is once again filled to capacity with more than 19,000 newly displaced persons, but also at 7 new sites created on an ad hoc basis where water, sanitation and hygiene facilities are inadequate or non-existent.

– To date, it has been impossible to travel to better evaluate the needs of all the sites in order to prepare aid, as routes are not always secured. In this situation the population is effectively held hostage, without protection or humanitarian aid.

3. A deterioration in the situation which also affects the provinces.

Although Bangui is the first place affected by the violence, this state of paralysis very quickly has consequences for the provinces, which depend heavily on the capital.

– In the provinces, outbreaks of violence and growing tensions have been noted in Kaga Bandoro, Bambari and Bouar, causing displacement and forcing people to flee to the jungle.

– Activities are for the most part suspended due to the level of instability.

– To date, the bases of humanitarian organisations situated in the provinces have been in a worrying state with regard to available reserves of cash and fuel. They are suffocated by the impossibility of getting supplies from Bangui because key routes have not been secured by MINUSCA and all internal flights are suspended.

The effect of the resurgence of violence is a step backwards by several months, in terms of humanitarian needs, social cohesion, the return home of displaced persons, but also the response capacity of humanitarian actors. Humanitarian organisations are once again raising the alarm: the neglect of the crisis in the Central African Republic at an international level coupled with the serious mismanagement of these new outbreaks of violence augurs a very bleak future for a population that has already suffered mistreatment and is extremely vulnerable.

We are calling for:

• the entire international community to strongly and publicly condemn the attacks on and violence against humanitarian organisations.
• all parties in the conflict to respect the neutrality and impartiality of humanitarian workers, and to allow them to carry out their mission at all times. Healthcare facilities, as well as all other services necessary for the survival of the population (water supply etc.) must be preserved and respected by all, in accordance with international humanitarian law.
• MINUSCA to fulfil its safeguarding and protective role by demonstrating responsiveness and anticipation.
• the international community – which has just met at the United Nations in New York – to take action on this ongoing crisis and to immediately increase aid to the Central African Republic in order that the stocks and intervention resources which make up response capacity can be restored as quickly as possible, emergency aid can be provided to displaced persons, and a genuine contingency plan with long-term financial commitment can be defined.
• all stakeholders to support, promote and respect a reinforced distinction between political action and humanitarian response. This is to stop the harmful confusion between NGOs and the international community, which attracts feelings of strong resentment.

Cet article CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: RENEWED VIOLENCE IN BANGUI est apparu en premier sur Première Urgence Internationale.