Finland is an attractive country for asylum seekers and refugees because of its reputed human rights records and its wealth, which is similar to other northern European countries such as Norway and Sweden. While most of the asylum seekers in Portugal are transferred due to Dublin II regulations, it’s not as attractive to asylum seekers in the current economic situation. Dublin II regulation is a signed regulation among Schengen agreement countries to identify as quickly as possible the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application, and to prevent abuse of asylum procedures.

Schengen space includes all European Union countries (excluding the UK and Ireland), Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The main article in the Schengen agreement is to abolish the borders between the signed countries and strengthen the outer borders with nonmember countries.

In Finland, the asylum seekers stay in a reception center managed by the Finnish Red Cross after submitting the asylum application in the police station or to the border police. Usually the police check the asylum seeker’s luggage, mobile phone, computer and wallet. The main reason for checking it is to try to find the route that was used by the asylum seeker to reach the country.

Most of the asylum seekers hide their passports and money and destroy any receipts that would show that they’ve bought anything from Schengen space. This is to avoid being deported to the first country that they passed into within the Schengen area according to Dublin II regulations.

All these attempts to hide information would not work if they had finger prints for visa applications or for any other reason within Schengen space. Also, Dublin II regulation states that if the applicant has a visa or residency permit from any Schengen country, that country would be responsible for his asylum application if he had not been there.  In most of the Schengen countries’ embassies around the world, the applicant of tourism or business visa must do finger printing at the embassy itself. Also, in most European Airports, sometimes the immigration officer decides to take the fingerprints, especially if passengers are from countries that have a large number of refugees.

If the asylum seeker gives his passport to authorities in Finland, they will hold it while studying his asylum application. While in Portugal, the passport will remain with him.

While checking the bags the police would take the initial feedback from the asylum seeker and they will search in the Eurodac system, which is a European computer system created to double check if the asylum seeker applied in other Schengen and if he had committed any crime in Europe. The finger printing in Finland is fully computerized, while in Portugal they still use ink fingerprinting for the application and ID preparation.

Also, the police count the money that might be with the asylum seeker so the Finnish Red Cross constants can count the reception allowance for every asylum seeker per month. This allowance is given to the asylum seeker to cover his food, transportation and other essential things for living.

In Finland the allowance is 10 euros per day, and they don’t give one penny to the asylum seeker, even for medication, before confirming that the money with him is accounted for. The payment is given monthly.

In Portugal they follow the same procedure, except for money and baggage, mobile, computer and mobile checking. The allowance is 150 euros per month with some support of food; also, they cover all medical expenses. The allowance is paid on the first Thursday of each month by the dedicated social assistance workers.

The reception center in Portugal is managed by the Conselho Português para os Refugiados (CPR), or Portuguese Refugee Council, which is a Non-government organization (NGO) that is exclusively NGO dedicated to the support of refugees and asylum-seekers in Portugal.

Some of the food that is given by CPR to the asylum seekers and refugees is either expired or about to expire in a few days; most of the food is donated either by the nearby supermarket to the CPR or some other Non-government organizations. When Toonari Post asked one of the members of the CPR social assistance program [her name is reserved] about the reason for providing expired food, the answer was that everyone is able to decide whether the food is suitable to consume or not. Nevertheless, some asylum seekers are not educated enough to read the expiration date on the food.

Another strange procedure in CPR is that they don’t give an independent room to any person without hassle. For example, on the eve of December 29, 2012, one vigilant employee switched off the internet from the main router without informing the person who was talking to his family online. When the resident asked him to keep it for personal reasons, the employee refused to follow his request. The resident decided to watch television in the living room to civilly protest the aggressive Vigilant. After some minutes, three policemen came to the CPR and spoke in Portuguese. When the resident asked them either to speak in English or to bring an interpreter they assaulted the resident using their hands and the police stick. They took him to the police station to continue to beat him for three hours, then returned him to the CPR to sleep in his room. The resident went to the hospital the next day to take the proper treatment and to make a report so he could press charges against the policemen and the original employee. Other employees tried to convince him to withdraw the case from the court and promised the independent room. He took the room but refused to withdraw the case.

The majority of the asylum seekers are, in both countries, coming from Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Macedonia and Iran. Some of them come from other countries. The political and the humanitarian are among the top reasons for applying for asylum while some others are coming for economic or family reasons.

This compression is done according to the personal experience of one Toonari Post writer who applied for asylum in Finland, then was transferred to Portugal due to Dublin II regulation.

Image Courtesy : Northfoto / Shutterstock.com

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“The eyes of the world are on Brazil” is an expression often used to represent the popularity of the country and its appearances in the media, for reasons such as the World Cup 2014 and the Olympic Games of 2016. The country’s image in regards to violence and poverty is still really strong, and the government is trying to prepare for these big upcoming events. Rio de Janeiro is the city where are lot of the events will take place, and what is often emphasized is the contrast between nature and the city. There is another contrast, the one between the upscale neighborhoods and the favelas, or slums of the city.

Because of the favelas’ factors, which involve a highly populated area with the poorest people of the city living on top of the Rio de Janeiro Mountains, for many years it has been the perfect place for drug dealers and criminals to hide themselves. The police has had a lot of trouble trying to get inside, and the government is trying to change this reality through “pacification” actions. Many favelas have already gone through this process and nowadays provide a safer life and better infrastructure. But this is not the case with the Maré Complex, formed by 16 slums and located between the main access routes to the city. More than 130,000 people live there. This makes up to 2.3% of the total population of Rio de Janeiro.

One big problem has to do with children and the youth of the community. They don’t see opportunities outside of the favela and crime is for them a chance to get some money or status inside the community. As the government still hasn’t brought the pacification process to the Maré Complex, one good initiative offering good possibilities for its inhabitants is created by non-governmental organizationsn such as CEASM (Centro de Estudos e Ações Solidárias da Maré, in english: Centre for Studies and Solidarity Actions of Maré). This NGO is focused on contributing to the value of the slums and poor communities as an expression of the plurality of the city, changing ideas and guiding public policy. Since 1998 the NGO offers support courses helping young people get into the public universities. Entrance is based on a highly competitive test that usually favors people who can afford a good basic education.

These days, CEASM offers 14 different projects involving education and cultural emphasis. The population faces low self esteem issues, and many people think that there is no way out of the violence. CEASM wants to change this.

It already offers a library, computer rooms, journalism rooms and classrooms. Everything was built with the support of donations and community help. CEASM has about 100 volunteers, both paid and unpaid. Lourenço Cezar da Silva (pictured above) is the oldest brother of five siblings, and was one of the first students who was able to get into one of the most competitive universities of Brazil: PUC-Rio (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro).

The economic support is based on donations and funding, but in the past year help has been cut for different reasons. The NGO is facing many problems to keep offering a better chance to the community. The CEASM volunteers usually try to apply to get some help from the government but say that lately many has been direct to culture and not to education.. He started as a student of the support course for university applications and today is proud and eager to help others starting out like he did.

Of course, the eyes of the world cannot easily see everything that happens in the daily life of poor communities in the big city of Rio de Janeiro, but maybe looking inside it will make it possible to change from the outside, instead of trying to hide the problems. CEASM and the Maré Community Complex need help in order to change from inside; it needs eyes to look where it matters. The number of young people who cannot benefit from the services is increasing, and consequently, so is the number of them who engage in crime and violence.

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Washington, U.S.A. - Members of the U.S.-based NGO alliance InterAction released the following statements on the outcomes of the G20 Summit:

Neil Watkins, Director of Policy and Campaigns, ActionAid USA stated, “with food prices swinging wildly and the planet burning, this was the moment for bold proposals from the G20. Instead, on food security and climate change, the G20 turned in last year’s homework, content to reaffirm old plans and commission more studies.”

John Ruthrauff, Director of International Advocacy of InterAction said, “InterAction is pleased that the G20 declaration expresses support for a number of important development issues. These include the supporting Scaling Up Nutrition, launching the AgResults initiative, extending the Anti-Corruption Working Group’s mandate for two years, and phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. Unfortunately, these words of support are not accompanied by concrete steps, action plans, or benchmarks for completion.”

Michael Elliott, CEO of ONE claimed, “Political courage seems to be in short supply in Los Cabos. The G20 has consistently promised a lot, but delivered very little. The Seoul and Cannes summits gave us hope that a new drive on development had begun, but too much of the work that was started has not been advanced by leaders in Los Cabos. Leaders must match their rhetoric by ensuring that their stated desire to address global poverty is backed-up by concrete action in the months ahead.”

Carlos Zarco, the Executive Director of Oxfam Mexico also made a statement saying, “this is a hugely disappointing outcome for developing countries. Europe’s crisis must be fixed because it’s becoming a serious drain on developing countries. But it is not good enough for the G20 to have fought over growth versus austerity in Europe. Leaders failed to keep the world’s poorest in their sights, despite the fact that more than half these people live in G20 countries.”

World Vision also released a statement claiming, “we are pleased to see a greater emphasis on nutrition included in food security solutions; however this year’s G20 Summit represents a missed opportunity to lead nutrition-specific solutions. The Summit focused more on recycling previous commitments and sharing best practices and not enough on making measurable political commitments in the fight against poverty and hunger.”

Image Courtesy of  Oxfam International

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Water.org is the charitable organization co-founded by Matt Damon and Gary White in 2009. The organization has worked in many developing nations including Haiti, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Honduras, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, and India. They work to not only provide the communities they help with potable water but also better sanitation; however, the power of these projects is put in the hands of the communities themselves.

While working in Haiti, water.org tries to work with local non-profit organizations that know the local, usually rural communities and can better understand their cultural, political, and environmental needs. The local partner will also know what the best technologies to use for that region are based on the environmental needs of the community and whether or not the parts for repair are easily obtained in that region or country.

Additionally, water.org does its best to work with the Haitian government and DINEPA, the organization responsible for water regulations in Haiti. Recently DINEPA has been addressing the cholera epidemic that began in October 2010 after the earthquake, monitoring water quality throughout the country, and decentralizing water and sanitation so that there are regional representatives. This decentralization works well with the water.org system

Water.org has been in Haiti since 2009 and has helped to sustainably provide 18.000 people – mainly in the Pignon region of Saint-Raphael – with potable water; their goal is to reach 50.000 by March of 2014.

In addition to providing drinkable water, water.org does its best to encourage better sanitation practices. They will analyze what sanitation barriers are in place and what the needs of the community are. Currently in most of Haiti only fifty-one percent of individuals are using some kind of latrine as opposed to the eighty-three percent of people who have and use these sanitation measures in communities aided by water.org. However, Laura Ralston, International Programs Manager, states, “you will always find people who are not necessarily going to be on board [with sanitation measures] for whatever reason.” Unfortunately these seventeen percent of people are still affecting the health of the rest of the community.

Ralston stated that in one community she visited recently, the water sanitation committee put together by water.org was “at their wit’s end” trying to get the last few households to get latrines. The families did not have financial difficulty, but simply did not see the need. According to Ralston, some individuals do not see a need for the latrines even after they are given presentations and explanations.

Perhaps the most important aspect of water.org’s work is the community involvement. Water.org is, of course, essential for the projects, but they only get involved with communities who reach out to them through their local non-governmental organizations or charities. Then the community forms a committee to oversee the water and sanitation projects and to collect the maintenance fees for the well. The communities will also decide the rules and regulations regarding the wells and what kind of savings threshold they want to meet every month as a community. Only when these communities have trouble does water.org intervene with advice and as a facilitator of conversations. Ralston claims that “it’s [the communities] prerogative to meet those thresholds.”

As of now all of the communities in Haiti are meeting their savings goals. Some communities are even saving enough money to consider getting a solar panel for their well or another well for the purposes of irrigation. It is very important to water.org, according to Ralston, that these projects are sustainable for the community financially and technically so that when water.org leaves the community will not have to worry about the well breaking and the funds or parts not being there to fix it.

Most of the projects in Haiti use wells but there are some that capture water from springs. Before determining which type of construction needs to be done, water.org and the local partner will do hydrological and sometimes geological assessments. It is also important for them and the community to know if the spring they are using is in a delicate watershed.

The community is also responsible for the water quality treatments from the wells and springs. Most of these water supplies will require chlorine treatments before human use and the community can decide whether they want some kind of automatic dispenser or if they would prefer to do the treatments manually.

Since the devasting Haiti earthquake in 2010, over 4500 people have died from cholera. The main source of this contamination was the Artibonite River. The journal Nature published an article that claimed Haiti’s limited resources should be spent not on vaccinations but on sanitation and access to clean water. Obviously, water.org has been working towards these goals and begin their projects with surveys and assessments. After the communities have taken over the responsibilities of sanitation and clean water some have continued to do surveys and gather data on how many are sick and they are seeing improvements in fewer numbers of cholera cases.

Some projects are not always successful. Although water.org may start a project in a location, the project can be halted for several reasons such as a lack of any kind of water resource, or human interference. Human reasons are the main reason for the cancellation of projects such as social reasons, rivaling groups, or political disputes. According to Ralston the problem boils down to “money always complicates things.”

Water.org will continue its work in Haiti until it hopefully reaches its 2014 goal of 50000 people with potable water. Although water.org has other projects elsewhere around the globe Ralston claims the direst situations at this time are in Haiti so this is where they will focus.

Find out more on how to get involved and support the Water.Org project by visiting Water.Org or Facebook.

Image Courtesy of  Water.Org

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On 12th January, 2010 Haiti experienced a new drama. An earthquake seven points of moment magnitude shocked the country leaving after it a trail of devastation and worst of all a stealth battle of ruthless numbers.

At the beginning of 2011, one year after the disaster, the Haitian government increased the initial death toll from 220.000 over 300.000 while the international community set a number lower than 100.000. They did it unexpectedly, without any previous comment and not defining the parameters and methodology used for the estimation.

Maybe they thought two hundred were not enough to boost international aid, and a bigger new headline of misery would have helped them to raise more funds. The math is obvious for Haitian rulers: higher victims mean more pity and shame which tends to increase international aid flowing into the country.

According to Inter-American Development Bank the earthquake caused damage estimated near 14 billion dollar, more than the country GDP, and somehow they need to put pressure on international donors both to increase the amount pledged, 5.3 billion dollars, and to speed the deliver into the country up.

It is believe that Haitian government had added into earthquake victims, among other, the subsequent 200.000 cholera infected and 4.000 dead. A rate that is still growing as of March 2011 rises to 300.000 with 5.000 deaths reported by WHO.The first cholera case appear months after the earthquake, it was reported on 14 October 2010 in the department of Artibonite, the country largest department located in the north-west side of the island, from where the disease quickly spread through Artibonite Rive affecting other departments.

Cholera is an infection of the intestine caused by a bacterium that causes diarrhea and vomiting which in severe cases can lead to death by dehydration due to an untreated patient may produce 10 liters of diarrheal fluid a day. The last cholera epidemic in Latin America started Peru in 1991, during the 7^th pandemic and after reach other countries but not Haiti, a country with none recorded cases previous 2010.

The earthquake caused massive population movements inside the country as in Cité l’Eternel, a neighborhood in Port-Au-Prince, home for tens of thousands of families who live crammed together in tiny shacks with no running water or proper sewage facilities. The mounds of garbage and the open sewers full of human waste are breeding grounds for cholera, typically transmitted by either contaminated food or water.

After a rapid spread the worst part took place between mid November and January, usually with more than 10.000 cases per week throughout the country, uncontrollable sometimes like the first week of the year when 14.000 cases just in Port-Au-Prince were reported.

While all this misery happens in Haiti, in the neighboring Dominican Republic were just 200 reported cases during the whole year, confirmed along the borderline, a gap which can be explained by their citizens’ wealth.  The GDP per capita is eight time higher in Dominican Republic than in Haiti, where just 96 dollars per year an person can be spent in health care.

Thus creating a risk profile for cholera within a population where 60 percent suffer from prevalence of undernourishment, 40 percent has no access to improved drinking water and just 20 percent has access to improved sanitation before the earthquake. The World Health Organization states also that cholera is one of the key indicators for social development.

While the disease no longer poses a threat to countries with minimum standards of hygiene, it remains a challenge to countries where access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation cannot be guaranteed. Almost every developing country faces cholera outbreaks or the threat of a cholera epidemic. As it can be imagined Africa nations head the rank.

With this outlook after the earthquake just NGOs were able to contain the epidemic, but it should be emphasized that dying by cholera is not easy with a minimum sanitation care. Around 75 percent  people infected do not become ill, but when illness does occur, 80 to 90 percent of episodes are of mild or moderate severity which can be treated with a simple treatment of oral hydration solutions, mere sugar and salt mix to be ingested costing about 10 cents the sachet.

For severe dehydration cases intravenous rehydration is necessary with mortality rate lower than 1 percent but untreated it raises over 50 percent. Moreover currently in the market two preventive vaccines are available; Dukoral and Sanchol, both with a protection close to 8o percent for the first two years and a cost between 1.50 to 5 dollars a dose.

Still, the cruel reality is that there is no money for everything and priorities have to be done. That is why some experts argue that a vaccination campaign would be neither feasible nor cost-effective, and advocating putting forth other measures. According to UNICEF NGOs have been deploying several initiatives to prevent, contain and reduce the epidemic.

In partnership with the Ministry of Health they are working to raise awareness about cholera through radio, television and text messages targeting at least 80 per cent of the population.

Through neighborhoods they have been putting up posters to help teach people how to protect themselves and giving information about the disease in schools, health centers, market and even door to door, with an aim to ensure that households have at least one person who knows how to prevent cholera and what to do in case symptoms occur.

Furthermore they install public water points where water tankers provide free and pure potable water where water purification tablets and soap are free handing out too. Without this facilities cholera spreading would have been unstoppable because in water kiosk 5 gallons of drinkable water cost up to one dollar when most of the population is surviving with less than a dollar per day, so is unaffordable for almost everybody.

A complete sanitation and potable water system for 1000 people during a year costs 18.000 dollars or more, so many times is too expensive as well. That is why they seek for other sustainable alternatives like wells, another effective and cheap way to allow easy access to safe water. After the well is constructed the NGOs put in charge a different committee for each site to makes sure it keeps running effectively.

Owing to the lack of resources NGOs try to do their best in a very difficult situation. Now that media focus has been diverted to the nuclear crisis Japan and Somalia famine the donatives have been critically reduced and foreign aid tends to displace to hot points. Under these circumstances nobody can be sock by the macabre game played by Haitian government.

Headlines are more important now than ever to keep the attention over a country where still 600.000 people live in displacement camps and 40.000 new cholera cases per month. Unfortunately more people are dying by starvation in Africa and like in a Machiavellian chain this triggers off mass media interest; giving television, radio and press space.

The chain continues with international donors, as foundations or governments seeking for recognition or NGOs seeking for promotion, increasing their efforts in the hot spot and therefore reducing staff and money from other projects. Likely the organizations in Haiti will be able to steadily reduce the monthly cholera cases and deaths into a situation under control, but not capable of eradicating it.

The country is struggling right now against a new endemic disease, they can win or they can lose and resign themselves to counting dozens of deaths per month. Everything depends on international help, Haiti is totally crippled, but these days developed countries are bailing banks out with tons of dollars used to make up a financial balance instead constructing a well for potable water that actually could save lives.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishredcross/

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In the crisis and in the conflicts in many of the African continent’s countries the NGOs – Non-Governmental Organizations – have always played a fundamental role.

This kind of organizations operate in the countries where situations of Complex Political Emergencies (CPE) broke out. These emergencies are characterized by a set of circumstances, internal and external, as political instability, state’s crisis, rebellions, ethnic or religious wars, separatist or anti-separatist wars, coups d’état, liberation wars, and wars piloted by outsider forces.

In any of these cases the consequences over the populations are very strong. Violence, genocides, hunger, forced emigration, diseases, poverty, tortures are some of the effects that fall over the people.

The NGOs carry out emergency and development programs to help African people in these difficult situations. These organizations are non-governmental, they operate independently from any countries’ governments. There are various kinds of NGOs, extremely diverse among each other, the projects that are carried out can be different depending on the issues they deal with, and on the methods they use.

The variety of actions they are involved in can be very broad, from basic services as food and water supplying, to assistance in refugees camps, medical assistance, trauma counselling for conflicts’ victims, mediation between different parts involved in wars and so on.

The contradictions concerning their role may refer to the elements less known, not about the positive aspects of their actions, but about their progressive evolution towards a real professionalization that makes them being very similar to private business enterprises. Since the mid 80′s there have been many changes in their structure and in their relations with the economical and political world.

The bonds with the entrepreneurial sectors are constantly increasing. Many private agencies and companies are interested in taking part in the humanitarian projects and missions in the African continent. These are becoming strongly dependent from the economical world.

Therefore the private interests mix with NGOs’ action, which should be totally independent and neutral, animated by sincere commitment and led by sound principles.

One of the question that mainly leads to this kind of collaboration/fusion between private enterprises, governments and NGOs is that of the funding. NGOs’ maintenance and programs require a large and constant flux of money and most of the incoming funds come from governments and private companies, creating in this way strong connections and ties between them and undermining the NGOs’ independence.

During the last twenty years the number of NGOs has been increasing in a significant way so that nowadays they form altogether the major funding channel to the South of the world.

With the transformation of their structure and the new balance of powers and interests, their role changed considerably. Moreover the peculiarity of the conflicts and emergency situations of the African countries has led to a change also in terms of programs and interventions’ types and length.

The emergencies now are the situations in which NGOs manage to operate more quickly and apparently more efficiently, due to the mechanisms that permit to access in advance to the funds in order to activate an immediate intervention.

These mechanisms created a real business of humanitarian aid leading to a competition between different NGOs. In this way their new tendency is to concentrate more on emergency situations than on long-term cooperation projects.

In many cases and in many countries this business push contributed to worsen the conflicts development and the wars dynamics in a complicated tangle of interests.

We should look beyond the positive aspects of these organizations to understand also the hard and complex situation of the African countries.

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