http://www.cafod.org.uk/emergencies special focus http://www.cafod.org.uk/var/storage/images/about-cafod/where-we-work/sudan/images/fatna-right-brings-home-wood/247664-2-eng-GB/fatna-right-brings-home-wood_small.jpg http://www.cafod.org.uk/emergencies http://www.cafod.org.uk/emergencies/panels/special-focus/emergencies-blog-feed http://blog.cafod.org.uk/2008/07/15/ethiopia-sunshine-on-a-rainy-day/ We arrived at our hotel in a zombie-like state after a nine-hour flight via Amman. As I fell into my bed I decided to worry about the possible threat of African creepy-crawlies some other time …Amazingly, I woke early and my first sight of Africa in daylight was in the hotel’s gardens. Exotic flowers, palm trees and [...] http://cafod.wordpress.com/?p=416 http://blog.cafod.org.uk/2008/06/30/sri-lanka-moving-on-after-tsunami/ Spent the morning with a few people who in most cases lost everything to the tsunami but have since, with assistance from Caritas, got the tools and supplies they need to restart their businesses. Having seen much of the country this week, from conflict in the east to post-tsunami construction and inter-religious dialogue in the south, [...] http://cafod.wordpress.com/?p=370 http://blog.cafod.org.uk/2008/06/28/sri-lanka-rising-from-the-wreckage/ Galle is about two and half hours south of Colombo, on the southern tip of Sri Lanka. And it is a far different place today than it was the last time I was here – two weeks after the tsunami devastated much of its coastal length. I spent some of today with families who had their homes [...] http://cafod.wordpress.com/?p=368 http://blog.cafod.org.uk/2008/06/26/sri-lanka-routine-for-a-military-zone/ Another long travel day from Trincomolee to the capital, Colombo. According to the map on the wall of the Caritas office, it is a distance of 257 kilometers, but battered roadways and a meticulous series of military checkpoints on the road out of Trincomalee make travel slow. The drive took us seven hours. The checkpoints can’t be [...] http://cafod.wordpress.com/?p=366 http://blog.cafod.org.uk/2008/06/24/sri-lanka-facing-an-uncertain-future/ It’s hard to imagine that any one place can deal with so much tragedy almost at once. But getting out to both a camp for those displaced by fighting, and the site of a community rebuilt after the tsunami, brought that fact home today. The tsunami devastated Trincomolee, a large, deepwater port city. Although Caritas has been rebuilding [...] http://cafod.wordpress.com/?p=363 http://blog.cafod.org.uk/2008/06/22/sri-lanka-we-cant-go-home/ Got out to one of the camps for those displaced by the fighting. Though they take many forms – from tents and simple structures of plastic and cloth – this one was actually a disused school, converted for use as a camp for the displaced. At the peak of the influx, in August 2006, Caritas had been [...] http://cafod.wordpress.com/?p=360 http://blog.cafod.org.uk/2008/06/20/sri-lanka-success-amid-the-devastation/ Travelled south today, about 30 kilometers outside of Batticaloa, to a small village called Sandhipuram. Though it was hard hit by the tsunami in 2004, losing most of its 250 homes – miraculously no one was killed. But those who did survive had a hard road ahead. We met up with a woman with the unusual name [...] http://cafod.wordpress.com/?p=358 http://blog.cafod.org.uk/2008/06/18/sri-lanka-where-tensions-remain/ We took a long trip out of Colombo to Batticaloa today, a drive essentially across the country from west to east. Already I can see it is a different place today than it was when I was last here in June 2005, in the months after the tsunami. With the breakdown of the cease fire between the [...] http://cafod.wordpress.com/?p=355 http://blog.cafod.org.uk/2008/06/16/pakistan-better-buildings-than-before-the-quake/ The building contractor for the health units, built by CAFOD’s partner Caritas Pakistan, is Ibrar Hussain. He describes how the steep terrain and narrow roads meant that it was impossible to transport construction materials by truck. Instead, his team had to carry them 11 kilometres in 4X4 jeeps. Over lunch I ask Ibrar how he got into the [...] http://cafod.wordpress.com/?p=349 http://blog.cafod.org.uk/2008/05/06/pakistan-where-health-matters/ It’s April 2008 and I’m back in Pakistan for the first time since Bhutto’s assassination, yet she lives on, Elvis-like. Her iconic image smiles accusingly at me from the rear window of speeding cars which hurtle past during my three hour drive from Islamabad to the earthquake affected areas. Two and a half years after the massive quake [...] http://cafod.wordpress.com/?p=290