A powerful video thank you to Caritas from Martin Leung-Wai, one of 14 young people Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand helped attend the biggest youth climate summit in New Zealand: PowerShift NZ-Pacific 2012
While the Doha climate talks were wrapping up, over 700 young people from throughout the Pacific came to this event in Auckland, to learn, be inspired, have fun and take action. Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand sponsored 12 from New Zealand and two from Vanuatu to attend. Continue reading
Filed under Climate change
Girl with a herd that Caritas gave her family two years ago after they were hit by extreme frosts. Credit: Caritas Czech
Tegshbayar Sanduijav, agronomist and research officer at Caritas Mongolia, has flown all the way to Qatar, to participate in COP18 as a member of the CI delegation. This is his first COP, and his expectations are built on his experience of climate change in Mongolia. Continue reading
Filed under Climate change
As the international climate negotiations re-open in Doha, should we keep faith in the possibility of a successful outcome despite the difficulties of brokering a deal among 194 countries?
By guest blogger Roeland Scholtalbers of sister network CIDSE
The buzz around the Copenhagen climate summit is a distant memory. Since December 2009, climate change has quickly moved down the priority list of many. In the midst of a deep global financial and economic crisis, tackling climate change unfortunately isn’t part of most governments’ efforts to fix their faltering economies. Continue reading
Filed under Climate change
Two wells have been constructed with the help of Caritas Switzerland in this village in Chad providing water to grow food as drought ravages West Africa’s Sahel region. Photo by Fred Lauener/Caritas Switzerland.
The village of Chawir is located in Canton Migami, south-central Chad (West Africa). Like almost everywhere in the area, the locals are almost exclusively women and children. Of the 2,760 inhabitants of Chawir, only 120 are adult men.
Many women are widowed or divorced. This is because their husbands did not return from the civil war in Libya, where they had migrated to find work.
Other men are expected home in early summer to join the harvest work on the cereal fields. They had left Chawir temporarily to find work in bigger towns in Chad. Some travelled to find work in Libya, which can be a dangerous place for Chadian men. Nonetheless, thousands of poor Chadian farmers take this risk; simply because they cannot afford to feed their families.
In Chawir, there is a health clinic with no doctor, but there is a school and two large communal gardens. Around 200 women, mostly with children and grandchildren, work here every day planting and harvesting herbs, leafy vegetables, carrots and onions.
Thanks to a water source only six metres underground, the garden is growing well. Two wells have been constructed with the help of Caritas Switzerland, partner organisation Acord, and a few men who remained in the village. Continue reading
Filed under Emergencies
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