Monday, May 25, 2009

Assistance for Pakistan refugees

Email from Dr Emil Khan of Frontier primary Health Care, Rose Charities (Hillman Medical Education Fund) partner. Rose Charities is assisting with emergency funding for these programs. Donations are much appreciated and go entriely to the projcet without any administration charges

...." Here the security situation is frightening . Our Government is at war against terrorism and the security forces are taking stern action against terrorists in the districts immediately adjacent to Mardan. Though there is no specific threat to FPHC or its outlets but every one in our target area is at risk and is frightened. No one knows when and where something wrong happens.

The people are fleeing their homes in war hit areas of Swat, Bajaur, Lower Dir and Buner. They reach in miserable condition to Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda, Nowshera and Peshawar districts. Few of them go to houses of their relatives in these districts but most of them look for shelter, food and health care etc. Government has set up camps for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) at different places. The Government of Pakistan, Civil Society Organisations and even common people are doing their best to provide some relief to these IDPs. FPHC has arranged emergency health care services for IDPs in one camp with its limited resources. We have planned emergency health care and nutrition rehabilitation services for IDPs living in four other IDP camps We have chosen nutrition rehabilitation in addition to emergency health care including mother and child health because the children and women are facing nutrients deficiencies for quite some time because of the turmoil in their areas.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Rose Charities Emergency Relief in Sri Lanka

Rose Charities Sri Lanka is working with the Sri Lanka organization, 'SEED' to get supplies to the 20,000 refugees in a camp in Tricomalee. Their focus is on children, pregnant women and old people. Rose Charities is supplying transportation and has purchased milk powder, baby panadol, biscuits, daipers, baby bottles, clothes for pregnant women and baby clothes and other necessities. The supplies are purchased in Columbo and are being transported to the camps. UN and other agencies are overwhelmed with the demand with up to 300,000 displaced people...so have asked local charities to help.AMDA HQ Japan, Rose Charities and AMDA Canada are supporting the efforts of Rose Charities Sri Lanka by sending funds.

Any donations of cash given to Rose Charities will guarantee to be spent directly on supplies to the refugees. Please see www.RoseCharities.org for donation details.


Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Cambodian Acid Violence

CAMBODIA: The high price of jealousy


Photo: William Grut/Rose Charities
Many children also suffer when some of the acid thrown towards an adult accidently drops on them
PHNOM PENH, 26 March 2009 (IRIN) - Sreygao is house-bound, her life destroyed after a jealous wife doused her face and neck with acid. It burned into her skin and blinded her.

“Everything has been taken from me because someone was very jealous,” she told IRIN.

Before the attack, Sreygao worked as a hostess at a karaoke parlor. Every night over beer, she flirted with and sometimes solicited sex to wealthy men, prompting an angry wife to take revenge on the 19-year-old.

“I have no face, no job, and I will suffer forever,” she said.

Deeper than scars

Acid throwing is a common form of retribution in Cambodia, usually perpetrated by jealous lovers, said William Grut, a physician at Rose Charities, which provides free treatment.

“Whether male or female, jealousy is jealousy,” he told IRIN. “It's not a question so much for gender discussions but rather why it's so prevalent and how it can be reduced.”

Cambodia's pattern of gender blindness marks it out from Pakistan, India, and Malaysia, where it is usually the men who use acid on women for punishment or reasons of honour.

Between 1999 and 2002, the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) documented 44 cases in local newspapers – the most thorough research to date, as no government body or NGO compiles data on acid attacks.

An attack occurs every 25 days, the group said in its report. But Jason Barber, a human rights consultant for LICADHO, told a radio station that the real number of attacks remained unknown since many went unreported.

Grut said the numbers available correlated with more populated areas, such as the capital, Phnom Penh, and smaller cities in Kandal and Kampong Cham.

Manifestation
''I have no face, no job, and I will suffer forever.''

The widespread availability of acid to replenish old batteries, weak law enforcement mechanisms, and what Grut calls “tertiary conflict injury”, have all popularised acid-throwing.

Tertiary conflict injury is a mindset in war-torn countries that problems can only be solved with violence, with beatings and acid attacks commonplace.

For decades, Cambodia has experienced coups, civil wars and a genocide in 1975-1979 that killed two million people.

“Cambodian history has regularly been very stressful for the [ordinary] person,” he told IRIN.

“This is not the same as PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], though arguably it may be a sort of long-term manifestation of it,” he said.

Repairing the damage

Corrective surgery is out of reach for most Cambodians, with 35 percent of the population living on less than US$1 a day, according to government statistics, so most sufferers must rely on emergency services from NGOs.

“Clearly in Cambodia, facilities are far more limited than in western countries, where one would have a long series of repetitive operations gradually working things back, reconstructing, and grafting,” Grut explained. “It would all be accompanied by very close counselling and peer assistance.”

But first, more attention needs to be paid to acid attacks as they are usually not a priority for local NGOs and government agencies, he added.

“There's not enough recognition at the NGO level, but at the street level there is,” he said. “People tend to know about acid attacks as the word goes around.”

Geoffrey Cain

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Busy Rose Charities Malaysia ! ( www.MyRoseCharity.org )


April 30 at 10:27am
Rose Charities Malaysia www.MyRoseCharity.org

Hi Everyone,Very sorry for late reply. Just back from seoul,korea last ..week .and landed with heaps of mails,meeting reports etc....to catch up.Still working hard on the cleft palate repair project and will advise soon on the details etc...
Currently we were busy preparing for the launching of the three day State Health Expo in conjunction with Mother's Day Celebrations on 29,30 and 31 may at the newest shopping mall complex in penang.

Over 30 health exhibition booths,free blood screening tests for the public ,blood donation booth , family planning and HIV Aids Programme,
Pap smear test for women.Hepatitis B vaccination ,etc will be conducted by Rose Malaysia volunteers ,health ministry nursesand doctors, para
medical teams from the state health department during the three days event
Over 10,000 public members are expected to attend the fun filled
social and health event .There will be a seminar on "Ageing
Gracefully "for government officials,NGOs and members of the
public.
Another charity project...HIV Aids Overland Adventure trip from Penang to Koh Samui Island in South Thailand. from 4-7 june 2009 . Over 40 4x4
wheelers with participants drawn from all over the country will take part
in the motor rally . Proceeds from the rally will be in aid of HIV Aids patients under the State Family planning "MAY " project and also to create awareness on the plight of the HIV Aids victims .The motor rally is jointly organised by ROSE Malaysia and Penang 4x4 wheeler club .

We wll work with the lions clubs here after the installation of the new
office bearers on the sight first programme in july.\

Will keep in touch and next posting soon.regards .lawrence