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Media Statement, 21st November 2005
GOAL’s cash-for-work scheme kicks off this week in earthquake-ravaged
Kashmir, to encourage communities to rebuild schools by paying them
a wage.
The aid agency will target efforts in the remote and mountainous
Bagh region in southern Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, where no school
was left standing and 95% of homes were flattened by the October
8th tragedy.
In a statement, GOAL CEO John O’Shea said:
“The initiative is beneficial on two fronts: not only will
it ensure that the children get back to school soon, but the parents
will also have a livelihood and a job, bringing more meaning and
normality to family life.
GOAL had much success with similar schemes in Sri Lanka in the
wake of the tsunami, and we’re expecting equally great results
from the scheme in Pakistan.”
GOALies are working around the clock to bring essential relief
to communities on both sides of the line of control separating Pakistan
Administered Kashmir from Indian Administered Kashmir. Snow has
started to fall in northern Pakistan, and the dropping snow line,
as well as the rains at lower elevations, is making life cold and
miserable for the survivors.
GOAL’s Emergency Shelter Distribution Programme has so far
distributed 840 winterised tents, 49,345 blankets, over 6,183 plastic
sheeting and 3,299 sleeping bags. A further 80,000 galvanised sheets
are in the pipeline which will support a further 13,500 families.
GOALies are distributing life saving food to more than 66,000 people
every month, and are also distributing food basket to survivors,
which include: wheat, flour, pulses, vegetable oil, salt and dates.
The World Bank is to cut budget support to the Ugandan government
by US$15 million this year. The bank’s Poverty Reduction Support
Credit assistance to Uganda will be reduced from US$150 million
to US$135 million.
The World Bank expressed concerns that areas identified as critical
to poverty reduction were under funded while they recorded a 13%
expenditure overrun on public administration.
Donations made to Uganda are known to frequently end up in the
bank accounts of corrupt officials who do not really care about
poverty, as the Global Fund inquiry so vividly shows. In many cases,
the money does not reach the intended recipients who so badly need
it.
Uganda’s other donors are expected to follow the World Bank’s
lead and react with aid reductions designed to warn President Yoweri
Museveni that he is being watched as he prepares for re-election
in March 2006. However, a wholesale withdrawal of aid is unlikely.
Yesterday, November 20th, Museveni, who has been in power for 20
years, confirmed that he will run for re-election next Spring after
he amended the constitution to cut out a presidential time limit.
Britain and other donor countries withheld some aid to Uganda after
the amendment, which will allow him to run for a third term.
Sudan is fighting a Dengue Fever epidemic, which has claimed 75
lives since October. Dengue fever is a potentially fatal flu-like
disease spread by infected mosquitoes.
GOAL aid agency has been working in Sudan for 20 years and is responding
to the outbreak in the Southern Blue Nile region of the country.
As there is no specific treatment for the disease, GOAL is implementing
a comprehensive education campaign for local communities to ensure
that people can accurately identify the disease and seek treatment
as quickly as possible. GOAL is also distributing treated mosquito
nets, which are essential in preventing the spread of the disease.
Sudan’s health system has been severely weakened by the 21-year
civil war which gripped the country until earlier this year, when
a peace agreement was signed by both north and south Sudan.
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