JEN BLOG

Announcement of taking a post

jenblog — 2013-05-16T14:23:36+09:00

I, Nasuda was posted as a Program Officer in charge of Sri Lanka at the headquarters.

Honestly, I don’t know Sri Lanka well and have image of Ceylon tea and the long name capital before a person in charge.
Of course, I know that the ethnic conflict had been continued, but didn’t assume that the support for returnees has so difficulty. Depend on region, it seems that a regulation for a group continues as a assembly to plot. Interference in returnees’ life also continues.

I do support Sri Lanka offices to advance the programs smoothly, learning the history to understand the context!

Program Officer at headquarters/ Tomoo Nasuda

A new (single) office for JEN Haiti!

jenblog — 2013-05-16T14:21:54+09:00

Once again, JEN Haiti will move its office. Actually JEN Haiti will regroup its 2 offices from the capital Port au Prince and the provincial Grand Goave in only one large in Leogane.

After more than 3 years in Haiti, the reason of keeping 2 offices was actually questionable.
In 2010 in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake of January 12th, the traffic conditions were so difficult that it was obvious the field teams couldn’t keep spending between 3 and 5 hours one way to reach its field of activity.
The time lost in constant huge traffic jams added to the safety risks on the road were more than enough to decide to open a second office in the province in June 2010.
Today the situation has changed quite a lot!
With no more debris on the road, bridges reconstructed and major improvements regarding the condition of the national road heading south, the 70 km trip to Grand Goave has become quite smooth and easy.

On a good day only 1 hour and half is required to reach Grand Goave.
In addition almost all JEN Haiti activities are now in Leogane, located half way!
Regrouping is so the best way to reduce support costs and gain efficiency in logistics and communication between all staffs especially.

Ideally located 250m from the national road, 300m from a MINUSTAH camp, 500m from 2 petrol stations and a kilometre from Leogane centre the new office fits security criteria just perfectly!
Regarding safety on the road we’ll also diminish risks drastically as 17 sites of operation out of 18 are located in within 5 kilometres!
Only Jeanty, in Grand Goave commune would be now more than 10 minutes away when it is now (and until the end of this week) the exact opposite!

Being altogether in the same office will also allow head of office and administration/finance team to visit the sites much more often, facilitating communication and preventing misunderstandings.
It will also facilitate relationship with local authorities and management of the mission when an international staff is on leave or simply sick.
Coordination with the other actors based in Leogane will also be easier and logistics should also benefit from the regrouping as Leogane has many construction shops when Grand Goave has only one.
As for Port au Prince shopping it will only take around an hour to be in the centre of the Capital, which was the time we needed not that long ago to reach the main shops in within Port au Prince!

After a bit more than 3 years in Haiti, Monday 6th of May will definitely be a new start for the mission, for the better with no doubt!

FOLLOWING JEN’S SECURITY PROTOCOLS IN HEATED POLITICAL SCENARIOS AND MARKET SURVEY OF GOATS

jenblog — 2013-05-09T17:58:10+09:00

Now a days there is boom in political activities in Pakistan as the historic election (smooth transition of democracy) is taking place for the first time in the history of Pakistan. The enthusiasm of the general public is worth seeing and all the political parties are having public meetings, gatherings, rallies while the terrorists are targeting these parties on regular basis. As the election is approaching it is becoming difficult to carry out field activities and most NGOs have confined their staffs to office work.

In the prevailing scenario JEN planned a market survey of goats in Punjab province which was of critical importance, yet JEN’s AIM office agreed to carry out this mission with some hesitancy due to potential security issues. Before departure, JEN staff were given a route map, and briefed about security protocols during the mission. The main protocols were to travel in daylight, keep in contact with JEN’s head office every 1 hour, stay in recommended hotels at night and adopt alternate routes if the primary route became blocked or any other issues arose.

JEN staffs visited districtd of Punjab are Khanewal, Multan, Ahmed Pur Sharqi, Bahawalpur, Muzafar Garrh, Viharri and Choke Azam. Several farms and festivals of goats were visited where breed and prices of the goats were known.
This survey would help JEN to better implement the next livelihood recovery project for IDPs in Dera Ismail Khan.

Event "Making handcrafting into jobs; Handicrafts market, Hands-on exhibit in Ishinomaki" very well attended

jenblog — 2013-05-09T14:32:00+09:00

On May 4, an event was put that aimed at giving a leg up to women who make handicrafts in Ishinomaki. The event was thronged with many people immediately after it opened. Such was the variety of goods on display at the booths of eleven handicraft organizations including cute, pretty jewelry and accessories that it was uneasy for visitors to decide which to choose.

【The event attracted about 200 visitors from within and without Ishinomaki.】

Those who opened up booths, spoken to by visitors like "So many nice goods really supply the eye-candy!", looked happy receiving visitors. It could be seen here and there that the booth keepers, asked how to make their products, tell not only visitors but other stall keepers about their products.

【With smiles on faces, stall keepers had guests.】

The event featured hands-on crafting experience. Visitors were able to have opportunities to experience "weaving", "crafting clam shell jewelries" and "making Hawaiian jewelries" with help from three booth keepers.

【Visitors made coasters at hands-on weaving experience.】

The hands-on crafting experience is all about getting visitors motivated to craft goods for themselves in the hope that they can have not only fun in their lives through association with others, but an opportunity to take part in the handicraft organizations as partners. As a result, among the participants in AMIS workshop's hands-on weaving experience, several people have decided to join in AMIS's future activities. It was really great that this event was able to help create new relationship between local people.

【Children were excited at a booth for kids.】

Children were trying out "making their own bags" using fabric crayons at the booth for kids. Nice bags were created one after another. Much to the delight of the organizer of this event, many visitors called the organizer and said to the organizer that they'd like to sell goods that they crafted during the event.
The event was able to achieve a great deal of success in helping women who do handicrafts create earnings and gain access to markets as well as in offering a platform to exchange information. The organizer is thinking of expanding people-to-people exchange much broader at next event. The next event is expected to take place somewhere around October this year. JEN will continue supporting women in Ishinomaki. Should you be interested, please contact JEN Ishinomaki office.

【JEN is now accepting donations for the reconstruction of Tohoku.
Your help would be very much appreciated.
DONATE HERE】

Governorate Council Elections in Iraq

jenblog — 2013-05-09T14:21:31+09:00

Governorate or provincial elections of Iraq were held on April 20, 2013, to replace the local councils in the governorates of Iraq that were elected in the Iraqi governorate elections of 2009 .

In addition to 3 governorates forming the Kurdistan Region planning to conduct election separately, governorates of Al- Anbar, Ninewa and Kirkuk postponed the elections until June due to security reason, so that this elections were taken place in 12 of 18 governorates,

The campaign has been started sine more than 45 days, involving 8100 candidates, the participant in the elections from 265 political entities and 50 coalitions, and distributed leaflets at the intersection of streets and crowded places, and paste the logos and images coalitions and personalities, and included a lot of banners electoral phrases refer to the situation changed service and repair the political situation, while candidates appealed in a street speech through tours of neighborhoods.

The Board of Commission appointed teams to monitor the election campaign and its conformity with the controls, and to impose financial penalties on violators.
Most Iraqi’s people were exposed to exerting of pressure in their daily life through the election.　Most of us suffer from crowded streets as many security checkpoints were placed all over Baghdad governorate, that’s mean when you need to transport about 10 km from place to place in Baghdad you may need more than one and half hour to reach your location. However, a series of deadly coordinate attacks across Iraq on Monday April15, 2013 killed at least 50 people and wounded nearly 300.

In that kind of situation though, voter participation in the election was 50 percent of eligible voters, and officials said including results from a special vote a week earlier for members of the armed forces, total participation would be more than 51 percent.
We saw the time changes in the political map of the local governments, most notably the rise of “coalition of law state” lead by Mr.Maliki in seven provinces.

＜Voting for security and military forces has been conducted on April 13, 2013＞

By Yasin / Hamoody　(Engineer)

Housing issues in Haiti

jenblog — 2013-05-02T14:20:00+09:00

A bit more than 3 years after the devastating 2010 January 12’s earthquake, the housing situation in Haiti is today a very popular topic.

Foreign journalists were probably the first ones pinpointing the quite slow progress regarding the re-lodging of the victims of the quake.

3 years later the government of Haiti published statistics stating that 79% of the people that were living in camps has been re-lodged.

If it difficult to confirm these data it is quite easy in the other hand to list the numerous difficulties the government of Haiti and NGOs had to face while tackling the issue.

To start with, all actors involved in construction or reconstruction had to deal with logistics and space. As a matter of fact terrorized people had built spontaneous camps on public squares, football fields and roundabout. Even on the golf course in wealthy neighbourhood of Petion Ville!

With an enormous amount of debris to remove (1000 trucks working 24/7 during 1000 days was one of the first estimation of the needs) and no space available, the task was serious.

Another big issue was (and still is) the re-localization of these hundreds of thousands of people.

There is not much work in Haiti and Port au Prince is already overcrowded with around 2 million of inhabitants (and is expected to reach 6 million by 2030). The only location to re-localize all these people was on the northern edge of the city, a remote area with absolutely no shade, no water nor public transport and of course nor work…

Understandably reluctant to move out of the city most of the IDP (internal displaced people) refused this option.

When most debris had been removed another serious issue regarding ownership of land appeared. In Haiti 90% of the land is owned by less than 10% of the population so many IDPs, simple renters, couldn’t benefit from a temporary shelter (T-shelters) in the first place as the risk of seeing the owners taking over the newly built shelters to rent them was extremely high.

The concept of temporary shelter also brought some difficulties and misunderstandings.

While the “humanitarian emergency world” defines a T-shelter as a temporary construction of 15 square meters able to host IDPs for at least 3 years and costing less than 1500US Dollars, many Haitians thought INGOs will build proper solid houses, somehow replacing fully what had been destroyed by the earthquake.

For all those that were living in shacks before the earthquake in the other hand no deception as a simple T-shelter made of plywood and covered with CGI sheets was still better than their previous place. But electricity, running clean water and jobs are still missing.

With a population growing that fast, the housing crisis Haiti is facing is unfortunately far from disappearing.

RICOH new hires working on social action program in Minamisarikucho

jenblog — 2013-05-02T14:12:25+09:00

RIHOH has sent its new recruits to engage in a social program as part of its employee training. The season for harvesting wakame seaweed and mekabu( the root of wakame) is here in fishery villages within the Sanriku area including Minamisannrikuchou. New recruits helped fishermen in shipping wakame and mekabu at ten fishery villages.

【New recruits are cutting off mekabu from wakame together with fishermen.】

They deepened the relationship with local residents in the fishery villages, through helping them out, learning firsthand what's going on in disaster-stricken areas. Not only that, returning their lodging from daytime activities, they listened to a storyteller telling them his/her personal experiences of the tsunami disaster or they, broken into separate groups, shared what everyone had realized and learned with the others within each group so that they might be able to improve their understanding,

【A photo showing how new recruits are receiving training.】

JEN has been accepting trainee employees from companies as volunteers to get them participated in JEN's programs, which promote personal exchanges between volunteers and residents in disaster stricken areas and help disaster survivors make a living. In this latest program, a total of 214 new recruits from RICOH, divided into two groups, have worked on the program for four days. It's hoped that a growing number of young people visit the disaster stricken areas and are concerned about the future of those areas even after they get home.

【JEN is now accepting donations for the reconstruction of Tohoku. Your help would be very much appreciated.
DONATE HERE(http://www.jen-npo.org/en/contribute/index.php)】

Distribution of Shelter Repair Kits to the Returnees of Central Kurram Agency (FATA)

jenblog — 2013-04-25T14:35:57+09:00

Military operation against the militants in Central Kurram Agency initiated in 2009 which resulted in massive internal displacement. According to authorities it was the largest ever conflict in the valley that caused such a huge displacement of people. Independent sources claim that more than 1 million people were displaced. Most of the IDPs were provided accommodation by the host community in several districts of the KP and Punjab province. Lots of the sufferers were settled in the emergency relief camps. Govt of Pakistan (FDMA) requested to the humanitarian community to come forward to address the needs of IDPs particularly those related to shelters.

On request of Shelter cluster and FDMA, JEN initially agreed to provide 100 shelter repair kits and later extended to 145. The people, whose houses were partially or fully damaged, were not able to purchase and construct their houses provided Shelter Repair Kit. The project was sighing of relief to the people whose economic situation was not able to address their basic shelter needs.

The MoU signed with the beneficiaries it was stated that JEN will transport the material to commonly accessible points. And further JEN provided tractor cart to carry the shelter material to their door step. However it ensured that the material was provided to the nearest point of construction so that it did not cost them any money. JEN and the beneficiaries mutually agreed that both said cooperation will be endorsed to complete the project successfully and in timely manner.

Regular monitoring was carried out by project team in the field. The whole process was closely monitored by the Project Manager along with project team to ensure use of all provided shelter repair kits.

World Health Day

jenblog — 2013-04-25T14:33:01+09:00

As an invitation of the MOE, we attended the celebration of the General Directorate of Physical Education/ Directorate of Environmental Education and school health for Annual festival on the level of Iraq on the occasion of World Health Day in Al- Najaf governorate from 8-11/4/2013. The theme for World Health Day 2013 is controlling high blood pressure, a condition which affects more than one in three adults worldwide and it is widespread in Iraq for different age groups. According to the announcement of World Health Organization that 50% of deaths caused by high blood pressure and there are four million infected with the disease in Iraq. The organization called Iraqis to improve their diet to prevent and control of high blood pressure, as a means of reducing the number of people affected.

[This photo about healthy food and its influence on human's body]

The General Directorates for Education presented their activities throughout the festival as well as sketches and an exhibition of drawings by students about hygiene and health and preservation of the environment.

[This photo about a play by the students of Baghdad/Risafa 3 DOE … named “The enemy friend”( which means the food salt)]

[This photo about a play by Ninewa DOE named (Charged in our house) “ trial for blood pressure”]

Dr. Fawzi Rajab Tawfeek praised a role of JEN for raising awareness among pupils about the importance of hygiene and attention to health in his speech at the opening of the festival.

[I, Asmaa and Khaild from JEN with some responsible employees from DOEs of Diala, Kirkuk and Babil of environmental education and health school]

Bassim Yousef Jacob
(Program officer)

Safe Water for Community, Income for Hand Pump Mechanics

jenblog — 2013-04-18T15:02:22+09:00

JEN reported the beneficiary of “Lainya Hand Pump Mechanic Association” on 21st March 2013. Last week, JEN had a wrap-up meeting with the Association as a final meeting with them. Through the meeting, I realized that the Association was deepening their connection with communities having boreholes, and with Rural Water Department, Lainya County. The members are generating income from not only repairing work, but also work of preventive operation and maintenance.

Then, I interviewed one of the members as below.

“My name is Juma Martine. I am a member of Lainya Hand Pump Mechanic Association. My Boma is Lukurubang under Lainya Payam, Central Equatorial State, South Sudan. I am 30 Years old and married with 5 Children. Before I joined Lainya Hand Pump Mechanic Association, I was a volunteer hand pump Mechanic in Lainya Payam.

As a member of this Association, I am proud to mention that, my skills have been improved through trainings organized by JEN. I was made to know some of the hand pump Mechanics in the County whom I did not know before. I have access to knowledge sharing and information. My services as a hand pump Mechanic is recognized by my Community. Community now gets 24/7 water supply.

I am now able to get support from the Community which enabled me to pay the school fee of my Children and my family demands!! Life is made easier than previous. Thanks and appreciation to the Japanese people for their greater support to this project and more others in south Sudan.”

JEN is to complete its support to the Association in May. However, I believe the association can continue long and people in Lainya can continuously drink the safe water.