by Thomas Schwarz

Even in Nairobi water becomes scarce (photo: CARE/Freccia)

It is not really hot in Kenya. At least not in Nairobi, where I arrived today. (more…)

by Sandra Bulling

A forest of mangroves on Pemba (photo: CARE/Bulling)

Sheik Mohammed Suleiman Tiwany is a very impressive man. He appears to be from another world, with his long white robe, his curly beard and his proud way of walking. (more…)

by Sandra Bulling

The CARE team gets muddy feet in the mangrove forest (photo: CARE/Bulling)

Sour and juicy is what Bungo tastes like, this fruit with a well-sounding name. Its yellow pulp is divided into small balls – each of them are the size of a small candy. (more…)

by Sandra Bulling

Pemba’s coast is a holiday dream for visitors, but it’s a livelihood for the local fishermen (photo: CARE/Bulling)

On the airport of Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, waits a Cessna, a small airplane, to take us to the island of Pemba. (more…)

by Sandra Bulling

Tabu, the chairwoman of the savings club “Mwanzo Mgumu” (photo: CARE/Bulling)

I arrive in the village of Turiani, the second destination on my trip to Tanzania. Turiani does not figure in my guide book, so I only have a rough idea of where we are heading. (more…)

by Sandra Bulling

Greener than green? Tanzanias forest is actually in danger of being completely cut down (photo: CARE/Bulling)

The mountains of Uluguru pile up amidst the plains of Tanzania, rising up to more than 2.000 meters. (more…)

Clean water is crucial to stop the spread of cholera (photo: CARE)

Visiting a cholera camp in Zimbabwe can be frightening. (more…)

Elisabeth Roesch

Goma, Nov. 24, 2008 – Another trip to new displacement sites in Goma brings more stories and more questions about what people really need in times of conflict. Some needs are evident – shelter, clean water, food, clothes – but others are harder to see and therefore harder to respond to. That is certainly the case when it comes to responding to sexual violence.

In a church in Goma, there are more than 1,000 people gathered, having fled their homes in the past few weeks. Since our last visit, a few hundred more people have arrived. The other sites I have been to in Goma are smaller, with a few families from the same town or village moving together and setting themselves up in the same site. But in this church I find people from all over and from farther away, Masisi and western Rutshuru, and many of them came alone. (more…)

Elisabeth Roesch is CARE’s gender and advocacy advisor based in Goma, DRC.

Goma, Nov. 7, 2008 – I’ve been in the DRC for a year, working with women who have experienced abuse and violence and talking to them about the impact that this has had on their lives. Thanks to numerous news articles and increasing international attention, the horrific nature of sexual violence here in Congo is becoming known in the world. But nothing has really prepared me for the stories that I have heard, and each time I speak with women, I am saddened to find that there is no end to the terrible experiences of rape, torture and mutilation. (more…)