· October, 2010

Stories about Humanitarian Response from October, 2010

Haiti: Cholera Outbreak

  29 October 2010

Dying in Haiti says: “Port-au-Prince and its slums do not need a cholera epidemic. I can't hardly think of a worse nightmare. Haiti is beyond fragile at this point and the people are suffering more than I have ever seen.”

Myanmar: Cyclone Giri death toll rises

  26 October 2010

More than 30 died or have been declared missing when Cyclone Giri struck the western coast of Myanmar. The state media claimed that government officials visited the affected region but other reports also mentioned the failure of the government to respond to the relief offer of the international community.

Benin: How to help flood victims

  25 October 2010

How to help flood victims in Benin: “So people are homeless, kids aren’t going to school, and disease is rampant. What can we do from our armchairs? I checked with the USAID director and several other international donors to find out what they’re doing. The relief effort is being lead...

Haiti: Cholera!

  22 October 2010

As a cholera outbreak hits Haiti, bloggers discuss this latest assault on the already besieged country.

Taiwan:Typhoon Megi Breaks Rainfall Record

  22 October 2010

Zhong Sheng-siung (鐘聖雄) on citizen media “88news.org” is now reporting and uploading first-hand photos from Su-ao in Yilan county where Typhoon Megi has brought more than 1400 mm in just two days. In his post are photos of flooded Su-ao town and rescuers trying to find missing people in a...

China: My father is Li Gang!

  22 October 2010

The son of a deputy police director in Hebei province killed a young woman in a traffic accident on October 16 and reportedly shouted to an angry crowd, "Go ahead and sue me, my father is Li Gang". Now hundreds of people have been writing and sharing songs and poetry online in protest against bad behavior by offspring of government officials

South Korea: North Korean Defector's Struggling Life In Big Cities

  19 October 2010

A North Korean defector's life in South Korea is tough. Even after hundreds hours of study in Hanawon, the state-run resettlement facility, the defector's first encounter with the real world outside North is full of bewilderment and frustration. Korea’s Joongang took a snapshot of a defector's daily life.

Haiti: Camp Conditions

  18 October 2010

Nine months after the January 12 earthquake, Haiti Grassroots Watch examines the conditions in the country's “1,354 squalid refugee camps”.

El Salvador: ‘There's no water’

  15 October 2010

For Blog Action Day, Linda writes: “Usually, no hay agua [meaning, “there is no water”] is a temporary condition, and the water returns. Yet as more and more demands are placed on our water systems, and less and less care is taken to preserve and recycle water well, no hay...

Honduras: The Lack of Clean Water

  15 October 2010

Laurie says that statistics on water conditions are “too big to grasp! But here in the elbow of Central America, I get it. Water, or the lack of clean water, kills people. They get diarrhea, cholera or hepatitis. They lose their kids. Their hope. They stay in poverty.” Laurie knows...

Brazil: Twitter raises awareness of plight of São Paulo squatters

  6 October 2010

Around two thousand people, many of whom are slum dwellers who face the threat of eviction, occupied four abandoned buildings in central São Paulo early Monday morning, calling for improved housing projects. The organisers, Frente de Luta por Moradia (Front for the Struggle for Housing, FLM), have been using Twitter to cover...

Nigeria: Government was warned of bomb blasts in Abuja

  4 October 2010

Nigerian Curiosity gives her take on Friday's bomb blasts in Abuja: “Nigeria's security forces were warned of an impending attack at least five days before October 1st…  Given such information, it is unacceptable that the government did not do more to anticipate and prepare for the attack.”