OPT: Capoeira to ease child trauma

Photo: Jenny Gustafsson/IRIN

Bidna Capoeira is a project that helps children overcome trauma by learning capoeira, an age-old Afro-Brazilian martial art

WEST BANK, 4 July 2011 (IRIN) – Shu’fat refugee camp, in an Arabic neighbourhood of East Jerusalem in the occupied Palestinian territory, is a difficult place for a child to grow up in.

“The area has very few opportunities for kids to do constructive and positive things,” said Isaac Heinrich, project manager for an NGO called Bidna Capoeira.

“It is dirty [and] just outside the camp school they burn garbage while the kids are in class… The camp is right on the border with Israel, and half of it is encircled by the wall. The level of violence is high, and the threat from outside feels overwhelming.”

It is here that Bidna Capoeira started a project in March to help children overcome trauma by learning capoeira, an age-old Afro-Brazilian martial art.

The project aims to support children affected by armed conflict, and improve community development and wellbeing.

“In Shu’fat, there’s a huge need for young and adult role models,” Heinrich explained. “A big part of our work is to strengthen young people and develop their leadership skills.”

He tells the story of four young people who came to the first capoeira class earlier this year: “They were very arrogant, walked and talked with an attitude. Our first thought was: ‘OK, this means trouble.’ But the teacher, Harami, told them: ‘The four of you, I have a special task for you. You’re going to teach the younger kids. But this will demand a lot of you, and it means you have a special responsibility.’

“Then he took them aside and did a first class with them only. The next week, they show up half an hour before class, ready to help the younger kids.”

Nearly 500 Palestinian children and teenagers across the West Bank are now involved, and there are plans to expand further. The project is financed by the UN Relief and Works Agency and other partners.

The martial art originates from the 16th century, when African slaves started mixing different techniques of fighting with singing, dancing and music. The game, which is played in a circle, is marked by kicks and acrobatics. Having been at the centre of Afro-Brazilian culture for hundreds of years, it was only during the last 50 that capoeira started being exported abroad.

Today, the practice is spread across the world, with people from all backgrounds and cultures attracted by its special mix of social, artistic and physical aspects. Many are also drawn to capoeira’s philosophical foundations and communal spirit. In contrast to other martial arts, capoeira has no winners or losers.

The game is not about beating or getting beaten; it’s about expressing playfulness and collaboration. “Capoeira is a true grass-roots movement from the start, also literally. Capoeira is the name of a high grass which grows on Brazilian fields. The slaves cut down this grass to make a circle where they could play capoeira hidden from the outside,” said Heinrich.

Before it spread to Palestine, the game had taken root in Syria where it spread to refugee camps, juvenile institutes and youth centres.

“Something for everyone”

“In both Syria and Palestine, we have seen how well capoeira works with kids… There is something for everyone: action, music, dance, acrobatics and fighting moves. And above all, there is a strong sense of companionship.” It also provides an outlet for children who experience much physical and psychological stress.

According to UNICEF, Palestinian children face threats of killing, injury, poverty, displacement, detention, psychological distress and low learning achievement.

In 2009, almost 22 percent of Palestinians were living below the poverty line (15.5 percent in the West Bank), subjecting 430,000 children to the vulnerabilities of poverty. In East Jerusalem, the poverty rate [defined as people living on less than a dollar a day] increased from 59 percent in 2008 to 71.2 percent in 2009. Life as a child is especially difficult in the Old City, where poverty, school dropouts and substance abuse have adversely affected youngsters.

Three months ago, the capoeira project spread to Jalazoune refugee camp (in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, 7km north of Ramallah and adjacent to the village of Jifna) where one girl who was a known troublemaker, started classes and took on another role. She began instructing the other children, telling them how to sing the songs and do the moves.

Jalazoun was established in 1949, and is in a mountainous area next to one of Israel’s biggest settlements, Beit Eil. While teenage boys have the option of going to Ramallah to find things to do, most girls and children do not.

“Although three months is a short time to see long-term changes in the children’s behaviour, we’ve noticed very positive results,” Heinrich added. “Many of the children we work with have experienced different traumas. They have learning disabilities, excess energy and often a lot of aggression inside them. But only after a few weeks of working with capoeira, they connect with its peaceful message.”

jg/eo/cb source www.irinnews.org

EAST AFRICA: Famine warning for southern Somalia

Photo: Marcus Prior/WFP

Somali women and children particularly vulnerable (file photo)

JOHANNESBURG, 5 July 2011 (IRIN) – Localized famine could be witnessed in some of the worst drought-affected areas in southern Somalia in September, warns the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS-Net). Using the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) five-point scale, this would be phase five: “catastrophe/famine”.

The scale, developed by the Somalia-focused Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU), led by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, is used by FEWS-Net and most other aid agencies in their analysis of the drought and food situation in the Horn of Africa.

The IPC scale ranges from “generally food secure” to “famine/humanitarian catastrophe”, based on a range of data relating to rainfall, market prices, agricultural production, food security and nutrition.

Large areas of southeastern Ethiopia, southern Somalia and northeastern Kenya are already in phase four, the “emergency” phase.

Nicholas Haan, the food security scientist who developed IPC and its global manager, said the present climatic, price and conflict conditions in the Horn justified the classification as well as the warning of the possibility of phase five.

Specifically, phase five conditions would emerge “if one or more of the following were to happen: (1) if prices of key commodities [such as staple cereals maize and sorghum] spike further in the coming months, (2) if conflict [in southern Somalia] worsens in key areas that further reduces humanitarian access and/or prohibits trade and market routes, (3) if the harvest and livestock conditions turn out to be worse than these current predictions, or (4) the next rainy season fails [which will be evident by late October/November]“.

The IPC scale uses a number of indicators to pronounce a famine, including acute malnutrition in more than 30 percent of children, two deaths per 10,000 people every day, a pandemic illness, access to less than four litres of water a day and 2,100 kilocalories of food, large-scale displacement of people, civil strife, and complete loss of assets and source of income.

An aid worker involved in some of the analysis said: “I would not call the situation as bad as the famine in 1984; unlike now, there were no warnings then, but in this instance alerts have been issued since August 2010.”

FEWS-Net is among several agencies that issued warnings after poor rains in one of the driest 2010 October-December seasons recorded in 60 years. Some of the pastoral and cropping areas recorded their second or third consecutive poor rainy season. 

Photo: ReliefWeb

The IPC analysis of the drought in Eastern Africa. (See larger version of map)

Haan said humanitarian aid such as cash and or general food distributions, programmes to provide more access to water, interventions to feed, treat or slaughter livestock before they are too emaciated for sale, and high-level political negotiations to ensure humanitarian access, especially in southern Somalia, would normally have already begun when a situation deteriorates into phase three.

He explained, “If the situation in some parts [of the Horn of Africa] does evolve into phase five famine, this would be a call for imperative action that comprehensively meets the basic requirements of increasing numbers of people in need. If a situation deteriorates to phase five famine, the ability of households to meet even their most basic food, health, water, sanitation, protection, and other needs all disintegrates – thus the need for all-out comprehensive humanitarian assistance.

“If need be, for situations with limited humanitarian access or otherwise political interference, there will be a call for extraordinary measures to ensure humanitarian assistance is delivered.

“If famine were to emerge, any financial, political, logistical or other constraints need to be wiped aside and the full cooperation of humanity needs to be focused on saving lives and preventing social collapse. This is the humanitarian imperative that should kick in even at phase three crisis IPC levels, let alone phase five famine.”

The Responsibility to Protect (a concept legitimizing international intervention on humanitarian grounds endorsed by the UN Security Council in general terms) to improve humanitarian access especially in southern Somalia should kick in, he said.

“Of course it would be much better for all concerned – vulnerable populations of course, but also national governments, in terms of development plans, and international donors in terms of the cost-benefit of investing in preventative measures – to avoid such situations by heeding early warning signs and tackling chronic issues.”

Cluster talks

Humanitarian assistance during emergencies is deployed through “clusters” – groupings of UN agencies, NGOs and other international organizations around a sector or service.

Graham Farmer, coordinator of the new global food security cluster, which aims to combine food aid with efforts to address the causes of food insecurity in the long term, said discussions with aid agencies in Ethiopia and Kenya were continuing over where support could be provided.

Somalia has NGO-led national and local clusters in place, while emergency responses in Ethiopia and Kenya are led by the respective governments.

jk/bp/mw source www.irinnews.org

ZIMBABWE: Rate of male circumcision speeds up

Photo: Resource for HIV and Sexual and Reproductive Health

“I did not feel a thing”

HARARE, 4 July 2011 (PlusNews) – Zimbabwe has set a goal of circumcising 1.2 million men by 2015 – a bold target for a country that has been slow to get its circumcision programme off the ground but is now rapidly making up for lost time.

When the national circumcision policy was launched two years ago there was widespread scepticism as to whether the country had the capacity to provide mass male circumcision, in view of a health system that had been starved of resources, drugs and equipment for years.

Tinashe Damba, 29, is one of almost 30,000 men who have taken advantage of the free circumcision scheme offered by the ministry of health in conjunction with Population Services International (PSI), an NGO, and other partners.

“I thought the circumcision procedure was going to be very painful but I did not feel a thing,” said a relieved Damba after leaving the operating room at a clinic in the capital, Harare. The only pain he felt was when his penis was injected with the anaesthetic that made it numb during the procedure.

“I heard that if you get circumcised you have a better chance of not contracting the deadly HIV. It’s not 100 percent prevention, but you reduce the chances of contracting that disease.”

A large study in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda in 2006 found that the procedure could reduce a man’s risk of contracting HIV through vaginal intercourse by as much as 60 percent.

Before Zimbabwe launched its campaign, male circumcision had only been available at private health institutions and mostly for reasons other than as an HIV intervention measure.

“Blessing in disguise”

Zimbabwe is not the only country that has been slow to introduce free male circumcision in state facilities. In neighbouring Malawi, the government has yet to implement mass male circumcision, while South Africa has been criticized for moving too slowly in developing a national circumcision strategy.

“I do not think we were too far behind other countries,” said Minister of Health and Child Welfare Dr Henry Madzorera, “but then we were going through a rough patch politically and economically, and the public health system was close to collapse.”

A health worker strike that began in November 2008 shut down public health services for several months. The loss of qualified nurses and doctors who left to work in other countries made it even more difficult to deliver the service.

The delay was, according to PSI circumcision programme manager Roy Dhlamini, a blessing in disguise. “Only very small pockets of the Zimbabwean population practice circumcision [as a cultural rite]. People needed to be educated on the benefits, so a nationwide campaign to sell male circumcision was launched.”

The findings of research in Zimbabwe’s rural areas, published in the May issue of the Tropical Medicine & International Health journal, show that 52 percent of the men surveyed were prepared to undergo the procedure.

Dhlamini said Zimbabwe was also benefiting from the success and challenges of those who had started earlier, resulting in the lowest rate of “complications” – less than 1 percent – compared to a regional average of more than 3 percent.

Two years ago, the programme had the capacity to circumcise only eight people per day at its flagship facility, the Spilhaus Family Planning Centre in Harare. From the time a client walked into the centre included up to two hours of mandatory counselling and an HIV test, with another half hour for the procedure, to when he walked out without his foreskin.

Staff shortages were another major problem. “We only had eight doctors and 18 nurses, now we have 40 doctors and 160 nurses and training is ongoing,” Dhlamini said. The ideal is to have at least a doctor and eight nurses at a health centre in each of Zimbabwe’s 62 districts.

The programme currently has five stationary and two mobile centres. “People have been travelling from as far as 500 kilometres to the few centres available. We want to make it more accessible for them by establishing the district centres and taking the service to them, using the mobile centres.”

The process also had to be speeded up. “We devised the Model of Optimising Volumes and Efficiency (MOVE), whereby doctors now work in teams of three – one anaesthetizes, the other carries out the procedure, and the third one bandages the penis,” Dhlamini said.

This has reduced the operation to fifteen minutes and counselling now takes one and a half hours.

The campaign was largely financed by external donors but the cash-strapped government has also contributed. “This programme is part of the health delivery system. It is carried out primarily in already established government health facilities, and we provide the staff,” Health Minister Madzorera said. The government will also pay allowances to those involved in field work.

Earlier in 2011, PSI and the ministry of education targeted adolescents older than 13 during school holidays, resulting in a 200 percent jump in the number of circumcisions. “We plan to repeat the exercise in the next school holidays,” PSI’s Dhlamini said.

Nevertheless, some are still sceptical about whether circumcision will bring down the incidence of HIV. Mary Sandasi, Executive Director of the Women’s AIDS Support Network (WASN), feels that male circumcision does not protect women and may lead some men, especially younger ones, to believe it is the silver bullet against HIV.

“Thirty years after the first AIDS case was identified we are still getting infections, even in countries where men are circumcised as infants, so this may not be the answer,” she said, adding that the only solution for sexually active people is the correct and consistent use of condoms. “They need to remind men after the operation.”

Health minister Madzorera said Sandasi’s concerns would be valid in the absence of pre-circumcision counselling, which makes it clear that the procedure has to be used with other HIV prevention interventions.

“The message is repeated during the obligatory visits to a medical centre after the procedure. After these visits we keep on reminding those circumcised through multi-media campaigns, so there is no let-up.”

Madzorera is confident the target can be reached. “The success to date of this programme is due to the fact that Zimbabweans are quick to adapt to new ideas. We have rural chiefs encouraging their people to get circumcised – that is a good sign.”

im/kn/he source www.irinnews.org