News

In West Africa, millions of children don’t complete their primary education and some have never been to school. Humanity & Inclusion (HI) estimates that a third of these children have a disability. Our inclusive education program runs in nine countries[i] in the region and will ensure that 170,000 children have the opportunity to learn, play, make friends and feel valued in society.

There was a record increase in the number of casualties of mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) in 2015, up 75% from 2014. This heavy toll was due to intensive and systematic bombing of populated areas in recent conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Ukraine. The vast majority of people killed and injured in these attacks were civilians. Founder of an international campaign to stop the bombing of civilians, Handicap International is once again calling for an immediate end to this practice and for the international community to condemn it in the strongest terms.

Kakuma Refugee Camp hosts more than 180,000 uprooted refugees who have fled wars and persecutions in neighboring countries. It is a massive 12 sq km camp, with 4 structured districts, 19 primary schools, and a hospital.

Twenty million people in Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and northeastern Nigeria have been grappling with a serious food crisis since 2016. Several East African countries have been hit by drought in recent months, including Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, South Sudan and, to a lesser extent, Tanzania. In some countries, conflicts have caused severe food shortages. Handicap International is preparing to deal with one of the worst humanitarian crises since the Second World War.
 

Cyclone Enawo has passed through Madagascar and will end its course in the Anosy region (south-east). The authorities have reported severe damage caused not only by the cyclone itself but by the subsequent flooding it has caused. The national office of risk and disaster management is reporting 10,000 displaced persons and 52,000 people affected. Handicap International's teams have started to assess the population's needs.

Famine was declared in several regions of South Sudan last week: 4.5 million people, half of the country’s population, are surviving on what they ca--n find or facing starvation. Xavier Duvauchelle, head of the Eastern and Southern Africa Desk at Handicap International, explains more.
 

On the 8^th March each year, Handicap International celebrates International Women’s Day. Today is an opportunity for us to recognise the exceptional achievements of ordinary women around the world.

Four months after Hurricane Matthew made landfall in Haiti, many people still need humanitarian aid. Handicap International has distributed emergency kits and household items to a thousand homes, benefiting more than 4,700 disaster-affected people. The organisation has also transported more than 270 tonnes of humanitarian equipment to people living in remote areas.

March 15^th will mark the sixth anniversary of the Syrian crisis. Since 2011, more than 300,000 Syrians have died and one million have been injured. Close to 5 million people have fled the country and 6.5 million have been internally displaced. 13.5 million people currently need humanitarian assistance in Syria. Handicap International has been providing assistance to the Syrian people since the start of the crisis and has been carrying out its activities in Syria itself for the past four years.
 

After two years of war, violence is part of daily life in Yemen. Handicap International is therefore providing support to rehabilitation departments in three health centres in Sana’a, where it has already assisted more than 4,500 people since August 2015.
 

A Handicap International-supported hospital in the governorate of Dar’a (South Syria) was indirectly hit by an airstrike on the evening of the 13^th of February. Several staff members are injured and the building is partially damaged.

This week, Handicap International staff members from Bangladesh, Thailand and Pakistan are gathered for a training on early child development, and how to foster the well-being of children in the early years. The training is an important part of the Growing Together project that supports vulnerable children in displacements settings through play.

Jean-Baptiste Richardier, co-founder of Handicap International, was present at the 20th International Meeting of Mine Action National Programme Directors and United Nations Advisors, which ended on 10 February. Here, he explains why Handicap International is committed to humanitarian mine action.

The international annual meeting of mine action professionals will take place in Geneva from 7 to 10 February. An opportunity for some 400 organisations and institutions to exchange experiences, it is a key event for Handicap International.

More than 1,500,000 people were affected when typhoon Nock-Ten made landfall in the Philippines on 25 December.  
Handicap International is now helping victims of the disaster to access accommodation and drinking water.