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Friday 13 July 2007
Spokesperson: Jemini Pandya |
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COLOMBIA – Public/Private Sector Initiative Generates Jobs for Demobilized Combatants
HONDURAS – Temporary Labour Migration to Canada
SERBIA – New Funds to Help Displaced and Refugees
LEBANON – Resolving Psychosocial Issues Relating to Displacement
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COLOMBIA – Public/Private Sector Initiative Generates Jobs for Demobilized Combatants – A cooperation agreement signed this week in Colombia will generate 1,500 jobs in the ethanol production industry for demobilized combatants and vulnerable people.
They will be employed to plant 45,000 hectares (111,197 acres) of sugar cane and to construct three ethanol production plants. Each of the plants will produce 300,000 litres of ethanol per day to be used for national consumption and for export.
The agreement between IOM, the High Presidential Commissioner for Reintegration (ACR), and the Ethanol Consortium Board S.A. (ECB), aims to bring together the resources and expertise of all participants in order to foster the successful economic, social and cultural integration of demobilized individuals and vulnerable communities in the departments of Bolivar, Sucre, and Cordoba and to promote the “Colombian-Caribbean Ethanol Project”.
The project is funded by Controlsud International Group, through ECB, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
IOM and the High Presidential Commissioner for Reintegration (ACR) will provide technical support for the project which will focus on the municipalities of Maria La Baja, Momil, and San Onofre, all of which have a strong presence of illegal armed groups, and which also suffer from high rates of rural poverty and unemployment.
Juan Manuel Hernández, President of ECB explained: “This project will not only create agro-industrial employment for this population, but will also promote the access to much-needed infrastructure through the creation of housing, health, education, recreational, and cultural projects.”
The ongoing conflict with illegal armed groups has forced more than 1.5 million Colombians to flee their homes and become internally displaced.
IOM’s Public Private Partnerships initiative aims to create strategic partnerships with the private sector, the international community and the Colombian government in order to develop income generating activities that promote the reintegration of displaced population into civilian life.
For further information contact:
Jorge Andres Gallo at IOM Bogota
Tel: + 57 311 5619495 or 57 1 622 77 74 ext. 114, Email: jgallo@oim.org.co
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HONDURAS – Temporary Labour Migration to Canada – A first group of 10 Honduran migrants are today travelling to Canada to participate in a six-month temporary labour migration project.
The group was hired to perform seasonal agricultural work at the El Dorado Farm in the province of Alberta.
The migrants will earn a salary seven to eight times greater than the minimum wage in their country.
Following an agreement signed between IOM and the Honduran government, IOM is identifying employment opportunities in North America and Europe to help alleviate high unemployment and poverty affecting a wide sector of the population. The agreement specifies that priority is given to those living in extreme poverty.
IOM provides technical assistance in the selection and recruitment stages, support in obtaining travel documents and visas, makes all the travel arrangements and accompanies the migrants to Canada.
According to the US Department of State Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Honduras is one of the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America, with nearly two-thirds of Hondurans living in poverty. Although historically dependent on exports of coffee and bananas, the economy has diversified over the past 20 years with the development of non-traditional exports such as oriental vegetables, cultivated shrimp, melons, and the tourism industry as well as the establishment of a growing maquila industry (assembly plants for export), which employs approximately 130,000 Hondurans.
Remittances from Hondurans living abroad, the vast majority of whom reside in the United States, amounted to US$2.3 billion in 2006, which represents 15 per cent of the country's foreign exchange earnings and over 20 per cent of its GDP.
For more information contact:
Evelyn Andino at IOM Tegucigalpa
Tel: + 504 220 11 00, Email: eandino@iom.int
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SERBIA – New Funds to Help Displaced and Refugees – Renewed funding from the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) to IOM programmes in Serbia will allow for hundreds of internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees to be given much needed assistance in a bid to find durable solutions for post-conflict communities.
There are currently 105,000 refugees from Bosnia Herzegovina and Croatia in Serbia with another 210,000 IDPs from the Province of Kosovo living in collective centres or in poor quality private accommodation. Most are without proper jobs and lack of income is impacting on their health as is the stress of moving from one place to another in regular intervals with some families having moved 8-10 times in the past 15 years.
The provision of nearly 1.16 million euros will provide 300 vulnerable IDPs and refugees currently living in centres or unsatisfactory private accommodation with homes in the next 14 months by IOM, in close cooperation with EAR, the Commissariat for Refugees of Serbia, relevant municipalities and a local NGO, Housing Centre.
“These homes represent not only a better roof over their heads, but also a renewed sense of dignity among the IDPs and refugees through property ownership and economic autonomy,” said Gregoire Goodstein, IOM’s Chief of Mission in Serbia.
Additional EAR funding of 1.2 million euros will also allow IOM to help support Serbian institutions dealing with refugee and IDP issues to ensure effective, sustainable responses to the needs of IDPs and refugees by establishing necessary operational structures linking central and local governments.
This 22 month project will develop the performance skills of key staff and develop stronger links at all levels from local needs assessments to national strategic planning, with the aim of boosting the capacity of the government to deliver multi-sectoral durable solutions (including housing, employment, welfare, return assistance) to refugees and IDPs.
For further information, please contact:
Marcel Grogan or Zivota- Vito de Luca at IOM Belgrade
Tel: +381 11 324 2010/ +381 11 334 1050 or + 381 11 382 1703, Email: mgrogan@iom.int or delucav@iom.int
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LEBANON – Resolving Psychosocial Issues Relating to Displacement – IOM has teamed up with the Lebanese University to offer a masters degree course to professionals currently providing psychosocial assistance to war-affected communities.
The creation of the course follows an IOM assessment carried out last year on the short and mid-term psychosocial needs of Lebanese displaced people and returnees following the conflict there last summer. The assessment confirmed psychosocial issues like stress, depression, anger, angst and instability that need to be attended to help Lebanese society recover. One recommendation was action to reinforce the capacity of psychosocial experts in Lebanon.
The course, funded by the Belgian Development Cooperation and which will last from September 2007-April 2008, will have 25 fully subsidized participants from Lebanon and from the Middle East region. The UN’s Children Fund (UNICEF), will cover accommodation, food and transport accommodation for 20 students while Lebanon’s Higher Council for Childhood will provide institutional support.
International experts from different centres of excellence like the Tavistock Clinic and Essex University in the UK and from Italy and Belgium will offer their expertise to the participants in addition to Lebanese experts from various well-known institutions and NGOs.
At the end of the course, participants will have been helped in knowing how to identify and conceptualize emotional and mental threat to an individual caused by displacement, war and migration; in adopting creative approaches to strengthen the community fabric; in being able to counsel war-affected individuals and in developing conflict resolution and mediation skills amongst other things.
IOM has developed a multi-disciplinary approach to trying to resolve psychosocial issues in Lebanon, with a special focus on the individual, the family and the community. As well as using more established tools, IOM is also using other means such as social theatre, community animation, creative arts, oral history and narrative counselling in a bid to de-stigmatise emotional problems related to displacement and war, to help people recover from trauma and to also strengthen the capacity of national and local actors in this field.
For further information, please contact:
Rand a Nassar, IOM Lebanon
Tel: + 96 11 752 118 Email: rnassar@iom.int
For additional information:
Jean-Philippe Chauzy
Tel:+41 22 717 9361 - Mobile: 41 79 285 4366
pchauzy@iom.int
Jemini Pandya
Tel:+41 22 717 9486 - Mobile: 41 79 217 3374
jpandya@iom.int
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