Portraits of Our Help: Holiday Edition

Throughout 2007, Malteser International has published remarkable stories of how we help people and communities in the countries where we work to rebuild and revitalize. We've met incredible people doing great work and making great strides and doing great services to help others. We've packaged these stories together for the holiday version of our On the SPOT newsletter.

These new Portraits of Our Help offer heartwarming and inspirational stories from people working in India, Dr Congo, Myanmar, Pakistan, India... everywhere where we help provide relief efforts and rebuilding projects. Download our On The Spot Christmas Edition to read our stories.

Bananas instead of education

As Malteser International continues to work in the DR Congo, we offer this story about Julie* and how we help commemorate International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women Day (Nov 25) by supporting victims of sexual violence and receive medical and psychosocial assistance. You can support our efforts in the DR Congo and everywhere we work with a tax-deductible donationto the Order of Malta Worldwide Relief -- Malteser International Americas.  You can also view Malteser International's Women in Congo photo gallery.


As the sun sets, Julie* is sitting on the streets and is selling bananas and corn to people that pass by on bicycles. Beside her, in the shadow, her three years old son Emile* is constructing a tower with small stones. Julie plants the corn by herself in the garden of her parents. She still lives with them and her son Emile. But deep inside, the Congolese woman once had different dreams: she wanted to finish school, study and have a family of her own. "But life is rarely a dream", she says.

Three years before Julie was raped for the first time, in broad daylight, on the way to Mahagi in the east of DR Congo, on the way back to her home village, which is several kilometers away. An unknown man was following her. When nobody was around on the streets any longer he pulled her into the bushes. Nobody heard her cries for help.

Two months later she realized that she was pregnant. So she had to tell her parents and explain her pregnancy. "It was a terrible blow for them. Not only because such a thing happened to me, but also for the shame that I had brought to the family: made pregnant by a man whose name I didn’t even know? My father went completely mad, my mother was in despair." Even now, Julie is still not able to speak with her parents about her feelings. At least she is allowed to stay at home. But where would she have gone – without money and education? When she became pregnant, she needed to leave school and never continued with it. "I need to take care of my son and to ensure our survival."

Rapes are still a part of daily life in Congo. Most of the offenders are former soldiers and rebels. In most of the cases they are not caught and are rarely adequately punished. But the affected women and girls – and more frequently also boys – are suffering through the discrimination of a society. Up until now sexual violence has been a taboo subject in the DR Congo. Their society often judges and isolates the victims, because they still believe that victims either wanted or provoked their attack. Due to this way of thinking many men leave their wives.

Many victims of rape need medical and emotional support and because of this Malteser International has a project to care for the affected girls and women. Its main focus is the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases like Hepatitis or HIV/AIDS.

The organization collaborates with local partners that take care of the necessary psychological support. Since the beginning of the project in 2005, Malteser International has treated almost 7,000 women. The true figures are far higher. "Often I go home after work and can’t forget what I have heard and seen all day long", tells the attending doctor in the health center of Mahagi. "The most terrifying thing is that the victims are getting younger. More and more we are seeing children aged five or six. I then imagine my own children and ask myself if it could happen to them. Who is doing such things like that? Absolutely horrible. Every month I have to treat 300 to 400 cases."

Julie has found herself yet again under the care of the medical center, having been raped again last year. It happened again during broad daylight, and again on her way back to her village. Even today, twelve months later, she has serious injuries over her whole body and needs to take medicines. "I am very happy that I get treatment for free in the health center", she says. "And that I have somebody with whom I can talk about what happened.

Malteser International gave me a bicycle. With this I can get to the health center a lot quicker and I am not so afraid of the going home alone."

It is late afternoon. Julie has sold all the bananas and is packing her things together, ready for going home with Emile. Children and teenagers are crossing her way. She looks at them with a wistful expression in her eyes. "Maybe one day I can go back to school. This is my dream."

Kathrin Meier

* Names changed.

World Toilet Day 2008: How children in Sri Lanka learn the importance of safe drinking water

November 19, 2008 is World Toilet Day and the final event in the International Year of Sanitation. Thbis week, we'll look at some of our stories about water and sanitation. Today's story by Katrin Rehfuss tells how school children in Sri Lanka learned the improtance of sanitation and clean water. Visit our homepage for more links about our WASH program.


When Kaushalya Walgama arrives in Batuwanhena primary school (in Elpitiya zone) with her team, lots and lots of children come running to her. They don’t stop jumping up and down; they scream and gather around her. The visits of Kaushalya and her teams always mean that something special will happen. The pupils are excited and curious what they will happen this time. Today they are going to decide on the design and location of their new sanitary facilities. Kaushalya is a Health and Hygiene Promoter for Malteser International, the worldwide relief agency of the Sovereign Order of Malta for humanitarian aid. When the "welcome ceremony" has found an end, 20 pupils out of almost 1,000, some teachers and several parents assemble in a classroom where Kaushalya starts her session. (planning locations, right) 

The idea of this "Child Friendly School Project" is to include the whole school community into decisions concerning the construction of new latrines and washing points. "Especially the pupils are encouraged to express their wishes and needs, as they are the ones who use the facilities and as they are also expected to maintain them" Kaushalya explains. "We want the school community to develop a sense of ownership", she points out, "we hope the children in the end say: This is my toilet, and I’m going to take care of it." This might work more easily when pupils, teachers and parents are involved from the beginning. As in Batuwanhena most schools in Sri Lanka have neither satisfactory water supply nor adequate sanitary installations. The existing sanitary facilities are often dilapidated. They are not separated according to sex and thus do not ensure privacy.

This situation has many impacts on the pupils, as Kelvin Shingles points out: "All children need a sanitary and hygienic learning environment. However, the lack of sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools has an even stronger negative impact on girls than on boys", explains the Malteser International Project Manager." Girls need safe, clean, separate and private sanitation facilities in their schools."

After having explained to the children and adults in Batuwanhena primary school the idea of today’s session, Kaushalya asks them to meet for discussion in three groups: pupils, teachers and parents. "The children speak much freer when they are with their peers", the 34-year-old explains one advantage of this method. All groups start discussing why they are not satisfied with the existing sanitary facilities and how they want their new latrines and hand washing points to look like. Making 20 pupils discuss is no easy task, but finally, they express their worries. The boys complain that they do not have a feeling of privacy in their urinals, and the girls mention that the taps are broken. All of them would like to have garbage bins in the classroom and enough water in the water tank so that they do not need to bring bottles from home or ask for water in the neighboring houses. Amazingly, girls and boys agree easily on the colour of their new latrines: the girls want theirs to be painted in light yellow, while the boys prefer dark green. And they accept the suggested health messages to be written on the walls, so that they do not forget to wash their hands after using the toilet etc.

The "Child friendly concept" has been developed by Malteser International and UNICEF for 53 schools in Galle, Matara, Hambantota and Ampara Districts. Around 16,000 pupils have already or will soon get access to child friendly water and sanitation facilities. The need for this intervention has been identified by the Sri Lankan government, and thus Malteser International works closely with the Zonal Education Officers. According to Kelvin Shingles, the approach is based on the idea that children who participate in efforts to create a safer and more hygienic environment, learn about health and hygiene by doing: "This is an effective way to help young people to acquire the knowledge, attitudes, values and skills needed to adopt healthy lifestyles."

The Malteser International team gives lessons on health and hygiene education following a life skills approach. The pupils learn for example how to test, if the water at school and in their homes is safe for drinking. The three groups in Batuwanhena all meet again in the classroom to finally decide on the location of the new latrines and hand washing points. Kaushalya has painted a plan of the school grounds on a big poster. She asks the representatives of the school community to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different possible locations. The parents want the latrines to be close to the school building, so that the teachers can easily monitor the children. The pupils pay attention that the girls’ and the boys’ latrines are not too close together. Most of the participants are engaged in a lively discussion, and finally everybody agrees.

During the school visit Kaushalya needs to clarify several times who Malteser International is
and what the organization aims for: "Many parents are worried that an organization which is
based in Europe could want to evangelize the kids." Kaushalya explains over and over again that
this is not what Malteser International’s approach is about. She points out that the organization
provides help without distinction of religion, race or political persuasion.

After a while, Kaushalya can convince the families. At the end, the participants of the meeting
even invite the Malteser International team to join the Parents Teachers Association for their next
meeting and to present their work there to all the other parents. At the end, all sides are very satisfied with the session: "Everybody was very much interested and motivated to participate in the
planning process. Even the small children, who are often too shy to express their opinions, were
involved in the decision making", says Kaushalya.

Celebrate World Water Week

On August 18, the 2008 World Water Week was inaugurated iwith a conference in Stockholm. The theme of the week is “Progress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean and Healthy World with Special Focus on Sanitation.” It takes place at a time when billions of people live without sustainable access to safe drinking water or suffer ill health due to poor sanitation, when worsening food crisis battles bioenergy for land and water resources, and when global climate change is shaking the overall water balance. One of the focal points of Malteser International Americas is to ensure safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in countries that do not make the news every day.

From Safe Water and Sanitation to Good Health

Download our latest publication "From safe water and sanitation to good health -- Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects in Asia". Learn how simple methods can help make a difference toward clean drinking water more about  and discover how WASH programs help saves lives, especially the lives of children.

Highlights of recent efforts in Asia

Despite all the news about our efforts in Myanmar, Malteser International continues to work on projects throughout Asia. We have great basic information from each of the countries in Asia where we provide relief and rebuilding efforts. You can also view our Asia map with a few of our recent case studies from Asia.

Here are a few recent updates on our efforts. To read more stories and to stay in touch with us, sign-up today for our free monthly newsletter: On The SPOT.

Sri Lanka: Bringing Children Back to Their Families

After one year, Malteser International’s project to reunify children with their families in the district of Galle in the south of Sri Lanka proofs to be successful. Around 21,000 children currently live in orphanages or children’s homes all over Sri Lanka. Most of them are there because their parents are either too poor to care for them or since they expect that their children are better off in these institutions. Only 3% of children in Sri Lankan institutions are orphans without parents.

In cooperation with the Sri Lankan partner organization Sarvodaya, Malteser International used different approaches to address the overall problem: with advocacy and capacity building, the project team tries to convince local decision makers and officers to apply existing laws properly and in favour of the children.

Awareness raising campaigns are organized at village level to inform the communities and their leaders about the advantages of a family-life for the children. At the same time, trained social workers talk to the families to explore other solutions than giving the child away. In selected cases, Malteser International also provides vocational and business training, mostly for the mothers, or even safe and decent housing for the family. Even the change of children homes into day care centers is being prepared so that local alternatives for daily care of children may facilitate the mothers’ need to earn an income.

The Malteser International project team also assessed the case load of children in selected children’s homes to identify either the natural parents, the extended family network or maybe foster families for the deinstitutionalisation of children.

India: Reconstruction after the floods and disaster preparedness

After the severe floods in summer 2007 in the north of India, about 10 million people in the regions Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are still affected by the consequences of the disaster. Together with Indian partners, Malteser International started a new project to assist the people in the area by helping them to reconstruct their life and to be prepared for future floods. During the reconstruction process, the homesteads of 60 of the worst affected vulnerable households are raised and rehabilitated as mitigation measure against flood inundation. By raising hand pumps above the level of the floods, access to safe drinking water is assured also when floods occur. 

Sri Lanka: New project for the prevention of respiratory diseases

In order to prevent the spreading of respiratory diseases like e.g. Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) or SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), Malteser International started a project to develop and test resource materials using a participatory approach for community empowerment in the South of Sri Lanka. Staff members will develop general health and hygiene measures and design a tool kit to educate the communities to protect themselves from influenza. These participatory tools will be field tested and analyzed and recommendations for the utilization will be submitted to UNICEF for wider dissemination in South and South East Asia. 

Thailand: UNHCR finances HIV/AIDS project along the Thai-Myanmar border

Thailand is home to 140,000 Myanmar refugees living in nine camps along the border to Myanmar. Since 1993, Malteser International has been implementing a comprehensive primary health care program for around 31,300 refugees of Karen and Burmese ethnicity in two of the camps. The main activities during the project include the preparation of meetings with camp-based organizations and NGOs, the implementation of HIV/AIDS intervention groups, the training of counsellors and community health workers, the organization of school health education for high school children on HIV/AIDS and the provision of antiretroviral drugs in case of an infection. On World AIDS day, special activities like a drama performance on HIV/AIDS, drawing competitions and the distribution of T-Shirts are planned. 

Vietnam: Renovation of commune health center in Tay Giang

Malteser International is renovating a commune health center to improve the health situation of the villagers in the Tay Giang district in Central Vietnam. Tay Giang is a remote mountainous district in Central Vietnam, the majority of the population are of ethnic minority. The economic conditions, standard of living standard, existing health infrastructure, and the health system for Tay Giang's residents are low. New health equipment and the training of health staff will be provided in the Bhalee commune health center to secure an access to medical treatment for the population in the area.