#congo refugees

[testtubenetwork-blog]

How Ikea Is Helping The Refugee Crisis

Watch the Video: http://testu.be/1E0VPrw

The total number of people forcibly displaced from their homes worldwide reached 51 million in 2013...

Ikea is gaining a great deal of attention for its Better Shelter project. The endeavor from the Ikea Foundation aims to design temporary housing that is easy to construct and better than the shelters currently provided to refugees around the world.

The Better Shelter is very similar to other Ikea products. It arrives in two cardboard boxes, each of which can be lifted by four people. The shelter takes about eight hours two construct and even comes with an image-based user manual. Each one comes with a door that locks, windows, ventilation, and a photovoltaic system to supply electricity. Ikea says that each one should last for about three years.

Read More: http://testu.be/1E0VPrw

[unicef]

"I just want to find my parents"

CHECK THIS OUT...A new UNICEF mobile application is bringing together separated and unaccompanied children and their families during emergency situations.

Pretty cool...right?

You can read more about it here: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/uganda_68321.html

[newstfionline]

Thousands flee fighting as Congo crisis deepens

Mark Tran, Pete Jones, David Smith, The Age, Nov. 24, 2012 GOMA, Democratic Republic of the Congo: A humanitarian crisis is looming in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, aid agencies have warned, after another day of fighting sent thousands of people fleeing for safety.

The rebel militia M23--widely believed to be backed by Rwanda--holds the city of Goma but was taken by surprise on Thursday in the village of Sake, 26 kilometres away, when government soldiers launched a counteroffensive.

At Mugunga, a sprawling refugee camp halfway between Goma and Sake, the numbers of displaced seeking shelter have soared.

"Before [the fighting] we had 15,000 people here," Jean Sindi Dunia, the principal police commissioner in Mugunga's third camp said.

Those fleeing find only overcrowded, unsanitary conditions in the poorly supplied camps.

"There is famine in the camp since last Sunday," Mr Dunia said. "We received many displaced with nothing to eat. Even to find shelter for them is very difficult. We ask the international agencies to come to help these displaced people. The problem is food. People don't have enough to eat."

The advance of M23 has uprooted about 60,000 civilians, say UN humanitarian officials. There have been reports of summary executions, the widespread recruitment and use of children, unconfirmed cases of sexual violence, and other serious human rights abuses.

About 500,000 people have been displaced since April, when the M23 rebellion began. With state control collapsing in large swaths of the east of the DRC, there are severe food shortages and a heightened risk of cholera and other diseases.