World Refugee Day 2012 – Educating Future Leaders On The Thai Burma Border

Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA Thai Burma Border Project Officer, Zoë Bedford, explains why she is so passionate about working with Burmese refugees at the School for Shan State Nationalities Youth (SSSNY).

The students at SSSNY are adult students. They have come from arduous environments – some have lived for a time in Thailand as migrant workers, some are new to Thailand having just come out of Shan State for the program. They are a mix of young men and young women from 18 to their mid 20s.

Asbestos in Asia: Breaking Through the Silence in Lao PDR

Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA project officer, Matt Hilton, talks about the threat of asbestos in developing countries and APHEDA’s expansion of its asbestos disease prevention project into Lao PDR.

Australians know that asbestos kills. We are historically one of the highest per capita miners, manufacturers and consumers of asbestos in the world. Almost all public buildings and around one third of all private houses were built with asbestos. And the toll was heavy – by 2020, Australia will have had 13,000 cases of mesothelioma and over 40,000 cases of asbestos related cancer.

Broken bags of asbestos cement lie in open storage at a factory in Laos.

Globally, it is estimated that 107,000 workers each year succumb to asbestos or asbestos related cancers. And the centre of this new epidemic is Asia. The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of the 125 million people exposed to asbestos in their homes or workplace are in Asia. And that figure is set to increase – already half of asbestos consumption occurs in Asia with 90% of the global increase in consumption between 2000 and 2004 occurring in Asia.

Visiting Gaza

Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA project managers, Lisa Arnold and Ken Davis, and agriculture adviser, Dr Sharan KC, are currently in the Gaza Strip, where the MA’AN Development Center is implementing a food security project with funding from AusAID.

We joined a trickle of people, UN officers, diplomats and NGO workers, who the Israeli officials allow across the vast Eretz checkpoint on the northern border of the Gaza Strip. Egypt has yet again closed the Rafah border in the south, so 1.6 million Palestinians are locked into an area a fraction the size of the ACT. Sometimes we slip into talking about Gaza as if it were a separate country, but economically and environmentally, the Strip can never be an independent country. It is often described as the world’s largest open air prison, and in reality it is a small cluster of cities under long-term siege, a vast camp of refugees unable to return to their homes now inside Israel. The dispossessed people, a million of whom are children, depend on energy, water, currency and goods from Israel, though tunnels under the Rafah border allow import of food and goods that Israel forbids. The majority of people depend on UN food distribution, and send their children to UN schools.

A day in Gaza

Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA Middle East Project Officer, Lisa Arnold, blogs from the Gaza Strip, Occupied Palestinian Territories.

I’ve discovered that soap and salt water do not necessarily mix.  For one thing, it’s rather difficult to work up a lather, but I’m not sure if that’s due to the salt or the likely other contaminants in the salty water coming from my hotel shower in Gaza City.  I am reminded of Amira Hass’s aptly-titled book, “Drinking the Sea at Gaza”.

Gaza’s groundwater has been deemed unfit for human consumption by the World Health Organisation.

The demands of a 1.5 million population, combined with the severe damage and destruction of wastewater treatment plants by the Israeli “Operation Cast Lead” military invasion of early 2009, means that the groundwater aquifer is being slowly infiltrated by sea water and human effluent.

Documenting life in Gaza

As the illegal Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip continues into its fourth year, view a video documentary on the realities of life in Gaza today.Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA has been working with the El Wafa Medical Rehabilitation Hospital in Gaza City since 2000. This hospital is the only hospital service in the Gaza Strip which offers medical services and support for disabled Palestinians.

Through the Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA Gaza Appeal we have been able to send over A$654,000 to the El Wafa Hospital, allowing them to continue providing the important services and support necessary for the elderly and disabled patients and their families.In June 2010, the El Wafa Hospital produced a short 10-minute documentary video of their work in Gaza, highlighting the contribution of APHEDA’s donors and supporters.You can view the video on the APHEDA YouTube site.On behalf of our partner, the El Wafa Hospital, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA thanks you – our members, donors and supporters – for your generous contributions which have helped hundreds of Palestinian families in Gaza during this critical time.View information on Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA’s Gaza Appeal.View information on Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA’s Middle East programme.

Australian unions condemn aid convoy deaths and call for lifting of blockade of Gaza

MEDIA RELEASE – Australian Council of Trade Unions

Australian unions have condemned the killing of nine people and wounding of an Australian citizen aboard an aid convoy bound for Gaza this week.

ACTU President Sharan Burrow said incident was an outrage and the blockade of Gaza should be lifted.

“A full, open and independent inquiry is needed to establish the precise details of what took place when armed Israeli soldiers boarded vessels in the convoy, which was organised to bring supplies to Gaza,” Ms Burrow said.

“Those responsible for violations of international law must be brought to justice.”

Ms Burrow said Australian unions expressed their deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives, and hoped that the wounded, including an Australian  shot in the leg, would have a full recovery.

She said it was also unacceptable that an Australian journalist and photographer along with other Australian citizens had been detained and threatened with deportation.

Ms Burrow welcomed the strong condemnation of the attack by the Australian Government.

“This appalling development underlines once again that violence and confrontation will not bring peace and justice to Palestinians and Israelis,” Ms Burrow said.

“The only acceptable way forward is through negotiation based  on a commitment on all sides to renounce violence.

“Meeting a humanitarian convoy with military force is unacceptable.”

Ms Burrow said the ACTU supported a call by the international union movement for an end to the blockade of Gaza to bring an end to the ongoing humanitarian crisis there.

Contact: Mark Phillips, ACTU Media Co-ordinator, (03) 8676 7266