The American Red Cross is asking people across the nation to help disaster victims by raising $30 million in 30 days. This holiday season push will put the final touch on the $100 million goal for the Red Cross Campaign for Disaster Relief. Already, the campaign has raised nearly $70 million since its launch in September, and the Red Cross hopes to meet its target before the year ends.

“Even in these tough economic times, Americans have given to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and helped us make incredible progress toward our goal. When the next disaster hits, they can rest assured that their generosity will help feed, shelter and give support to someone in need-in their own town, in the next state or even thousands of miles away,” said Jeffrey Towers, chief development officer at the Red Cross.

America has faced a disaster-filled year: a record-breaking number of tornadoes; the worst flooding in the Midwest in 15 years; a very active hurricane season; wildfires in the West; and the many “silent” disasters that never make national news, such as the tens of thousands of house fires that occur every year. Responding to these emergencies depleted the Disaster Relief Fund, which allows the Red Cross to provide food, shelter, counseling and other critical services to disaster victims across the country.

The average person can help right now. A $5 text message provides a hot meal for a disaster victim. A $25 gift buys blankets for a family of five. A $75 donation pays for a disaster victim to visit the doctor. Disasters won’t take a break for the holidays. Every day Red Cross volunteers across the nation respond to an average of 200 disasters. There are several ways people can help others during this season of giving:

– Donate to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund:

- Go to http://www.redcross.org or call 1-800-REDCROSS (1-800-733-2767) (for Spanish-speakers, 1-800-257-7575).
- Send contributions for the Disaster Relief Fund to your local Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013.
- Use your cell phone to donate $5 to the Disaster Relief Fund by text messaging the keyword “GIVE” (4483) to “2HELP” (24357).

– Look for Red Cross volunteers in your community during the National Day of Giving on Saturday, December 13, 2008. Red Cross volunteers will be in locations across the nation collecting money for the Campaign for Disaster Relief.

– Shop the Red Cross online store at http://www.redcrossstore.org.

– Volunteer. Contact your local Red Cross chapter for opportunities.

– Save lives by giving blood. Find a local blood drive by visiting http://www.givelife.org or calling 1-800-GIVE-LIFE (1-800-448-3543).

About the American Red Cross

All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. You can help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year, disasters like the Hurricanes of 2008, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to victims of disaster. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster please do so at the time of your donation. Call 1-800-REDCROSS (1-800-733-2767) or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P. O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C., 20013. Internet users can make a secure online contribution by visiting

The New York Times on Saturday examined how the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief could be President Bush’s “most lasting bipartisan accomplishment.” According to the Times, PEPFAR is a “rare exception” to several of Bush’s other initiatives, which are “not fully embraced by Democrats.” About 1.4 million HIV-positive people have received antiretroviral drugs through PEPFAR, an increase from 50,000 receiving U.S.-funded drugs before the initiative was launched. In addition, PEPFAR has provided care to about 6.7 million people affected by HIV/AIDS, including 2.7 million orphans and other children, according to government figures. Drugs to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission provided through PEPFAR have prevented an estimated 152,000 pediatric HIV cases, according to the government.

PEPFAR, which was announced in Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address, initially called for $15 billion for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care and focused on 15 countries with high HIV prevalence. Bush now is calling on Congress to reauthorize the program at $30 billion for five years. Bush in February plans to visit Africa to “make his case” for PEPFAR’s reauthorization and to “burnish the compassionate conservative side of his legacy,” according to the Times.

Critics of the program have expressed concern about a requirement that at least one-third of HIV prevention funds focus countries receive through PEPFAR be used for abstinence-until-marriage programs. Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance, said the program has been limited by “ideologically driven policies.” Despite such reservations, many critics conclude that through PEPFAR, Bush has “spawned a philosophical revolution” and has “put to rest the notion that because patients were poor or uneducated they did not deserve, or could not be taught to use, medicine that could mean the difference between life and death,” the Times reports.

According to Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter for Bush, PEPFAR “fit a broader conception of [Bush's] view of America’s purpose in the world, which included not just the liberation of other people, but their treatment for disease.” According to the Times, several Democrats, including Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), “find it difficult to argue” with the success of PEPFAR. “It’s a good thing that [Bush] wanted” to start the program, Kerry said, adding that PEPFAR “represents a tremendous accomplishment for the country.”

Some HIV/AIDS experts have said that PEPFAR funding could be spent more efficiently, and other advocates say that $50 billion — not $30 billion as Bush has requested — is needed. However, the “fight is not over whether to reauthorize the program, but how,” according to the Times (Stolberg, New York Times, 1/5).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (N.Y.) campaign on Saturday sent out a flier to New Hampshire voters questioning fellow Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s (Ill.) support for abortion rights because he voted “present” on several abortion-related measures while he was in the Illinois Senate, the AP/Google.com reports (Pickler, AP/Google.com, 1/6). The mailer says Clinton has a record of fighting “far-right Republicans” to defend abortion rights, while Obama has been “unwilling to take a stand on choice.” A “woman’s right to choose … demands a leader who will stand up and protect it,” the mailer says (Pickler, AP/Google.com, 1/5).

Obama is being criticized because he voted “present” in 1997 on two measures that would have banned so-called “partial-birth” abortion and in 2001 on two measures that would have required parental notification before a minor could receive an abortion. Pam Sutherland, president and CEO of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, has said Illinois legislators were encouraged to vote present on the bills to encourage moderate Republicans and Democrats to do the same, thereby defeating the measures (Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, 12/4/07).

According to the AP/Google.com, Obama’s campaign responded by highlighting his support for abortion rights in automated phone calls to state voters. In the call, Wendy Frosh, chair of the board of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, said Obama “has a 100% pro-choice record and has always been a champion for women’s rights.” She added, “Hillary Clinton’s last-minute smears won’t protect the right to choose, but as president, Barack Obama will.”

Nancy Mosher, president of PPNNE, on Sunday in an e-mail said Frosh was acting as an individual citizen and “has taken a temporary leave from the board.” The e-mail included a note from Frosh that says PPNNE has not endorsed a candidate, adding, “I regret any confusion that may have been caused by my actions” (AP/Google.com, 1/6).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women’s Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2007 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

The Baltimore Sun on Thursday examined a proposed Missouri ballot initiative that would require doctors to certify that performing an abortion was necessary to avoid a woman’s death or prevent a “serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.” If the initiative is placed on the November 2008 ballot and is approved by voters, Missouri would have “possibly the most restrictive abortion law in the country,” the Sun reports (Scharnberg, Baltimore Sun, 1/3).

Under the proposal, named the “Prevention of Coerced and Unsafe Abortion Act” by supporters, doctors would be required to document that continuing the pregnancy would be more harmful than the combination of every “psychological, emotional, demographic or situational” risk that has been linked to abortion in any study published in a peer-reviewed journal. If a doctor failed to complete the requirements, a woman who had an abortion could sue the doctor and receive up to $10,000 for each risk the doctor failed to include in the determination. The woman also could sue for wrongful death of the fetus and could file suit up to two years “after the date the woman has recovered from any psychological complications” from the abortion, the proposal says. The proposal does not contain any exceptions for rape or incest. Abortions, including those to save a woman’s life, also would be subject to a 48-hour waiting period (Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, 12/19/07).

Supporters of the proposal said it would force abortion providers to inform women about potential consequences of abortion. Opponents have called statistics cited about the number of coerced abortions and the emotional impact of the procedure “junk science.” In addition, opponents say the amendment is unconstitutional because it is inconsistent with Roe v. Wade .

Pamela Sumners, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri, said that the proposal “would essentially amount to an all-out ban, because of the multiple factors that would have to be present for a woman to qualify for an abortion and because doctors would be subject to lawsuits from any woman who later wishes she had done things differently.” David Reardon — a proponent of the initiative and director of the Elliot Institute, an antiabortion group in Springfield, Ill. — said, “It is my belief that the vast majority of Missouri citizens, even those who believe that abortions should be readily available to women, would agree … that no abortion should ever be the result of coercion.”

Missouri Democrats also are “furious” that Gov. Matt Blunt (R), who is up for re-election, has formed a task force of 13 antiabortion individuals to “highlight the impact of abortion on women: physiologically, psychologically and socially,” the Sun reports. Meanwhile, Republicans say that Missouri’s Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D) is using inflammatory language to describe the initiative and influence public opinion (Baltimore Sun, 1/3).

The petition’s supporters must gather at least 86,000 signatures to put the proposal on Missouri’s 2008 election ballot (Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, 12/19/07). “I think they will get their signatures,” Sumners said, adding, “And when they do, we’ll be prepared to throw everything we’ve got at it” (Baltimore Sun, 1/3).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women’s Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2007 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

Leaders of the antiabortion group Operation Rescue on Wednesday announced they had filed complaints asking two separate state agencies to investigate outgoing Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison (D), the Kansas City Star reports.

The first complaint, filed with the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, seeks to determine whether Morrison received campaign contributions from Wichita, Kan.-based abortion provider George Tiller and Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri in exchange for agreeing not to file charges against them. The second complaint, filed with the Office of the Disciplinary Administrator, asks the office to investigate whether Morrison violated the ethical code of conduct for lawyers during his affair with Linda Carter, a former employee in the Johnson County district attorney’s office. Neither state office would confirm the complaints, citing laws that prohibit them from doing so. According to Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, the complaints seek disbarment and civil fines (Carroll, Kansas City Star, 1/2).

Morrison last month announced his resignation effective Jan. 31 after Carter filed a sexual harassment claim against Morrison with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Carter said that Morrison used her to gain sensitive information about Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline’s (R) investigation of PPKM. Morrison acknowledged the affair but denied any other wrongdoing. Morrison switched parties and defeated Kline in the 2006 state attorney general’s election last year.

During the campaign for attorney general, Morrison criticized Kline for subpoenaing records from clinics operated by PPKM and Tiller, who owns Women’s Health Care Services in Wichita, Kan. Morrison in June cleared PPKM of any wrongdoing, and he criticized Kline’s handling of his criminal case against Tiller. Morrison also charged Tiller with 19 misdemeanors for allegedly violating a state law that requires an independent, consulting physician to approve some postviability abortions (Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, 12/20/07). Morrison spokesperson Ashley Anstaett declined to comment on Operation Rescue’s complaints but noted Morrison’s pending case against Tiller (Milburn, AP/Kansas City Star, 1/2).

Kansas State Rep., Operation Rescue Head Settle Lawsuit Over 2006 Altercation

In related news, Newman and state Rep. Vaughn Flora (D) late last month settled a lawsuit that Newman filed against Flora following an altercation at the Kansas State Fair in September 2006, the AP/Topeka Capital-Journal reports. Both parties agreed to keep private the terms of the settlement.

According to the AP/Capital-Journal, Flora during a campaign event held at the fair for Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) ripped off part of a mask Newman was wearing as part of a cockroach costume to protest what he viewed as substandard conditions at abortion clinics. According to the suit, Newman received a two-inch cut when Flora ripped the costume. Newman’s suit alleged that Flora struck at least two times and caused him to fear for his safety.

Flora in May 2007 pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge and avoided a 30-day jail sentence by paying a $100 fine and $128 in court costs. Flora apologized to Newman in a Nov. 13, 2007, letter, saying, “I have always been a strong believer in the First Amendment and one’s right to free speech. I am sorry for my actions and any physical harm I may have caused.”

Newman on Wednesday said the lawsuit was necessary to demonstrate that it is “intolerable behavior for anyone, especially a state legislator,” to attack someone for having different beliefs, adding, “By his apology and settlement we are satisfied that his actions were wrong and that he appreciates the First Amendment.” According to the AP/Capital-Journal, Flora did not return requests for comment (AP/Topeka Capital-Journal, 1/2).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women’s Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2007 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

The trend toward fewer conflicts reported by peace researchers since the early 1990s now seems to have been broken. This is shown in the latest annual report “States in Armed Conflict,” from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program at the Uppsala University Department of Peace and Conflict Research. The findings worry the researchers. The Middle East is the region where peace initiatives are most conspicuous in their absence.

Since the most conflict-ridden years in the early 1990s, a continuous decline was registered up to 2002. Since that time the number has held steady at around 30 active armed conflicts per year. This is probably also the case for 2007.

“This is of course a cause of concern. Today’s ongoing conflicts are extremely protracted,” comment researchers Professor Peter Walensteen and Lotta Harbom. “This indicates that the successful negotiation efforts of the 1990s are no longer being carried out with the same force or effectiveness.”

Today’s conflicts appear to be intractable and drawn-out, and the researchers believe that the 1990s peace strategies need to be improved in order to achieve results. At the same time, there are encouraging trends. Conflicts between different groups and peoples, with no involvement of the state, are decreasing in the number of both conflicts and fatalities.

“This type of conflict often arises in the wake of civil war, but they seem to be easier to bring to an end,” says Joakim Kreutz at the Uppsala Conflict Data Program.

One event that received a great deal of attention during 2007 was the violence perpetrated against demonstrating monks in Burma, but this type of violence against civilians is becoming less common. Even though there still are armed attacks on civilians in many countries, there is a great difference compared with the situation in the 1990s, when the genocide in Rwanda, for example, claimed hundreds of thousands of victims.

There are also points of light when it comes to conventional conflicts. Peace negotiations are underway in a number of conflicts, and they are also leading to peace treaties. The agreements in Nepal (from 2006) and Aceh in Indonesia (from 2005) are now being implemented with some degree of determination. Also, peace-making measures in a number of West African countries, like Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ivory Coast, continue to be fruitful.

The Middle East is the region in which peace initiatives are most clearly conspicuous in their absence. The central importance of the region for the world’s oil supply and for world religions makes this serious. The conference in Annapolis in lat November 2007 was the first attempt since 2001 to bring the parties together. They even found it difficult to agree on the declaration that started the negotiations, notes Peter Wallensteen.

“This is a worrisome sign. At the same time, we have to welcome all attempts to bring peace to this area. It has been more than 60 years since the UN General Assembly adopted a plan for Palestine. It must be adapted to today’s reality and implemented.”

During the year other regional conflict complexes have emerged and worsened. The crisis in the Sudanese region Darfur is now spreading to the surrounding countries, such as Chad and the Central African Republic.

“These developments have prompted neighboring countries to take certain peace initiatives,” states Lotta Harbom. “The international mediators in the Darfur conflict, including Jan Eliasson, who is also a visiting professor at Uppsala University, are working to arrange negotiations among the parties. But thus far they have had no success.”

The situation in Africa’s Horn continues to be troublesome. The region’s own conflict dynamics have come to be more and more intertwined with the US-headed war on terror. This has led to new conflict issues being added to the unresolved disputes between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Somalia has once again become a seat of conflict.

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have created more uncertainty for the neighboring states. Turkey, Iran, and Syria have shown their extreme displeasure with the activities of the Turkish-Kurdish guerilla PKK from their base in the Kurdish provinces of Iraq. Turkey’s attack in early December was predictable. The Taliban’s increased military activity in Afghanistan and Al-Qaida’s operations have influenced developments in Pakistan. This can affect the stability and chances for democracy in this nuclear-weapons state and have a negative impact on the otherwise promising drop in violence in Kashmir.

The House on Monday voted 253-154 to approve a $516 billion fiscal year 2008 spending bill that combines 10 unfinished spending measures with the FY 2008 foreign operations spending bill (HR 2764), the New York Times reports (Hulse, New York Times, 12/18). The measure would fund the Department of State, USAID, and other global health and international aid programs. It also affects the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which aims to encourage economic and political reforms in developing countries, CQ Today reports.

The proposed bill would provide $6.5 billion for U.S. and global health activities, which is $1.4 billion more than in 2007 and $796 million more than President Bush’s request, including emergency spending, according to the House Appropriations Committee. Five billion dollars in foreign operations spending would go to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — at least $1.2 billion more than the program received last year — CQ Today reports (Graham-Silverman, CQ Today, 12/17).

According to the Washington Post, conservatives “in and out of Congress criticized” the bill, including a provision that would “sever[e] overseas AIDS relief from abstinence-education mandates” (Weisman, Washington Post, 12/18). By law, at least one-third of HIV prevention funds that focus countries receive through PEPFAR must be used for abstinence-until-marriage programs (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 11/30).

Under the bill, the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria would receive about $841 million. The amount includes $546 million in the State-Foreign Operations section and $295 million in the Labor-HHS-Education section of the bill. Bush had requested $300 million for the Global Fund, all of which was allocated in the Labor-HHS bill, CQ Today reports (CQ Today, 12/17).

In addition, the measure would provide $1.8 billion for global health and child survival programs, including $347 million for HIV/AIDS programs. Funding for maternal and child health programs would increase by $101 million, and malaria and TB funding would increase by $101 million and $72 million, respectively (House Appropriations Committee release, 12/16). The measure would reduce funding for MCC to $1.54 billion — about half of Bush’s requested $3 billion. MCC is “cut below the president’s request because of the availability of unobligated balances,” the Appropriations Committee said. A proposal to change the way MCC funding is dispersed was dropped, according to CQ Today (CQ Today, 12/17).

The measure also would increase funding for AIDS Drug Assistance Programs — federal- and state-funded programs that provide HIV/AIDS-related medications to low-income, uninsured and underinsured HIV-positive individuals — by $19 million to $809 million, CQ HealthBeat reports (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 12/17). In addition, the measure would lift a ban on needle-exchange programs in Washington, D.C.

Reaction
“I’m pleased to report that we’re making some pretty good progress toward coming up with a fiscally sound budget — one that meets priorities, helps on some emergencies and enables us to say that we’ve been fiscally sound with the people’s money,” Bush said Monday.

Some Republicans in the Senate and House called on Bush to veto the final measure. Even Democratic leaders were “only mildly supportive” of the compromise measure, the Post reports. “In an adult world, win, lose or draw, we have an obligation to complete our work,” House Appropriations Committee Chair David Obey (D-Wis.) said, adding, “In an adult world, we have an obligation to compromise and move on” (Washington Post, 12/18).

The measure now goes to the Senate, where Republicans are expected to add funding for the war in Iraq. The White House on Monday said Bush would sign the bill only if Iraq funding is included, CQ Today reports (Wayne, CQ Today, 12/17).

Senators, HIV/AIDS Advocates Call for PEPFAR Reauthorization at Senate Committee Hearing
In related news, senators and HIV/AIDS experts on Thursday at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing called on Congress to promptly reauthorize PEPFAR, CQ HealthBeat reports. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who chaired the hearing, said the challenges the U.S. faced when PEPFAR was created in 2003 remain as “relevant and as devastating as ever.”

Nils Daulaire, president and CEO of the Global Health Council, said “expedient and thoughtful” reauthorization is critical over “the next several months.” Helen Smits, vice chair of the Committee for the Evaluation of PEPFAR Implementation at the Institute of Medicine, said that if the program is not reauthorized quickly, nongovernmental organizations working in recipient countries might be forced to lay off employees.

The witnesses who testified before the committee also said that the next step in fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic would have to involve efforts to strengthen health care systems in developing countries. Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) said there is a need to “develop systems that can adequately address the scope of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.” He also called for a health care capacity large enough to implement PEPFAR goals (Gensheimer, CQ HealthBeat, 12/17).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Increased fighting inside Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, has led to another exodus of the population, adding to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) who have already fled the conflict area since January 2007.

West of Mogadishu, on the road to Afgooye, where Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been providing emergency medical and nutritional care since April 2007, the number of IDPs has nearly doubled in just a few weeks, reaching an estimated 200,000 people, according to the UNHCR. Most live by the roadside, under makeshift shelters, and are fully dependent on external assistance.

The population is facing unacceptable sanitary conditions and their vulnerability has only increased in the face of months-long food shortages. In Afgooye and Hawa Abdi, a large majority of the 1,700 weekly medical consultations carried out by MSF teams are linked to precarious living conditions: severe malnutrition, diarrhea, and acute respiratory tract infections.

Children arriving from Mogadishu today, especially those under five years of age, are extremely weak. In the past two weeks, more than 250 severely malnourished children, including 80 who had to be hospitalized in intensive care, were admitted to MSF feeding centers. Faced with this deteriorating situation, MSF teams have doubled their capacity from 20 to 40 beds in Afgooye, and are setting up a 50-bed pediatric unit in Hawa Abdi. The intensive nutritional care center in Hawa Abdi has increased its capacity from 20 beds in September to 80 today, and needs are increasing by the day.

Mortality rates are extremely worrying. In Hawa Abdi, a camp with 32,000 IDPs, where some humanitarian efforts are ongoing, the mortality rate of children under five is more than twice the emergency threshold: 4.2 deaths per 10,000 people per day. The global mortality rate is 2.3 deaths per 10,000 people per day, according to a retrospective mortality survey conducted by MSF between September 12 and November 23. Diarrhea is the main cause of death in the camp (over 50 percent) due to disastrous sanitary conditions.

Needs for water, food, shelter, and medical care are rapidly increasing. However, increasing humanitarian assistance is extremely difficult in this conflict. Despite the mobilization of international aid over the past weeks, it is still largely inadequate. Living conditions in the estimated 100 improvised camps along the Mogadishu-Afgooye axis are significantly below commonly accepted standards for emergency humanitarian assistance, and the risk of epidemic outbreaks is high.

The number of IDPs is increasing every day. Without a significant increase in neutral and independent assistance, this emergency situation could deteriorate even further.

MSF has worked continuously in southern and central Somalia for over sixteen years and is currently providing medical care in nine regions – Bakool, Bay, Galgadud, Hiraan, Lower Juba, Middle Juba, Mudug, Middle Shabelle and Lower Shabelle. MSF today has approximately 60 international staff and over 800 national staff working in Somalia.

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org

The Red Cross is responding to severe flooding in Oregon and Washington State caused by back-to-back storms on Sunday and Monday. Bringing hurricane force winds along with inches of rain, the storms have caused mudslides and extensive power outages in addition to the flooding. Current reports estimate that several thousand homes have been affected by either power outages or flood waters across both states, and with sections of major roads unsafe for travel, residents and responders alike are challenged to move to shelters or send needed resources into the affected areas.

With careful pre-positioning of supplies and by working with local businesses, Red Cross chapters were able to respond immediately, opening shelters, or supporting community shelters with supplies. The Red Cross is coordinating with officials at state and county emergency operation centers to monitor the changing situation and commit and ensure the movement of additional supplies and people into the affected areas. Even without additional rainfall, the flood waters and inaccessible roadways will continue to have a serious impact on residents for the foreseeable future.

Residents who have been, or may be impacted by these floods should take additional safety precautions. For those who must, or have already evacuated their homes, register on the Red Cross Safe and Well site, where you can leave behind a message for your loved ones. If you are unable to register, but are able to contact a family member, ask them to register on your behalf. Family and friends will be able to search the Safe and Well site with specific identifying information and view the message you have left behind.

Following a disaster, the short message left on this site can be enough to give your friends and family peace of mind. To register a family member on Safe and Well, visit http://www.redcross.org.

In addition to registering on the Safe and Well site, residents should complete these additional steps to prepare for flooding:

- Head for higher ground and stay away from floodwater.

- Know the difference between a flood watch and a warning. Listen to the news for updates about your area. A flood watch means a flood is possible in your area. A flood warning means flooding is already occurring, or will occur soon.

- If you haven’t done so already, get a disaster supplies kit together with necessary items including a 3-day supply of water (1 gallon/person/day), non-perishable food, flashlight, battery-operated or crank radio, first aid supplies, and your important documents (for example, birth certificates, passports, insurance policies, deed/title to home).

- Listen to and follow the directions of local authorities. If you are told to evacuate, grab your disaster supplies kit and leave immediately. If you are driving and see floodwater, turn around and go a different way. Never drive through floodwater.

Residents in homes without power should also be aware of the following safety tips:

- Only use a flashlight for emergency lighting. Never use candles!
- Turn off electrical equipment you were using when the power went out.
- Avoid opening the refrigerator and freezer.
- Do not run a generator inside a home or garage.
- If you use a generator, connect the equipment you want to power directly to the outlets on the generator. Do not connect a generator to a home’s electrical system.
- Listen to local radio and television for updated information.

All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. You can help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year, disasters like the flooding in Washington and Oregon, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to victims of disaster. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster please do so at the time of your donation. Call 1-800-RED-CROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P. O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013.

American Red Cross

Last week in Geneva, negotiations facilitated by the American Red Cross between the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the Government of Israel led to the signing of a historic agreement allowing five PRCS ambulances to operate in East Jerusalem.

The agreement stems from the November 2005 Memorandum of Understanding between PRCS and Magen David Adom (MDA), the Red Cross equivalent in Israel, which calls on both National Societies to advocate for improved humanitarian safety and access.

“The cooperation between Magen David Adom and the Palestine Red Crescent across conflict lines means that today, lives are being saved as Palestinian ambulances bring critically injured patients to hospitals in East Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel for emergency treatment,” says American Red Cross Chairman Bonnie McElveen-Hunter. “Representing the best humanitarian principles and practices of the international Red Cross and Red Crescent family, we are grateful to the Government of Israel for its efforts to reach agreement on this life-saving work. It is our great hope that this cooperation will serve as an inspiration not just for dialogue but for tangible results that some day will lead to lasting peace.”

The current security situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories often limits access with checkpoints, restrictions and roadblocks. The agreement increases cooperation between the two societies to allow for quick access of emergency medical services to those in critical need. After this agreement was signed, it took only 90 minutes for this important ambulance service to operate, according to MDA and PRCS leaders, delivering one of the first three cases to Hadassah Hospital .

The American Red Cross was a strong supporter of the joint admission of MDA and PRCS into the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in June 2006, and has since played a key role in promoting effective cooperation between the organizations.

“The effective cooperation between MDA and PRCS serves as an example of humanitarian principles transcending politics,” said David Meltzer, American Red Cross Senior Vice President for International Services. “We are honored to support the important work of these two societies, whose focus on humanitarian needs rises far above the politics of this complicated conflict.”

As part of the world’s largest humanitarian network, the American Red Cross alleviates the suffering of victims of war, disaster and other international crises, and works with other Red Cross and Red Crescent societies to improve chronic, life-threatening conditions in developing nations. We reconnect families separated by emergencies and educate the American public about international humanitarian law. This assistance is made possible through the generosity of the American public.