Tag Archives: Somalia

This Is Where I Am by Karen Campbell | Book Review

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ThisiswhereIambookreviewI seem to be on a bit of a winning streak when it comes to reviewing books. The last three have all been fantastic pieces of literature. This Is Where I Am is a stunning book. Definitely in my Top 10 of all time now. This story about a Somalian refugee and his daughter fleeing war and immigrating to Glasgow, and their mentor who helps them integrate into society is a book of life, reality, grief, death and hope. This makes it sound like a sad book, in many ways it is, but, like life itself, it is intertwined with happiness and the beauty of life itself, of human connection.

This book by Scottish writer Karen Campbell also made me rather homesick. Although I grew up in the Scottish Borders and have now lived in London for over seven years, it made me miss Glasgow as I lived there for a good few years. The book is also written partly in Glaswegian. You don’t have need a dictionary to read it and I quite like the poetry of it. It adds to the atmosphere of the book. Each Section is a different month and tourist place in Glasgow, with a little bit of historical facts at the beginning. To get you started on some Glaswegian here is a quick guide:

 

Heid – Head
Flair – Floor
Greet – Cry
Messages – Food shopping
Wee – Little
Juice – Cold drinks, not tea
Canny – can’t
Bahookie – Bottom
Tae – to

The brilliance of the book is that you see Glasgow fresh through the eyes of Abdi, the refugee, and Deborah, the Scottish woman mourning her dead husband who mentors Abdi.

The story is brilliant and the difference between white British Middle Class life and that of refugees in Somalia gives an accurate glimpse of the unfairness of life. How circumstance is all the difference between a good life and a terrible one. On the day I finished reading this book there were stories in the papers of displaced women in Somalia, proving that the travesties of war have long-term consequences.

This book is 467 pages long. It is so good I read it in a few days. This Is Where I Am can take its place as a great Scottish book, but also as a great story about human rights. A must read.

This Is Where I Am

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit UNICEF’s life-saving Emergency Supply Centre

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Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit UNICEF’s life-saving Emergency Supply Centre in Copenhagen to highlight desperate plight of children in East Africa

www.eastafricacrisis.org

On Wednesday 2 November 2011 the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be making a special visit to UNICEF’s global Supply Centre in Copenhagen to help maintain the global spotlight on the humanitarian crisis in East Africa, which has left more than 320,000 children so severely malnourished that they are at imminent risk of starving to death unless they get urgent help.

UNICEF’s Supply Centre has a warehouse within it the size of three football pitches. It sources, packs and distributes essential supplies for children around the globe, including food, water, special nutritional supplies for the most malnourished children, vaccines and emergency medical kits.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be accompanied on the visit by The Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Denmark. Their Royal Highnesses together will seek to raise the profile of the crisis in East Africa, an area well known to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and encourage the public to support UNICEF’s appeal for funds to help millions of children at risk.

During their visit they will receive a briefing on the latest situation in the region and then will see for themselves how the products are sourced and packed, ready to be sent to East Africa. They will meet staff and help to pack the emergency medical kits which are currently being sent to East Africa in order to respond to the life-threatening diseases affecting malnourished children, such as diarrhea and cholera. Finally the Duke and Duchess will go to Copenhagen Airport to see the supplies being loaded onto a British Airways flight, bound for Nairobi.

The public have been hugely generous in their response to news of the devastating crisis unfolding in East Africa, and life-saving supplies are getting through to children and families affected. So far, UNICEF has delivered more than 10,000 metric tonnes of supplies to the region, treated 108,000 severely malnourished children in therapeutic feeding centres, vaccinated 1.2 million children against measles and provided 2.2 million people with access to safe water.

However, the region is currently experiencing the worst drought in decades and much more needs to be done in order to help the many thousands of children who are in need of urgent nutritional and medical help.

Elhadj As Sy, UNICEF’s, Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, who is Global Emergency Coordinator for the crisis, said, ‘Right now UNICEF, along with many other partners, is working tirelessly to ensure that children’s lives can be saved across East Africa. Every day children are being given food and water thanks to the huge generosity of the public all around the world. But, there is so much more to be done. As we speak more than 320,000 children are in grave danger and need life saving emergency supplies, like those being shipped and airlifted from our warehouse today. We desperately need every single person to help us continue our work, so please donate today at www.eastafricacrisis.org ‘

To respond to the remaining needs of children in East Africa for 2011, UNICEF still requires $40 million. The financial needs for 2012 are US$402.8 million, including US$300 million for UNICEF Somalia, in order to ensure that provision of life saving therapeutic and supplementary feeding can continue.

To donate to the East Africa Appeal please visit www.eastafricacrisis.org