Aid cuts

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Bosco has just learned to walk. Like any toddler he can’t talk properly yet, although he’s clearly proud of himself. But Bosco isn’t a toddler. He’s six years old and recovering from a lifetime of chronic starvation.

Friday, October 16th is World Food Day, reminding us that 1 in 6 people in the world are hungry. Bosco and thousands like him are getting help from overseas aid. But the Irish government has cut its overseas aid by 24% this year. These cuts must end.

Do you want to help people like Bosco? Then tell your local politician to make sure there are no more cuts to the overseas aid budget.

Tell them face to face

This weekend over 30 Irish aid agencies, including Trócaire are asking people to visit their local politicians in their clinics urging them to stop any more cuts to the aid budget.

You can find details of who your local TD is on the Oireachtas website.

If you can’t visit your local TD, send an email to the government today.

This weekend is a real chance for us to send a message to the government that cutbacks to the aid budget are unacceptable.

Find out more about a number of events taking place, and how you can get involved.

How aid money is helping now: Protecting abused women in Afghanistan

In a hidden corner of Afghanistan’s bomb-torn capital, Kabul your donations are funding one of the only shelters for abused women in the country. The shelter is a secret refuge for women who have suffered the worst forms of violence, rape and terror at the hands of their families and husbands. Their pain is hidden beneath the veil of their burkhas and by a society that values men above women. They are powerless, with nowhere else to turn. Some are not yet women but girls as young as 12. This pioneering shelter provides medical care, counselling, protection and legal support to women whose lives are at risk and whose emotions are clouded by shame and fear.

Trócaire supports a shelter for women in Afghanistan.
Photo: © Ross McDonnell

Fatma was just 13 years old when her brother gave her to an older man to reconcile a family dispute. She lived in misery for two years, enduring brutal abuse by her in-laws. Unable to take any more, Fatma escaped in fear of her life. Looking for protection, she arrived at a police station where the very people she believed would save her raped her. Again, she fled for her life. Thankfully, Fatma made it to the shelter. The abuse was over.

The refuge is now caring for young Fatma. She is also taking a legal case against the policemen who abused her, an exceptionally brave step for a girl who has experienced such horror in her short life. The level of abuse Fatma has suffered physically and the damage done to her mentally may be irreparable, but workers at the shelter are doing all they can to rebuild her shattered spirit. And you, as a Trócaire supporter, are helping her on her path to a new beginning.

How aid money is helping now: Uganda: "Life is better, we have enough food"

Pilemina Aceng lives on a small plot of land in Ngora in northern Uganda. twenty years of vicious civil war have taken their toll on Pilemina and her children. Her husband was killed and four of her children were taken by the militia. She has not seen them since. For five years Pilemina and her children struggled to survive in a camp where thousands of people from the area came for safety. The hunger and despair the family faced in the camp is etched in Pilemina’s memory forever.

“I struggled to feed my children there,” said Pilemina. “Often I would leave the camp and go back home to try to get some food for us.” Every time Pilemina left the camp she risked being attacked or even killed by militia.

Pilemina’s teenage son, Sunday, remembered the fear he felt when his mother left the camp. “Every time she left I was afraid,” he said quietly. “I thought she wouldn’t come back, that she was gone forever.” When the civil war ended people in Pilemina’s camp were encouraged to go home but many were still too terrified. But Pilemina found the camp’s misery too much to bear. “I decided I would rather die at home than in the camp,” she said. The family moved home.

Pilemina quickly got help to grow food from Trócaire and she has been able to rebuild her home and her small farm. Now Pilemina is growing enough food to feed her family and send her grandchild to school. “We are growing beans, potatoes, millet, cabbage and eggplant,” she told Trócaire proudly. “When I think back on what has happened I get weak,” she said, clutching her stomach. “But with the support I’ve received I will work hard and have something to pass on to my children when I die.” Despite all the trauma and pain at such a young age Sunday is very clear about what is important to the family. “Life is getting better, we have enough food,” he said.

What is the impact of the Irish government cuts on our  work?

Here are some examples of our work that may be jeopardised.

• In Kenya and Ethiopia people are struggling to find enough food to eat. Our programme, supported by government money, is feeding over 140,000 malnourished children, pregnant women and the elderly and giving meals to children in schools.
• In a clinic outside Nairobi we support a very successful programme to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies. Last year only one child was born HIV positive in this clinic. 50 per cent of infants infected with HIV from their mothers die before their second birthday. This transmission is entirely preventable, but aid cuts could threaten this programme.
• In Rwanda,  we are helping 24,000 people who survived the genocide 15 years ago. Families who were literally left with nothing after the war now have seeds and tools to grow enough food to feed their families and try to earn an income.
• In India, we work with 190,000 people who need support with shelter and sanitation, and to avoid malnutrition and send their children to school. Children will become malnourished and possibly miss out on an education if our money dries up.
• In Zimbabwe, over 100,000 children have enough food to eat because of our work funded through the Irish government. We may have no choice but to withdraw from this programme.
• We provide food and shelter to over 30,000 Burmese children in refugee camps in Thailand, partly with government funds.

Why does the developing world need our help after all this time?

Funding on the basis of the 0.7 per cent commitment is now slowly beginning to translate into change on the ground in developing countries in all of those areas. That is why it is so deeply worrying that our aid has been cut at the first economic hurdle.

We need to think of the long-term. Without Ireland’s help thousands of children would not be in school and thousands more would not have access to clean water, essential medicines and life-saving vaccines.

The poorest people in the world are under threat from so many sides, now is the time to remain steadfast, have the courage of our convictions and keep our promises to the world’s poorest people.

Why should we help poor people in other countries when there are plenty of poor people in Ireland?

We were set up to help those who need it  most overseas. Our ultimate goal is full equality at a global level.

When we compare poverty in Ireland with poverty in the developing world we are not comparing like with like. In parts of East Africa, food prices have risen so high that families in the city slums are borrowing three times their weekly income to buy food alone.

Isn't it about time the developing world sorted itself out?

Over the past 35 years, Ireland has benefitted tremendously from EU aid, with over €17 billion worth of structural funds driving the country’s economic and social advances and helping to end the dark days of mass emigration. EU aid played a key role in laying down the necessary infrastructure that has made it possible for this country to thrive and prosper.

Imagine how different Ireland would be had the then rich nations in the EU had second thoughts just as soon as times got tough. Think of the schools and roads that wouldn’t have been built. Instead, those countries stuck by the promises they had made in a sprit of solidarity and in doing so, enabled us to exceed our expectations in terms of our economic development.

We also need to kill the myth that we in the developed world have nothing to do with the problems experienced in lesser well-off parts of the world. Decades of colonisation retarded the natural growth of systems, governance and education in many African and Latin American countries. And today, fair access to global markets is willfully withheld so that western producers can profit at the expense of subsistence farmers who have weak representation and far lesser means to survive.

Learn more about meeting Ireland's aid commitments

Trócaire has just published a research paper that explores funding options for Ireland's overseas aid ahead of the upcoming budget in December.

The paper, which was written in collaboration with research economist Brendan Riordan, tackles the recent 24% cut made by the government to Ireland's overseas aid programme. It also presents a series of arguments outlining why the government should not cut Ireland's overseas aid any further this December.

The paper outlines how Ireland's overseas aid budget has been cut by proportionately more than any other government department, even though Ireland's overseas aid accounts for less than 1% of Ireland's national income. The paper suggest freezing the overseas aid budget at its current amount and committing to future increases in legislation, to meet Ireland's 2012 commitments.

Download - Trócaire Briefing Paper: Meeting Ireland’s Aid Commitments