Davos#6: refugee run quotes

"Reading 1000 books would not teach me what I learned in the past hour"

Lord Malloch Brown, former UN Deputy Secretary General and senior execuitves took part in the refugee run yesterday. A "very humbling" experience and "a compelling way to remind one what it's like" for refugees around the world.

Director Francesca Martonffy, Global Change Makers said, of the session, "It was a really powerful experience and one we won't forget!".

“Very humbling”

Davos#5: refugee run photos

Davos#4: The hills are alive

Today was a day of rest and we took a walks in the hills. A truly glorious place.

Davos#3: Low Flying

Continuing with David L. I heard when a few people visited him several year ago he drives fast. So fast that it’s referred to as “low flying”. He laughs when I tell him this and I laugh with him. He replies: “Yes it’s true. But the reason is I don't want the rebels to take us...” and finishes “...not like they took me.”

Davos#2: “Women are giving birth at the side of the roads like animals because there are no hospitals”

Kitgum is a city in northern Uganda. Bordering a war weary Sudan whose Comprehensive Peace Agreement hangs on threads. Near to Rwanda which had a fierce civil war. Kitgum, itself a place that has hosted a war and is seemingly coming through trying to rebuild.

I sat in car chatting to man, David L, who will be involved at the Refugee Run that we are together involved in at the World Economic Forum’s Davos conference. A gathering of the world’s elite. He is telling me of his home in Kitgum. He has great vision for the place and so desperately wants transformation. He talks of a need for a hospital and utters the words as we approach the prestigious ski resort town: “Women are giving birth at the side of the roads like animals because there are no hospitals”

Davos#1: Flüchtlings-lauf

The refugee run is back on. We're in Davos, Switzerland. It's beautiful. It's cold. It's also this year about about a Business-UN platform and a new GH website.

It's exciting.

UK Satellite picture

peace in pieces

i was invited to a debate on sudan today at the house of lords.

i must confess i knew little about the place other than the news feeds and stories form some of the agencies that i work with.

my colleague briefed me in some its history, challenges and operations that are being carried out.

i went further and saw some of the pictures. in particuar the famous shot of a thin scrambling child, probably about one of my children's age, with what little energy they had struggling to get to a feeding UN station and quietly in the background a vulture sat. the photographer, kevin carter, won a pulizer prize for the shot in april 1994. 3 months later he killed himself.

this coming saturday marks the 5 year anniversay of a peace agreement that hangs on thread again as reports show.

140 people lost their lives in an ethnic clash in the tonj region only this past weekend. just under half the population do not have access to clean water. elections are due to start this april. aid agencies are calling this a "lethal cocktail" of rising violence, chronic poverty and political tensions.

Christmas Picture

leaving you mark

made me smile