An Easter-message from our Secretary General Betina Gollander-Jensen:
It sprouts and grows around us. Seeds and bulbs that used to lie dormant under leaves, moss and branches have now awakened to new life. Shrubs and trees with bare branches shoot new shoots. Spring has come and demonstrates before our eyes that life in all its manifold richness will always overcome the dead, dry, frozen and petrified.
JOB OPPORTUNITY: If you want to be at the forefront of the overview and development of financial management in an ambitious Danish NGO, then we are looking for an astute and dynamic Economy, Administration and Compliance Director in a newly created position.
Violence against women is a taboo in Iraq. But now the women are striking back through paintings as part of a project at Mission East's community center in Sinjar.
"In our culture women are expected to remain silent when it comes to violence, no matter the violence is a domestic violence, rape or assault from a stranger, silence cannot heal wounds and address the problem.”
Mission East's reading groups and civic centers for Corona-affected families are acknowledged by a Danish professor of pedagogy.
Climate change has put extra pressure on the people of the already vulnerable Palata district of Nepal. Both their farmland and forests have been damaged, and it is difficult to get food on the table. Now a project that Mission East is part of will change that development.
Sustained droughts, irregular rainfalls and other climate-related problems have made the area around the village of Thirpu one of the driest and most underdeveloped areas in the Palata rural district of Kalikot, a remote and hard-to-reach mountain district in Nepal.
Nepal's Corona-affected children will receive help from a large-scale TV fundraiser on February 6.
When a national collection runs across the screen on national Danish television on February 6, 2021, some of the funds will help Nepal's Corona-affected children and their families through Mission East.
For the students in the small village of Umarak, attending classes at the local school was a daily risk. The building was both unsuitable and outright dangerous. Mission East now made the school day safe with the opening of a brand new school.
The new school opened in December 2020, and the timing could not be better: January is the coldest month in Tajikistan with temperatures that can reach well below zero. The old school was uninsulated and therefore so cold that it was decidedly unsuitable for teaching.
2020 was a challenging year on many fronts. But challenges are not only bad, they can also hold good opportunities if we pause and learn from the things that were difficult.
At the local civic center in Batroun, Lebanon, Sarah and 23 other vulnerable Syrian women are busy sewing face masks. In addition to giving Sarah an opportunity to help other vulnerable people, the project has also had a great impact on her personally: she can now continue her studies.
Sarah is a student. However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the growing economic crisis in Lebanon, her parents can no longer pay for her education.
The Corona pandemic has taught us the importance of local staff, local partners and equipping locals to mitigate disasters. Everything that Mission East is good at, says futurist Marianne Levinsen.
- The expertise you have gained in disaster areas, you can now transfer to other countries in need, she adds.
PORTRAIT: Betina Gollander-Jensen is appointed as the new Managing Director of Mission East from 1st of January 2021. She comes from a position as International Manager of Caritas and has previously been abroad with DANIDA and the UN in South Africa, Uganda, Sudan and Kenya.
Innovation and consolidation. Local cooperation and tight financial management. Focus on the individual in need and strengthen the entire organization.
PRESS RELEASE: Betina Gollander-Jensen is appointed as new Managing Director of Mission East with the starting date of January 1st, 2021. She comes from a position as international manager at Caritas and has previously been abroad with DANIDA and the UN.
Betina Gollander-Jensen is appointed as the new Managing Director of Mission East from the 1st of January 2021. She comes from a position as International Manager at Caritas Denmark.
Ashrin, Albert and their two children had to flee Karabakh when Azerbaijani planes bombed their home and a church where their children were hiding. Now they are safe but they have lost everything.
Ashrin and her family were uprooted when Azerbaijan broke a 1994 ceasefire and launched a massive bombing raid on Karabakh on September 27, 2020. The bombs from planes and drones hit several cities and military installations.
A fragile ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan leaves 75,000 displaced Armenians without food, clothing and the ability to withstand the cold winter and COVID-19. Mission East joins forces with other NGOs to help.
The six-week-long conflict over the disputed province of Nagorno-Karabakh took an unexpected turn when a peace agreement was reached between Azerbaijan and Armenia with Russian intervention.
76,000 people in northeastern Afghanistan receive hygiene equipment from Mission East, which also provides information on how to best protect against COVID-19.
COVID-19 is spreading rapidly in Afghanistan, and communities that are already in a vulnerable situation due to conflict, internal displacement and extreme poverty are particularly at risk - and that risk is exacerbated by poor hygiene.
Mission East is working hard to reach and help as many people as possible in the Takhar and Badakhshan provinces of northeastern Afghanistan.
Thousands of vulnerable people continue to receive support to fight COVID-19. Here is the latest report from Mission East's COVID-19 response.
We receive regular updates from our COVID-19 response around the world.
Family after family receives information about COVID-19 along with hygiene items, protective equipment and boxes with food as our dedicated staff and partners reach out to urban areas, rural areas and remote mountain regions to serve the most vulnerable.
Over the past week there have been stories in the press about Mission East. Here is a short clarification of the situation.
Mission East has received public grants from Germany since 2003. Over the years, these grants have risen steadily and have enabled us to help even more vulnerable people especially in Afghanistan, Iraq, Tajikistan and North Korea.
BRIEF NEWS: As something new, Mission East's partners are now engaging in exploiting Myanmar's forests in ways other than logging for timber.
They inspire the local population to pick fruits and nuts, grow vegetables, catch fish and game, find medicinal plants and extract resin and fiber from bamboo and other grasses. The efforts are part of the sustainable use of their environment to increase their food security and nutrition. The local partners have also participated in several courses to ensure that sustainable agriculture projects reach their goals.
Here's an overview of our extensive Corona response: How are we supporting - and what are the challenges?
Mission East was quick to respond to the humanitarian crisis following the COVID-19 outbreak with a large-scale COVID-19 emergency relief plan to help over 350,000 people in five selected countries: Nepal, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq.
On March 20, Mission East launched a large-scale Corona relief package with the capacity to help over 350,000 people in five selected program countries: Nepal, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq. Since then, Tajikistan and Myanmar have been added and the capacity has grown to include 625,000 people in extreme poverty, refugees, internally displaced persons and people with disabilities. They are among the most vulnerable during a pandemic like Covid-19.
Dipar is one of the women in Myanmar who, despite all odds, has overcome a childhood and youth with poverty, distress and marginalization due to her gender, poor educational opportunities, hunger and wars. Today, she is working to improve the situation of her countrymen and women in Chin State through sustainable agriculture.
Poverty and exclusion are linked. If we want to fight the former, we must do something about the latter. Mission East has developed an inclusion guide for organizations and others who want to make inclusion of everyone who is subject to social marginalization and discrimination an integrated practice in day-to-day work.
Many refugees associate guilt and shame with the violent experiences many have had during their escape. War refugees experience terrible mental trauma. How do they get on with their lives?
We have asked Louise Schwartz from the Department of Trauma and Torture Survivors in Odense.
What makes survivors of trauma and torture survive, or rather, overcome terrible war experiences?
Nadia Nadim has gone all the way. From fleeing the Taliban to becoming Denmark's female power striker and first Danish national team player with a refugee background. In this exclusive interview with Mission East she discloses what has given her the impetus to go after the trophy.
Karam had to flee from Islamic State's occupation of Mosul. Today he drives into the same Mosul as driver for Mission East. Meanwhile, he puts aside the anxiety and the bad memories. Of course, I have to help my neighbors, he says.
Karam was part of the team that ran into Mosul after the city had just been exposed to some of the worst bomb attacks, and parts of the city were still in the midst of active conflict. Along with four other Mission East employees, Karam provided relief packages to the hungry population after Islamic State was pushed out of town.
The security situation in Afghanistan is the worst since the Taliban war started. Public infrastructure has collapsed, and even die-hard war correspondents are increasingly staying away. But how do ordinary Afghans handle the permanent state of emergency? The Afghans have an ability to find solutions where there are none, Mission East's experience shows.
"We sit here drinking tea and playing games. It's just a way to kill time because we're scared and powerless about what's happening in our country."
Sakari Koivula is Mission East's Country Director in North Korea. The energetic Finn has experience with development assistance from several African and Asian countries. But never has the effort been as effective as in North Korea, he says. And food security comes first. When a population can feed itself, what other problems they have are solved.
It is not enough that we help those displaced. Those who receive the refugees feel left behind and also need help. That is why Mission East is now moving into Syria and Lebanon with support for both the Syrian and Lebanese host communities.
Mathias lives in Kirke Hyllinge in Central Zealand with his mother, father and little brother. He has been blind ever since he was almost newborn. Still, he feels like a seeing blind, as he calls it, since he doesn't feel restricted by his visual impairment - something he and his parents have worked on throughout his life:
“There are some things for which I always need help. But I want to make sure there are as many things as I can do myself. My parents and I have done this too. I just want to be as independent and self-reliant as possible. "
It began with disaster relief to Armenian war victims 27 years ago. Since then, the focus was on all children's right to learning and, most recently, inclusion of children with disabilities in schools. Mission East's office in the country is now being transferred to a local partner in Armenia, through which we continue our work.
In the world's most troubled and vulnerable countries, Mission East works with both short-term disaster relief, long-term development and everything in between, which helps get a country and its people back on track - also called 'nexus'.
When Mission East moves into a country with relief, a long stretch of work begins. It spans from providing food, water and blankets in emergency situations to a slow rebuilding of a community before actual development work begins.
She has been collecting clothing, hospital supplies, furniture, beds and medicine together for Bulgaria and South America, especially Bolivia, for over 30 years. Concert pianist Astrid Møller is a fiery soul who is passionate about helping the world's poorest. Astrid Møller was born with a help gene.
Adolescents in Iraq are key nexus players in the process of restoring everyday life in Sinjar. That is why Mission East helps the young people where the needs are
The Yezidis in Sinjar district are currently at ground zero. They stand in the ruins of what was once their home and need to find a new foothold.
Three meals a day, three kinds of vegetables at each meal, and three food groups each week. It is the recipe that should make the population healthy so that they have the profits to learn new sustainable cultivation methods and thus lift the remote Maraland out of poverty.
Afghan women have traditionally been inferior to men in status and often live marginalized in society as wife and mother. For some, they have succeeded in both providing for the family, gaining financial independence and being respected in the local community.
As a young man, Saleha dreamed of becoming a financially independent woman, respected in her community and valued by her family - knowing that women in Afghanistan are traditionally inferior to men and marginalized as gender.
In Nepal's remote mountainous villages the very young children are at high risk of falling, broken limbs and burns. As medical care is not available, even the smallest accidents can cause lasting disabilities. Unfortunately, Sarita's story is not uncommon in the remote mountainous areas of Nepal. She lives with a physical disability due to an accident she sustained when she was a child when she did not have access to medical care.
Mission East operates as the only Danish relief organization in DPRK. The organization now opens its own office in the country to be able to follow developments closely, respond quickly to needs - and to be able to continuously monitor projects and develop new ones with local authorities and international players
In Nepal, people with disabilities have their everyday lives in the unsettled mountain areas, where they move safely around the outermost slopes. With a camera and a drone, Mission East's Communications Officer Michael Schmidt followed a family man and a schoolgirl's life on a steep hillside to an awareness campaign on people with disabilities.
Mission East’s Annual Report for 2018 shows how Mission East continues to work in humanitarian response, long-term development and in the fragile space between the two. We provided rapid humanitarian support to communities emerging from conflict or suffering from natural disasters while continuing to build long-term partnerships for lasting change.
Everyone in Bimala Kafles village was convinced that she and the other women were dangerous during their menstrual period. In Mission East’s youth group, they have discovered that there is nothing to be afraid of.
Annelise Würtz spends her winters creating beautiful and refined figures out of paper strips. She donates part of the profit to Mission East’s work among malnourished families in North Korea.
”I have always been impressed by Mission East’s work,” Annelise Würtz says when asked why she chose to support Mission East’s work, when she back in 2016 with great enthusiasm began creating and selling paper strip figures – the so-called quilling figures.
A family father got money from Mission East to rebuild his destroyed house in West Mosul. With the money, his wife could also get a surgery.
It is incredible what you can accomplish with a small fund in the bombed-out Iraqi city of Mosul.
For 350 Euros, the 36-year-old Ahmad Abbas could afford to repair his house and even had a little left to pay for medical help.
Playing, learning and performing daily routines in familiar surroundings is beneficial for children suffering from war-related trauma, explains psychologist with experience in trauma care in crisis-affected countries.
Mission East’s partner in Mosul has helped 150 boys beginning the new school year with fresh haircuts.
Khaled is only five years old, but his short life has been dramatic so far. The little boy from the war-torn city of Mosul lost his father during the violent battle over the city, and when his family’s house was bombed into pieces, they had to settle in another neighbourhood.
Pabitra’s daughter did not get enough food when she was a baby and struggles with physical and cognitive difficulties. But in Mission East’s classes for women in Nepal, Pabitra is now learning how to give her children a healthy and nutritious diet.
Pabitra comes from an extremely poor Dalit family in the remote mountain area of Western Nepal. She got married by the age of 15 and lives with her husband and three children in the village of Thehe. The family lives off the food they manage to grow on their own little piece of land.
Nargis and Zohir both have a disability, but at Mission East’s rehabilitation center in south-eastern Tajikistan, they prove that it is possible for them to learn and develop.
A Yezidi family in the Iraqi town of Sinune are looking forward to reopening their shop that was destroyed by Islamic State.
By Kim Wiesener, Communication Manager – June 2018
The words ”Lions of Islamic State” are written in large, black letters on the shop front. This graffiti is an unpleasant reminder of the violent times in August 2014 when the extremist movement invaded this part of Northern Iraq.
This summer’s heatwave in North Korea has dried out the maize harvest and made the undernourished population even more dependent on outside help, the managing director of Mission East concludes after visiting the country. Mission East secures the water supply and makes agriculture more efficient.
A new, serious food crisis is looming in North Korea. This summer’s heatwave brought temperatures of up to 40 degrees for a whole month and dried out the country’s maize fields. The harvest is expected to be reduced by 30 per cent.
On Mount Sinjar in Northern Iraq Mission East helps local Yazidis to create a new life for themselves. The activities include beekeeping and growing vegetables in large greenhouses.
By Kim Wiesener, Communications Manager
While Heba puts on her protection suit, the bees are humming loudly, joyfully and persistently in the background – as to emphasize the necessity of shielding oneself against their stings. She walks over to one of the beehives, opens the lid and proudly displays its contents.