Newsletter March 2021

1°        General Assembly of Vivere, 20th May 2021 please mark on your agenda

The annual general assembly of our movement is set for Thursday 20 May, 7pm, in Lausanne. If the sanitary conditions allow it, the room will be specified as soon as possible. This is an important time in the life of the association, which calls for the widest possible participation of members, it being understood that the meeting also welcomes any interested person.

2°        4 minutes interview on the radio Rouge-FM

This friendly channel offered us the airtime on 16 February. The short speech can be heard on :

L invité de 11H12 du 16.02.2021 – Mike Hoffman, président et fondateur de l’association Vivere – Rouge

3°      Syria, from the particular to the general

Last month, the team on the ground was able to assist 64 infants with nutritional supplements: 19 new babies were added to the 45 previously monitored.

Ghayss is the third child of a couple who were displaced for several years and whose house was blown up by the bombing. Back in their home village, the family has no choice but to rent a room in someone else’s home, which means paying rent that is hardly covered by the efforts of the father, who rents out his labour power by the day.

Ghayss

Thirteen million.  According to UNOCHA, this is the number of Syrians who have been forced to flee their homes over the past ten years. This represents more than 60% of the country’s estimated population. Of these 13 million people, 6.6 million are refugees, representing a quarter of the total refugee population worldwide. Another seven million Syrians are internally displaced, the largest IDP population in the world.

15th March 2021 marks a decade of conflict in Syria. A conflict that has killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of civilians, forced millions from their homes and impoverished the country. To pay tribute to the enduring but fragile resilience of the Syrian people, Yo-Yo Ma’s non-profit organisation Silkroad and the United Nations have released “I wish it had been a dream”: Voices from Syria. This four-minute “soundscape” mixes 100 recorded messages from people living in Syria.   “I wish it had been a dream” by UN Humanitarian – United Nations UN-OCHA (exposure.co)

source: UN-OCHA

4°       Moldova, winter relief for abandoned elderly people and the most vulnerable families

Supported by Vivere since 2007, this action has just been completed. Our partner, the rural association Compasiune, sums it up as follows: ”80 households received food and hygiene parcels. For people with mobility problems and those who are isolated, the packages were distributed at home. Given the unsatisfactory sanitary conditions, but also the need to improve personal hygiene imposed by the pandemic, the amount of hygiene products included in the food package was doubled.

Heating homes during the cold season is the most urgent need of the elderly. The support provided by the project has given 19 elderly people the opportunity to overcome the risk of living in the cold, to sleep with their clothes on. To overcome these situations, each person on the list received 2m3 of wood. Due to severe health problems and lack of material possibilities, two of the beneficiaries received 3m3 of wood each, and 9 people also received food parcels. In order to provide the beneficiaries with wood, 40m3 of firewood was purchased, of which 8m3 was cut and distributed to the most needy people.

Costs :

– Food & hygiene parcels: CHF 19.55 (€ 18) per person

– Firewood: CHF 97.80 (€ 90) per person.

5°        Pakistan : protection of minors facing the death penalty or life imprisonment

On 25 February our 16th Awareness session for judicial actors was held in Hyderabad, Sindh province. Being there, Mike H. observed the sustained attention of the participants, the relevance of the interventions, and a certain positive vigour in the questions emanating from the room. The cause of the hundreds of juveniles currently facing the death penalty will undoubtedly be better understood and defended by most of the 71 lawyers, police and probation officers present that day.

Forum of Hyderabad

Since 2017, together with lawyer Waheed Ahmad, we have taken on the defence of two young people whose incrimination could lead to the gallows. The trial, which is dragging on, is being held in a very remote court south of Lahore. In March, Waheed once again went to Lahore to try to mediate between the families of the accused and the victim, in accordance with the laws of the country, in order to free the two boys. The negotiations were complex, difficult and slow, but at last count they seemed to have a chance of success.

Waheed (in the center) and the fathers of Faruq and Amir

Having worked with all of our partners on the ground, Mike captured a video interview with our lawyer and friend Sarmad Ali, head of Law Awareness Watch (LAW). This document can now be seen on Vivere’s FB page :

https://www.facebook.com/vivere.association/videos/514326396221027  

 It will soon be available on our website.

Thanking you always for your attention to this work, and at your disposal for any information you may wish to receive.

With our best consideration,

The Vivere Committee