homeless international

Last night my companion was Sarah who works with Homeless International. It was Friday night so there were quite a few drunk people around throughout the night. Around 3pm some men came and shouted really loudly at us - not with any words of abuse - just to wake us up. But we both managed to go back to sleep everytime we were disturbed. Sarah has a busy day today and tomorrow is going to India to raise money for Homeless International through a sponsored trek.

We had been talking about the effects of climate change on homelessness internationally. When she got back she sent me this list of cities most at risk of flooding according to development think-tank CGD. The cities where most people will be at risk from sea level rises and storm surges are:
Manila, Philippines; Alexandria, Egypt; Lagos, Nigeria; Monrovia, Liberia; Karachi, Pakistan; Aden; Yemen; Jakarta, Indonesia; Port Said, Egypt; Khulna, Bangladesh; Kolkata, India; Bangkok, Thailand; Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire; Cotonou, Benin; Chittagong, Bangladesh; Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam; Yangon, Myanmar; Conakry, Guinea; Luanda, Angola; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Dakar, Senegal.

So many of those are capital cities with a very high population.

The other major cause of homelessness is people who are forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution. In its annual report in June 2009 UNHCR estimated 42 million people were currently homeless which included 16 million refugees and asylum seekers and 26 million internally displaced people. Developing countries hosted 80% of all refugees. For example Pakistan had 1.8 million and Syria 1.1 million. Major countries of origin were Afghanistan (2.8 million) and Iraq (1.9 million)

Before I started the sleep out yesterday I had been to the annual peace lecture and listened to an amazing Chinese surgeon who had been working in Lebanon during the massacres in the 80s and in Gaza during the recent carnage when over 1300 men, women and children had been slaughtered. The pictures she had were bloody and truthful - powerful images which came back to me as I lay on the pavement last night.

I knew I was not at risk of being blown up or shot. This is a safe country and because of that we are right to offer sanctuary to those who are fleeing war. But we also need to do all we can to reduce violence in the world. It is no co-incidence that Afghanistan and Iraq are places where the British have been killing thousands of people in recent years and they are the ones from which most refugees have fled. We have a lot to answer for.

People want to live in peace in their own countries. We can help with that, not by fuelling war through the arms trade and by sending in soldiers, but by being prepared to share our wealth so everyone has enough to eat and a home to live in. And by addressing climate change with real commitment