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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 201
3 - 9 November 2008


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Polio drive misses 120,000 children
AFGHANISTAN: Beggars will be arrested
AFGHANISTAN: Call for international aid to avert livestock crisis
BANGLADESH: Rohingya refugee camps improved
INDONESIA: Mixed progress on MDGs
MYANMAR: Agencies warn of continuing recovery challenges
MYANMAR: Teachers and pupils struggle in temporary schools
NEPAL: IDPs call for urgent government action
PAKISTAN: Education key to preventing fistula
PAKISTAN: Housing a priority need in quake-hit areas
PAPUA NEW GUINEA: HIV/AIDS numbers increasing
SRI LANKA: Fourth WFP convoy travels to Tiger-held areas
VIETNAM: Dozens killed by flooding
VIETNAM: Slow recovery from floods


AFGHANISTAN: Polio drive misses 120,000 children

Tens of thousands of children - mostly in rural parts of the southern 
provinces of Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan - have missed out on polio 
immunisation due to insecurity and threats to health workers, the Public 
Health Ministry (MoPH) has said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81255


AFGHANISTAN: Beggars will be arrested

A resolution by the ministers' council - chaired by Afghan President 
Hamid Karzai - has outlawed street begging and instructed the Interior 
Ministry to arrest beggars and send them to orphanages and care homes 
run by the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS).

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81298


AFGHANISTAN: Call for international aid to avert livestock crisis

Hundreds of thousands of livestock could be lost in Afghanistan in the 
next six months unless aid agencies urgently provide animal feed, 
vaccines and water, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and 
Irrigation (MAIL) has warned.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81322


BANGLADESH: Rohingya refugee camps improved

Conditions for thousands of Rohingya refugees at two government-run 
camps have improved, thanks largely to policy changes from the 
authorities in the past two years, aid workers say.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81353


INDONESIA: Mixed progress on MDGs

Indonesia is on track to achieve the goal of halving the number of 
citizens living in abject poverty and hunger by 2015, a joint 
government-UN report, Let's Speak Out for MDGs, stated.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81307


MYANMAR: Agencies warn of continuing recovery challenges

Nearly half of a US$484 million July appeal by 13 UN organisations and 
23 NGOs for relief and recovery efforts in Myanmar remains unfunded.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81256


MYANMAR: Teachers and pupils struggle in temporary schools

Of the 4,000 schools damaged or destroyed when Cyclone Nargis hit the 
Ayeyarwady Delta in May, almost half have been restored.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81328


NEPAL: IDPs call for urgent government action

Thousands of families displaced by the armed conflict between the 
Maoists and the government from 1996 to 2006 have called for immediate 
humanitarian intervention to relieve their plight.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81302


PAKISTAN: Education key to preventing fistula

Eighteen-year-old Razia Bibi was very pale and virtually blind after 
enduring the physical and emotional pain of an 18-hour-long obstructed 
labour leading to the birth of a stillborn baby.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81262


PAKISTAN: Housing a priority need in quake-hit areas

Dildad Khan, 35, is deeply worried. "I am trying to find someone to give 
me a loan, so I can immediately start re-building my house. It will 
start snowing in Ziarat before long, perhaps within weeks, and I must 
have shelter for my aged parents and my children," the father of four 
told IRIN. His elderly father is already suffering from a bad cough and 
fever.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81282


PAPUA NEW GUINEA: HIV/AIDS numbers increasing

The number of people living with HIV in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is 
rising, not just in urban areas but more so in rural areas, a new report 
has found.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81345


SRI LANKA: Fourth WFP convoy travels to Tiger-held areas

The fourth food convoy since the relocation of UN and other 
international agencies in mid-September travelled to areas under the 
control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the north on 3 
November, officials said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81299


VIETNAM: Dozens killed by flooding

Days of heavy rains have paralysed parts of northern Vietnam, leaving at 
least 44 people dead and 100,000 homes under water. In Hanoi, 19 people 
died after lakes overflowed and streets turned into rivers.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81253


VIETNAM: Slow recovery from floods

Flood waters have begun to recede but parts of northern Vietnam, 
including neighbourhoods in Hanoi, remain under water after nearly a 
week of rains triggered some of the heaviest flooding in a generation.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81354


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