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Patricia is the new owner of a chicken-rearing business in Frontino (Colombia) that allows her to support herself financially. Patricia has a disability that used to prevent her from working. But thanks to a project run by a local organization called Corfrodis, in partnership with Handicap International, for the first time in her life, she earns her own income. And has confidence in herself.

On 24 April, the Handicap International team in Lebanon restored two plots of cleared land to villagers from Toula, in the district of Batroun as part of a demining project launched 20 months earlier.

More than 60,000 sq.m. of land were manually cleared by deminers, who advanced slowly, metre by metre, to avoid exposing themselves to danger in the mountainous terrain of North Lebanon where anti-personnel mines and explosive remnants of war dating from the civil war have posed a threat to the local population for more than 30 years.

Following the explosion of a weapons dump in Brazzaville on Sunday March 4, munitions and grenades were blown several miles across a densely populated civilian area. The accident claimed more than 200 lives and caused more than 1,300 injuries. Handicap International has set up mobile teams to visit the injured and the most vulnerable populations living with host families or in temporary camps. Sophie Domenjoud, an occupational therapist tasked with coordinating aid for people affected by the explosions, provided this update on April 22, 2012.

30th April 2012, East Timor

Handicap International has launched a new project in East Timor, where it aims to enhance the skills of people working in the disability sector. Catherine Gillet, director of the East Timor programme, tells us more.

“The needs here are very basic,” explains Catherine Gillet, programme director in Indonesia and, since 2012, Timor-Leste. “People with disabilities, particularly girls and women, are often the victims of discrimination and violence.”

Mohamed is a 13-year-old boy from Benghazi, Libya. He has a brother and three sisters. On Monday March 21, 2011, Mohamed was playing football with his friend in front of his apartment block when he saw a shiny golden metal object next to a tree. On his way up to his family's apartment, Mohamed started hitting it against the wall. The object was a submunition. It exploded and fragments were scattered everywhere. He was hit in the hand and face, and lost several fingers.

Alain was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After managing Handicap International’s inclusive education project for nearly three years, from 2008 to 2011, Alain now works as an operational project coordinator in the DRC. Here, he recalls his experiences and talks about the organisation’s work in aid of children with disabilities.

Nzuzi ne peut pas marcher. Mais ses parents se sont battus pour qu’elle puisse aller à l’école, faire des études. Aujourd’hui, Nzuzi est avocate et c’est elle qui soutient sa famille. Une belle histoire ? Oui ! Mais que les responsables du projet d’éducation inclusive à Kinshasa voudraient voir plus souvent devenir réalité. Car Nzuzi est en réalité l’héroïne d’une bande dessinée réalisée en R.D. Congo pour sensibiliser les enfants - et leurs parents - à la question de l’intégration des enfants handicapés.

Handicap International's emergency team, present on Sumatra Island since the violent tsunami in 2004, continues to evaluate the impact of Wednesday's earthquake in Banda Aceh. The damage is minimal, but there is a possible group of new Internally Displaced Persons, who are afraid to return home due to past trauma from the 2004 tsunami.

On April 11, 2012, at 3.38 PM local time, an earthquake measuring 8.5 on the Richter Scale hit off the west coast of Sumatra Island. After the earthquake, a tsunami warning was issued and later lifted lifted.

The political instability and security situation in Mali has worsened the food crisis impacting the Sahel region. A military coup in Mali and advances made by armed groups in the north of the country have made the population even more vulnerable.

“We are extremely concerned about current events in the country,” explains Grégory Doucet, who is in charge of Handicap International's programs in West Africa. “Since March 22, the situation has worsened for populations which already had difficulties accessing food, which has become a rare and expensive commodity."