Kuwait City – The United Nations (UN) hopes to raise more than US$ 1.5 billion at the Second International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria, to be held this Wednesday (15) in Kuwait City. For the second year in a row, government representatives and humanitarian help organizations are meeting in the Arab country with the aim of raising awareness among the international community and pledge resources for those affected by the Syrian civil conflict, which has been going on for almost three years.

In 2013, the sum raised in the first conference, also held in Kuwait, was of US$ 1.5 billion. “How much are we raising? At least that, but we hope for more,” said to ANBA the spokesperson of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Jens Laerke. “It depends on the generosity of donors,” he added.

The UN has informed that this year it needs US$ 6.5 billion to help 9.3 million Syrians affected by the conflict, among them 2.3 million refugees in neighboring countries and 6.5 million who are homeless inside Syria itself. “We don’t expect to raise all this on Wednesday, but there will be other opportunities,” stated Laerke.

He emphasized, however, that the organizations involved in helping Syrians count on the generosity of donors, mostly governments. “The Gulf countries have been very generous, not only in donations to Syria, but also for other nations, such as Yemen and Palestine, and even places outside the Middle East, such as Haiti,” he declared. Kuwait alone has announced the donation of US$ 300 million in last year’s conference. “We hope they will be generous again,” said the OCHA spokesperson.

The State Minister of Cabinet Affairs of Kuwait, Mohammed Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah, who inaugurated this Monday (13) the conference’s press center at the Jumeirah Messilah Beach hotel, in the Kuwaiti capital city, told journalists that part of the money granted by the country in the 2013 event was used to provide shelter for 70,000 Syrians who have taken refuge in Jordan, US$ 40 million were used to buy food for 1 million refugees during four months and another sum was directed to 83,000 Syrians left without homes inside Syria itself, helped by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), one of the various UN agencies involved in helping those affected by the conflict.

“We are confident that the conference will be a success,” said minister Mohammed. “We are confident that the international community will contribute to provide humanitarian help for Syrians. We shall reach this objective, ‘inchallah’ (God willing),” added the Kuwaiti minister of Information, Salman Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, who also participated at the press center inauguration.

According to Laerke, resources are necessary to meet the basic needs of the affected population, such as food, clean water, medication, vaccination and shelter. “Syria is [currently] going through a harsh winter, and they need adequate homes, with thermal insulation, they need fuel [for heating], blankets and also clothes,” he stated. “There are children who don’t even have shoes,” he alerted.

Last week, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), another two UN agencies that are helping with the Syrian crisis, launched a campaign with the purpose of raising US$ 1 billion for the children affected by the conflict, named “No lost generation”. The agencies have calculated that there are more than 4 million youngsters at risk, of which one million refugees and more than 3 million inside the country.

Minister Mohammed Al-Sabah has informed that 69 countries shall be represented on Wednesday’s conference, as well as 24 international organizations. The event shall be hosted by the emir of Kuwait, Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, and shall be presided by the United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon. Brazil shall be represented at the meeting, which also counts on the participation of the secretary of State for the United States, John Kerry.

The Kuwaiti meeting precedes the Second Syria Peace Conference, scheduled for the January 22 in Montreux, in Switzerland. The first edition took place in June 2012, in Geneva, so this one has been named “Geneva 2”, although it shall take place in another city. The 2012 meeting did not have practical effects on the civil war, but the idea this time is to have representatives from both the Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad regime and the opposition, standing face to face.

Since the conflict started in 2011, after popular manifestations which took place in the wake of the Arab Spring were harshly repressed by the Syrian government, more than 100,000 people have died. This figure, the latest confirmed by the UN, dates to July 2013. Last week, the organization announced that it has stopped counting the dead due to the difficulties in obtaining reliable data from the country.

*Translated by Silvia Lindsey

São Paulo – Last year, the Brazilian photographer Gabriel Chaim saw up close some of the more than four million children that were affected by the internal conflicts in Syria, which started in March 2011. Seeing these children in their own countries and also in the refugee camps, Chaim reveals a bit of the daily lives of those who lost their homes, the right to go to school and have a normal childhood. Part of this work may be seen in the exhibit Zaatari – Children of the War, on show until February 07, in Belem, city in the northeastern Brazilian state of Pará.

 Chaim came to Syria with the help of the NGO Syrian Team for Progress and Prosperity, which helps children victims of the war. He had already covered conflicts in Egypt during the fall of president Mohammed Morsi, in July 2013, but says it was the first time he witnessed a war.

“You are in danger 24 hours a day. Every day you think something is going to happen and you are going to die. Fear is your worst enemy,” says Chaim, about his experience in Syria. The photographer stayed in the country from September to November of last year, following the rebels, but since the beginning of 2012 he has worked registering refugees in the Middle East.

“I didn’t go there to photograph the conflict,” he says about the days he spent in Aleppo. “I went there to photograph the hope that arises from the ruins. I wanted to register the story of people who lost everything,” he explains. Chaim says he would spend the day at the NGO headquarters, “a semi-bombed house”, according to him. “I searched for more factual news and the NGO tried to give me a minimum of safety.” To support himself, he sold his pictures to communication vehicles in Brazil and abroad.

Chaim started taking pictures of refugee camps in the Middle East in the beginning of 2012, for his project Kitchen4life. As well as a photographer, he is also a trained chef, and decided to unite his abilities. “I created Kitchen4life to show how the people living on society’s sidelines eat,” he tells. The focus of his project changed during his journey to Iran, where he met some refugees.

As of then, he started taking pictures in camps in other countries in the region, such as Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Turkey. The Zaatari camp, in Jordan, which houses 120,000 Syrians and after which his exhibit was named, was the most striking for Chaim, because of the friends he made there. Although his father is Lebanese, Chaim speaks little Arabic, but he made friends among the employees of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), who worked in the camp.

 “Children in Syria live the moment. They know they are in danger, and are capable of explaining in details what is death,” states Chaim. “They have lost their innocence and have the responsibilities of adults. They fight for something many people give little thought to, which is freedom,” he says.

Before starting his project with refugees, Chaim, who is 32 years old and was born in the city of Oriximiná, also in the state of Pará, worked for one year in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, taking pictures of luxury restaurants.

Chaim is to go back to Syria next month, to finish a documentary he is making about his work in the region. The exhibit currently in Belem has 25 images of Syrian refugees, both in their country as in refugee camps. After Belem, the exhibit will go to São Paulo and then Rio de Janeiro.

Service
Zaatari – Filhos da Guerra (Zaatari – Children of the War)
Until February 07
Venue: Gotazkaen Estudio
Rua Ó de Almeida, 755, Belém, Pará
Mondays to Fridays, from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm
Free

*Translated by Silvia Lindsey

Tunis – The crude oil reserves that are still productive in Tunisian fields are estimated to contain 450 million barrels, not including the non-conventional deposits of shale gas, informed the Prospect and Production director of the Ministry of Industry of Tunisia, Ridha Bouzouada.

The director added that extraction operations may continue for another 16 years, provided the current production average of 27 million barrels per year is maintained, which is the equivalent to 65,000 barrels per day, and not considering new prospects.

From January to October 2013, national production of crude oil, according to Bouzouada, reached 18.71 million barrels, a decrease by 7.2% over the same period in 2012, even with the production increase in the fields of Asdrubal, close to the city of Sfax, Baraka, in the Hammamet Gulf, and Amani, in Tatouine.

Bouzouada emphasized that, in spite of the prospection and exploitation activities, “new discoveries are few and cannot overcome the natural production regression in the great oil fields.” To illustrate this, the country’s production in 2008 was of 31.7 million barrels, that is, there has been a significant decline in five years.

As well as the natural reduction in the great fields of Borma, in Tatouine, and Ashtar, in the Gabès Gulf, the director said the reasons for the decline in production were stops for maintenance and control in certain wells, and the social movements in the country.

Tunisia, it should be recalled, gave start to the so-called Arab Spring, with the downfall in January 2011 of the then president Zine El Abdine Ben Ali, who had been in power for over two decades.

Tunisia is still going through social and political turbulence. This Friday (10), the president of the country, Mocef Marzouki, asked the new prime-minister, Mehdi Jomaâ, until recently minister of Industry, to form a government, after Ali Larayedh stepped down on Thursday.

The change in command occurs after months of negotiation between local political forces and amidst debates on the new Tunisian constitution. Jomaâ was nominated for the position to lead a government of technocrats until the country holds new elections.

Gas

As for natural gas, Bouzouada informed there are reserves of 81 billion cubic meters, a volume which may be exploited for 20 years, with a production average of 3.6 million cubic meters per year. National gas production reached 2.41 million cubic meters from January to October 2013, an increase by 6% in relation to the same period in 2012.

The director explained that the performance occurred thanks to the production increase in the fields at Asdrubal, close to Sfax, and Adam, in Tatouine. As well as the activities carried out by the national oil company Entreprise Tunisienne d’Activites Petrolieres (Etap), there are 45 active permits and 52 exploitation and production concessions have been signed with 60 companies, of which four Tunisians and the remaining foreign or mixed companies.

Bouzouada also informed that US$ 300 million shall be invested in prospection in 2014.

*Translated by Alexandre Rocha with information from the ANBA Newsroom. Translated to English by Silvia Lindsey.