Aid

Decades of civil war in southern Sudan has have hindered the population's access to clean water and allowed some parasites to persist. But international efforts have made headway on one particular scourge: the guinea worm. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Sudan.

The piece aired on PBS NewsHour April 7, 2010.

Sudan's first multi-party presidential and parliamentary elections in 24 years are set for April 11, but with just days to go, the main opposition presidential candidate has withdrawn from the race, throwing the legitimacy of the election into question.

The elections are mandated under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended two decades of civil war between the primarily Muslim and Arab-speaking north and rebels in the south. Another requirement of the CPA is a referendum in January 2011 in which the south will decide whether to split from the north.

The people of Sudan have two important votes approaching: national elections next month in which they will decide whether President Omar al-Bashir should stay or go, and a referendum in early 2011 in which the south will choose whether to split from the north.

In Ethiopia, where lack of access to water is a significant issue, aid groups have found that local involvement in establishing water wells betters the chances that they will last. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on these community-based initiatives, especially their impact on women.

This piece is part of a reporting collaboration on water issues in east Africa between NewsHour and the Pulitzer Center.

The people of Sou Piste do the same things here, in their new makeshift community, as they did in the places they lived before. As evening falls, girls fetch water, women cook beans and plantains and rice on outdoor fires, and boys use the last moments of light to fly their kites. Many of the 40,000 people living here moved to this old airport runway the night of the earthquake, after their homes were destroyed.

The Afghan army commander motioned the American lieutenant into his office. Lt. Col. Attaullah was 48, with gelled hair, blue-framed eyeglasses and the rigid bearing of a communist general. A Pashtun from Konduz and a veteran of Najibullah’s army in the 1980s, he wore his camouflage uniform buttoned tightly at the neck, displaying the gold braid on his collar to advantage. He shook the American officer’s hand and sent one of his soldiers to bring tea.

In February, NewsHour special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro and producer Nicole See visited a Doctors Without Borders hospital in a remote part of southern Sudan, where patients often walk for miles to get treatment. NewsHour correspondent Larisa Epatko reports on Fred and Nicole's trip.

As presidential elections and a vote on north-south succession approach, Zach Vertin of the International Crisis Group sat down with NewsHour special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro in Sudan to discuss the challenges the country still faces. NewsHour correspondent Larisa Epatko reports on their meeting.

The statue of Neg Mawon sits in the center of Port-au-Prince. It is a symbol of the Haitian people's independence—a sculpture of a black man, his ankles and wrists shackled, though the chains are broken. He is a slave, fighting for his freedom; in his left hand, he holds a conch shell to his lips, blowing to call others to join the revolt.

I went running. Away from the dusty plywood-floored tent where reporters stay, down the paved road that curved along the edge of the base, near where the rockets had been fired in a few nights earlier. I ran west into the setting sun.

While the White House considers whether to send more American troops into Afghanistan, it's also being asked to send in more anthropologists and social scientists.

They're part of an experiment to help U.S. forces understand the place and the people they're dealing with.

Civillian academics are embedded with front-line soldiers to advise on local customs and politics.

It's called "The Human Terrain System" and it began in Iraq two years ago. Not everyone approves. And it's not without dangers. Three of them have been killed in action.

The General Hospital in Port-au-Prince is guarded by American soldiers with dark sunglasses and frighteningly large guns. Most of the buildings are damaged, so the patients lie outside in large white tents—makeshift wards.