Five MBA students at Warwick Business School are partnering with the international peace building organisation Cord to help develop their social networking programme.

The five, all from overseas, visited the Leamington based charity to hear first hand of its work with refugees and people affected by violent conflict in Africa and S E Asia. Their assignment will cover the academic year and draw on the students’ business experience in the aviation, banking and manufacturing sectors.

Cord’s Chief Executive Brian Wakley, himself an MBA, said that engaging with the prestigious Business School was an exciting proposition.

‘Communications and the world of new media are vital components of Cord’s operation, and offer huge potential to engage with more people in the work of building peace’ he said. ‘With the complexities of running programmes and offices across three continents and the varied remit of our work, the students have a wide brief to further involve the public which I am sure they will find challenging. Equally we look forward to implementing some of their ideas.’

Nationwide concern is growing in Cambodia after provincial authorities in Odar Meanchey equipped with rifles and guns evicted 214 families, destroying and setting fire to their homes, claiming the land for the Angkor Sugar Company.

The Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC)- a coalition of 21 NGOs- says the actions were a serious breach of human rights which also saw three people arrested, two beaten and injured and a number of the evicted forced to hide in the forest. Some were given shelter in a nearby Pagoda, only to be evicted again and left short of water, food, shelter and medicine.

CHRAC is calling on the authorities to provide social land for the victimised and the poor. In a statement they say the Government has hundreds of thousand of hectares of land to grant to private companies and that Social land concessions should be preserved. The Committee is also lobbying for the release of those arrested.

‘Cord’s team in Cambodia is alarmed at the developments in Odar Meanchey Province, which has left so many families without homes and without hope. In many cases, it is widely reported that even their personal possessions were burned in the fires, as they were not allowed by authorities to retrieve them,’ said Cord’s Regional Director, Noel Matthews.

‘We remain deeply concerned about those villagers who are still in hiding, in Pagodas and in the forests, afraid for their lives as well as for those who are today in prison,’ he added.

Cord remain committed to working with our partners in the grass roots networks and with local and international organisations across Cambodia in seeing the rights of the villagers respected and protected and their freedom restored.

‘Real peace and prosperity can only be achieved in Cambodia where there is justice, freedom and respect for the rights of all sections of society,’ said Noel.

Thousands of vulnerable Sudanese refugees from Darfur, including orphans and children separated from their parents, have been helped by a substantial grant from the Isle of Man Overseas Aid Commission.

The emergency support has enabled Cord to directly assist youngsters who lost their families in the conflict or in their flight to seek sanctuary in neighbouring Chad. Working in Gaga and Farchana camps- where well over half the population are under the age of 18 – Cord has found foster families for the children, who continue to experience trauma because of the atrocities they witnessed back in their homeland.

A programme of continuing support is underway for them and for families where the eldest child has taken on the role of parent, while disabled children have been given wheelchairs so they can become more independent.

The package of assistance also included help for the elderly and chronically ill. Some two thousand people have received basic essentials including blankets, cooking kits, jerry cans and mats, while others saw World Food Programme food rations delivered to their tent or shelter from the distribution centres. Meanwhile 640 newly born babies have been officially registered, provided with birth certificates and their mothers given baby kits of clothing, soap and towels. Similarly bereaved families were provided with shroud fabric to bury their dead with dignity.

The refugee camp communities are being encouraged to actively participate in this care and assistance of their most vulnerable, an ongoing programme of empowerment that the Commission funding has also made possible.

Monthly meetings of the 50 strong child welfare committees have meant that child protection issues in both camps are thoroughly discussed and ideas shared; a practice which will continue as an intrinsic part of Cord’s expanding Schools programme via the parent teachers’ associations and strategy groups. The problem of retaining girls in the classroom is a particular concern being addressed. Meanwhile a new vocational training centre being built in Gaga Camp will provide literacy, training and start up materials for fledgling small businesses. Women and the disabled are being specifically helped to find ways of supporting themselves.

’We are working alongside some of the world’s most marginalised people – many of them young children - and who continue to endure great hardship and trauma as a result of the Darfur crisis,’ said Cord Chief Executive Brian Wakley .’ This aid from the people of the Isle of Man has provided a humanitarian lifeline for those worst hit by the ongoing tragedy,’ he added.

Cord has been in Chad since the conflict first erupted in 2004, longer than any other UK non governmental agency. Our programme operates in four camps near the eastern border with a total population of 85,000 refugees who, in the absence of any peace acCord, can see no hope of returning home in the foreseeable future.