Thousands of refugees in eastern Liberia want to know what has happened to their family members, about the state of their villages, and whether it is safe to go home, said an April assessment by Internews, an NGO working to improve information exchange in disasters.
“Rumours spread fast”, Internews director Jacobo Quintanilla told IRIN. “There is a massive information vacuum in a crisis… People often run away in the middle of the night. The first thing they do is tune into the radio to find out what is going on – this need must be properly acknowledged.”
Simple solutions like bicycling through villages using a loudhailer to announce the news could help refugees make informed decisions about their lives.
People who were internally displaced by the violence in Cote d’Ivoire are also left in the dark. Olivier Ziaï, who is sheltering at the Catholic mission in the town of Duékoué, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, told IRIN the information vacuum was just as big there.
For more information: http://irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=92711
Stumble it
Digg it
Tweet this
No Comments, Comment or Ping
Reply to “Fighting rumours with fact”
You must be logged in to post a comment.