Caroline's Activities

Here is a short historical record of just some of the international activities up to January 2017 that Caroline has been doing. Caroline often risks her life to visit some of these places! She constantly looks for those who need a voice and support. We will be updating this text taken from her official website.

1. Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia. Caroline has visited these lands 85 times, many (with CSI and CSW) during the high intensity conflict which raged from 1991-1994 when Azerbaijan attempted ethnic cleansing of the Armenian people from their historic land. Now, HART visits regularly to obtain information on the situation where the people are still vulnerable to further military offensives by Azerbaijan (the most recent serious attacks occurring in April 2106). HART also supports a Rehabilitation Centre in Stepanakert where the visionary director, Vardan Tadevosyan, has created a world-class therapeutic repertoire providing hope and healing for people with disabilities – from new-born babies to elderly patients.
2. South Sudan. HART supports partners suffering in a land devastated by the previous war and, more recently, from a bitter civil war which erupted in 2013. In particular, it is HART’s privilege to provide some resources for Bishop Moses Deng, the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Wau in Bahr-El-Ghazal, who works tirelessly to help his people, promoting health care, agricultural initiatives, education (especially for girls), higher education at St. John's College and a ministry for military chaplains. Bishop Moses has also had to provide emergency food aid for thousands of people who have fled into his Diocese from the war in the Nuba Mountains and civil war in South Sudan. Caroline visited Bishop Moses in January 2017 and has been actively raising funds for the most recent crisis in which thousands of people fled to Wau from renewed fighting and were facing starvation.
3. Sudan. The civilians living in the Blue Nile State and the Nuba Mountains of Southern Kordofan are suffering sustained military offensives by the regime in Khartoum, still headed by President El-Bashir (responsible for the previous war). HART supports courageous local partners who food, medicines and educational supplies to civilians in desperate need, many of whom have died from starvation or disease with no medical care. As there is virtually no media coverage of these dire situations, Caroline visits as regularly as possible to obtain first-hand evidence of Khartoum’s literally genocidal policies and to report these to the international community.
4. Caroline returned to the Nuba Mountains in January 2017 for a historic visit in conjunction with the Mende Nazar Foundation during which a former slave, Mende, returned to her homeland. Mende had been abducted and enslaved during the previous war, endured the horrors of slavery (including rape and other forms of abuse) and was eventually sent to work as a slave in London. She managed to escape and Caroline was one of the people who befriended her. Mende's story is recorded in a book by Damien Lewis entitled 'Slave'. A powerful play was written by Caroline Clegg who subsequently wanted to film Mende's return to her people. This moving story was a primary focus of this visit, alongside obtaining evidence of the continuing suffering of the people in the Nuba Mountains inflicted by the Government of Sudan's military offensives against innocent civilians. Caroline therefore undertook a lengthy climb up a mountain to visit families forced to flee from their homes and live in caves infested with deadly snakes. She met a girl who had survived a cobra bite (many die) and a man who had lost 5 of his children burnt alive when a shell hit their hiding place.
5. Nigeria. The Cristian populations in the northern Sharia States and in Plateau State have suffered sustained persecution in recent years, which has escalated with Boko Haram’s brutal policies and, more recently, attacks by Islamist Fulani herdsmen. Thousands of Christians have been killed, hundreds of churches burnt and countless women and girls abducted into sexual slavery. Caroline visits at least once a year to obtain the evidence for advocacy and, with HART, to support projects including the Christian Institute and a programme promoting interfaith reconciliation and empowerment of Muslim women in Jos; in Bauchi State a clinic as well as a school with Muslim and Christian staff providing education for Muslim and Christian pupils; and a school and in Kano State, where the Christian community suffer systematic discrimination and associated poverty. Here, the Anglican Bishop Idris made the bricks and built the buildings for a school and a clinic and HART assists with funds to pay the teachers and clinical staff. 
6. Caroline most recently visited Nigeria in November 2016, to obtain evidence of recent developments. Although the Nigerian military forces have regained territory from Boko Haram, many IDPs are unable to return home because all means of livelihood have been destroyed and because Boko Haram militants are still a threat. An additional threat has developed relatively recently with militant Fulani. These nomadic cattle herders used to drive their huge herd through the lands of local people, causing some problems but then moving on. More recently, there has been a change: in some places they attack villagers, killing civilians, burning homes and forcing people to flee. The Fulani then occupy the territory and displace the Christian communities.
7. Burma. Caroline has visited war-torn regions of Burma over 30 times, originally with CSW and more recently with HART. Currently, HART partners include the inspirational ‘Dr. Sasa’ whose vision to provide health care in remote hill-tribe regions of Chin State led him to endure an arduous process of education to become a medical doctor and who has now developed a programme of training for 800 Community Health Workers who save the lives of 8 out of 10 people in their villages who would previously have died. HART also supports the highly professional Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) who provide life-saving maternal and child health care for civilians in northern Shan State, still suffering from military offensives and violations of human rights by the Burmese Army. Also in Burma, it is HART’s privilege to provide some funding for another valiant partner, Doh Say, a Karenni civilian who provides health care for his people in dire and dangerous conditions in the jungles in that region.
8. Timor Leste. (East Timor). The people suffered greatly from occupation by Indonesia, including an infamous massacre, before being granted Independence in 2002. The aftermath of the oppression, combined with cultural taboos, has caused widespread childhood malnutrition. HART supports an innovative programme run by Hiam Health, training local villagers to grow crops for nutritious foods ad to prepare organic fertilisers and pesticides. They return to their villages and educate their own communities to grow life-saving produce. More recently, the Government uses the Hiam Health expertise and resources to train personnel to go to a wider range of remote villages with this programme to address the serious problems of child malnutrition. 
9. Northern Uganda. For over 20 years, the notorious rebel army called ‘The Lord’s Resistance Army’ created a reign of terror, with killings, rape and abduction of at least 25,000 children whom they forced to become child soldiers. Caroline and 2 colleagues from HART visited during these very dangerous days and asked the local community in Patongo, one of the places at the ep5icentre of LRA violence, what their priority for help was. They replied ‘Orphans. As everyone has had to flee from their homes in rural areas, they are living in overcrowded camps where 100 people a day may die. There is therefore no-one to look after other people’s orphans.’ So began HART’s support for PAROHINER, a Centre for the care of orphans. When eventually the LRA signed a Peace Agreement with the Uganda Government, the situation became calmer and PAROINHER changed its focus to become a widely acclaimed Centre for holistic care for HIV positive children with an outreach programme to support such children and their families in their own villages.