Kyrgyzstan

Tyler Lewis is an intern at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. This is her first post on Field Notes.
Could you find Kyrgyzstan on an unlabeled map? Could you differentiate it from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan or Kazakhstan? I for one--when first hearing that ethnic fighting had claimed hundreds of lives and displaced nearly 400,000 people there --couldn't even picture the country in my head.

The violence in Kyrgyzstan last month sparked an exodus of refugees into neighbouring Uzbekistan. But a smaller group of ethnic Kyrgyz fled in the opposite direction in fear of retaliation on the other side of the border. WFP is helping both communities cope in the aftermath.

As tensions ease in southern Kyrgyzstan after the outburst of ethnic violence in June, refugees from the city of Osh have largely returned. Many, however, have little to come home to, as their houses and shops were destroyed in the fighting. WFP is helping them cope by making sure they have enough to eat.

Many of the families which fled southern Kyrgyzstan during the recent conflict, crossing the border into Uzbekistan, are now returning. WFP's Abeer Etefa met the members of one of these families as they began the journey from the border to the city of Osh. With their home destroyed and uncertain weeks ahead, WFP's assistance will be vital.

As barricades come down in the southern Kyrgyzstan city of Osh, WFP is streaming food to residents whose lives have been shattered by ethnic conflict. WFP Deputy Director Amir Abdulla visited the city on Thursday to get a firsthand look at the relief effort’s progress.

WFP is accelerating the delivery of food assistance for families displaced by violence in Kyrgyzstan. At the same time, the agency is opening a humanitarian hub in the southern city of Osh to act as a staging post, receiving assistance for the whole humanitarian community.

Dalia Mansour is an IT specialist on her way to Uzbekistan where she'll join the WFP operation to assist people fleeing from the violence in southern Kyrgyzstan. Her first task will be to set up the communications network that WFP needs to get emergency food assistance to those who need it.

© AP Photo / Faruk Akkan
An ethnic Uzbek refugee holds a boy in a newly set-up refugee camp near the eastern Uzbek city of Andijon while waiting to cross the border into Uzbekistan, Monday, June 14, 2010.

WFP has launched an emergency operation to feed people affected by the humanitarian crisis in Kyrgyzstan, while calling on all sides to allow the delivery of food and medical supplies, particularly to the embattled city of Osh near the border with Uzbekistan.

Kristi Burnham is the Director of Community and Volunteer Partnerships at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.
If you haven't heard what has been going over the past week in Kyrgyzstan, you're probably not alone. Nicholas D. Kristof posted on Facebook last Wednesday : "Kyrgyzstan doesn't make the news much, nor does most of Central Asia."