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| Sure Start centres fail to help neediest families Despite extra funding, a "low level" of outreach work means parents and children in the poorest areas are not getting the services they needThe government's Sure Start children's centres are still struggling to reach the disadvantaged families they are meant to help, a government spending watchdog has found.The National Audit Office (NAO) said that despite extra funding intended to help the centres reach out to the neediest parents and children, a "low level" of such work was taking place.Ministers agreed to spend an extra £79m a year on hiring outreach workers after a 2006 NAO study found that fewer than a third of the centres – which provide a one-stop range of services for pre-school children and their families – were identifying and supporting the neediest families.The money was supposed to pay for two extra workers at every Sure Start centre in the poorest areas. But the NAO found that in the most disadvantaged 30% of communities, staff spent just 38 hours a week on outreach work.The NAO said that while the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) believed that figure might be an underestimate, "increased funding for outreach workers appears not to have led to the increase in numbers of outreach workers desired by the department".The NAO's analysis – presented to the influential Children, Schools and Families select committee, which is conducting an inquiry into Sure Start – found that, as in 2006, many of the centres it surveyed could not provide basic data on their expenditure and work, making it hard for researchers to evaluate the scheme's value for money.There were "wide variations" in the cost of providing services across England, it said. "Together with other evidence, this suggests there is still scope for improving cost-effectiveness."Questioned by MPs at the committee today, the children's minster, Dawn Primarolo, was unable to give a figure for the proportion of disadvantaged children being reached by the centres. Over half of the more than 3,000 centres were in disadvantaged areas, she said.The Conservative leader, David Cameron, said this week that under a Tory government Sure Start resources would be targeted at the most deprived families.Liz Railton, the chief executive of Together for Children, which works with the government on running the children's centres, said the importance of making sure poorer families were using the services had been stressed to local authorities. But she could not guarantee they would all be able to give information on the numbers attending."The majority of local authorities take that very seriously," she said. "It is something that has been pressed very, very hard."Primarolo said: "Sure Start has been instrumental in helping families give their children the best start in life. But for many this is still a relatively new way of working."Our ongoing communications campaign is raising awareness of children's centres, so that families know about their local children's centre and the services it provides, and outreach workers are playing an important role in ensuring children's centres reach the most vulnerable families."Early years educationParentsChildrenSocial careRachel Williamsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Haiti earthquake: 10,000 US soldiers due as violence on the streets intensifies Around 10,000 American soldiers are due to arrive in Haiti to restore order to the streets as desperate earthquake survivors resort to looting and violence while aid struggles to reach them. telegraph.co.uk |
How I fought to survive Guantánamo For nearly six years, British resident Omar Deghayes was imprisoned in Guantánamo and subjected to such brutal torture that he lost the sight in one eye. But far from being broken, he fought back to retain his dignity and his sanityIt is not hot stabbing pain that Omar Deghayes remembers from the day a Guantánamo guard blinded him, but the cool senÂsation of fingers being stabbed deep into his eyeballs. He had joined other prisoners in protesting against a new humiliation – inmates Âbeing forced to take off their trousers and walk round in their pants – and a group of guards had entered his cell to punish him. He was held down and bound with chains."I didn't realise what was going on until the guy had pushed his fingers Âinside my eyes and I could feel the coldness of his fingers. Then I realised he was trying to gouge out my eyes," Deghayes says. He wanted to scream in agony, but was determined not to give his torturers the satisfaction. Then the officer standing over him instructed the eye-stabber to push harder. "When he pulled his hands out, I remember I couldn't see anything – I'd lost sight completely in both eyes." Deghayes was dumped in a cell, fluid streaming from his eyes.The sight in his left eye returned over the following days, but he is still blind in his right eye. He also has a crooked nose (from being punched by the guards, he says) and a scar across his forefinger (slammed in a prison door), but otherwise this resident of Saltdean, near Brighton, appears Ârelatively Âunscarred from the more than five years he spent locked in Guantánamo Bay. Two years after his release, he speaks softly and calmly; he has the unlined skin and thick hair of a man younger than his 40 years; he has just remarried and has, for the first time in his life, a firm feeling that his home is on the clifftops of East Sussex.Deghayes must, however, live with the darkness of Guantánamo for the rest of his days. There are reminders everywhere, from the beautiful picture of Saltdean that was painted for him while he was incarcerated, to the fact that Guantánamo Âremains open 12 months after Barack Obama vowed to close it within a year.There are still around 200 prisoners left in the detention camp, many of whom have been there for eight years. Of the 800 freed, only one has been found guilty of any crime and he was convicted by a dubious military commission, a verdict that is likely to be overturned. Deghayes, too, does not want to forget. He says there is so much still to be Âexposed about the Âconditions there, and about British Âcollusion in the Âextraordinary rendition and torture of men such as him in the months following the American-led Âinvasion of Afghanistan in 2001.Deghayes, one of five children of a prominent Libyan lawyer, first came to Saltdean from Tripoli aged five, to learn English with his brothers and Âsisters on their summer holidays. He would return and stay with British families every summer. Then, in 1980, his father, an opponent of the increasingly totalitarian Gaddafi, was taken away by the authorities. Three days later, Deghayes' uncle was told to Âcollect his body from the morgue. ÂHarassed and increasingly fearful for their safety, Deghayes' mother sought asylum for her family in Britain. They settled in the place they knew best, Saltdean, in a large white house with fine views over the sea. More than two decades on, the family still lives there.After a secular upbringing in ÂSaltdean, Deghayes became a practising Muslim while at university in ÂWolverhampton, where he graduated in law. When he finished studying to become a solicitor, he had a "longing" to return to Libya but couldn't because of his family name and opposition to Gaddafi, so he left for a round-the-world trip to Âexperience Arabic cultures and visit university friends. He enjoyed ÂPakistan's mixture of west and east, and was then tempted into a trip to ÂAfghanistan: he saw business opporÂtunities and the chance to use his Âlanguages (Farsi, Arabic and English) and legal training (understanding both western and Sharia law) to help Âimport-export companies.He fell in love with the country and an Afghani woman; they married and had a son. "I liked the country – such beautiful rivers and different terrains. The people were difficult to get to know at first, but if they knew you and liked you, they'd open their hearts and houses to you," he says. Afghanistan, it seems, triggered many ambitious dreams: he says he helped set up a school in Kabul, assisted NGOs, Âexperimented with an agricultural Âsocial enterprise and exported apples to Peshawar. "I was generating income for myself but I had more ambition than that – to establish myself as a Âlawyer," he says. "Things were really good. Then this war broke out and Âeverything was shattered."Fearing for his new family's safety, he paid people-smugglers to get them all back to Pakistan in early 2002 after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. He hoped his mother would take his wife and child back to England, while he planned to return to Afghanistan and continue his NGO and legal work. "I still thought I had nothing to fear. Even if there was an invasion, there was nothing I had been doing that was illegal."They rented a house in Lahore, "far away from the war atmosphere". But then the Americans began paying large amounts of money to find Arabs who had been in Afghanistan. Suddenly, he was lucrative bounty for the Pakistani authorities. "The atmosphere changed completely. Nice Pakistan turned into a trap," he says. One day, their house was surrounded by armed police. He was seized, but not taken to a Ânormal police station. Instead he was driven, fast and under heavily armed guard, between secure rooms in hotels and villas. A Kafkaesque nightmare had begun.Deghayes says he was beaten and Âinterrogated first by Pakistani officials. He thinks the Americans and the ÂLibyans competed to "buy" him from the Pakistanis, and it appears the Americans won: when he was moved from Lahore to Islamabad, a man Âintroduced himself as the head of the CIA's Libyan section. Taken between hotels by armed guards, Deghayes Âbelieves he saw a man who is now listed as a disappeared prisoner: an Italian Moroccan. "I remember seeing him; he was with me in the same car in Islamabad. He came out crying from the meeting, scared; he was saying, 'No, don't do this to me.'"Deghayes also describes meeting a British interrogator when he met the CIA section head for the second time. "I was facing the British man, who introduced himself as Andrew. He spoke in an obvious British accent." According to Deghayes, Andrew said he was from the intelligence services and wanted to question him."I was really annoyed and said, 'You shouldn't do this, you're helping these people – I'm kidnapped, abducted against my will. Your job is to get me out of here. I'm British and if I go back to England, I will take you to court for what you are doing now.' Andrew was a little bit scared, but he looked at me and said, 'What case would you bring against me?' I had nothing in my mind. He said, 'Listen, if you answer my questions and co-operate with me, I will do my best. I will get you out of there.'"Deghayes was shown an Âalbum of 100 photographs of supposed terrorists. He says he did not recognise anyone. One morning, he was tied, bound and blindfolded and taken to an airport. The "thin black bag" was removed from his head: he was standing in front of a mirror, guarded by two US soldiers. They tied another bag over his head, which "felt worse than the first bag – it suffocated me." It smelt "like socks or cheese," he says. "This was an indiÂcation of the new regime – there were even harder times coming up."Inside the plane, it was mayhem: his feet and hands bound together and covered in bags, Deghayes was bundled on top of others in the hold. "People were crying. People were throwing up. Some people were suffocating, and there was a kick here and a kick there: 'Get your head down, you bastard!' Things like that. Then the plane took off and you could smell [the guards] drinking spirits."They landed in what he later Ârealised was Bagram military air base. Here, Deghayes' clothes were taken away and he was given two pieces of blue uniform. He was not allowed to speak to fellow inmates, and was bound to barbed wire before, he says, being beaten and made to suffer "all sorts of humiliation". He spent several months there. "There were no rules in Bagram; people just went in and kicked people if they didn't like them."He says he did not eat for more than 50 days. "I was really sick; I became a skeleton. I couldn't walk any more. I lost my mind – I was really scared for my mental safety. I tried to eat but I threw up. I started to hear voices in my head because of the hunger. People would say something and I could not understand what they were saying. You hear shouts and you're speaking to yourself inside your head. I started to become really scared because I thought I was losing my brains and Âgoing crazy."While he was in Bagram, he was again interrogated several times by Âofficials he believes were from Britain. "They felt I was lying to them. I said to them I studied in ÂHolborn, London. They said, 'Which train did you take to get there?' They didn't believe anything," he says. "They weren't free to do what they liked; the Americans were running the show." When he said he was too sick to speak, they called him "a bandit".His British interrogators "came up with lots of Âstupid things" – suggesting the scubaÂdiving lessons he had taken in the shabby lido in Saltdean, within yards of his family home, were terrorist training. "The Americans took that up in Guantánamo. It was a big headache. They showed me books of military Âscubadiving and ships and mines and they said, 'Which ones did you see?'" The British also accused him of teaching people to fight in terrorist training camps in Chechnya, and claimed they had secret video evidence.Deghayes had never been to ÂChechnya, and thought all these allegations Âlaughable. Only later did he discover through Clive Stafford Smith, director of the human rights charity Reprieve, that his apparent appearance in an ÂIslamic terrorist training video in Chechnya was the crucial evidence in a flimsy case against him. The Âauthorities refused to give Stafford Smith, who campaigned for Guantánamo detainees, a copy of this videotape, but he eventually obtained one through the BBC.It was, says the Reprieve director, an Âobvious case of mistaken identity: the person depicted lacked Deghayes' small childhood scar on his face. ÂStafford Smith was able to show that the videotape was of a completely different Âperson, actually a Chechnyan rebel called Abu Walid, who was dead. "This was typical of the whole Guantánamo experience," says Stafford Smith. "They said they had evidence and they wouldn't let you see it. Then when you did, it was incorrect."After two months in Bagram, Deghayes was flown to Guantánamo in autumn 2002. There, prisoners were treated brutally. According to Deghayes, when guards physically subdued them by tying them down, they would "do actions to pretend as if they are raping you. They put you down on your stomach. It was really horrible, all sexual and psychological stuff." On other occasions, he says, guards would hold a prisoner's head and "bang it on the floor".Deghayes developed a personal Âpolicy of resistance. Guards would Âtypically arrive at a prisoner's cell and spray pepper and other chemicals through the "bean-hole", the hatch in the door. While most prisoners cowered at the back of their cell, Deghayes says he would grab the guards' hands and attack them. He fought back, as viciously as he could, trying to take the fights with guards out of the privacy of his cell and into the corridors."It was chaos; they would fall on top of each other and it was embarrassing [for them]. They were wearing all this heavy stuff [body armour] which didn't help either," he says. Some guards Âbecame afraid of going into his cell. Most, he says, were Puerto Rican and were not driven by the patriotism of the "war on terror". They did not want to get hurt for their meagre wages.Deghayes did not realise how badly his eye had been beaten until a year Âafter the incident, when he looked in a mirror for the first time in four years. He accepts his resistance caused him more physical pain, but believes it Âsubsequently helped him. In the camp, he was less fearful."I was targeted more, but I was also relaxed compared with others who didn't do that. It was really scary for [the guards] to come into my cell," he says. "Being humiliated by getting beaten up is better than giving your own trousers out. If I'd done those things, I would've been really bitter now. I'm probably less bitter than Âanyone else because I know I gave them a really hard time. If I had given in, and all this was bottled up, I would have been like I see them [other ex-prisoners] – really bitter, full of hatred."Deghayes says his suffering made his faith stronger; it helped him Âsurvive. "We knew there's a Muslim [God] Âbehind things, there's a hereafter, our patience and hardships will be Ârewarded and the pain has to end sometime. Our religion teaches these things – the good always prevails and the bad is only temporary; the patience of Job, the patience of Moses. All these teachings make a difference." Praying five times a day delivered Âtranscendence, removing him from the material world of bodily suffering. "My body and physical being can be chained, can be tarnished, can be beaten, can be raped," he says now, "but not the spiritual: that is something that nobody can bind down. The spirit is what makes us who we are."As a campaign to free him gained momentum back in Brighton, Deghayes languished in Guantánamo for nearly six years. He was never charged or convicted of anything, by any authority. "And never been apologised to either," he adds. Finally, in August 2007, the British government requested the Ârelease of Deghayes and four other Âdetainees who were legal British Âresidents. In the month before his Ârelease in December 2007, he says, he was deliberately fed well so he would not emerge looking gaunt and half-starved. "For one month we were Âfattened up with milk shakes, Âchocolates and really good cakes."When he returned to his family in ÂSaltdean, he was happy but also disÂorientated. "You know if you are in a forest or walking on the moon, you can't tell what is what. I was like this when I came out," Deghayes says. He was stunned by some of the changes in ÂBritain. "To my shock, when I came out from prison the whole country had changed – the surveillance, the Islamophobia, the control orders, secret Âevidence, and people being under Âcurfews not being able to leave the house." His neighbourhood also Âappeared to have altered: "We never had thugs and mobs in the street Âbefore, and kids didn't go binge-drinking or stealing. When I came back, these were some of the changes that I had to adjust to," he says.While he is very appreciative of the support he had in Brighton, after he was freed his family was targeted by racist teenagers who bullied his Ânephews and threw stones and bottles at their house for months. This stopped, abruptly, after a community meeting and media coverage led the police, rather belatedly, to install a video camera in the window of their home.His imprisonment also caused his marriage to break down. His wife wrote to him in prison but her letters were never delivered; nor were his to her. "It's cruel, isn't it? These were just Ânormal letters between husband and wife." Both believed they had abandoned each other, and they divorced. She now lives with her family in ÂAfghanistan. His son, Sulaiman, who is now eight, is staying with Deghayes' mother in the Emirates. They hope eventually to bring him to Britain and give him a western education.Two years after he was released, Deghayes remarried in ÂDecember and is now busy buying furniture for a new place in Brighton. "Brighton is such a nice city. You can just walk by the sea, and the fresh air comes across. It Âreminds me of Tripoli. ÂBefore, I used to long for Tripoli; now, only recently, I have started to prefer Brighton. Maybe when you are younger you want to go back to dreams, and when you get to 40 you start to think, this is nicer, this is really what I like."Deghayes now works with ÂReprieve and other survivors of Guantánamo on legal challenges, Âincluding a civil case being brought against the Home Office with help from Gareth Peirce, the human rights lawyer. Deghayes hopes there will be a public inquiry into Guantánamo to bring those to account who were Âinvolved in his interrogation. Financial damages are not, he says, his Âmotivation. "Even if I get damages, I will give them to Âcharity. The court is an opportunity to embarrass and Âexpose those who committed these crimes."While Reprieve campaigned to get Deghayes released, Stafford Smith Âexplains how Deghayes "was a Âtremendously helpful ally in Guantánamo because he was fluent in English and he had a bit of legal training". Stafford Smith brought him legal textbooks but they were censored as a "threat" to national security, and he says he worried for Deghayes' safety during his incarceration. "If it had been me, I would have taken the course of quieter resistance. I was always afraid for Omar, that he would get himself beaten up. I was concerned for him Âbecause he was constantly being beaten up by the guards, but there's nothing you can do to stop Omar loudly saying what is just and right."Stafford Smith believes Deghayes has fared better than many veterans of Guantánamo since his release because he had the support of his family, an Âeducation – and because he has taken a very positive approach to his experiences. "He's not just sat back and taken it; he's tried to do something positive. Omar works a lot with us to try to help other prisoners who are still in Guantánamo. He's also always been up for a good argument or a good Âdebate."Deghayes appears remarkably calm; but his brother, Abubaker, says he has noticed signs of trauma. "His memory is not as good as it was. He forgets to switch off lights. If he opens a window, it stays open. He stays up at night a lot, thinking." Abubaker is not surprised his brother struggles to sleep. "Imagine the lights are on for six years." Has Deghayes changed as a person? "A lot of the things Omar had in his character seem to have deepened, like rebellion and resistance and not accepting oppression. I think they became more rooted in him rather than being beaten out of him."But isn't he ever tempted to retreat to a quiet place, start his own business, and Ârenounce the Âhassles of political campaigning? "I don't want that life," Deghayes says firmly. "I never Âintended to live like that before imprisonment, and nor do I intend that after imprisonment. I would not be true to Âmyself if I did."Life is worth more. It's good to be a number in society rather than a zero. There are many zeros around but every Âhuman is Âworthy of being a number, and I hope I will be something of a change for the good, rather than for harm and wars. I hope so. I really hope so."Guantánamo BayOmar DeghayesHuman rightsTortureAfghanistanIslamLibyaPatrick Barkhamguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Back with back-catalogue: Download festival stars AC/DC Veteran rockers make fourth appearance at hard rock and metal festival also featuring Motörhead and MegadethAC/DC will headline the Download rock and heavy metal festival, organisers have announced. The veteran Australian rock band will appear for the fourth time at the event, which takes place at Donington Park in Derby from 11-13 June. They played in 1981 at the second Monsters of Rock festival, which was Download's predecessor, followed by performances in 1984 and 1991.Download, which books only rock and metal acts and caters for the moshing masses, will increase its capacity this year, making it the biggest UK festival after Glastonbury. Helping to celebrate its 30th year will be Them Crooked Vultures, Motörhead and Megadeth, as well as Stone Temple Pilots performing their first UK show since they reunited in 2008.Festival co-founders Maurice Jones and Paul Loasby originally created a day-long summer festival dedicated to rock and heavy metal bands in 1980, and it remains the only major British festival dedicated to hard rock. Loasby said this year's celebration would be a fitting tribute to Jones, who died last year."Download 2010 will be one for the history books. It will see the return of the world's greatest rock band to the most legendary and spiritual home of rock," he said."We have been pushing for this moment for many years, but for this to become reality alongside the likes of Them Crooked Vultures, Motörhead and Megadeth is the best 30th anniversary of the site we could have dreamed of."AC/DCFestivalsAlexandra Toppingguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Man creates 'keepy-uppy' record A "football freestyler" breaks a world record by juggling a football 30 miles across London without it touching the ground. news.bbc.co.uk |