There are a number of types of interventions involved in the assistance programme for refugees. In southern Sudan, there were also two indigenous voluntary agencies providing assistance and at one time an abortive attempt was made by refugees to organize their own humanitarian group. I observed other types of outsiders who have an impact on refugee assistance programmes. Various foreign delegations occasionally visit. For example, when Ambassador Douglas, an advisor to President Reagan, visited Yei River District, he saw wheelbarrows being used to transport the very ill to the clinic in one settlement.
Journalists also play a very important role.
International power politics influence the extent and the manner in which an emergency is covered. One of the effects of media publicity is to attract more international agencies as well as more financial aid to an area, but another is the way journalists contribute to the stereotyping of refugees as helpless. However, both host governments and international agencies are wary of the press. Depending on the situation and their vested interests at a particular time, they may concoct ways of keeping journalists out, or of limiting their access to information. Alternatively they may actively encourage and facilitate press coverage of an incident.