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NEWS > World Humanitarian Day 2011
World Humanitarian Day 2011
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Linda Mwania (Communications Officer, cbm East Africa) meeting people affected by the 2011 drought in Kenya. Amina (second from left) is deaf, and her mother (holding her youngest child) explains that all her animals have died and the family currently depends on relief food that reaches their village once a month. |
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The 19th of August has been designated as World Humanitarian Day by the United Nations General Assembly to raise public awareness of humanitarian assistance worldwide and the people who risk their lives in order to provide it. |
People helping people
World Humanitarian Day is a global celebration of 'people helping people'. This year, the campaign is about inspiring the spirit of aid work in everyone.
With this general theme in mind, we have gathered some thoughts from people who work for cbm, both in emergencies and development, around the world.
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Why do you do humanitarian work (when you could probably be doing something easier, safer, less time-consuming and more financially rewarding)?
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Describe an average day in your life (if such a thing exists)
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How does your work affect your life - and that of your family?
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Share any specific or general hopes you have for the future of humanitarian work.
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Corinne Bocquet - cbm Communication Officer in Haiti:
Why do you do humanitarian work (when you could probably be doing something easier, safer, less time-consuming and more financially rewarding)?
- I belong to this category of persons who has had a significant experience in the private sector before working in the humanitarian one. My desire for change was not born overnight, but after several years of questioning that may seem quite trivial. But it was crucial to find answers to move forward on a path that suited me more. How to give a meaning to my life? How not to watch it pass but be an actor in it?
While helping others was the definitive answer, it was not easy because I was determined to work only on the field. I am not a doctor or engineer. My entire career has been in the area of communication and few NGOs hire communication professionals in the field. Therefore I had to work hard on how to transfer my skills from one sector to another.
<Read more...> |
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Corinne Bocquet is cbm
Communication Officer in Haiti
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David McAllister - National Director of cbm Ireland:
He chose to show why he works in this field by telling a story...
A story from Africa
He should not have jumped out in front of me like that, it was crazy. Driving on this rocky, bumpy, muddy high mountain forest road in Congo was difficult enough without having to look out for young men jumping out and waving their arms in frantic signals for me to stop.
I stopped of course; I didn’t have much choice on this treacherous road where even the most daring driver would hardly coax this old Land Rover to speeds much higher than a horse’s canter...
I could see he was in a near state of panic - fear and concern all over his face.
<Read more...>
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David McAllister is National
Director of cbm Ireland
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Gonna Rota - Guatemala:
She is a physiotherapist, with a masters in disability studies, who works for cbm in Guatemala, Latin America.
The main motivation in her work as a CBR-Inclusive Development advisor is fighting against discrimination and contributing towards the social inclusion of all persons, including children with disability.
"Discrimination of persons with disability is everywhere"
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Peru November 2010 - We met Elvita, a five year old girl with cretinism. Her mother took her many times to the health centre and no doctor knew what she had. Her mother was advised not to bother too much, since Elvita was ‘not going to live for many years anyway’. The Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) team started to give her remedial medication. When taking remedial medication in time, impairment caused by cretinism is avoidable.
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Peru June 2011 - Elvita improved dramatically... she became a lively happy girl. However, because of being diagnosed five years too late, she probably acquired an intellectual impairment.
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The Netherlands, July 2011 - When walking towards the church where the blind choir director Rinus Rijk was going to direct the church choir, he got harassed by 2 teenage girls 14 years young. They didn’t believe the directions he gave them on request, and stubbed a cigarette out on the cheek of the blind man.
<Read more...> |
Elvita, from Peru, who may have
acquired an intellectual impairment
as a result of a late diagnosis of
cretinism.
Top: November 2010, before taking medication.
Bottom: Six months after taking medication. |
Dr Julian Eaton - Nigeria:
He is a British psychiatrist, and is a mental health advisor for cbm in West Africa.
Why do you do humanitarian work (when you could probably be doing something easier, safer, less time-consuming and more financially rewarding)?
- Humanitarian work is very rewarding in many ways - relationships with people, seeing positive change in people's lives, changing the balance of global injustice just a little.
<Read more...>
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Dr Julian Eaton is a mental health
advisor for cbm in West Africa |
Madhizhagan Mohan - cbm Inclusive Development Officer in South Asia:
Why do you do humanitarian work (when you could probably be doing something easier, safer, less time-consuming and more financially rewarding)?
- Work which is easier, safer, less time-consuming and financially rewarding can be done by anybody and there are more people to do. But on the other side, you need a 'call'. The call to work for our fellow human beings which needs to be honoured at any cost.
<Read more...>
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Madhi (right) with Siyan (centre) and his father. Siyan had acute heart disease and was operated. |
Dr Manfred Mörchen - Cambodia:
Dr Manfred Mörchen is an ophthalmologist and is Medical Director of Takeo Eye Hospital in Cambodia.
Why do you do humanitarian work (when you could probably be doing something easier, safer, less time-consuming and more financially rewarding)?
- It's inspiring and rewarding having the chance to work in an environment like rural Cambodia with a big population of disabled and poor people.
<Read more...>
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Dr Manfred Mörchen (centre) during a consultation at Takeo Eye Hospital, Cambodia. |
Peter Hämmerle - Philippines:
Peter Hämmerle is Technical advisor to the National Federation of Cooperatives of Persons with Disability in Pasig City, Manila, Philippines.
Why do you do humanitarian work (when you could probably be doing something easier, safer, less time-consuming and more financially rewarding)?
- First it started as an adventure. I had always wanted to work abroad. Maybe it is in our family's genes, my grandfather and uncle (father side) had gone to South America, my uncle (mother side) worked and lived many years in the US.
I had joined cbm in 1992 to work in the Philippines. My skills as a 'master carpenter' were very useful in helping people with disabilities find work and succeed in doing it.
The longer I stayed the more I got involved. This was more than a job. Looking back, I think it was a calling. We have a saying in German 'Man thinks and God directs'. This is very much true for my life and my work.
<Read more...>
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Peter Hämmerle with Mayta Banday of the National Federation of Co-operatives of Persons With Disability (NFPWD) after typhoon Ketsana swept through the Philippines in 2009. |
More information
World Humanitarian Day 2011 website
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