aid workers pay ultimate price

BY DOROTHY HENDERSON, Western Australian-BASED MEDIA STRINGER

Every day, and at any given time, there are people all over the world sacrificing their own comfort, safety and even lives to help others. They are humanitarians. This week is a week intended to provoke reflection on what that means, with World Humanitarian Day on August 19 marking the sacrifices and achievements of those who take service to the next level.

The date is particularly significant.

According to the World Humanitarian Day website it marks the day in 2003 when a bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad killed 22 humanitarian aid workers, including the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Five years after that event, the General Assembly adopted a resolution designating 19 August as World Humanitarian Day.

Each year, it focuses on a theme, bringing together partners from across the humanitarian system to advocate for the survival, well-being, and dignity of people affected by crises, and for the safety and security of aid workers.

While volunteering is something we may all be involved in, and without it I wonder how our society would get by, being a humanitarian is a specific form of “helping out.”

In 2015, Mercy Corps asked its staff “what being a humanitarian” meant to them. The following was the resulting definition from those who are what they define:

“Being a humanitarian means helping people who are suffering and saving lives any time any place in the world. And so humanitarian work requires being responsible, conscious of the circumstances of other people’s lives, and helping them on the basis of need, without discrimination.”

Based on that definition, it is possible that some of us are not the humanitarians we think we are.

As a nation, we were happy to accept the overwhelming desire of others to help us tackle the impact of life-threatening fires, with international organisations like the Red Cross, and even World Vision among those funnelling offers over assistance from overseas during the summer of fires that brought Australia to its knees.

But on an individual basis, our desire to help others may not be so free of discrimination. One only has to look at the Facebook posts condemning our Federal Government for investing in overseas aid and development programs to see that is true…especially when we have needs at home.

However, the old saying “charity begins at home” is one that holds true, but not in the way it is so often used.

As Australian psychologist, social researcher, and author Hugh MacKay has pointed out, there is a tendency to use the proverb as a way of justifying not extending kindness beyond our back door.

In an interview in 2013, he told the ABC’s Gaye Pattison that respecting others could be ignored if people were swept up in the notion that “happiness is a birthright and wealth is the key to a good life."

He pointed out that living a good life was intricately entwined with generosity and selflessness…and his discussion included the misinterpretation of a proverb intended to advise that charity was an act that should be learned in the home, so that it could be carried out further afield.

He said that “when people say 'Charity begins at home' they very often mean 'You should look after your own kids, family and own circle first and then be kind to people' which is not the original meaning of the proverb. The original meaning is that charity begins in the home - that is to say kids learn charity in the home.” (Source)

On World Humanitarian Day, we are given the chance to honour people who take charity way beyond their back yard, to some of the most dangerous places in the world, and to some of the people in most need. The leave behind their prejudices, their comforts, their families, and friends. And in some cases, they do not return home.

According to the Humanitarian Outcomes Aid Worker Security Data Base 2020, 2019 surpassed all previous recorded years in the number of major attacks committed against aid workers globally. The records show that a total of 483 aid workers were killed, kidnapped, or wounded in 277 separate incidents of violence.

As would be expected, the incidents occurred in countries experiencing unrest and conflict, with Syria, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Mali, and Yemen all places where aid workers were attacked. Some were working to combat Ebola, and the attacks against those who were working in the medical field has alarmed agencies world-wide.

In 2016, Guardian readers and journalist Naomi Larsson shared their motivations for involvement in a calling that might cost them their lives. Their reasoning was simple: “My goal is to reach those in need”, “I vowed I was going to feed the hungry”, and, tellingly “the danger seems worth it.”

So next time we think charity does begin at home, think of those who believe that the opposite is true, and who live their best lives trying to help those they feel are less fortunate than they are.

We can use them as inspiration to do spread the kindness just a little bit further than our own homes.