The Norwegian Refugee Council is giving more power to halt human-suffee: Jan Egeland’s humanitarian work deserves the Hilton Prize
Jan Egeland speaks in a calm manner than befits his four decades of humanitarian work, but he becomes increasingly animated when discussing the record number of people currently displaced because of humanitarian crises across the globe.
This year alone, the group that he heads, the Norwegian Refugee Council, helped those affected by the war in Ukraine, the Afghanistan earthquake in June and the ongoing devastating drought in Somalia.
The council has been awarded the largest annual humanitarian award for a nonprofit in history, worth $2.5 million, in recognition of its efforts.
This award came at a critical time for us, because we are challenged like never before. Our advocacy for targeted civilians has led us to become targets for authoritarian regimes, who do not like the truth being told to the world. With the recognition and backing of the Hilton Prize we can do that with more authority and greater resources. It’s a considerable sum of money, but of equal importance is the recognition and prestige. I believe this is a worthy winner for humanitarian work.
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/10/20/1129199362/a-2-5-million-prize-gives-this-humanitarian-group-more-power-to-halt-human-suffe
Frontline Hilfs in Conflict Areas. The Case of Refugees in El Salvador, South Africa, and Burkina Faso, Chad and Somalia
Egeland is a former Norwegian foreign minister who held positions at Human Rights Watch, the Red Cross and the United Nations before becoming secretary general of the council. Upon returning from a trip to Somalia in June, he spoke with NPR about overlooked crises, equal protection for all refugees and reasons to hope.
We are a frontline humanitarian organization assisting refugees and displaced people in conflict areas. We were established in 1946 just after the liberation of Norway from Nazi occupation. When it came to receiving Marshall Aid assistance from the United States,Norway was a poor country, but most of Europe was in worse shape. Our early relief efforts focused on refugees in Austria, Germany, Poland and the Balkans — and it grew from there. Today we have 16,000 field workers in most of the biggest crises and wars of our time, from Ukraine to Colombia, from Congo to Myanmar.
We issue an annual report measuring the number of people in greatest need versus the corresponding international media coverage, money directed toward the crises and diplomatic efforts to halt hostilities. Last year the top 10 of the most neglected conflicts and displacement crises in the world were in Africa. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a colossal emergency where more than 25 million people are in need, yet it receives scant attention. The same is true for Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Chad and Somalia.
And now much media attention and global funding is going to Ukrainian refugees. The invasion of Russia took place in February. What has changed for the Ukrainian refugees?
The NRC has been in Ukraine since the 2014 Donbas conflict, but now the situation is much worse, with trench warfare and the destruction of entire cities engulfing millions of civilians. Some areas have become more stable where we are able to help the internally displaced, and Ukrainians are now returning from abroad after initially fleeing. Others are being driven out from the south and east of the country. I’m afraid for the winter. We are preparing a winterization program and strengthening lines from the other states to protect them from the cold.
We want to help our neighbor who looks like us, is the same religion, can integrate in our societies but we need to protect them according to their needs. In Europe people from the Middle East or Afghanistan are met with a cold shoulder and barbed wire whereas Ukrainians are welcomed. It’s the same in the U.S., where women and children fleeing horrific violence in central America are not always well received. We need to stand firmly on the side of those who need protection in this battle of values.
We live and breathe by the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence. It means we have to teach our colleagues to stay out of conflict and not to be close to the government that is in the conflict. But at the same time, we still need to have the respect, and the protection, of those parties. We always try to work on all sides – it pains me that we’re not able to work in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
It’s been almost a year since the West left Afghanistan, and there are still 40 million mostly women and children there, and they need us more than ever. There must be engagement between the de facto authorities and the donor countries on issues such as girls’ education and minority protection. The very wrong response is to impose sanctions that do not take away food from Taliban soldiers but do make women and children starve.
I’m afraid of that. One hundred million people have been displaced by war for the first time in recorded history. In 2011, it was 40 million. There has never been in modern times as many children going to bed hungry as there are this year. While some countries are struggling with high energy prices and nationalist tendencies at home, they are vastly worse in the areas where we operate.
The UN has warned that next year could be a critical food crisis for nearly half of the population and there could be full-on famine in some areas. The effects of a two-year drought — thought to be the worst in 40 years — are being felt across this East African nation, home to some 17 million people.
The International NGOs: Helping Refugees and Migrants in the Context of World War II: A Wish Wishful Comes to an End
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It is a time of horrific contrasts. There were so many people that were displaced by violence and conflict that they didn’t have anything to eat. Climate change, COVID and conflict have coalesced into a lethal cocktail. But the good news is that never have there been more effective national and international humanitarian and development organizations, better technological advances and greater resources. Never have there been as many billionaires, so there should be a possibility for us to elevate the bottom two billion people. The people at the top have lots of resources that could have aided us in reaching people in need.
I come back an optimist whenever I return from visiting colleagues working in difficult and dangerous circumstances. We have helped over a million children to go to school, and all want to be doctors, engineers, farmers and builders when they’re older, and they don’t want to be fighters or soldiers or terrorists.
Somalia Famine Hunger: A Case Study in the Malnutrition ICU of a Child in Banadir — A Ugandan Village
The country of Somalia gets two rainy seasons per year. The Gu rains last until June and usually start in late March or April. The second round of rains, known as the Deyr, generally produce less precipitation and arrive in October or November.
Hirey says Banadir Hospital admits roughly 20 malnourished children a day. On December 12th, the day NPR visited, the malnutrition ICU had six beds. Some patients in the adjacent ward are in better shape than Deeqle. There are children in the clinic. Their caregivers are supplied with a high-calorie, peanut-based supplement called Plumpy’Nut, which can help the children regain weight quickly.
“From the long starvation, he’s lost all his muscles, his fats. Dr. Hirey told the boy he couldn’t swallow properly while he was in the intensive care unit. “This child is two years old and his weight is only 5.4 [kilograms]” — just under 12 pounds. “This is the weight of a normal two-month-old.”
The doctor thinks that Deeqle should weigh more than this. Meral Ibrahim is sitting beside Deegle on the bed. She fans her son with her shawl. Ibrahim says he became ill nearly a month ago, with severe diarrhea, fever and vomiting. The man grew thinner and thinner. She says she made the 60-mile journey with him from their village to seek help.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/12/1142191539/somalia-famine-hunger-malnutrition
A Thousand Years of Living in BAIDOA, Somalia: Mariam Kasim and her family escape from a camp for displaced persons
As long as the children don’t have other complications like cholera, measles or tuberculosis, he says they respond well to treatment, which includes nasal feeding tubes, IV drips, antibiotics and special high-nutrient formula milk.
There were a number of challenges to contend with in the last year, including the famine in Ethiopia and an eradication of the LCM beetle that destroyed crops in 2020.
Chinyama says his agencies are focused on the current food crisis in Africa. But they also are looking for ways for the country to adapt to a new reality in which rainfall becomes less predictable than ever.
“So, for example, now in 2022, we have a drought. The last one was in 2017,” he says. “And if you recall in 2011, there was a famine in which about 260,000 people lost their lives.”
BAIDOA, Somalia — At a camp for displaced persons on the edge of Baidoa, in southwestern Somalia, Mariam Kasim says that she’s very old — so old that it’s impossible to really know her age. But she thinks she’s 50.
More than a million people are living in makeshift camps near Baidoa, many of them having nothing. She says most of the people here survive by begging. “We don’t have any hope at all.” There is no future.
Kasim is standing in front of the shelter she shares with her four grandchildren. She had a dome of sticks wrapped in tarps, bits of cloth, and grain bags in her shelter.
A person sits in the dirt at the entrance. Two younger grandchildren lean against Kasim’s long black shawl. The children are thin. Their hair is limp and dull orange because of the lack of nutrition.
Six months ago, after the fourth rainy season in a row failed, she decided to get her children and grandsons out of their village because there was nothing to eat.
“We were both farmers and keepers of animals.” There was no rain for the last three years. We were not able to grow our crops.
The journey took several weeks to complete. They begged for food along the route. The mother of her grandsons passed away a few years ago. So Kasim had to look after all of the children herself.
The complexity of the Somali crisis in Baidoa: a drought-hunger-shabaab conflict in the middle of Somalia
Concerns are growing that a famine could lead to a food crisis. Baidoa is one part of the country that could slip into a full-scale famine in the coming months due to the food crisis, according to aid agencies.
Residents in many of the camps say they’re not getting much food assistance, but Omoke insists aid agencies are working to get relief to Somalis who’ve been left with almost nothing by the drought.
“The humanitarian community is mounting a response, which is very much focused on the [internally displaced persons],” she says. Baidoa is the focus of the response as data shows there is a possibility of famine there. The response in Baidoa has gone up since July. But depending on who you speak to, the services are not enough. The needs are there — and the needs are overwhelming.”
Adding to the complexity of the food crisis in Somalia, the militant Islamist group Al-Shabab has banned international relief agencies or the government from distributing food aid in areas it controls. Much of the south is included.
Aid agencies have to bring in most of their relief supplies from Baidoa because of the control of Al-Shabab on the roads there. Humanitarian groups are even transporting armored cars in by plane because it is too dangerous to drive them to Baidoa from Mogadishu, the capital.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/17/1143343512/somalia-baidoa-drought-famine-hunger-shabaab
The food crisis in Somalia: A bare-bones health clinic as a crisis intervention in a country with a deserted population
At a bare-bones health clinic in a camp in Baidoa, Dr. Ali Nur Mohamed says the number of severely malnourished kids he’s treating has jumped five-fold over the last six months.
“The situation is still critical,” Nur says. He says more and more families are moving into the camps. He says that most of the kids arriving are already being deprived of food.
The clinic, run by the Deeg-roor Medical Organization aid group, is in a sheet-metal enclosure with a dirt floor. Children with thin arms are brought in by their mothers. Some of the kids struggle to hold their heads up.
The current food crisis hasn’t reached those proportions, but the United Nations says 700 children died in nutrition centers in Somalia in the first eight months of this year.
If it’s caught early, childMalnutrition can be easily treated. fortified milk or high-cal food supplements such as Plumpy’Nut are the best ways to get starving kids to bounce back quickly, he says. Some just need some extra biscuits.