Humanitarian Stories

The people I meet in my work constantly inspire and motivate me to keep going. The earthquake for me was especially significant. I met and worked with people who were almost killed by their own homes, usually their place for comfort and safety. Yet merely days afterwards women were salvaging materials, heavy slate and stones, to rebuild their houses. We cannot overestimate the psychological damage, but the women showed such strength, resilience and determination.

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Shams started speaking rapidly, looking me in the eye. Her 12-year-old son had been shot and killed at a checkpoint. I was exhausted. I took her hand and I cried. Shams took my face in her hands and started wiping away my tears, talking all the time. Her hands were coarse and blackened with dirt. It was maybe the most beautiful thing I've ever experienced. I can only describe it as a sacred moment. My heart still breaks over it.

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I’ve just got back from a field visit to one of the Gender Based Violence projects in the remote areas. Babies are born from women subjected to sexual violence. They are not taken into account as beneficiaries. The lack of meaningful legal assistance is one of the challenges. Impunity and corruption for the alleged perpetrators is really blocking the path to achieving equality.

 

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They bomb civilian areas, families and kids. They bomb wherever the children are. We were left with God and the sea. Or you die where you are. I kept worrying - if something happens at sea … would the children forgive me? We were in the sea for 9-10 hours. By 3pm, the engine had completely stopped working and we sat there. My daughter’s oxygen was almost finished. A helicopter flew above us and then left. When we saw the rescue ship I cried and hugged the children. I thanked God we had made it.

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I have been delivering babies for 18 years. I love everything about my job. During the war I did a lot of deliveries. They would put me on a motorbike or in a canoe to cross the river and perform deliveries. Sometimes there were no gloves so I would deliver with my bare hands. Soldiers would come for me in the night with guns. My boss would be afraid and say, ‘Don’t go,’ and I’d say ‘I have to go’.  

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Displaced people are extremely vulnerable because they had to leave their homes, their jobs, businesses, friends and relatives. The very best part of my job is helping with cash distributions and seeing families who have suffered so much smiling again.

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About 850 people lived in our area. Around 250 survived. Two-thirds died in 15 minutes.

It's hard to describe the impact of the tsunami if you haven't seen it. It looks like the land and the villages have just been scrubbed out. When you see the ruins you realise that people lost everything, all clothes, every piece of furniture. Everything. Farm land was flooded with salt water, and it took more than a year for people to have a harvest again. People had literally nothing left except the clothes they wore when the tsunami hit.

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People are forced to live in devastating conditions. As locals, we know how serious the problem is. Everyone has been affected by the conflict. Women and children ran to safety, but are they really safe? They are hungry, tired and exposed, and no one is looking out for them. They have no one to protect them. That’s where we come in. Our protection is not like the protection that the military is supposed to give you. We don’t use weapons. Our power is in our voice.

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After what I have seen in this conflict, my life will never be the same again. So much wanton destruction of mankind, fathers’, mothers’ sons all lost in the hatred of this war. There were so many men with limbs missing from mines and shelling, some with minds lost in some distant place. I cannot remember feeling so empty.

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