Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers explains measures for humanitarian organisations in Ukraine
AI: Summary ©
The government faced challenges in a conflict situation, including the need for people to assist in terms of food, water, and disposal, as well as the importance of providing medical supplies and removing obstacles to aid in the situation. The speakers stress the need for dedication and patriotism in response to the COVID-19 crisis, as well as the potential risks of new pandemics and the need for attention to the situation. They also discuss the issue of COVID-19 and the importance of protecting everyone, particularly those in shelter or at high risk, as well as the risks of bombings and the need for people to act quickly to prevent damage to their workforce.
AI: Summary ©
Let's get an idea of what's going to be needed as far as
humanitarian assistance in a conflict situation, we can speak
to our own Dr India Suleiman, of the gift of the givers. Dr
Suleman, good to have you on the program as always. So what becomes
the first port of call for an organization that wants to assist
at a humanitarian level, given this that this is an active
situation.
Good evening. Humanitarian situations don't respond in the
active situation immediately. That is what happens in a war situation
is normally the government, civil society, all get together, and
they have their own plan of action. We don't intervene
immediately in the beginning stages. Also, it depends, because
it always depends. How long is worse would it take? Is this
invasion going to be for five days, one week, one month, one
year or five years? We don't know. Obviously, given the size of
Ukraine and given the size of Russia, this invasion cannot last
too long. In the initial stages, you have different scenarios. One
is where the society gets together, what government and you
have to look at internal displacement and external
displacement. In internal displacement, you have organized
camps where people go into shelters, in this case, in the
station or anywhere else. And initial stages, also the people
themselves take care of themselves. They have money, they
have food, they have items, and that could sustain them for a
period of time. When that runs out, then initial support has to
come in from government or external sources. At the same
time, you have movement of people from the country to the outside,
and in this case, of courseland, Romania, Slovenia Moldova, where
the governments of those countries then set up camps or whatever and
take care of those people. At some point, people have a lot of funds
inside the country, and even the government's outside the country.
And that's when major international organizations start
by local organizations start coming into assist. The other big
challenge is at that point, once some move to be intelligence
place, and others move outside the country, then you have, quite
often elderly people or people to do quinoa ill cannot be moved left
alone in houses. And that becomes a challenge. How do you respond on
an individual basis to people left alone in the homes? Because for
some point they can't move the two ill, you know, and there's nobody
to take care of them because the younger generation has left. That
becomes a very complicated issue. And then the other big challenge
is if food, if water is cut off, you know, electricity is cut off,
you try to need to provide water, sanitation becomes a problem.
Disease becomes a problem. And of course, the major problem is the
hospitals are hit. If hospitals are hit, clinics are hit, burnings
are hit. You now have an increased demand on medical resources where
you require medical support in terms of primary medicine as well
as trauma medicine, and we call additional personnel. And as the
war prolongs and the situation becomes more complicated, all
these factors become exacerbated. And one last point that we can
discuss is that initially, as I mentioned, people try to do
everything possible to assist each other, there may still be movement
of goods within the country, from other parts of the country to the
main cities are affected, but eventually, when that stopped,
when the borders are closed, when goods become difficult, then you
see the worst humanity. You see those who start exploiting prices.
Some deem giving things at cost, some giving goods for free, but
others putting huge markups on items, which become a huge need,
and that becomes a real challenge for people caught up in the
country itself. And the President of Ukraine at the beginning of
this invasion, Vladimir Zelinsky, had, in fact, said, what they're
going to need, among the key things would be blood stocks,
because a lot of people will be injured. How easy is it to get
blood donations given that if everyone is sort of scattered and
afraid they may not be willing to come to a hospital unless they
desperately need to be there. That's easy, you know. That
depends on the dedication and the commitment of the citizens
themselves, corporate, tragic guy. You don't have to clean up the
hospital. You can go to them. It's not complicated, you know. And in
most countries, I've seen that 1000s of them turn up to give
blood donation. That's not a difficult issue. It all depends on
the commitment and the patriotism of those individuals to themselves
and to their country, and in most cases, that is never an issue.
And in terms of who gets help first, do we start with the
elderly, the children and the women? Always
No. It's based on the practicality of the situation. You can't
separate them, because elderly, the women and children may all be
together. So if you are working in a situation like the shelter, they
all get together. So it's got, you know, a priority. It's you just
have always there. You have to be realistic. You're not going to be
able to help everybody. That's a war situation, and you can get
bombed in the process. So what? It's a story about the low hanging
fruit. Get the people where you can as fast as you can, as easiest
as you can. So the easiest one probably with the ones outside the
country, but they're not at risk, you know. But the risk becomes
when the camps become overpopulated, when there's not
enough space, and then there's friction within the camps when
there's no not enough supply.
From the host government. That becomes a major problem. Depending
how congested is, disease becomes a problem. And of course, you
know, in our situation now, the new challenge is, covid can spread
in a situation like that. It's a whole new challenge in a war zone.
But there's no selection, you know, you try to help everybody at
the same time. And what that comes the babies. You know, maybe food
becomes a big problem. Baby milk becomes a big problem. There's a
shortage of that the injury require assistance to save life.
Your priority is to save life. But you can't say, okay, women first,
or people first, next, children. Actually doesn't work that way.
Who then guarantees the safety of aid workers, given that, yes, you
said you don't go into active war situations to deliver aid, but you
and I know that often the frontline can move quite quickly.
When I say that, I mean, we do go into active war situations, but
not in any issue phase. You know, we've been many wars, but it's not
something you do immediately. It's something that happens later, when
you see all these things that I mentioned the beginning start
collapsing when the government can't support each other, support
its people, the people can't support its people. Their own
agencies in the country can't support it. Outside their
countries can't support when that happens, then you have to go in to
answer your question. There's no guarantee. Nobody follows the rule
of law. Nobody follows the Geneva Convention. You're an aid worker,
you're a target. You know you are bombed in the process too. That's
risk going to take your team's got to know that if you have to
prepare in advance, your teams to say there's a risk that you're
going to get killed. You can get bomb, you can get maimed. You
know, you can lose a lump. It can happen. There is no respect in
what situations anymore. People direct, directly. Target
hospitals. They target ambulances. They target clinics. They target
water stations, greater supplies. So they switch plants, they cause
maximum damage as far as possible, as part of a war methodology, and
eight workers are part of that process to be targeted, whether
you're local or international. The.