Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers explains measures for humanitarian organisations in Ukraine

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.