August 19: another quiet summer August day in New York -- or is it?

August 19: another quiet summer August day in New York -- or is it?

18 Aug 2009 15:45:00 GMT

Written by: Concern Worldwide, alertnet.org

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

Two unidentified U.N. staff members take part in a ceremony for Sergio Vieira de Mello at the International Congres Center in Geneva in this August 28, 2003 file photo. More than 400 family, friends, colleagues and dignitaries paid tribute to slain U.N. Iraq envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello before his burial. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

Dominic MacSorley who wrote the following piece, is director of operations for Concern Worldwide US

Since the early days of its founding, the UN has designated days and weeks to draw the world's attention to critical global issues. The yearly calendar, approved by the General Assembly, has almost 50 UN days listed ranging from the well -known "World AIDS Day" to more unusual ones, such as "International Mother Tongue Day."

This Wednesday Aug. 19, at a ceremony in the lobby of the UN, a new day will be formally added to the calendar when UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon launches "World Humanitarian Day."

Its mid-August, and who knows if there will be much media coverage of this day. The date, however, was appropriately chosen to mark the horrific 2003 bombing of the UN compound in Baghdad that took the lives of 22 humanitarian aid workers. Among them was Sergio de Mello, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Sergio was the celebrated UN troubleshooter who many regarded as the next Secretary General. I crossed paths with him a number of times in Cambodia, Rwanda and Kosovo. Always in the most isolated and insecure areas, Sergio was to be found where the greatest needs were, meeting with everyone -- refugees, aid workers, local authorities; everyone was important; everyone had a voice; everyone was made to feel part of the solution. Suave and smart, he was a force of diplomacy, action, energy and nerve. His death was a huge loss.

World Humanitarian Day allows us also to remember the less well-known aid workers, who like Sergio died working on the front lines, bringing hope, dignity and life-saving aid to millions of men, women and children suffering each and every day.

Concern will remember our own Valerie Place, an Irish nurse who, in 1993, was shot through the heart in an ambush in Somalia. She was 23. Somalia was a turning point when we realized that the badge of humanitarianism no longer guaranteed protection and today, the risks are even greater.

There are more attacks, more killings, and more kidnappings. Last year saw the highest number of security incidents involving humanitarian aid workers: 122 aid workers were killed; and 62 were kidnapped.

But World Humanitarian Day isn't just about honoring the dead. It's also about the living -- those struggling to survive. It's an opportunity to focus on the 211 million of people whose lives have been devastated by disasters, war and conflict. It is a day to remember the 40 million people who have been forced to flee their homes due to war and violence.

And it is about acknowledging the harsh reality that, even as humanitarian needs are increasing, international aid budgets are decreasing, forcing us to make impossible choices -- designing emergency responses not solely on what people need to survive, but on how much we have to spend.

A few weeks ago, I visited our operations in Mardan, Pakistan, where several million people had fled, driven from their homes and livelihoods by the military campaign against the Taliban. Our team was working 24/7 distributing survival kits—containing blankets, mosquito nets, sleeping mats, pots, plates, soap and towels, the very basics. With all of these items purchased locally, each kit cost $80—a small price to pay but an incalculable value to a family that has lost everything.

But, for the first time in my 20 plus years of working with Concern, we were unable to complete the job. After distributing 3,500 kits, we ran out of money and had to suspend any further distributions to the families in need.

How do you tell a mother who is sleeping on classroom floor with 20 other families that you don't have enough money to give her and her eight children a sleeping mat and a blanket? Or how do you tell any of the estimated 70,000 pregnant women who are displaced that we have no money to set up even one mobile health clinic?

And it's not just Pakistan. It is Somalia, Chad and Sudan to name just a few of the countries where the needs far outweigh the resources. Funding shortages are undermining the core principle of humanitarianism -- the ability to help people when they most desperately need it, when they are at risk of losing everything they have, including their lives.

So there is much to think about, much to remember, on what might otherwise be considered a quiet August summer day in New York. Let it be a day when we honor those who died in the service of the world's poorest and worst afflicted. And let it be the time when we resolve to make our best efforts to ensure that the world's most vulnerable citizens are never forgotten and that the extraordinary efforts of aid workers are not just continued, but expanded.