Irish Times
23rd October 2009

SO OFTEN we hear stories of hardship and heartbreak from the Third World but in the past few days after some very dark hours, we have been privileged to meet two genuine heroes.

People talk about natural resources and gold standards as a means of measuring the value of a country. As we know to our cost there is nothing like a crisis to remind us of what is most precious.  In human currency - the most precious of all - the greatest foreign reserves this nation holds are its overseas aid workers.

The courage and dignity with which Sharon Commins and Hilda Kawuki bore their 107 day kidnap ordeal moved the hearts of the world. To the rest of us they brought home the message of just what an irreplaceable and priceless gift a human life is, and why it must be cherished.

Thankfully, our own Government recognises the intrinsic worth and unique character of our humanitarian workers. Collectively and individually it strived tirelessly to secure the girls’ release. The challenge now is to broaden this into an international consensus so that a body with global reach and the necessary enforcement powers takes on this protective role and that a security cordon can ring fence the aid community. The UN is best suited and equipped to take up this critical sentry duty. 

In good times and bad two things have been constant: in Ireland; the generosity of the Irish people, and the unstinting commitment of our workers in the Third World.

It is seldom that the media spotlight picks out either; when it does they shine; as we saw with the out pouring of good wishes from ordinary people. As for the two women themselves? Who could not have been inspired by the manner in which they endured such terror and darkness, and yet still managed to keep hope alive in their hearts? Words alone can not do them justice.

Suffice to say, that even in the face of extreme danger their spirits shone through.

These are the spirits that light up the darkest corners of the Third World where despair and deprivation make the most basic level of human existence an extreme endurance test. And such spirits have never been more sorely needed. The slump in aid and investment in agriculture has caused a shocking surge in world hunger.  The UN tells us that there are now one billion people hungry on our planet.

Soaring prices for food staples in 2007 and 2008 forced poor families to sell their meagre assets and cut spending on meals, health, and education.  Thirty countries now require emergency food assistance, including 20 in Africa.

Against a background of government cuts and falling donations, aid agencies are engaged in a piteously unequal battle to meet the growing emergency as best we can.

However, there is a real danger that unless matters are taken urgently in hand, that at an hour when aid workers are needed so acutely, new volunteers may hold back because of legitimate safety concerns.

Unless the international community responds to the threats faced in the field, yet another grave injustice will have been visited on the world’s poor.  The plight of 79-year-old Fr Michael Sinnott also abducted in the most callous and inhumane circumstances, is there to remind us of the safety vacuum that exists which is being exploited by cowardly opportunists.

This sinister new presence in the field; the mercenary predators who now target the vulnerability of the aid community must be confronted. The UN must step in immediately and demonstrate vigorously that it takes the protection of aid workers seriously.

Field workers expose themselves to enormous risks so that those with nothing have a chance to survive. Agencies like GOAL and other NGOs are not in a position to achieve total security.

Where poverty and war thrive, desperation drives people over the edge, and aid workers are often the ones in the firing line.  If world leaders are remotely sincere about implementing aid projects then they must make the safety of aid workers a true priority. It is a scandal that although they shoulder the formidable burden of  doing critical work in the most hostile corners of the planet,  there is no-one charged globally with keeping them safe.

The statistics say it all; since 2006, attacks on aid workers have increased dramatically according to the Overseas Development Institute.  Last year was the worst in 12 years, with 260 humanitarian aid workers killed, kidnapped or seriously injured in violent attacks.

This is clearly unsustainable.   While it is timely to salute the astonishing work done by  so called “ordinary” Irish men and women who every day do quite extraordinary things in the Third World, we must never take them for granted.  

Our country’s reputation has taken a severe battering and the people who stand out as true heroes, winning distinction and admiration are our aid workers. 

Sean O’Casey once said that: “every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity”. This may well be a tall order for most of us, but it is one that the life-saving work of aid workers fulfils every single day.

The very least we owe them is to keep them safe.

© 2009 The Irish Times