Join us for this online panel in honor of World Humanitarian Day with
Dr. Marie-Roseline Bélizaire
World Health Organization (WHO)
Democratic Republic of Congo
Subarna Dhar
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Bangladesh
Dr. Mohamed Mohamud
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Somalia
Neera Sharma
World Food Programme (WFP), Nepal
Moderator
Jens Laerke
Deputy Spokesperson
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
World Humanitarian Day comes today as the world fights the Covid-19 pandemic. To pay tribute to the efforts of all humanitarians for their important and courageous work on the front lines, UNA-NYC honors all humanitarians — many working in their own communities — who are going to extraordinary lengths in extraordinary times to help women, men and children whose lives are upended by crises.
World Humanitarian Day, as designated by the UN General Assembly, falls on the day of the attack on the UN compound in Baghdad on August 19, 2003, which claimed the lives of 22 people including the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
Come and meet four Real Life Heroes from four corners of the world next week on Thursday, August 27 in our special online panel. Our guest speakers will present the inspiring personal stories of their work within the specialized agencies of the United Nations. Their experiences traverse encounters with armed conflict, violence and unrest, as well as the rise in extreme weather and natural disasters, all amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Panel Moderator
JENS LAERKE
Jens Laerke is Deputy Spokesperson with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and based in Geneva.
Mr. Laerke has worked for the United Nations since 2004. He has been based in the Dem. Rep. of the Congo, Kosovo, Sri Lanka and in regional offices in Nairobi and Cairo covering East and Central Africa and the Middle East before moving to Geneva.
Prior to joining the UN, Mr. Laerke worked as a news reporter. He holds degrees in international journalism and development management.
Guest Panelists
DR. MARIE-ROSELINE BÉLIZAIRE
Marie-Roseline Bélizaire is an epidemiologist, and public health specialist from Haiti who has responded to disease outbreaks including Yellow Fever, Dengue, Ebola — and now Covid-19 — all over Africa.
She joined the World Health Organisation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to fight the Ebola virus epidemic there, and is now working amid violence and insecurity in the Central African Republic to contain Covid-19.
Today, doctors and other health personnel are called front-line workers. But humanitarian doctors are often quite literally on the front lines of both war and disease. Marie-Roseline has braved violent conflict in hotspot after hotspot, risking everything to help communities fight outbreaks.
“What keeps me awake at night is thinking about how we would respond if a new disease emerges in the war zones of CAR at the same time as we are dealing with this pandemic. Also, keeping my team safe from both the virus and the violence, while we try to reach the most vulnerable… And all of those who die in ambulances because we reach them too late.”
SUBARNA DHAR
Subarna Dhar, a visionary advocate for human rights, is currently working as Women Empowerment Officer with UNFPA towards preventing and responding to gender based violence in the world’s largest refugee crisis at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. She has been serving thousands of Rohingya women and girls by ensuring appropriate needs, timely and quality GBV services, psychosocial support services under the GBViE programme of UNFPA.
Given her working experience for a number of years, Subarna has coupled herself with both practical knowledge and analytical ability in human rights and humanitarian response by conducting research and providing supervision and mentorship on GBV services to the fellows. She is continuing her work as a front-line responder during the Covid-19 pandemic situation. During the pandemic, most services were not available as before, both in camps and host areas, but UNFPA WFSs were kept open to all women and girls maintaining all the precautionary and preventive measures for Covid-19. Emergency services were provided including PSS, GBV Case Management, Sexual and Reproductive Health Services, and Covid awareness to a number of women and girls.
“I think in challenging times like the Covid-19 pandemic, the specific needs of women and girls are overlooked most often,” Subarna says. “We try to prioritize their needs and explore their potentials in helping other women with engaging them in mask making and awareness-raising at the community level.”
Regarding her earnest interests, Subarna has a number of publications that cover issues ranging from society and development, militarization, and their impact on women’s lives, to a decent life for slum dwellers. Subarna is also a regular article writer on the Rohingya refugee crisis in the yearly Human Rights Report of Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK). She envisions herself continuing as a front-line responder and an advocate for human life with dignity for everyone.
MOHAMED MOHAMUD
Mohamed Mohamud is an entomologist from Somalia, who works with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to fight the locust invasion across the Horn of Africa. He deploys teams to bury millions of hopper colonies, and to spray mature locusts with on the ground and aerial bio-insecticides. The work involves constant communication with communities to pinpoint the location of locust swarms.
The word “hero” may not immediately conjure images of an insect scientist. But once you understand the devastation of a locust invasion, it becomes clear why Dr. Mohamud inspires more than mere accolades.
As a Desert Locust Specialist with FAO, Dr. Mohamud considers locusts to be their own kind of epidemic, driving a chain reaction of suffering that begins with the farmer but soon spreads throughout the community and the country.
Managing the locust invasions in Somalia requires both know-how and knowledge, and Dr. Mohamud uses biopesticides made of living organisms that target only locusts — not other living creatures such as bees, which are essential to life.
“When locusts hatch, they will destroy anything green that exists. If it is green, it will turn white. Farmers will lose everything they have worked for. I do this because I want to stop people from crying.”
NEERA SHARMA
Neera Sharma works for the World Food Programme (WFP) in her home country of Nepal and manages the school meals program there.
Her current work with WFP helps serve meals to 173,000 children living in food insecure districts throughout Nepal. She oversaw the grueling four-month process of transitioning the program to a take-home format during the Covid-19 pandemic. With lockdowns and school closures, many children in Nepal were not getting meals they would normally be receiving in school.
The program developed new standard operating procedures based on World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations and national ministry directives, which then needed approval from both the Nepalese government and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which helps fund the program.
“There were countless children in Nepal who go to school on an empty stomach, making it hard for them to focus even before the pandemic,” Sharma said. When schools closed, 2.4 million children missed out on the lunches they relied on, according to the WFP.
Many schools were closed during Nepal’s national lockdown, and were temporarily converted to quarantine centers, complicating distribution efforts. The government’s focus earlier this year was on digital literacy — training teachers to give remote instruction and helping the government produce materials for the switch to online learning.
Helping children is what matters most to Neera. She is one of the #RealLifeHeroes making sure kids in Nepal don’t go to bed hungry. “To see that smile on a child’s face and knowing they will not go to bed hungry is why I do this work.”