By Dominic I. Sanchez
ZAMBOANGA CITY – The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) and other UN agencies in the city will honor five local “humanitarian heroes” who have served during and after the September 2013 siege on World Humanitarian Day tomorrow, Aug. 19.
UN-OCHA Zamboanga Hub head Ben Pickering told the media Thursday, Aug. 14, that aside from honoring five local humanitarians, the event further seeks to trigger more discussions on humanitarian work especially among the youth.
“The point (of the activity) is to start an awareness (on humanitarian work). This is just a start (to get the discussions going),” Pickering explained.
According to Pickering, students from the Ateneo de Zamboanga University (ADZU), Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) and the Universidad de Zamboanga (UZ) were engaged to nominate five persons who, from their perspective have demonstrated outstanding performance in humanitarian work for the internally displaced persons here. Criteria for selection include the four principles of humanitarian work: neutrality, humanity, independence and impartiality.
Asked why only students were engaged considering the possibility of partiality and biases for their nominations, Pickering replied that “this is a modest activity, one that we can actually manage”. However, he stressed that they welcome disagreements over the nominations, since this is an indication that people would have become more interested in humanitarian work. Pickering believes that through this first-time event in Zamboanga, the interest and discussions would spread especially in the social media.
World Humanitarian Day has been celebrated every year in commemoration of the 2003 bombing of the UN Headquarters in Baghdad where 22 people were killed. “It is a day to honor humanitarians who have lost their lives helping others and to those who continue to serve,” Pickering explained.
In 2013, fifty million people were displaced as a result of violence and other disasters. This is six million more compared to 2012.
Thousands were displaced in Zamboanga alone last year. “We need to reach out and gain more supporters for humanitarian work since the need for them continues to increase,” Pickering furthered.
He pointed out that humanitarians work in extremely difficult conditions, and many are subjected to violence themselves. “The spotlight is on the humanitarians on August 19. We honor them and recognize the very important work that they do.”
Pickering invited netizens to join the online discussions and use the following hash tags “#TheWorldNeedsMore #HumanitarianHeroes” in social media, which is also this year’s World Humanitarian Day theme.
