Global Integration Updates
Common Ground for the Common Good
Be the people we need--Build the world we need
Special News--March 2020
Stories from the Sectors
Desperate Journeys, Embodying Change, Awake at Night
Vietnamese refugees. South China Sea, 1980
Source: UN photo, G. Klijn/UNHCR
“No one chooses to be a refugee, to leave everything behind for an uncertain future. But, while wars continue to rage, others like [my sister, Sara] and me will feel compelled to make similar decisions. And when people fleeing such violent situations and making such desperate journeys reach Europe we should all play our part in making sure they receive the help and support they need to quickly rebuild their lives.” Yusra Mardini, Desperate Journeys
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In this Update we share short stories primarily from the overlapping humanitarian and human rights sectors. The stories are personal accounts and interviews, written and audio, primarily of people and helpers involved in forced migration.
Many of the stories include tragic elements--misery, exploitation, trauma, and death. Others are more reflections on humanitarian issues. What emerges collectively is a pattern of common elements needed to sustain people in harsh circumstances: things like protection, practical care, work, school for children, resilience, hope, faith, and courage.
We share the stories now, in the context of the growing corona virus pandemic, as an additional reminder to us all that behind the statistics regarding the "major issues facing humanity" lie fellow humans. People who could be--or even are--our own family members. Our neighbors. Ourselves. And we share the stories to spur us on to informed, collaborative action, with empathy and compassion, including addressing the underlying and reinforcing causes of conflict (e.g., Five Core Commitments in the Agenda for Humanity). inequalities (e.g., recommendations in the Human Development Report 2019: Beyond Income...), and health emergencies (a broad focus of WHO's Global Health Observatory).
Have a read. Have a listen. There's lots to take in. Let the stories transport you into people's lives, experiences--their world...and your own.
See also:
Warm greetings from Geneva,
Kelly and Michèle
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Featured Resources
Stories from the Sectors
Desperate Journeys, Embodying Change, Awake at Night
Amo neniam pereas.
Love never ceases.
Desperate Journeys: Refugee and Migrant Children Arriving in Europe and How to Strengthen Their Protection. UNHCR (2019). "Yusra Mardini is a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. Yusra was selected to swim competitively at Rio 2016 as part of the first ever Refugee Olympic Team."
“In 2015, I was 17, a high school student dreaming of representing my country at international swimming events. As the impact of the war in Syria came closer, and after we were forced to abandon our home in Darayya, my older sister Sara and I took the decision to travel to Europe. We hoped to be able to bring our mother and our younger sister, Shahed, to safety too. As we were leaving, Shahed clung to us, sobbing, and begging us not to go.
It’s only around 10km from the Turkish coast to the north coast of the Greek island of Lesvos. In August 2015, Sara and I boarded a dinghy along with 18 others, including families with children. We all knew that many people had died making the journey ahead. We were all equally afraid. But we were all equally desperate to escape the violence. Like most of the boats that made that same crossing, ours was dangerously overcrowded. In that deceptively short stretch of sea, our engine failed.
The wind was blowing hard and our boat was being tossed and spun about on the waves. The light was fading. Sara and I were experienced swimmers but others on the boat were not. We took turns in the water, making the boat lighter and helping turn it to face the waves to prevent it from capsizing. We called for help but no one came.
The memory of that sea journey will remain with me always. For over three hours we swam. Everyone was praying. At last, the engine spluttered back to life and we reached the shore. I struggle with this story, to understand why we made it when many others didn’t. Each time I hear about a group drowning at sea, it takes me back there, clinging to the boat’s rope, desperately treading water.” (excerpt from the Foreword)
--”My brother and I had to leave Afghanistan because we received threats. Some members of my family were even killed. It took us one month to reach Greece. The bad memories from this journey still haunt me. We saw people dying in front of our eyes – either because they got injured or because of exhaustion. I still remember everything very vividly. I will never forget. During the day, we stayed hidden in the woods, without any food or water, and during the night we walked along unknown roads. We met bandits along the way; they would ask about our religion and our destination and then they would take things from our bags and pockets. Whoever resisted was beaten. They also had guns...” (J. age 17, page 11)
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--"I was 13 when I left Somalia (in February 2017). From Somalia, I escaped by car to Ethiopia. I was with a friend. We did not have any money but someone took us. We arrived in a place in Ethiopia. It was very scary and dangerous there and then we were kidnapped, it was like trafficking. We did not have a choice. They made us cross to Sudan on foot. From there, we were taken in a truck to somewhere in Kufra, Libya. We could not see where we were going during the journey…” (A. age 15, age 14)
Change Making Women: Global Stories of Change, Activism, Healing and Growth. “We are a Podcast about women interested in how we create change in the world..We are committed to talking about the things we often don’t talk about (like menstrual bleeding, miscarriage and grief). We share music, ideas and healing practices to inspire you. We also talk about aid, funding and philanthropy and how to make them better. And we talk to the women leading change in their communities, organisations and initiatives about what they do and how they do it.” (80 podcasts, 2016-current)
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Guest Series: Embodying Change 4. “In this conversation, Melissa Pitotti talks with Nasra Ismail, Director of the Somalia NGO consortium. They talk about wellbeing in the context of the localisation agenda in humanitarian aid and why conversations about wellbeing require us to consider our privilege and to think about our work in radically new ways.” (3 February 2020)
Guest Series: Embodying Change 3. “In this conversation, Melissa Pitotti talks with Kate Gilmore, the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. They talk about wellbeing in the UN system and other humanitarian and human rights work, about how Kate sees the connections between personal and political and some tangible ways she has tried, in her role, to do things differently.e.” (12 December 2019).
Awake at Night, UNHCR. A Podcast with Melissa Fleming (2018-2019). "What does it take to be a humanitarian worker in some of the world’s most difficult and dangerous locations? To find out, Melissa Fleming meets them." (listen to the four minute overview for the series--currently 14 episodes-podcasts)
"UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency…is launching the podcast at a time when refugee numbers around the world are hitting new highs and humanitarian work is becoming more dangerous. In these intimate interviews, men and women who have worked in war zones reveal for the first time in public some of their deepest fears and the emotional wounds they carry. Our goal is to give listeners insight into the people who serve the victims of war on the frontline."
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Darkness Does Weird Things to You, interview with Vincent Cochetel (Season 1, Episode 1—the first podcast). “Vincent Cochetel has worked for the UNHCR for over 30 years. He spent the first part of his career listening to the horror stories of other people but then his own life became a nightmare. In 1998 when he was working in the Caucasus in southern Russia he was kidnapped and held hostage for 317 days. During Vincent’s captivity he was made to record several ransom demands.”
“[I was] handcuffed to a metallic cable that is tied to a bed so that gives me little margin of movement around the bed on one side of the bed. Enough to make four footsteps and you get used to that. It was dark. Darkness was more difficult to cope with than limited freedom of movement. Darkness is something that is oppressive.”
 UN photo, Trygve Bølstad/UNHCR
Home is the People Around You, interview with Abida Qasim (Season 2, Episode 7—the latest podcast). “Adiba Qasim is from the Yazidi minority in Northern Iraq. In August 2014, her village was stormed by Islamic State militants who killed and enslaved thousands of Yazidis. Adiba and her family managed to escape just before the militants arrived. She was 19 years old.”
“At 7:00 in the morning, relatives called my father and said: ‘We are now coming to the North, because the Islamic State at 3:00 in the morning attacked us and many people have been killed and it is very difficult. So, run away! Get out of your house’!”
“She was haunted by the knowledge that many of her friends and relatives were taken captive by Islamic State – and held as sex slaves. Some survived – and when they were freed, Adiba was there to help.”
UN photo, Qasim/UNHCR
Member Care Associates Inc. (MCA) is a non-profit, Christian organization working internationally from Geneva and the USA. MCA's involvement in Global Integration focuses on the wellbeing and effectiveness of personnel and their organizations in the mission, humanitarian, and development sectors as well as global mental health, all with a view towards supporting sustainable development for all people and the planet. Our services include consultation, training, research, developing resources, and publications.
Global Integration (GI) is a framework for actively and responsibly engaging in our world--locally to globally. It emphasizes connecting relationally and contributing relevantly on behalf of human wellbeing and the issues facing humanity, in light of our integrity, commitments, and core values (e.g., ethical, humanitarian, human rights, faith-based). GI encourages a variety of people to be at the “global tables” and in the "global trenches"--and everything in-between--in order to help research, shape, and monitor agendas, policies, and action for all people and the planet. It intentionally links building the world we need with being the people we need.
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