A day in the life of the UN

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/08/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-un

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Arwa Baider, paediatrician working for Unicef in Yemen

Before this conflict, my day would start with an early breakfast, a coffee with my father and a chat about life and the situation in Yemen. A million babies are born each year in Yemen and to minimise child deaths we have to vaccinate against measles, tuberculosis and polio. Since the conflict, nights and days are now scary – we are living through almost daily bombing.

Fear, stress and a sense of insecurity have changed everything. As a Yemeni passing through all of this you have to care for your own family and your daily life challenges. This includes days without electricity and a fuel shortage, which means even getting to the office becomes a struggle. Added to this is the stress of sleepless nights.

Yet in my role as a professional with responsibility to ensure children are still being protected from vaccine preventable diseases, no rest is possible. Vaccines need to be kept safe through maintaining a cold chain from the overseas supplier to the child who receives the injection in a remote part of our country. This chain needs fuel to keep it going and Yemen relies completely on outside supplies for fuel – we are currently facing a major fuel crisis, putting all our child health work at risk.

A further challenge for us is that the conflict has changed parents’ priorities. Now what they care most for is ensuring that their kids are safe from bombing and have adequate food and clean water. There is insecurity and fear of getting injured or killed, which means many parents keep their children at home. In addition, the fuel crisis has meant that transportation fees have become unaffordable for many families. So for parents to have the courage to go to get the health services they have to be convinced that this is still a priority.

We are also supporting health workers across the country. Health officials have to deal with increasing casualties, deaths due to lack of medicines and the fuel shortage, which has stopped factories from producing oxygen, ended renal dialysis services, and has made it hard to maintain blood banks and run hospitals generally. It has required a lot of discussion with these hospitals and with service providers to keep immunisation a priority.

Rezk Rezk, resettlement officer (volunteer), UNHCR, Dadaab, Kenya

All of us working for UNHCR live in a compound in a small village several kilometres from the camps. Each day we go to the field office, which is walking distance from the camp, and the refugees come to meet with us there. On a few occasions we do home visits but because of security risks, threats to the UN and other NGOs, it’s very rare, only in peaceful times.

I interview between two and four cases each day, which can be between 10 and 30 people, depending on the family size. We try to choose the most vulnerable, people who can never be sent home or integrated here. Women at risk, children on their own, medical cases, people who are at risk in the camps.

You find people who are very good at articulating themselves – the story can be very old that they have gone through but they remember every detail. You meet so many different personalities and that affects how they articulate their story. You need to be patient and give the space to each refugee to tell their story and some of those stories are from a very long time ago.

I can’t say it’s easy, but there is a reward, because we are lucky – we actually see the result of our work. We receive messages when people are resettled, things like “you helped my son to survive, he had a medical condition, you rescued my life when I was being threatened”. The day they leave they call us from the bus on their way to Nairobi and say thank you, so we are lucky to be able to touch the result of our work. Many Iraqi refugees I used to know when I worked in Syria are very successful now in their new lives, working as doctors and engineers.

On a personal level the hardest part is to get used to the toughest stories. When I come back from leave I listen to these stories and I feel it’s really tough, it’s uneasy but if I spent two or three months at work sometimes I get a feeling that I’m not surprised any more. That is painful and that is when I know it’s time for me to go on leave.

When I finish work I go back to the compound. We manage as colleagues because we all go through the same thing, we play sport on the weekend, we hang out, we have a drink, we are doing the best we can do.

Being Syrian I feel like my country is destroyed, half the population is displaced but the only solution is … to be hopeful, to do the right thing and to start rescuing as many people as possible.

Djeri Akpo, head of regional office, UN Electoral Observation Mission in Burundi (Menub)

My day starts at 7.30am by reading press headlines before the first meeting with colleagues. I coordinate a team of 13, a kind of family for international staff like me living far from their own. Over a cup of coffee we raise the tasks of the day – it helps to warm up a bit in this city where the mornings are usually very fresh.

While the country prepared for the [recent] election, my day involved a lot of travel outside the office. I met all the local actors in the election, from political leaders to electoral commissions and the regional governor.

Most of the time when we meet people they are hoping that the international community can do something for them, like ask the ruling government to give them freedom to express themselves. Here in the northern region we are in a stronghold for the president and the security forces were very, very mobilised, so it was difficult for those in the opposition or with a different opinion to express it.

We tell them that it’s the responsibility of the national authorities to do the best for them. But we can use diplomacy, negotiations to bring them to dialogue and we can also witness what is happening.

At one point some opposition leaders were asking that all international groups leave Burundi, so as not to endorse the electoral process, but Menub decided to stay. I know our presence here prevents a lot of abuse. When we are informed that an activist is arrested, for example a member of the opposition, we go to the field to find out the reasons why he has been arrested. This way of doing things prevents a lot of abuse and sometimes before we reach the field we hear that they have been released by the authorities.

I’ve worked supporting elections for the UN in Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and in Liberia. In Africa, elections can be the cause of violence and we have to work to avoid a rejection of the result. Unfortunately the Burundi election has not had the acceptance of all those involved. We fear for the future here. The mission mandate ends in October but I’m worried about leaving. If Menub leaves completely I’m afraid there will be human rights abuses.

Back in the office at the end of the day I still have work to do drafting the daily report, which I send to headquarters in Bujumbura.

It is almost 7pm. I still have time to list key activities of the next day before I turn off the computer and lights and leave the office.

Subhash Singh, head of area office, World Food Programme, Ghorka, Nepal

I returned to Nepal shortly after the earthquake struck in April, taking the responsibility of head of office in Deurali Gorkha, the epicentre of the quake. I start the day with yoga, sometimes very early at 4.30am, doing an hour of breathing exercises. I have been doing yoga first thing each day for several years and it gives me a lot of strength.

We often have to be ready to work by 6.30am, looking at what food has to be delivered and how it is going to get to the most remote villages. We can deliver by helicopter, truck or by mule: it depends on how clear the roads are, whether it’s raining and whether there has been any snowfall.

The food starts in the district headquarters and if it’s going by helicopter then it can go straight to the village. But we can’t send all food this way because it’s very costly. If it’s a truck or tractor then it will have to stop when the roads become narrow and move the food on to a mule. From there it can take several days to reach its destination. Our challenge is to protect that food on the long journey and to get it to the most vulnerable and needy. We visit these remote areas to make sure we are reaching the most vulnerable community.

It is my job to monitor the remote areas and visit them, sometimes with donors so they can ask questions about the aid; how it’s being used; what the main problems are. These are very remote areas with high altitude, 10,000-11,000 feet. If you are not from these areas it can be very hard to breathe. I like doing this work: it gives real pleasure to me that I can deliver something to my home country.

The World Food Programme has logistics experts, people who organise transport, store keepers, warehouse managers. We all try to work as a team and most of the time we deliver food on time.

At the end of the day we colleagues sit and chit-chat and talk about our work. Sometimes we have music and try to go to the small local restaurant and share drinks. But we have to be in bed early as the next morning there will be more work to do and we must be up by 6am.

Marie-Joelle Zahar, expert in political violence, UN department of political affairs

When they call us, our contract stipulates that we need to be ready to leave within 72 hours but it’s more like 24 or 48 hours, so you have to always keep a packed suitcase ready. I have worked in Mali, I have worked in CAR [Central African Republic], and I have worked on, but never in, Syria. For the Syrian work I went to Lebanon, Turkey, Geneva, New York. I am originally from Lebanon so I am no stranger to Syria. A lot of my work was in support of the office of the UN’s special envoy to Syria. I am a political scientist so I can advise on institutions and explain nuances of how people do things differently.

It’s a morally and ethically very difficult thing to sit opposite from people you may not agree with and to try to put yourselves in their shoes. But it’s an opportunity to do a wonderful thing. Nobody is under the illusion that anyone can single-handedly change things but if we can contribute as part of a series of efforts, open up a serious opportunity for discussion, then that is a responsibility. There can be be tensions due to personal experiences. Before the Geneva II talks I was a member of a team working with Syrian women and some of the experiences were harrowing. During various sessions, or after a session they would talk to me. They see me as a Lebanese sister, as I have myself lived through war.

I have seen how hard the UN and civil servants work at trying to resolve these conflicts, they are not always right in their approach but they work really hard at it. The commitment of these people, the tremendous energy that people deploy in situations that would probably leave many others to despair and quit is amazing.

The day can be a long one. A lot of people suffer burnout. If you don’t know how to take a vacation then this is not the kind of job you can stay in for the long term. I am readjusting to normal life now and I am at home. Part of me misses working on these difficult situations. It’s only an au revoir though, not goodbye.

Carlotta Sami, southern Europe spokeswoman, UNHCR

“When we are working on the islands our day starts very early or sometimes we have not even slept because the refugees arrive in the early hours of the morning. The assistance there is almost completely absent. The first way we help is to meet with these people, listen to them and hear their stories and why they had to escape. When they arrive in a small boat you can feel the adrenaline, they are really excited. But what is really difficult for us is that we know their life is not getting easier. They will have to walk for tens of kilometres just to reach a police station and register.

I tell them, you have to be patient, you need to be strong, it won’t be easy. I tell them to avoid any dangerous people because you feel they are so vulnerable.

All the time we are trying to negotiate for better assistance, to find places where we can open or refurbish a reception centre. People argue that if you open a reception centre that will act as a pull factor and attract people but in reality, even if the conditions are getting worse, people still come. People have walked for thousands of kilometres, the children’s feet are in such bad condition. Yet the arrivals are increasing day by day.

This month we have increased our negotiations with the authorities and stressed the need to make more water and food available, also to provide space for people to rest.

What I saw in Greece this month is something I have never thought I would see. I have worked in war zones, but I am seeing the same conditions in Europe, it is astonishing.

The work is emotionally hard, but we are motivated by the people we meet. In the evening I walk with people to the port where the ferry leaves and you can see the glimpse of hope in their eyes. You wish them a lot of good luck. The most wonderful thing for me is that after a few weeks I receive an SMS message and they are safe.