Happy holidays around the globe. Reflections of a Humanitarian worker.

Posted on December 28, 2012 by marcovisser

Now that the world has not ended on December 22nd, and I am blessed to continue with my comfortable life, the mixed feelings I always have around the Christmas holidays come trouble me again. On the one hand, this time of year is a happy time with a positive vibe, fundraisers and half the world wishing one another peace and prosperity. But at the same time I can’t forget about those many people that have to survive on less than one dollar a day the more than 40 million displaced and the nearly seven million children under five that didn’t make it to their fifth birthday this year. How can one possibly enjoy Christmas and have a Happy New Year with this information?

This year, I’ll be celebrating Christmas and New Year at home. In fact, I have two full weeks of holidays: sleeping late, eating (too) much and do some work around the house. Getting (too) drunk on New Year’s Eve and using the remainder of the holidays to recover. The issue with having two weeks of holidays is that there is also plenty of time to struggle with the above thoughts and think about the past; in my case, some of the most extraordinary places I’ve spent Christmas and New Year.

This started in my first year working for MSF, 1997. Earlier that year, I had spent two missions in DRC and RoC. Kabila had ousted Mobutu, yet thousands had fled Brazzaville to Kinshasa – instead of the other way around… Towards the end of the year I ended up in Bardera, Somalia. Spending Christmas in Bardera is no treat,  imagine living there your whole life. And although there were possibly more weapons around in Bardera than in Brazzaville, the intervention in Bardere was not conflict-related. This time it was mother nature: the Juba river had burst its banks, inundating a large part of town, including the– primitive – water treatment plant.  While waiting for materials to arrive from Garissa, Kenya, I spent my days helping out WFP which was distributing food, seeds and materials. So it happened that on Christmas Day 1997, I was driving a speedboat on the Juba, distributing relief items. At the end of the day, Christmas dinner was – as any dinner – spaghetti with tomato sauce. The only difference to the every-day Italian staple was having a starter: home-made guacamole with Pringles. Such treat!

IMG (432x640)The following year – after cholera in Zambia and floods in China – the year ended for me in Asosa, Ethiopia. Again in the middle of nowhere, again Christmas at 35ºC. Here, in the far west of Ethiopia, MSF provided WASH services in several Sudanese refugee camps. I don’t remember what I had for Christmas dinner; what I do remember is that one of the great pluses of working in Ethiopia is the number of public holidays they have. Both Christmas and New Year is celebrated twice and around the same time Eid was celebrated that year. So, many days off. This wasn’t a punishment as my wife had come over to celebrate the holidays with me.  January 1999, we rented a 4WD and travelled around the Omo valley; a great adventure and another great New Year.

In ’99 I was home just in time to celebrate a ‘normal’ Christmas and enter the new millennium on the beach in the Algarve. Just before Christmas, I was busy providing relief aid in the state of Orissa, India. Here, millions of people were affected by a super-cyclone that hit the coast. As roads were inaccessible or had never existed in this part of India, we provided public health and WASH services from large barges and smaller – but quicker – dinghies.

Later, as my career progressed, I had the advantage of better planning my field trips around the holidays. This meant that most Christmases were spent at home with the family. That was… until a major Tsunami hits South-East Asia; roughly one month after the birth of my first son. Thus on 27 December 2004 I find myself on a plane to India leaving behind my wife and new-borne. tsunami1Travelling straight to the most southern tip of India to assess the damage and provide assistance where needed. As the damage is relatively (!) small here, we travel on to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands after a few days. Here, basically everything is destroyed. Luckily, the whole world is alarmed and responding to the needs in the region.

I clearly remember raising a glass on the New Year in a hotel restaurant in Nagercoil. Surrounded by other aid workers, co-humanitarians that had also sacrificed their holidays and had hurried to the scene. And although I cannot remember their names or faces anymore, I felt privileged and great!

So, for me, the holiday season is a time to remember the terrible, but at the same time great times I have had far from home. A feeling of nostalgia to the days that I was able to help in making the world a little bit better. As little as it may have been, for me it was exhilarating. So, instead of letting reality drain away all hope of a better, just and fair world, it just gives me more reason to stick to my good intentions for 2013 (and the remainder of 2012): to enjoy and appreciate my fortune (i.e. my lovely wife and two great boys) and continue pulling my weight into making this world a better place – as petite as this weight may be.

Happy 2013!

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World Water Day in Liberia. Reflections of a WASH advocate.

Posted on April 8, 2012 by marcovisser

By coincident, I had the pleasure of celebrating World Water Day, WWD 2012 in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. I had arrived the day before as I was to evaluate a WASH project of an INGO. Getting from the airport to the hotel I was staying took nearly two hours, because of the traffic. Besides the amount of cars, the types of cars you come across always amazes me enormously. There’re the trillion-or-so taxis – yellow cabs in the case of Liberia – and then off course all varieties of 4WDs used by the dozens of agencies, UN, ministries and entrepreneurs. But every so often you also come across more exotic Porsches, Mercedes and – in Monrovia – even a Chrysler crossfire. I always wonder what they’re doing in such environment. One could go up and down the boulevard, but as soon as you leave the business centre there’s no way avoiding the potholes. In a sense, I really find it a shame. Not because of the posh owners who clearly want to show off, but a shame that such beautiful cars are being mistreated and are not receiving the appreciation, caring and passion they deserve.

But enough about cars. Stranded in the traffic jam, I witnessed a scene that provided me with a fresh look to WASH  and dignity. Providing and restoring dignity is a strong advocate for WASH. Providing clean, appropriate and safe WASH facilities is providing dignified facilities. Facilities where one can relief or wash him or herself without being seen or harassed. So that one does not have to wonder into the bush or wait till after dark to do so. But what I saw on that street corner in Monrovia, gave it a new meaning. On the pavement lay a pile of rubbish of some two meters in diameter. A mother with a child strapped to her back was picking through it with her bare hands, looking for some materials she might be able to use or sell, or perhaps even for some food remains. This sight was already rather unpleasant, but –though unfortunate I have to say this – not rare. What I did find sickening though was the fact that some young man was urinating opposite on the same pile. I mean, how degrading is that!?

After a good night sleep, I was welcomed at breakfast by a large crowd of loud men. All in 3-piece suits, all – seemingly – important people. Shouting orders at the staff who (they thought) weren’t giving them the attention they deserved or at least not at the speed they deserved. After breakfast, the loud group moved to the lobby, awaiting their transport. I later discovered they were attendees to the WWD2012 conference in town. As I drove to the office a little later, I was overtaken by them as they raced – police escorted – to their conference. I sincerely wonder what their day would look like. A day full of speeches, an impressive lunch, exclusive dinner and reception where the loud group would probably become even more louder. But we shouldn’t forget the final paper full of vague goals and promises that are never kept.

But my cynicism turned into shame later that day, back at the hotel. The loud group hadn’t returned yet (and probably wouldn’t anytime soon). Having enjoyed a shower just before, I was having dinner on the hotel’s terrace. Below me, on the street, a water truck was refilling the hotel’s roof tanks. With a crappy petrol pump water was pumped from the truck towards the roof, the fire hose passing by the terrace I was sitting. Instead of the noise from the pump, I was distracted by the loud shouting of women, so I leaned over the railing to have a look what was happening. A group of some twenty women and children was fighting over the spills from the pump and the hose. Pushing and shoving each other’s buckets and basins, these women seemed willing to die for these few drops of water. All of a sudden, my dinner and cold beer didn’t go down so well anymore. With that horrific picture in my mind I went to bed early that night. The night of WWD2012…

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Sanitation for all! …free of cost in emergencies…

Posted on March 7, 2012 by marcovisser

It has always bothered me that so many aid agencies keep swearing by ‘old school’ developmental approaches when it comes to sanitation in emergencies. It is not exceptional to find aid agencies demanding IDP’s or refugees to participate in e.g. latrine construction activities in camps. The argument always being that if people are not involved in the construction, they lack the sense of ownership and therefor won’t maintain (read: clean) the facilities. Yet, the vast majority of facilities I have seen in my career (and that are many latrines, I can tell you) are still in a horrifying state (and don’t even let me get started about the odour…).

What bothers me most is the fact that these arguments of ownership etc. are not heard in other sectors. Water is provided free of cost, medical care is provided at no cost and I have never heard of food-for-work in any emergency. Why is it then that for sanitation other rules of engagement apply?

I don’t dispute the notion that community involvement and participation is essential for the sustainability of any intervention and ultimately the key to a successful withdrawal of external assistance. But in an emergency one simply cannot expect people to care (let alone get excited) about e.g. participating in the construction of a latrine. People have other things on their mind!

Also, the notion of  the community might be erroneous. As a result of the emergency, previously existing community structures may well be completely disrupted and the population of a camp does not necessarily qualify as a community. So, if in such a situation you’d have to share one latrine with nine or even forty-nine  complete strangers, how keen would you be to regularly clean this facility?

I advocate for clean, well-maintained and safe sanitary services in emergencies, free of cost!

This is a synopsis of an article I wrote, that has been published in Waterlines, Volume 31, Numbers 1-2.

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