Heroes

This essay is part of a (more or less) weekly feature on this blog that presents interesting stories from elsewhere in the world, particularly Africa, that are little reported in the American media. It's part of my campaign to get people to realize there is a lot going on in the world outside the US, Israel, Iraq and Iran*. (*-added on the suggestion of a reader)

I usually don't engage in hagiography but there is one profession that deserves it. There is no group for which I have greater respect than humanitarian aid workers. These are usually well-educated and highly qualified individuals that could easily make a very nice salary in their own countries. But instead of living in relatively safe North American or European cities, they choose of their own free will to go to some of the most inhospitable and/or violent places on the planet. Instead of working in nice, air-conditioned skyscrapers, they work in disgusting refugee camps and poorly equipped hospitals in the jungle or desert. In other words, they sacrifice what would be a comfortable, well of life to go to some of the most miserable places on earth, often with the 'perk' of being witness to man's greatest inhumanities toward fellow man.

And their mission is not to kill people or blow stuff up. Their sole purpose for doing so is to help people, to make people's lives better or at least a little less miserable. They feed the hungry, cloth the sick, give shelter to those who've lost their homes due to conflict. While not all aid workers are Christian, I can't think of any mission that's more truly to the Christian spirit. When I lived in West Africa, I wasn't a humanitarian aid worker but I knew people who were. I knew the lives they'd chosen to give up and I know the reasons why they chose to do so. I know the impact they had on the lives of people who really need it.

This article in South Africa's Daily Mail and Guardian newspaper reminds us that as as noble as their work may be, it's also extremely dangerous. Dangerous because as great as I think their work is, the combattants often disagree. Just as civilians have become a deliberate target of combattants in most war zones, so have these unarmed aid workers.

They're not just honorable, they're physically courageous. Aid workers are part of 'one of the world's most hazardous professions,' according to the United Nations. In fact, it is the fifth most hazardous civilian profession in the world. A soon-to-be-published study revealed that violent acts against aid workers, as measured in absolute terms, have increased markedly since 1997, with a steeper increase in the second half of this decade.

So when some Americans say the UN is worthless, they're saying that helping refugees fleeing war zones is worthless. They're saying that bringing clean water to disease-prone areas is worthless. They're saying that feeding starving people is worthless. Would THEY have the guts to risk their lives on a daily basis, without the benefit of a weapon, to vaccinate children in a distant country? If not, then maybe they shouldn't attack those courageous heroes who do.

There is no profession more worthy of admiration. I tip my cap to all of them.