World Humanitarian Day
On World Humanitarian Day, we perhaps allow ourselves a few more minutes to think about others. Perhaps those we often find it hard to think about or to imagine. To remind ourselves that humans, wherever they are, deserve the basic access to freedom, to peace, to equity and to love that many of us enjoy. To have to make a special day each year is both a tribute, and a damning indictment of humankind. On most measures, it has been a relentless and notably horrific few years for humanity.
Moving from the private sector as I have and beginning my first few weeks as CEO of the David Nott Foundation, I have been struck by the unfortunate parallels in the language used. I did not expect to be talking about a “growth market”, but that is indeed what humanitarianism is experiencing.
For the past 12 years, the number of displaced people has increased every year. The number of refugees has tripled in a decade. In 2023, 1 in 69 of us on the planet were forced to leave our homes – 117.3 million people. More specifically to our line of work, conflict related fatalities are also on the rise. The annual number of deaths in conflict since we began our work almost a decade ago has risen by 92% to almost 250,000 this year.
Many of those deaths will be what we call ‘Survivable Deaths’. It is these deaths our teams work tirelessly to prevent by training doctors with the skills they need in conflict and catastrophe.
You can imagine that if we saw these kinds of numbers on a business forecast in a different context, it would be a reason to celebrate. But we are in the business of alleviating suffering. The more suffering there is, the more of a strain and demand it puts on the sector as a whole to meet the vital needs of those we must continuously work to serve.
In a conversation with a Ukrainian diplomat some months ago, I heard her talk of war as “a branding exercise”. She explained to me that Ukraine was not just competing with other wars for international attention and resources, but also with Donald Trump, Taylor Swift and the Climate Crisis. Her point was clear. To win the war, you need to win the media and the requisite public support. It is for this reason that today I believe we should think deeply, not just about the horrors we are seeing on our newsfeed, but to the horrors we are not. With conflicts and catastrophe raging all over the world in Haiti, DRC, the West African Sahel, Afghanistan and Myanmar, to name just a few, we can perhaps be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed and somewhat fatigued. One of our explicit responsibilities at the David Nott Foundation is to think every day about these ‘forgotten conflicts’ and lesser-known catastrophes. Thanks to the incredible generosity of our donors, we are able to consider them in our planning and delivery of vital surgical and medical training. However, the increasing need is so vast, that we and other non-profit organisations worldwide need to think very seriously about how we scale – another regrettable business term that is a sign of our times. Scaling requires funding, partners, innovation, knowledge and an appetite for risk. Many of us do not consider ourselves as direct contributors to humanitarian work, but with the skills and requirements I describe, perhaps today is the day to re-consider. To be more explicit, we certainly wish to hear from you at the David Nott Foundation.
With gratitude, James Gough
CEO
Doctors’ needs in the West Bank
Over 300 days have passed since Hamas’s invasion of Israel and Israel’s retaliatory attacks on Gaza. Gaza is home to many forcibly displaced Palestinian refugees. The 41 kilometers-long Strip has been under siege since 2006, enduring five major wars, with the retaliation of the October 7th conflict being one of the deadliest in recent history.
In the West Bank, Palestinians live under Israeli military occupation, with Israel controlling essential resources like water and electricity. The intensifying Gaza-Israel war has exacerbated these difficulties. On-the-ground reports reveal that those who live in the West Bank face increasing attacks from Israeli settlers, checkpoints, military raids, increase in settlements, and the detention of Palestinian men, women, and children.
We reached out to Dr Mariam Aweidah, a general surgeon and our Faculty Lead for Palestine, to shed light on doctors’ needs in the West Bank. Mariam lives in Ramallah and travels to Jericho to work, a journey that should take an hour but often stretches to several due to road conditions and checkpoints.
"Every day is different. We always check the news before leaving to see if there are settlers or checkpoints on the roads. As Palestinians, this is part of our daily routine to ensure the roads are somewhat safe for travel." – Mariam Aweidah, Faculty Lead for Palestine.
Mariam works at a peripheral hospital in Jericho, where resources, infrastructure, and specialisations are limited. They frequently need to refer patients to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah to seek the care they need but face significant checkpoint challenges which can prevent patients from passing through, even in ambulances.
Despite being a general surgeon, Mariam sometimes operates on paediatric cases due to the limited capacity at the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah. Patients come from across the West Bank, but intensified travel challenges between cities and villages have increased the difficulties for both patients and doctors.
"We don't have intensive trauma training. With more trauma cases and cities isolated from each other, this causes a heavy burden because we aren't all trained for this. We often have numerous gunshot cases, and hospitals can't handle them due to a lack of resources and trained personnel."
Now more than ever, we are committed to training medical professionals in territories that require urgent support such as Palestine. As soon as it is safe to do so, we aim to raise doctors' skills through our training.
"I received training with the David Nott Foundation, which has greatly influenced my ability to manage, stabilise, and save lives quickly”, shared Mariam. “However, not all doctors in Palestine have had this opportunity. I hope to organise another training course to enhance the skills of more medical professionals in the West Bank and in Gaza."