Photo: REUTERS/Ismail Zetouni
Four athletes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) represented their country at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in September, with the support of their national paralympic committee and the ICRC. “I never expected to get this far, I’m so happy!” said Luyina Kiese Rosette, who took up athletics in 2010 after losing part of her right leg due to stepping on a landmine. Through the ICRC’s physical rehabilitation programme, she received treatment and an orthopaedic device. In Rio, Rosette and fellow athlete Tolombo Kitete Crispin competed in the shot-put and javelin. Two other athletes from the DRC — Mwengani Mabonze John and Kinzonzi Kaba Paul — competed in the track events.
It’s the stuff of science fiction: machines that make decisions about who and when to kill. Referred to as “autonomous weapons”, they’re already in use to some degree. But as more sophisticated systems are being developed we wanted to an expert in the field about whether such systems comply with international humanitarian law and what it means for humanity to give machines the power over human life and death.
In this episode, we talk with humanitarian communicator Kathy Mueller who produced our first magazine podcast series, The Wildfire Diaries, about massive wildfires in Northern Canada in 2017. We talk about that series, her many international missions, and the big changes in humanitarian communications since she began with the Canadian Red Cross almost 20 years ago.
In this episode, we talk about the power of storytelling to inform and inspire. “Storytelling is a fundamental aspect of human communication,” says our guest Prodip, a volunteer and multi-media storyteller for the Bangladesh Red Crescent. “It inspires us to be a hero of our own community.” We also speak with one such community hero, Dalal al-Taji, a longtime volunteer and advocate for inclusion of people with disabilities in emergencies response. “In disasters. persons with disabilities sometimes get forgotten.”
Meet Hassan Al Kontar, the renowned “man in the airport,” who was stuck in an airport while seeking asylum. Also with Houda Al-Fadil, a Syrian refugee striving to rebuild her cooking business after surviving a devastating earthquake in Türkiye.
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