When conflict, climate change, a global pandemic and other disasters challenge the resilience of millions in Ethiopia.
A community leader in her hometown, Zemzem walked 17 days to find safety after fighting in Tigray, Ethiopia forced her to leave earlier this year. “Our house was set on fire and looted, one of our family members died and after a lot of adversity, we arrived here,” says Zemzem, one of 23.5 million people in dire need due to the combined impacts of violence, climate change, Covid-19, locust infestations, drought and floods.
More than 80 percent of those impacted by the conflict are outside the region of Tigray. In this powerful video, we also meet volunteers for the Ethiopian Red Cross who risk their own lives to help people hurt by the fighting, or sick due to diseases or malnutrion. “There are some things I have seen that made me scared, like any other human,” says Beyene, one Ethiopian Red Cross ambulance driver. “But I think I will have a big story to tell in the future, I feel I’ve done something good…helping people and making life better.”
There are some things I have seen that made me scared, like any other human, but I think I will have a big story to tell in the future, I feel I’ve done something good…helping people and making life better.
Beyene, Ethiopian Red Cross
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.”
The daily dedication of volunteers is a key reason the Venezuelan Red Cross has been able to help people on all sides of the political divide.
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