Flying Fish and Jumping Bushes
by Mehr Khan
Perhaps, the most interesting and exciting part was in communication and social mobilization. The foundations for this were laid by UNICEF’s first Executive Director, Maurice Pate. Its third Executive Director, James P. Grant tirelessly advocated for children and demonstrated that simple solutions were available to deal with tough problems. This massive effort culminated in the World Summit for Children at the United Nations in New York in 1990. At the largest gathering of world leaders, Presidents and Prime Ministers spoke on children for two days. I was proud to be part of the communication team not just for the Summit but for all of UNICEF’s work.
But my memories of my time in UNICEF also include other amazing experiences. Here below are two of them.
The purpose of my first field trip to the Solomon Islands to write a story on malaria eradication in the islands. A World Health Organization nurse accompanied me to a remote outer island.
We were invited to dinner by a couple of New Zealand nurses who told us stories about recent cannibalistic activity on the islands. After dinner, we picked our way back to our residence through dense jungle with a small torch. I was on edge. But worse was to come. The guest house, perched on a small hill, had no electricity and no running water. There was only one bathroom at the end of a long dark corridor. The only sound was the crashing of the ocean down below.
My room had a small window, a hurricane lamp, a bed and one chair. No curtains. I could not see outside, but was acutely aware that anyone lurking out there could see me in the full light cast by the lamp. I struggled with whether I should turn off the lamp or leave it on. Finally my fear of what could be outside drove me to turn off the lamp. I stayed awake all night.
The next morning, the sun was shining. The ocean was sparkling. After we had seen the malaria project, we took our small motor boat back to Honiara, the capital. Almost all the way back we were escorted by a school of beautiful flying fish. I got a good story out of the trip and an experience I will never forget.
Another unforgettable trip was to write a story on how famine and disasters can lead to beneficial change which would not have happened without the crisis. This time I went to Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Uganda.
This story is about Uganda. The famine in Karamoja had devastated groups of migrant herders in northern Uganda. The country itself was falling apart and Kampala, the capital, was devastated. My colleague Moira Hart and I hitched a ride on a small plane from Kampala to Karamoja to check out the impact of the famine on Karamajong. Gilbert Greenfield, the local director of Oxfam was flying there with his mother who was visiting him from England. It was a peaceful, beautiful ride as we flew low over the lake and the treetops. But when we spotted the small airstrip where we were to land, we were a little alarmed. It was strewn with rocks.
The plane was small and the pilot skilled, so we made a safe landing. But when it came to a stop, the bushes surrounding the air strip suddenly jumped up. They were actually men with guns camouflaged with leaves and branches. We had no idea how long they had been there.
But we were not particularly perturbed until the Oxfam director was taken to a nearby shed. This alarmed us. Then a jeep pulled up. Our colleague, Mark Sterling, who lived in Karamoja near the airstrip had not received the message we sent about our arrival. But when he saw the low-flying plane coming in to land, he called the local police chief and they drove to the airstrip together.
As soon as he jumped out of the jeep, the police chief rushed up to the three women standing there and asked us “Have you been raped”? Finally we understood the danger we had been in. The police chief sorted it all out and we were taken to the house of our nutrition officer, David Alnwick, for a beer.
UNICEF was a cause to which we gave our all but it was also an adventure.
Comments
Post a Comment