Dark alleys, a security risk in movies and in real life.
An ACT member working in Ethiopia has an extensive water project in the eastern part of the country. One day, the chief mechanic was driving a pick-up truck filled with water construction materials to the project area.
From the river bank of the right side of the highway Children were walking along the highway and crossing into the road with out watching the traffic.
The driver tried to slow the truck down but he was unable to stop in time. He hit and 7 year old boy a15 year old girl.
The driver immediately took the two children to the nearest hospital for medical treatment. The young boy died and the girl was seriously injured. The driver later was taken into police custody and charged with speeding and not being observant.
The driver did not only kill and injure two children. Since he was a humanitarian worker, he also jeopardized the image of the organization that he worked for and thereby, put the organization at risk.
A dark alley in Nicaragua
Always keep in mind that you as an individual also are responsible for your own personal safety.
This is the story of an expatriate country representative of an ACT member from a neighboring country who was on mission in Managua, Nicaragua. One evening, after dining at a restaurant, he was walking alone down a dark street on his way back to his hotel. Suddenly, two men attacked him and robbed him of his belongings. He lost a wallet with all his money, his camera, his passport and his credit cards. The robbers also beat him badly.
Luckily, the police found him shortly after the robbery and attack. He received medical attention and later returned to his home country. Remember, you are yourself responsible for your own security on the job and off. As this young man found out, walking alone down a dark street, carrying valuable belongings is a very risky venture.
A very difficult day: security capacity building in Pakistan
When the armed bodyguards of a local politician approached an NGO relief manager in Sindh, Pakistan, it was the beginning of a very difficult day.
The manager was in the midst of a distribution of food to assist families affected by the 2010 Pakistan floods. The armed men demanded that the organization hand over their food packages so that the politician could distribute the food and take credit. The relief manager and his colleagues refused.
Soon, dozens of other armed men, perhaps 150 in all, surrounded the school and held the staff hostage. While detained, the manager made several phone calls to other local politicians so that they could influence the politician trying to take over the aid distribution. After two hours of frantic phone calls, the armed men left and the organization was able to carry out its work.
Several weeks later, the manager attended a security and risk management workshop for NGO managers sponsored by Church World Service-Pakistan/Afghanistan in partnership with fellow ACT Alliance member, DanChurchAid.
The training reaffirmed the manager’s decision to seek a peaceful end to the incident by using diplomatic pressure.
The moral of the story? It is important to strengthen small local organizations to better manage and respond to risks and threats they face. The training not only reconfirmed the manager’s decision, but gave him a chance to study risks, threats and strategic planning.
“The area where we were working before the floods had a zero percent crime rate, so security was not as much of a concern,” the relief manager said. As the organization increased its presence in new areas in Sindh, the security situation become increasingly more complex. Hence the need to be better prepared.
The manager noted that even members of local criminal gangs uprooted by the floods respect the work of the organization, due to the organization’s adherence to humanitarian principles. “These criminal groups have said, ‘You are doing the humanitarian work. You are the aid workers, so there is no harm for you. You can do anything. We support you,'” he recalls. “Sometimes it is not the criminals, but the politicians that you have to worry about.”