The Mercy Corps Blog

Blog Post Posted October 26, 2009, 9:54 am by Roger Burks

Trying to do better

Yesterday, on the wet streets of grey Portland, I felt like an ass.

I was walking back from lunch, a to-go cup of coffee in my hand, when a disheveled man in his early twenties approached me with a kind look on his face. He walked quickly toward me with a sense of purpose and then stopped to talk.

“Excuse me, sir,” he started slowly and uneasily. “I know you don’t know me and you don’t owe me anything. But I just got released from a drug treatment program on Friday, and my counselor left town for the weekend before helping me get set up. I tried to get into a shelter, but they turned me away because I don’t have a tuberculosis test. I was wondering if you might have a dollar or two so I can find another place to sleep tonight.”

I didn’t hesitate for long, because his story seemed straightforward and sincere. Over the weekend, I’d had others on the streets seek money for beer. Pot. Even a Frappucino from Starbucks. So this was a bit of a relief.

I dug in my right pocket, looking for the dollar bill I knew was there. Sliding my fingers under my wallet, unsure of what expression I should be wearing as the seconds dragged out, I finally found it — wrapped inside what I knew was a ten-dollar bill. I carefully extracted it so that both bills wouldn’t come out at the same time.

With an embarrassed little smile, I folded the dollar bill in half and handed it to the man. And, like I said, I felt like an ass.

I was standing there with a cup of coffee that cost $3, having just finished a lunch that cost four times that. I was on my way to a bookstore, looking to buy some things I didn’t really need.

And I only gave the man a dollar. Honestly, I don’t know if he was really going to put it toward a bed — like many of you, I’ve been poisoned by the cynicism that a handout will just go toward alcohol or drugs — but it didn't matter in that moment. I felt selfish in offering so little. I felt like a fraud.

During my working days at Mercy Corps, I feel capable of writing a story that will not only raise readers’ awareness of a place they’ve never heard of, but actually make them care about it. I know that, with the help of my colleagues, I can put together an email appeal that will raise thousands of dollars for earthquake survivors who have lost their homes, belongings and loved ones.

Dozens of homeless people sleep under Portland's Burnside Bridge on a cold, rainy autumn night. Photo: Roger Burks/Mercy Corps

But, confronted with need on the streets of Portland, I felt inadequate.

Last night, I took a train across the Willamette River to see a movie. When I boarded the train around 8 PM — right in front of the new Mercy Corps headquarters — there were a few homeless people gathering and claiming spots under the Burnside Bridge, sheltering themselves from the inevitable rain.

When I returned there after the movie, around midnight, there were dozens of people there: some were wrapped up in sleeping bags or blankets, while others simply propped themselves against the wall. I didn’t see the young man from earlier in the day, but I did see many in their teens and twenties, including a few couples.

Estimates say that there are up to 8,000 homeless people on the streets of Portland every night. The rain is falling. Winter is coming.

I spent $12 for lunch, $3 for coffee, $6.50 to see a movie and $2 for a soda — and gave just a dollar to help someone today.

I know that, individually, we can’t help everyone. But I feel like we can always try to do better.

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Blog Post Posted October 14, 2009, 3:30 pm by Roger Burks

Possibility

When the Norwegian Nobel Committee bestowed the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on President Barack Obama last week, it seems the prevailing opinion across the United States was confusion. Then, predictably, that turned into a million other feelings, provoking sometimes-furious debates about prematurity and worthiness.

The Committee’s official statement said that Obama was honored because of his “"extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." It acknowledged how he had captured the world’s attention and imagination to inspire hope.

I think there’s one word to sum up why Obama was chosen: possibility. And I believe that, in the results-oriented world we live in, possibility is often overlooked.

There is power in possibility. Every day on a less public stage, in some of the world’s most isolated and neglected places, that’s what my Mercy Corps colleagues are acknowledging. In many of those places – where earthquakes have toppled houses or war has forced families into exile, where everything has been lost or taken – possibility is the only thing left.

I don’t think you can have hope without possibility. There must be the possibility of a change for the better, a possibility to recover and rebuild. Give a book to a child, a loan to a struggling mother or a peaceful handshake to a former adversary and there is possibility. It is often passed on, transforming communities and changing the world a little at a time.

Hope keeps people going, but possibility gets them started.

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Blog Post Posted October 1, 2009, 12:18 pm by Roger Burks

Staff in Padang is safe

We'd mentioned in a couple of blog entries that, because of telecommunications outages in the earthquake zone, we hadn't yet heard from our staff in the devastated city of Padang. But now we have — and not only is everyone all right, but busy working on emergency response around the clock.

First, Mercy Corps staffer Emily Rand — a Senior Program Officer in the Banda Aceh office on the northern tip of Sumatra island — gave us an update via her Twitter account:

All Mercy Corps Padang Indonesia staff accounted for. All safe and assisting others with recovery after yesterdays earth quake!

And then, just a couple hours ago, we heard from Mercy Corps Program Director Malka Older, who'd just arrived in Padang from Jakarta.

So our staff is safe and, even though it's about 3:00 A.M. in Padang right now, it's almost certain they're still at the office working.

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Blog Post Posted October 1, 2009, 8:45 am by Roger Burks

Another earthquake hits Sumatra

Early Thursday morning — shortly before nine o'clock local time — another major earthquake shook the cities and villages of western Sumatra. That 6.8 magnitude earthquake came only about 15 hours after a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the same region, killing at least 1,100 people so far, injuring 500 and trapping thousands more under collapsed buildings.

The Indonesian Health Minister speculated that the destruction and loss of life from these earthquakes might surpass the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake, which killed more than 5,000 people. In devastated areas of Sumatra, widespread electrical and communications outages — as well as fallen bridges and blocked roads — are slowing news from on the ground and hindering relief efforts.

"What we're hearing from Padang is sporadic," said Mercy Corps Indonesia's Country Director, Sean Granville-Ross. "It's difficult, communications are down. What we have heard is this was a huge earthquake and there has been significant damage."

Mercy Corps has an office in Padang that was out of contact for much of Wednesday. An emergency team from Jakarta was scheduled to arrive in Padang on Thursday morning, and we are waiting to hear from them.

Our staff in Indonesia and around the world is staying up-to-date on the latest developments, and will bring you updates from the ground and news of our emergency response as we receive it.

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Blog Post Posted September 30, 2009, 9:16 am by Roger Burks

Major earthquake strikes western Sumatra

A powerful earthquake struck western Indonesia today, collapsing buildings and causing landslides in coastal areas, especially Padang — a city of 900,000 people. Preliminary reports from the most-affected areas place the death toll at 75, with possibly thousands of people trapped under rubble.

Mercy Corps is deploying an emergency team to Padang, the closest major city to the epicenter. As the scope of the disaster comes into better focus, we need your help to deliver assistance to the survivors of this latest tragedy to hit Indonesia.

On September 30, families in Indonesia were struck by the second major earthquake in a month. Photo: REUTERS/Supri, courtesy of www.alertnet.org

The magnitude 7.6 earthquake, which hit the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, was followed just a few minutes later by 6.2 magnitude earthquake. Power and communications lines are down, and road access to devastated areas is blocked by debris.

Mercy Corps’ response will include distribution of shelter items, other relief supplies and provision of clean water. Our team will also continue to assess the situation, alongside other responders and local authorities, to determine how we can help in other ways.

We've operated programs in Padang for the last several years, including disaster preparedness, infrastructure rebuilding and nutrition for mothers and children. This ongoing work places us in a unique position to mount an effective, widespread response to a variety of critical needs.

We will keep you updated as the situation comes into better focus.

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Blog Post Posted September 25, 2009, 2:16 pm by Roger Burks

Dignity through writing

There’s a lot more behind the words you read here than you might think. Of course there are the personal styles, unique experiences and cultural diversity of the more than 70 writers who’ve contributed to this blog, but there’s something bigger that unites us as storytellers: respect.

Before a keystroke is made, we consider how each word will portray those we’re writing about. We question how those we represent and serve would feel if they were to read what we’d written.

One word in particular illustrates the commitment we’ve made to humanitarian storytelling: survivor. Almost five years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami, a few of us sat down for a vigorous and earnest debate on how to chronicle the most unimaginable disaster of our time. The media and many of our colleague organizations were using the word “victim” to describe those who’d lost everything but their lives to the waves.

But, really, who wants to be portrayed as a victim? Would you?

“Victim” is a label that might elicit sympathy for a moment, but at what cost? It connotes someone who’s stayed down rather than gotten back up. It imparts hopelessness rather than determination. It erodes dignity.

Words do matter, and so we chose to use a term that portrayed strength and possibility – because that’s what we see every day in the tough, isolated and sometimes-brutal places where we work.

Just recently, one of our bloggers from Indonesia — Octavia Mariance — carefully chose her words when writing a story about meeting mothers who’d been affected by a major earthquake. She titled her piece “Meeting the survivors.” Octavia made the story more about rising to the challenge than remaining in the rubble.

Words can either keep people in desperation or help lift them to a more hopeful day. At Mercy Corps, we’ve chosen to eschew the shock value of “poverty porn” in favor of inspiring our readers with real-life stories of people who succeed against nearly impossible odds.

In every word we write, we have to make a choice. Here we choose dignity. We choose hope.

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Blog Post Posted September 14, 2009, 3:17 pm by Roger Burks

Forgiveness

Ugandan soldiers and policemen guard a burnt police station and vehicles in a suburb of Kampala. Photo: REUTERS/James Akena

Over the weekend, I paid attention to news of rioting in Uganda, a country I visited on a field trip almost three years ago. The violence was set off by rising tensions between one of Uganda’s traditional kings and the elected government. Supporters of the king took to the streets in protest of what they believed was Ugandan government interference in their culture and heritage.

At least 21 people were killed and 86 injured. Almost 700 people have been arrested. Dozens of buildings and stores were torched and looted. Cars were overturned and burned.

According to reports, Monday seemed calm on the streets of Kampala —Uganda’s capital — but choked with debris from the recent mayhem.

We all know that the blaze of violence, fueled by hatred or misunderstanding, can consume villages, cities and even entire countries before anyone can think of a way to put it out. Unfortunately such violence seems to occur disproportionately in Africa.

So once the fire has died out and survivors stand looking at the ashes, what happens next?

Is the first impulse revenge for what they’ve had taken from them? I think that, if I was to put myself in their place in those dark moments, I would have a hard time thinking about anything other than that.

Or, in a place where violence is so spontaneous and widespread — where the fate of nations is often decided by long-running blood feuds between a few individuals — does the fatigue of endless bloodshed give way to a desire for rest, for peace?

It’s hard to imagine reconciliation and even forgiveness rising from death and destruction. But that's exactly what's happening a couple hundred miles north of Kampala, in a place that was governed by displacement, killing and fear for more than two decades.

Cecilia Lamunu, widowed by Uganda's long-running civil war, holds a gas lamp against the darkness inside her tiny hut in Pader District. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

Taking lessons from similar challenges around the world — from conflict-torn places like Guatemala, Kosovo, Liberia and Iraq — Mercy Corps is leading the Pader Peace Program, an approach that is restoring peace and security in Pader District, a place where up to 80 percent of the population were driven from their homes. This program uses “peace committees” composed of ordinary citizens to help resolve disputes before they escalate. Before property or lives are lost.

Over the last several months, the Pader Peace Program has already helped resolve 152 land disputes, 97 cases of domestic violence and 23 border disputes between neighboring counties. It’s bringing villagers, local leaders and government officials together for dialogue in a place where civil war interrupted any kind of governance for a generation.

The Pader Peace Program even helped the people of Atanga, a sub-county in Pader District, build a monument to those who lost their lives in during the decades of fighting between the Lord’s Resistance Army and Ugandan government troops: more than 440 men, women and children. Some of the worst atrocities of the civil war were committed here in Atanga, but its people want nothing more than to move on.

When the monument was dedicated, one of the speakers said, “This monument is a symbol that will serve as a reminder to future generations — something that can stop further war. If we truly want peace, we must forgive those who committed these atrocities.”

Because forgiveness is hard — and owning up to misdeeds maybe more so — anywhere you are, despite the circumstances.

But in places like northern Uganda, places where the past is obliterated, there is only the present and — beyond that — a more hopeful future. In places like this, that future begins with forgiveness and hard work.

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Blog Post Posted September 8, 2009, 2:14 pm by Roger Burks

A harsh reality for Mongolia's herders

I just listened to a piece on NPR (National Public Radio) about how the global financial crisis continues to plague one of the world's most remote places: Mongolia. Even though analysts are reporting that most markets have begun to emerge from the crisis, Mongolia's people — particularly herders, who comprise 40 percent of Mongolia's population — are still feeling the worst of it.

As a relatively isolated country that mostly exports raw materials like wool, cashmere and metals, Mongolia began to experience the crisis a bit later than other countries. But when it came, it hit hard: market prices for cashmere were suddenly cut in half because of lagging sales on the world market.

Faced with the harsh realities of the global economic crisis, Mongolian herders are having to make hard decisions to support their families. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

Lower prices for commodities like cashmere have ravaged the Mongolian economy: today at least 25 percent of workers are unemployed, more than two and a half times the current unemployment rate here in the United States. In Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital and largest city, wages for day laborers are down by 60 percent.

And, as in the United States, Mongolia's people — especially nomads — are struggling to repay loans that they'd taken out under much different circumstances. Thousands of families are now having to sell off their livestock herds, their source of meeting household needs and means of surviving the countries long, harsh winters.

For a decade, Mercy Corps' Gobi Initiative has been helping rural agricultural families diversify their incomes to survive crises like this. You can read more about some of the people we're proud to serve in Boundless Horizons, a series of stories I wrote after a trip to Mongolia last year. Mercy Corps programs are helping 640,000 Mongolians — more than 20 percent of the country's entire population.

Of course I wonder how the many families I met on my journey are doing. Having seen their hard work and successes up close, I feel confident that they are handling the strain much better than some of their neighbors. Still, the harsh realities of life in Mongolia — weather, distance, isolation — are so much different than what we're used to.

Where most of us live, the global financial crisis has meant hard decisions on what we should buy. When we could buy it. What we could afford. What we should do without. But it has never been a question of survival.

Across the Gobi Desert today, survival is precisely the question. What will families do when their herds are gone but loans remain?

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Blog Post Posted September 2, 2009, 2:05 pm by Roger Burks

Powerful earthquake hits Indonesia

Earlier today, a major earthquake registering 7.0 on the Richter scale struck the Indonesian island of Java. Although the tremor was centered 120 miles southeast of Jakarta — Mercy Corps' headquarters in Indonesia — the city felt a significant jolt. Jakarta's central business district was evacuated as buildings swayed, and traffic came to an hours-long halt.

This morning, I spoke with one of our field staff who was working in another part of the city when the earthquake hit. She reported that the tremor was strong, but no one around her was injured.

All of our staff members in Indonesia have been accounted for.

The casualties currently stand at 42 dead and more than 300 injured, with strong indications that the numbers will rise. While it seems that the rescue and relief efforts of the Indonesian government and some of our colleague agencies are meeting the needs of survivors, we will continue to closely monitor the situation to see how we can help.

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Blog Post Posted August 31, 2009, 1:42 pm by Roger Burks

The power of remembrance

Mercy Corps Founders Dan O'Neill (left) and Ells Culver stand among the tents at Mesa Grande refugee camp in El Salvador in the mid-1980s. Photo: Mercy Corps

Like millions of Americans, I watched the funeral of Senator Edward M. Kennedy over the weekend. And I was touched by all of the simple, yet powerful eulogies that poured forth from those who mourned yet celebrated his life — particularly President Barack Obama.

Those carefully considered, extraordinarily-delivered words made me think of an elegiac piece I’ve always admired, posted to this website four Augusts ago. It’s a heartfelt remembrance that I still believe is the best writing I’ve read during my many years working here.

On August 15, 2005, Mercy Corps Co-Founder Ells Culver passed away, leaving a legacy of friendship and lasting change around the world. Besides Ells’ family, there must have been few that felt the loss as much as Dan O’Neill, Mercy Corps’ Founder and Ells’ longtime friend.

And so early the morning of August 16, after receiving a phone call with the tragic news, Dan sat down and wrote Reflections on Life, Times and Travels with Ellsworth Culver, then traveled from his home near Seattle to be with his Mercy Corps family on a mournful summer day. I am still awestruck by one particular paragraph in Dan’s piece:

In the early days of our travels we shared cheap hotel rooms and late night talk about our kids and just how big the universe is. We shared bad water, cheap beers, boiled Bedouin coffee, tea from China and a host of remote village brews and concoctions. On a couple of occasions, our careless consumption of local food fare cramped our guts with crippling runs and we carried each other through airports and beat up taxis filled with the stench of a million cigarettes.

Many days, when I’m seeking inspiration for what I should write, I think about those words. That arresting visual of two men supporting each other as they sought to create something that would – quite literally – change the world. It makes me incredibly proud to work for Mercy Corps.

And then there’s this thought:

…we decided that some of the horrors we witnessed should not be discussed with others, but should remain our own personal nightmares, burning holes in our souls which would become the emotional "fuel" for our own radical commitment to the mission. Perhaps, we speculated, this is the redemptive use of suffering and emotional pain for a higher cause.

We all carry experiences, memories and hard-won truths that keep us going. Make us try harder. I had never before thought about “the redemptive use of suffering.” But now I feel it every day.

I carry around the stories of everyone I’ve met on my travels. Many make it onto this website, and my sincerest hope is the people who read those stories will at least remember them. But other stories remain within me, giving me the emotional fuel to try harder, write more persuasively and do right by those I've met around the world.

But a eulogy — doing right not only by the memory of the one who's passed on, but also the recollections and feelings of all those loved ones — is perhaps the hardest thing to write and deliver.

I gave eulogies for both of my grandmothers, writing down my memories just hours before speaking in front of family and friends. Both times, I struggled through my words and just hoped that those assembled could understand what I was saying through my tears. And both times, the love I felt immediately afterward — and joyful remembrance we continue to share — far exceeded anything I’d said.

Simple, powerful words help us remember those we’ve lost, and sometimes even change the lives of those who remain.

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