Despite insecurity near the border with Somalia, and the threats associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, Safari Doctors, which has won several commendations, including a UN award, for its work, continues its monthly visits to the marginalized communities of Lamu.

Ms. Omar shares her story as part of the #RealLifeHeroes campaign, by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), ahead of this year’s World Humanitarian Day, on 19 August.

“I am from Pate Island, in the Lamu archipelago. I went to graduate school in the United States and worked in Washington DC, but I decided to return home and, in 2015, founded Safari Doctors.

In Kenya, some 70 per cent of the population live in remote areas, where it’s hard to get quality healthcare, and difficult for sick people to reach hospitals. That’s why we decided to bring healthcare to the community.

Finding medicine was the easy part, as it is readily available. The challenge was to get it to those in need. I had to figure out how to raise around $500 a month, to pay for a nurse and fuel for a motorbike. I did that for a whole year. The following year, we added more villages and gained more visibility, especially once we won an award from the international broadcaster, CNN.

A population vulnerable to the pandemic

Lamu is one of Kenya’s worst performing counties in terms of health. It has an understaffed and understocked health system, which leaves the population particularly vulnerable during the current COVID-19 pandemic. This makes our work even more critical.

Between March and June, our outreach team, travelling by boat, treated over 4,000 patients across 17 remote villages, who otherwise lack access to consistent, quality healthcare.

We also have a Safari Vets programme, which treated over 400 animals during this period, explaining how to prevent the spread of animal to human viruses: the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic reminds us that human health is connected to the health of animals and the environment.

Investing in youth

I will always accompany our team if we’re going into a new village, or an area where there is insecurity. We are a very young team: I’m the oldest, at 37. When other organizations repatriate their staff due to crises, such as the current pandemic, we stay. We have also created a Youth Health Ambassador programme: these are young humanitarians, based in their own villages.

For me, Safari Doctors is about working at a community level, on the ground, seeing issues and taking action immediately, rather than being held up by bureaucracy. And, because of our contacts, we are able to connect all the way up to a global level.

For example, one time, when we had guests visiting us from the US, we met a woman complaining of headaches. We noticed that she had a lump in her neck, and it turned out that it was a bullet: she had been shot two years previously, during an attack on her village.

Because of our network and our contacts, we were able to get her on a plane to a hospital that could treat her. This was just a one-off case, but it was very satisfying to be able to make decisions with very little bureaucracy.

I think we should stop seeing humanitarian work as something that needs to be celebrated: it should be seen as normal. This is part of our aim with Safari Doctors. That’s why we’re putting more investment into civic engagement and youth leadership.”

Handwashing facilities – “Access to water, sanitation and hygiene services is essential for effective infection prevention and control in all settings, including schools”, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General.

“It must be a major focus of government strategies for the safe reopening and operation of schools during the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic.”

Historic disruption to education

COVID-19 has created the largest disruption to education ever recorded, affecting nearly 1.6 billion students in more than 190 countries, according to UN data.

The study found that last year, 43 per cent of schools globally lacked access to basic handwashing with soap and water: a key condition for schools to be able to operate safely in the midst of the pandemic.

Of the roughly 818 million children worldwide who lack basic handwashing facilities at school, more than one third are in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the 60 countries at highest risk of health and humanitarian crises due to the virus, three-quarters of children lacked the basic ability to wash their hands at school at the start of the outbreak, while half lacked basic water service.

Balancing act for governments

The report stressed that governments seeking to control coronavirus spread must balance the need for implementing public health measures against the social and economic impacts of lockdown measures.

The partners said evidence of the negative impacts of prolonged school closures on children has been well documented.

“Global school closures since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic have presented an unprecedented challenge to children’s education and wellbeing”, said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. “We must prioritize children’s learning. This means making sure that schools are safe to reopen – including with access to hand hygiene, clean drinking water and safe sanitation.”

Solutions for safe return

The report identifies resources for COVID-19 prevention and control in schools, including 10 immediate actions and safety checklists.

It builds on guidelines on the safe reopening of schools issued in April by UNICEF and partners, geared towards national and local authorities.

The guidelines include several protocols on hygiene measures, use of personal protective equipment, cleaning and disinfection, as well as providing access to clean water, handwashing stations with soap, and safe toilets.

UNICEF and WHO underlined their commitment to achieving equitable access to adequate water, sanitation and hygience services worldwide, including through the Hand Hygiene for All initiative that supports vulnerable communities.

“The concept of sustaining peace is essentially about positive peace as opposed to simply ending wars. In other words, it is the idea that the international community accompanies a country well beyond the point of simply putting down guns, to the point where people feel protected and represented”, Secretary-General António Guterres told the meeting. 

Against the backdrop of growing questions over the effectiveness of health systems and trust in institutions and governance across the globe, he said: “All of this means that our commitment to sustaining peace is more urgent than ever”.  

Key dangers

The UN chief maintained that coherent, conflict-sensitive approaches to health and humanitarian crises will help deliver sustainable peace. 

However, he highlighted three challenges, beginning with the erosion of public trust, which Mr. Guterres said can lead to widespread disillusionment in authority at all levels.  

Secondly, he raised concern over a destabilized global economic order, which, fueled by the unprecedented global economic crisis, adds to heightened socio-economic vulnerabilities.  

He thirdly highlighted the weakening of the social fabric.  

“We have seen many peaceful protests, and in a number of countries, COVID-19 has been an excuse for harsh crackdowns and a spike in state repression”, flagged Mr. Guterres, also noting that “at least 23 countries have postponed national elections or referenda, and almost twice as many have postponed subnational votes”.  

Opportunities out of a crisis

However, the pandemic has also created opportunities for peace, including the UN chief’s global ceasefire appeal earlier in the year.  

And Security Council resolution 2532, which demanded a general and immediate cessation of hostilities in all situations, “is a step in the right direction”, Mr. Guterres said.

“But much more is needed to translate early gains into concrete action on the ground”.
Investing in prevention

The Secretary-General spelled out that pandemic responses must be conflict-sensitive, “starting with a multidimensional analysis on how the pandemic affects underlying risks that drive conflict”.  

He underscored that inclusion is “critical” in humanitarian and development responses, especially with communities and marginalized groups, to “help rebuild trust and enhance social cohesion”.    

Moreover, sustaining peace requires an integrated and coherent approach across humanitarian, development and peace actors, according to the UN chief. 

“The Council’s ongoing collaboration with the Peacebuilding Commission is critical” to help improve collective response. The UN chief also maintained the need for flexible and tailored approaches to peacebuilding in the context of the pandemic.  

“COVID-19 is a human tragedy – but we can mitigate the impacts by the choices we make”, upheld the top UN official.    

Castigating the Council

Speaking on behalf of the Elders, independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights, Mr. Guterres’s predecessor, Ban Ki-moon, welcomed resolution 2532, but noted that within the Security Council, “valuable months were wasted in arguments over the details of the text”.

He argued that their delay had “weakened the message” that the 15-member body must send a message to all warring parties that “now is the time to confront our common enemy”.

The stalemate “further aggravated the current volatile global security situations in the midst of the global fight against COVID-19”, underscored Mr. Ban, pointing to that ramifications of the pandemic in conflict-affected settings on health and humanitarian endeavours, but also in social cohesion, governance and the rule of law.

Moving forward

Notwithstanding his concerns, Mr. Ban called the debate “a timely opportunity” to explore ways to respond to the crisis while bolstering international efforts to sustain peace in the post-COVID-19 era.

“The experience of this crisis should also spur us to change our priorities and our understandings of what threats and values really matter”, he pinpointed, citing the societal inequalities and protection gaps of marginalized communities.

“I believe the UN and its Member States have a generational opportunity to use this concept to help build back better, further catalyze greater inclusivity, and steer humanity and our planet towards a more peaceful and sustainable and future”, concluded the Elder.

UN ‘can no longer work in silos’

Chairing the session, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, whose country holds the presidency for August, spoke of using a holistic approach to join the dots between the health crisis, social and economic implications, and peace and security.

“Sustaining peace requires synergy between the work of all UN systems”, she said, adding that the Organization “can no longer work in silos” but instead in “a coherent manner”, that harvests the “strengths of its different organs”.

Ms. Marsudi laid out UN responsibilities, beginning with the Council to ensure the “full implementation” of resolution 2532 to enable a timely delivery of aid and COVID-19 treatment to civilians in conflict; UN peacekeepers, who monitor conflict risks during the pandemic, serve as an “early-warning system”; and UN funds, agencies and programmes provide technical capacities to address conflict drivers during the crisis. 

Equality and action 

Also addressing the virtual chamber, Sarah Cliffe, Director of New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, shone a light on unequal access to coronavirus medicines and equipment so far during the pandemic, and inequalities over accessing COVID-19 vaccine programmes underway, which “exacerbates threats to peace and stability”.

She also cited opinion polls “in all regions”, relaying that there was an “unprecedented demand for more international collective action”.