MM and Somalia

Selamat Hari Raya to all! How was your raya? To those who don’t celebrate it, how was your holiday? Hopefully it was fabulous as you wish. Well, I’ll update on my raya celebration on next post as now I want to share something I’ve learned today.

I dragged myself from my bed to shower and prepare to work as today is the first working day after a long break. But it is kind of fruitful to me. It hasn’t end yet, but a lot of things happened. I went through a proposal and made my comments on it. And I attended a sharing session with Mercy Malaysia humanitarian worker from Somalia. He just drops by in between his mission to share with us on his work in Somalia.

First of all, I would like to clarify that this post is not about slamming anybody or any organizations. This post also doesn’t mean to hurt anybody’s feeling. If my ‘facts’ are incorrect, please let me know. I love to know more. My understanding is from secondary data and information.

Yasir, a Somalian, a fresh graduate handsome guy who has no experience in humanitarian work, is in my office to share his experience. He presented nice slides on MM work in Somalia. I learned that MM involves a lot with health cluster. To me it is good. Reason being, MM as a small INGO is mingling with other INGO; networking I meant!

He explained on MM work and MM involvement with heath cluster. From the explanation, I understood that though WHO is the cluster leader, their involvement is not as large as the name. The involvement is not as large the capacity. Is not as large the needs. That is sad. So sad.

I conclude that WHO is taking the advantage of the weak Somali government. WHO takes the advantage the media. They know how to get the limelight. They shine at the right time. We are talking about people who are malnourish, who needs your help. Thus, please get out from Nairobi, Kenya and help this people physically!

Yasir also briefed that Somalis have problem in trusting INGO because they come, they put down the goods, take picture and off they go!

I’m not complaining, but I guess some NGO or people making humanitarian work as a glamour thing to do. It looks sexy. I hope you get what I meant. They forgot the main reason why they are called humanitarian worker. It involves humanity, HEAVILY!