Happy World Humanitarian Day!

A humanitarian is;

adj 1: marked by humanistic values and devotion to human welfare;
                            "a humane physician"; "released the prisoner for
                            humanitarian reasons"; "respect and humanistic regard
                             for all members of our species" [syn: human-centered,
                             humanist, humanistic]
     2: of or relating to or characteristic of humanitarianism;
                             "humanitarian aid"
                              n : someone devoted to the promotion of human welfare and to
                              social reforms [syn: do-gooder, improver]

"In the past decade, more than 700 humanitarian workers have perished while providing life-saving assistance to millions around the world." 

Courtesy of the UN website

In an effort to raise public awareness of humanitarian assistance, the General Assembly designated 19 August as World Humanitarian Day. This inaugural year honours those who have lost their lives in humanitarian service and those who continue to bring assistance and relief to millions. [UN Source.]

Today is World Humanitarian Day (19th August) and to mark this occasion  I have focused on an issue which is one of the worst that humanitarians all around the world are having to deal with on a daily basis and that is the issue of Violence against women and girls (see article here). 

World Humanitarian Day is a day that celebrates and recognises the work of humanitarian workers everywhere. Humanitarian workers come in all nationalities, ethnicities, genders, ages, shapes, sizes and professions:

They are the on-the-ground aid workers and peacekeepers

They are the advocacy and campaigning groups.

They are the medical professionals of every level.

They are the researchers, scientists, teachers and mentors.

They are the priests, monks, nuns working amongst the people in the field.

They are the volunteers, professionals and vocationals.

They are white-collar, blue-collar, no collar.

They work to broker peace, eradicate disease, purge hunger and end violence against women (sometimes, at the cost of their own lives)

[ reprinted from a post by Regina Yau, Founder and President of the Pixel Project.].

The work that humanitarians do is so important because there are millions of people in the world who do not have basic human rights or a voice and what aid workers do is make efforts to meet these basic needs and empower people to be able to stand on their own feet. Their work truly does speak for itself so I will make my words few and simply say this; that the world would not be able to sustain itself without humanitarians at work and at heart. Everyone can play a role in making the world a better and safer place for the next generation... You can be the difference ...volunteer...

Say NO!!! to violence against Women and Girls.

Everyday a female is beaten, raped, verbally abused / belittled / intimidated / caused to live in fear of another person or sold into prostitution or some other form of slavery. This may sound like an exaggerated statement to some however it is the reality of countries all over the world including the first world. Offences against women of the violent and/or abusive nature do not only cause damage to the individual woman but it affects her children and family dynamics. I recently met with a woman who has survived domestic violence and she talked of the impact of this on her children. The breakdown of the family unit and had come to her home long before her husband left. He used tactics of manipulation and employed words which his used like fists to break down her resolve, remove all trace of self esteem in her and ensure that she is never strong enough in mind and spirit to make a stand for her rights. 

Womankind reports that least 1 out of every 3 women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime withthe abuser usually someone known to her." 

( Click here for more info)

“A woman is more likely to be sexually assaulted than she is to get breast cancer. But, unlike cancer, sexual violence is rarely discussed. There is a stigma attached to sexual crime, the result of attitudes that lay the blame on the woman for the rape, not the perpetrator.

"Violence against women includes: domestic violence, rape

 and sexual violence,sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, crimes in the name of honour, trafficking and sexual exploitation.These are mostly committed by men that women know or are in close relationship with. 'A woman is more likely to be sexually assaulted than she is to get breast cancer. But, unlike breast cancer, sexual violence is rarely discussed. There is a stigma attached to sexual crime, the result of attitudes that lay the blame on the woman for the rape, not the perpetrator.'

Sexual Violence in the UK is 54% more likely to be committed by a woman

’s current or former partner. Sexual violence of any kind from the 'mild' sexual overtures in the office to the forced sex with a partner  / a known person. Rape is a crime that is not carried out exclusively on women but thousands of girls around the world have become victims also. I had the humbling experience of talking to a young girl who had been raped a few years ago, in her case by a stranger. The blessing in her situation is that she did not get pregnant or get any STI / STD's or HIV from this violation. However the psychological impact was so great and so damaging that this girl has been in and out of the social services system and placed in many different foster care environments due to her fear of men. Her innocence robbed so young that she initially blamed herself, felt dirty at the very thought of any man looking at her and she was ashamed of herself as if she had done something wrong... You may wonder what this girl did to provoke her attacker? Did she flirt, wear her school skirt too short, accept a ride from strange me, lie about her age? The answer is no. she was a 13 and a half year old tomboy who did everything with her parents and only walked to school alone. As she did one day the perpetrator abducted her. Had she fitted the former description of the flirtatious teen, it would still not be acceptable or in any way understandable that this inhumane character sought to violate her in this manner. Furthermore, sexual assault is about control and domination often coupled with anger and and the desire to violate than it is about attraction or lust. \The are no excusable set of circumstance in which a woman or girl should be raped.

Physical Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions. The Home Office published statistics on violence against women which showed that; In the majority of incidents of domestic violence in the UK (2007/8), the victims were women 85% of the time. Furthermore, female victims are more likely to be killed by someone they know; 48% were killed by their partner, ex-partner or lover. These statistics highlight the gravity of the issue of violence against women, an inconvenient truth that is often ignored. Women who are murdered as a result of violence and abuse in the home will have engaged the emergency services at least once prior to their death however if a woman does not disclose that she has been abused the authorities are powerless to intervene and assist her. Her friends and family will experience a change in their relationship with her where she is vague, distant and increasingly unavailable, her countenance and character changed. Responding to these subtle changes before they  escalate can be the difference between life and death for many women, please do not ignore the signs.

Human Trafficking has been defined by the United Nations as, “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation". Human trafficking claims an estimated number of persons ranging from 500,000 to two million per year, the majority of victims are female, many of these come from poor families, third world countries. Some are sold into slavery by family members who are poor and have no way of ensuring their basic needs, others are lured in by promised a better life in another country, for example the United Kingdom, yet upon arrival their passports are confiscated and they are forced to work as sex workers to pay for their freedom. This is a reality today all over the western world not just in impoverished developing countries and it is essentially slavery in the 21st Century.

War Crimes against women are some of the most atrocious. According to Amnesty International every conflict zone they investigated in 1999 and 2000, showed that the torture of women was reported, most often in the form of sexual violence. They went on to say that; rape, when used as a weapon of war, is systematically employed for a variety of purposes, including intimidation, humiliation, political terror, extracting information, rewarding soldiers, and "ethnic cleansing".This is the reality of so many women and girls today in every war torn country whether the issue is internal conflict (such as dictatorship and military coups) or external conflict  with other countries. This tragic reality in our world today can not be accepted or ignored, particularly when young girls and women are taken from their homes and placed in 'rape camps' where they are systematically raped and beaten.  The Women's Refugee Commission state that; Gender-based violence (GBV) is any harm enacted against a person's will that is the result of power imbalances that exploit distinctions between males and females. Forms of GBV that occur during conflict and its aftermath include: sexual abuse and exploitation; domestic violence; trafficking; forced impregnation or sterilization; forced marriage; forced prostitution; forced recruitment; and harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation or early marriage. Amnesty International highlight, that these acts are forms of hatred and those that result in prolific offence are tantamount to torture and are used as a rutal precursor to murder.

Where you live today...someone is being abused in one way or another...dont look the other way...be the difference in the fight against brutality and violence against women.

Click here

There are many local, national and international organisations that have been set up specifically to raise awareness and fight against all forms of violence and abuse to women and girls. A notable organisation/movement is that of the White Ribbon Campaign which was started by and is run by men. They say of themselves, 'White Ribbon is a campaign led by men who condemn violence against women and take action to tackle it.  We are part of a global campaign of men and boys committed to ending violence against women'. If you are male and reading this, go to the website for your local white ribbon campaign and submit a pledge, ladies you can make a donation to this organisation as well as your local organisations that deal with helping women who have already been abused. You can be the difference and violence against women can stop...Get involved!        

Violence against women continues to persist as one of the most heinous, systematic and prevalent human rights abuses in the world.

Ban K-moon, UN Secretary General 

For more information click here

The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge [Dartford River Crossing]

 

I had the opportunity to cross the River Thames at the Dartford Crossing into London and when doing so I was able to capture the images in this post. I absolutely love bridges from an architectural and design point of view and therefore it was a wonderful opportunity to capture it from the point of experiencing using it. These images were taken whilst on and using the bridge which makes the images that much more special as there was only one chance to take each shot. 

The Dartford - Thurrock River Crossing, Dartford River Crossing (DRC) (or simply the Dartford Crossing) is a major road crossing of the River Thames in England, connecting Dartford in the south to Thurrock in the north, via two road tunnels and the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge. It opened in stages, the west tunnel in 1963, the east tunnel in 1980, and the bridge in 1991. Until the opening of the bridge, built to the east of the two tunnels, the crossing was known as the Dartford Tunnel.

I also like how bridges connect two places that would otherwise not be connected without them. It reminds me of how Christ is the bridge between man and God, the path that joins us with our Creator and that brings us from a point of darkness in sin to light in salvation. I have used this concept in the majority of the images that have areas of complete darkness and light from the sun representing the Son of God. 

Friends are the family we choose for ourselves: Miss Pam

In 2002 when I was reading Law in Bristol, I met a girl named Pam. I was in a computer lab probably doing research or emailing and this girl walks in and sits next to me. She started talking to me and asking me questions; where I was from, my name etc. Well it turned out that she, like myself, was from Zimbabwe. She was educated in the same city as I was, we were the same age and knew a lot of the same people. The story gets better! We had actually been to the same school dances and functions at the same time yet had not met until 3years after high school in Bristol, United Kingdom! Crazy I know, we became instant friends! And now we laugh and joke about the good old days even though we didn't exactly experience them together, it is really great. 

Furthermore, when I met Pam, I was at a place in my life where I had lost my way and was living a day at a time, I had not been in church for a few years and needed some direction. Don't get me wrong, the life plan was more or less on schedule, I was in Law School, well adjusted due to my parents excellent parenting skills but still there was something missing, que Pam. Pam had been a committed Christian for sometime before that day we met and I learned later that she approached me with the intention of sharing her faith with me.After a couple of conversations / meetings Pam invited me to church and I haven't looked back since. Sometimes all it takes for someone to realise their need for Christ is the kindness of a stranger or the gentle leading of a friend. It is after all through relationships and random acts of kindness that the gospel is spread and people are saved and established in their faith. 

Aside from the shared history we have since become really good friends and now have joint memories we both were in together eight years on which is wonderful! Today I celebrate her as its her birthday!!!! I wont tell you her age but I will tell you that this is no ordinary birthday but the very last birthday of her twenties :-) So as I have had the pleasure of watching her develop from an almost tomboyish jeans wearing and slightly odd girl into a beautiful, very successful, professional and incredible outgoing, fun and very well dressed lady. So on this very special day I want to give a special shout out to my lovely sister and friend, Miss Pam.

To join me in celebrating this beautiful lady, share your faith with someone, engage in a random act of kindness, befriend someone and show them some love and remember, be yourself, there is nothing more off putting than a bible basher or someone who seems to be in your life because they have an agenda. Like Pam just put yourself out there, find someone you can share and be available...there are a lot of lost or hurting people out there...Be the difference for them as Pam was for me!