Recognising the sacrifices of Kiwi aid workers

The Evangelical Alliance Relief Fund

August 14 2009
Press Release

Recognising the sacrifices Kiwi aid workers make on World Humanitarian Day

WHILE shells exploded nearby, TEAR Fund’s Ian McInnes kept his cool, helping victims evacuated from Sri Lanka’s war zone, to reach medical attention. TEAR Fund is proud of the contributions its partners and the individuals who work for them make around the world, on the inaugural UN World Humanitarian Day (Wednesday August 19), said TEAR Fund executive director, Stephen Tollestrup.

World Humanitarian Day was established to increase public awareness of humanitarian assistance activities worldwide and to honour the contribution made by people like Ian McInnes, who undertake humanitarian work, sometimes at the risk of their lives, said Mr Tollestrup. Over the past few TEAR Fund has had many Kiwis working in some of the most dangerous places in the world, including Darfur, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

Earlier this year Mr McInnes of Onehunga was working with TEAR Fund’s partner World Concern, heading up an operation to care for injured Tamil civilians who arrived in their hundreds by boat, to a field hospital just outside of the war zone. “The situation was heartbreaking,” said Mr McInnes. “Seeing little children severely injured by shelling or orphaned was enough to have my staff, myself included, in tears.

“With help from TEAR Fund we had been working to help breakdown the barriers that have separated Sinhalese and Tamil communities for decades, through a dairy livelihood programme with peace-building activities, and move them towards working together to improve their lives and incomes. But as government troops moved in on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE ) and civilians became trapped between the two warring factions, it quickly turned into a humanitarian disaster which we were drawn into.”

Now that war is over, TEAR Fund’s partner is involved in looking after the needs of Internally Displaced Tamils and continuing its peace-building and livelihood projects.

Editor’s note: The reason for choosing the August 19 date was that on this day in 2003, the United Nations Office in Iraq was bombed and 22 people lost their lives.

TEAR Fund NZ is a Christian aid and development organisation which works in close partnership with indigenous non-government organisations and churches in Asia, Africa, Central and South America. TEAR Fund actively changes the lives of the poor and oppressed through disaster relief, community development, Microenterprise, and child sponsorship. In NZ since 1975, Tear Fund is a member of the Council for International Development, the NZ Disaster Relief Forum and has representation on the Government’s project funding allocation committee.

ENDS