This month we have a really interesting discussion about some of the challenges around humanitarian response and support to war-affected communities, with a focus on the current conflict in Ukraine.

CID's Humanitarian and Standards Manager, Aaron Davy, speaks with Virginia Pycroft from ADRA, and Mike Seawright from ReliefAid.

Among other things, they talk about working with local teams and volunteers whose lives are directly impacted, the safety and wellbeing of aid staff, interaction with the military and maintaining impartiality, and funding and fundraising mechanisms.

Speakers:

• Virginia Pycroft is a New Zealander who has worked for ADRA for ten years in both humanitarian and development sectors in NZ and the Pacific. She is and currently serving in ADRA Timor-Leste. As a member of ADRA’s Emergency Response Team she has been deployed in the Asia Pacific region supporting local ADRA teams as they respond to natural and man-made disasters over the last ten years. The latest, outside the region, supporting the ADRA Ukraine team respond to the conflict.  
• Mike Seawright has been delivering humanitarian assistance to families living in the world’s conflict zones. He has provided medical aid in Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, South Sudan and Pakistan, economic development and energy projects in Afghanistan and most recently emergency humanitarian aid, leading multiple interventions in Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine. Frustrated that not enough was being done to help families affected by war and conflict Mike founded ReliefAid. With a simple vision of helping families who had no one else to turn too, ReliefAid has delivered life-saving aid to over 250,000 people in war torn Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, and they are not stopping there.

Links:

• ADRA’s work in Ukraine 
• ADRA Ukraine Appeal
• ReliefAid Ukraine Appeal

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