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February 17, 2011
Dr. Kirsten Johnson on Humanitarian Aid
By Temitope Folaranmi
On February 15 2011, the Sauvé House played host to Dr. Kirsten Johnson, a renowned international expert in humanitarian relief and development as a Tea Talk guest. Dr. Johnson is a Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, an affiliate faculty member at the Institute for Health and Social Policy at McGill University, and an affiliate at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative at Harvard University. She is also the Program Director of the McGill Humanitarian Studies Initiative (HSI) and the Director of the Department of Family Medicine’s International Division. She has worked and conducted research on humanitarian relief issues in over 30 countries and with 16 organizations.
Dr. Johnson started her talk by sharing with the Scholars the heart-rending experience of her colleagues during the first few days after the earthquake disaster that occurred on the afternoon of January 12, 2010 in Haiti; especially how they, in partnership with other NGOs, participated in the initial humanitarian response. She highlighted the challenges encountered during the initial response, including poor coordination among the various humanitarian relief organizations as well as the population problems that were inherent to Port-au-Prince – the epicentre of the earthquake.
Dr. Johnson also described how she and her colleagues helped set up a field hospital that catered to the health needs of over 260 patients at a border town in Haiti as well as the rigorous living conditions that relief workers endured in order to meet the health needs of the disaster’s victims. Among others, she shared with us her experience working in other conflict zones including Darfur (Sudan), Chad and Congo (DR.C), where she interviewed survivors of genocide and of gender-based sexual violence. She also described some of the security risks that relief workers take, sharing with the Scholars her personal experience of how close she came to being in the line of fire.
Another highlight of her talk was the question and answers session, during which we asked questions about ethics and accountability of relief workers, disaster response preparedness, cultural barriers in humanitarian work, career and motivation. In her responses, Dr. Johnson pointed out the need to standardize the way humanitarian work is done and how human rights principles can be imbibed into the humanitarian response. She identified poor preparedness for disaster response on the part of donor countries and agencies as a limitation to improving the outcome of disaster victims. On her motivation for being involved in humanitarianism despite the lack of significant financial rewards, she said “I see my work as a calling and being a physician a means to an end”. Dr. Johnson concluded her talk by encouraging us, the Sauvé Scholars, to be at the vanguard of calls for increased funding for humanitarian efforts and increased governmental support for humanitarian interventions.
