Symposium – The evolution of the humanitarian response

In September, we held inaugural symposium, The evolution of the humanitarian response at theHonourable Artillery Company in London. The evening was well attended and was honoured with Royalrepresentation by HRH Prince Michael of Kent who was delighted to have been a part of such an auspiciousoccasion. Other honoured guests included His Grace the Bishop of Woolwich, so both the spiritual and temporal powers were well represented! Delegates attended from Africa, America, and across Europe, making this a truly international initiative.

“The evening flowed well,” said Dr Sylvie Edwards, Rapporteur of the Order’s Medical and Humanitarian Group. “We started with welcome drinks and a chance to mingle and chat to new faces and following a short openingaddress by the Order’s Grand Prior, we then heard from a wide range presenters on the trauma suffered byso many and difficulties experienced with providing humanitarian aid.”

• Arabella Dorman spoke about how children have been deeply affected by war in Ukraine and inAfghanistan and the harrowing experiences that they depicted in their drawings and The effects of conflict, displacement, loss and bereavement were clearly visible in the drawingsby the children. These children need love, kindness, compassion and for their minds to heal andrecover.

• Iuliia Osmolovska spoke about restoring human capital in Ukraine and how there needs to be arenewed collective approach to providing the ‘right’ humanitarian support to salvage ageneration that will otherwise be lost to this

• Mandy Bostwick spoke about the physical effects of war trauma on the human body and the long-term Mandy highlighted the need for proper trauma care in our own armed forcesand that we are falling behind – how can we help others if we cannot help ourselves? It washighlighted that we are losing veterans to the prison system as we are not helping themaddress and recover from their own horrors of war.

• Victoria John spoke about her personal experience of dealing with war injuries and how she wascompletely unprepared for what she encountered as an aid She described howUkraine had no provision for dealing with multiple amputees and medicals were not trained toidentify traumatic brain injury which was precluding physical rehabilitation and recovery.

• Rev Hassan John spoke about the significant challenges facing Christians in Nigeria from Islamicfundamentalism and He described how, at an international level, the voices of the girlswho were abducted by Boko Haram were not being heard – that politicians were reluctant toallow a voice to the children who were traumatically affected by religious and political war andterrorism. Hassan highlighted that these voices should be heard otherwise how else can we, asan international community, address the root cause of the issues?

• Inspector Lea Patel talked about the youth engagement work by the police service, tacklingyouth violence and gang crime from within the community for better Leah describedhow dedicated officers and police cadet units were turning around the mindset and lives of theyouth who would have otherwise been lost to violence and gang crime. Such initiatives are givingthe youth a new perspective and showing them that there is a life beyond gangs.

Following the formal part of the evening, HRH Prince Michael of Kent made a short impromptu speech,thanking everyone for such an enlightening and informative evening, and more importantly for all the goodwork being done. He said he thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Delegates then enjoyed a lovely buffet anddrinks reception. The camaraderie in the room was palpable as was the enthusiasm for the work currentlybeing undertaken and the possibilities for development of initiatives moving forward were topic ofdiscussion.

The feedback for the evening was very positive and there are calls for the Order to continue this type ofevent annually, and possibly with a bigger platform in the future.

Here are some photos taken our  Order of St George Inaugural Symposium: The evolution of the humanitarian response.