Sinai kidnap gangs

A few days ago when I was driving to work I heard a report about an atrocity that has been overlooked by the international community. The kidnapping and ransom industry in Sinai is booming. Refugees are being taken in the hundreds, tortured and killed if their families are unable to pay financially crippling amounts of money to the kidnap gangs. The interviewer spoke to many victims of this awful trade, detailing obscene methods of torture, including burning and electrocution. I was left in tears and absolute horror.

The worse part was that the report ended with a man crying out. "Help us," he said. "Please help us. Listen to our voices. Please help us."

When I got to work I couldn't shake what I had heard. I walked past glossy posters and shiny computer laden desks on the way to my seat and I just couldn't stop thinking about the fact that right now, right this minute, people were being taken, tortured and killed - helpless, resigned to their fate. Some people say that this atrocity is being overlooked by the international community because it is not wealthy foreigners who are being kidnapped but poor refugees and locals. I couldn't shake the injustice that a problem of this scale was not being fought for internationally, and the horrible impact this indifference is having on people's lives.

I spent a while looking on the internet for ways to help. I couldn't find anything. All I could find was that Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Amnesty International were working in the area, but I couldn't find anything on how the average person could get involved to help. No campaign to the international community. No way to contribute directly to this effort, even. I felt desperate.

I just couldn't get the man's voice out of my head. I want to help you, I kept thinking, I want to help you but I don't know how. How can I help you? Please tell me how I can help you. We have to do something.

Eventually I emailed Amnesty International to ask them how I could help. I got a holding reply and still haven't heard from them. And I went on with my day, guilty and sad that this is what we do - we go on with our lives when our neighbours are suffering,  and it is so easy to switch ourselves off and throw ourselves into the comfortable helplessness that we are unable to do anything to solve huge problems.

Sometimes we can throw money at the problem, believing that we have done our part and helped, and we move on with our days, forgetting. Forgetting the real suffering. Forgetting the struggles and the wars that are so far from being won.

I know that we have to forget to be able to survive. To be able to function in our own lives. Otherwise we would be bowled over by all the suffering in the world. I know the danger of this, I've been there.

But I think really feeling the suffering can drive us to action.

I still want to know how I can help, but I don't know how. If anyone knows, please tell me. For now, I want people to hear these people's cries. Maybe the more people who truly hear, the more people will call on their leaders to do something.

All of this has made me reflect on charities and what we do. About how the average person who really wants to  help suffering people or change a situation feels when they come to us. 

As a charity we must be meeting needs. And we must be able to tell people and show them how they are meeting that need by giving to us. But for me, money isn't the be all and end all. I wish that charities would help to change people so that their lives are shaped by that need. So that they become more ready to stand up against injustice, more willing to help others in need.

I recently read an article entitled "How to Transport Your Donor into the World's Suffering". I have had my struggles with charity and fundraising culture but this article made me feel a sense of real mission about fundraising. To end this post, I'd like to share some of it with you.

"Need is need.  If you are a normal human being you will experience a great deal of emotion when you come face to face with a hurt and broken human being, an abused child, a sick animal, or a forest that has been destroyed.  It is just not pleasant to be around need... 

Why do we try to turn need into something it isn’t?  I think fundraisers who dress need up are afraid of their own emotions – they are afraid of the pain they experience when they encounter need.  So they first dress it up and package it for themselves in a tidy little emotionless package, which avoids the pain, and then they pass it on to their donors.All of this dressing up and packaging to contain the need and pain is a useless activity.  We should be doing the opposite. Rather than protecting our donors from all the reality of the need we should be using every media, picture, choice of words and stories to literally take the donor right into the action – right to the scene.  This, in my opinion, is effective communication that has integrity... 

Much of our world and its people and places are broken.  That’s the reality.  And it hurts.  It really hurts.  As you are being a vessel for good, don’t be afraid to let your donor experience the journey as well."

The need is great and the truth is we all have to do something. As I mentioned before, if any of you know about how we can help to stop the kidnap gangs in Sinai, please let me know.