Conversations: Saving the World - Experiences from overseas humanitarian missions
|
|
MENDAKI CLUB CONVERSATIONS:
SAVING THE WORLD by MR HASSAN AHMED, CEO MERCY RELIEF
15 MAY 2009 @ NVPC
The May Conversations , 'Saving the World' on 15 May 2009 had garnered
an all time strength of 43 of yet again, a male-dominated crowd of
interested professionals - all in the name of humanitarian and hope.
Interestingly, more than 75 per cent of the attendees cited their
deep interest in Mercy Relief.
CEO of Mercy Relief Mr Hassan Ahmed kicked off the fireside chat with an overview of the organisational structure and operations.
Mercy Relief, notably one of the youngest independent non-governmental humanitarian charities in the world, is staffed by a modest 13 full time personnel. The backbone of the organisations herein lies at the hands of their volunteers. And since its formation at 2003, Mercy Relief has garnered an encouraging pool of over 4,000 volunteers; all working in response to the human tragedies befalling mankind as a result of natural and man-made disasters.
Mercy Relief in positioning itself as the Singapore's voice in addressing the global needs to preserve the sanctity of humanity delivers its competency in three key areas, namely:
- disaster relief
- sanitation, health, childcare
- emergencies
Hassan Ahmed shared with all on the International Development Division; citing the importance of its key partners with United Nations while also maintaining the cordial relationship with the closer neighbours. He described Mercy Relief's workflow on non emergency and emergency cases, at this point, drawing an immense amount of interest from the participants. Hassan spoke with passion as he drew up the process of repacking relief cartons (necessities like clothing, food and water) and distributing them to disaster areas.
The Conversations wrapped up with individual Q&A and group discussion.
Q & A Sharing
Q1. How do you decide which areas to help in times of crises?
A1. Mercy Relief, since its inception, has always been focussing on
regional recovery, namely, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Philippines and
Myanmar. However, based on immediacy, Mercy Relief will do the first
things first i.e. prioritising conditions.
Q2. How do you access water standards?
A2. Mercy Relief taps on the expertise from Public Utilities Board
(PUB) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to advise matters
on Water Sanitation. MR uses natural filtration systems for its affordability
and easy management.
Q3. How does Mercy Relief boost its staff to handle the pressure?
A3. 80 per cent of the operations and help come from MR's wide pool
of volunteers. Hassan reflected that during the 2004 Tsunami, they
had relied on 4 staff only thus with a full time strength of 11, it
has been more manageable, although they can be overstretched during
crises. Mercy Relief has always believed that their staff could work
better with family support and thus at interview level, their spouses,
family members are roped in as well to better understand if they could
cope without them when crises/reliefs required the staff to be overseas.
Q4. Will it be more efficient for Mercy Relief to partner with
other similar organisations?
A4. MR being the youngest organisation in Singapore will definitely
count on and collaborate with the others to offer the best support
to reliefs and disasters. MR has been consistently working with National
Habitat, Singapore Red Cross, UNICEF, World Vision and some others.
Q5.How does Mercy Relief mobilise help?
A5. MR, essentially being small, has always practice strategic planning.
For instance, hospital staff/expertise could be mobilised for MR's
relief especially when its board of director is the CEO of a hospital.