MERCY Malaysia received this inquiry and we would like to share this with the rest of our supporters. From Lincoln Lee to MERCY Malaysia Dear MERCY Malaysia - why are your campaigns biased towards a particular conflict. I understand the need for a campaign to help Gaza, but what about Iraq and Syria ? U.N has already declared Iraq as a level 3 humanitarian crisis zone, yet there is no action on your part. What are your motivations and objectives. Kindly please respond. Failing which , I will terminate my monthly donations . Dear Mr Lincoln Lee, Thank you for your inquiry. Your first question falls on our very first strategic commitment as a humanitarian organization under Impartiality. The selection of our beneficiaries purely is on a needs basis and not based on race, religion and/or political affiliation. There is also the very real need for the organisation to assess its capacity and ability to respond from all angles as well as the impact that any action or response is likely to have on the ground onto the most important people in the equation, the vulnerable beneficiaries whom we serve. With regards to Syria, we have been actively engaged in the Syrian theatre of operations since 2012 and had been monitoring the situation from one year before that, in 2011. We have been operational in Jordan and Turkey providing humanitarian relief to Syrian refugees over the past two years, since 2012. In 2013, MERCY Malaysia also conducted medical relief operations inside Syria by providing medical supplies, conducting clinics as well as deploying specialist medical and surgical teams to assist in the treatment of victims and to conduct capacity building programs. The worsening security situation inside Syria means that we have been unable to deploy volunteers from Malaysia inside the country in 2014, but we have continued providing aid to refugees at the border areas while continuing mobile clinics though our partners. We also had winter programs both for refugees in neighbouring countries as well as IDPs inside Syria during the past two winter seasons. The severity as well as the long-standing chronic nature of the Syrian conflict has taken its toll not only on the affected population but also on all aid agencies in the field. MERCY Malaysia is not excluded in having to face these challenges. We have continued to persevere in the face of extremely difficult conditions and have been working both directly as well as through partners in providing aid to affected communities. As for the situation in Iraq, we have conducted our desk research and are in the process of discussions with various parties and partners including the Iraqi Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. The organisation has made a decision in principle to respond to the humanitarian situation in Iraq. However, the extremely complex situation as well as the dangerous developments in the field mean we will have to take careful but sure steps in ensuring we achieve optimal impact in any effort that we take. We are in the midst of preparing an active assessment in the field. We also have to ensure the physical safety and the emotional well-being of all staff and volunteers, especially in the line of duty. We have been in Iraq before, from 2003 till 2006. The situation is however much more difficult this time around with regards to access and security. As for campaigns, the current Gaza campaign is winding down. It is customary for any humanitarian organisation, including major INGOs and the UN agencies to focus on one or two awareness and fund-raising campaigns during the acute phase of the emergency or crisis. The campaign for Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines lasted much longer than this current Gaza campaign. May I just quickly run through the campaigns that MERCY Malaysia has conducted since late last year – November 2013. We were already in the Philippines when Typhoon Haiyan made landfall. We were then serving the communities affected by the earthquake in Bohol. Immediately we deployed a team to Leyte Island serving the Leyte Provincial Hospital and also Ormoc District Hospital. In December 2013, responding to the local floods, we served the communities in Kemaman,Terengganu and Kuantan, Pahang. We provided mobile clinics and distributed the largest amount of hygiene kits by far. By January 2014, we started the Children’s Winter Kit campaign for Syria as the winters were severe. We had partnered with one of local organization during an earlier medical mission to Aleppo, Syria in early November 2013, this organization then assisted us with the distribution of these winter kits in January/February 2014. We had wanted to conduct another mission, however security for our medical volunteers was critical, hence it was postponed. We are currently still in Ormoc, Leyte Island, Philippines conducting Disaster Risk Reduction programmes for the communities. We jointly work with the local authorities, providing training and capacity building. We engage locals with training-the-trainer programmes where we hope to build resilience for the people in Ormoc. We have reconstructed and rehabilitated 2 elementary schools in Ormoc. We have current projects in Myanmar, Cambodia and Indonesia. Do browse on our time-line on our fb page to view the projects that we have conducted Should you wish to view our projects – please visit our website, we have our annual reports since 2004. mercy.org.my/1002050103%C2%BBAnnual_Reports.aspx Mr Lincoln Lee, we wish to thank you for your monthly donations and we sincerely hope you do continue as donations such as yours help us in our sustainable funding to continue with our projects. Our organization is a member of Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International (HAP) hapinternational.org/ in 2007. We are committed to complying with the HAP Principles of Accountability. The HAP Standard in Humanitarian Accountability and Quality Management is the most widely recognised humanitarian programme management for achieving the best possible humanitarian outcomes for all stakeholders. We wish to add that no single humanitarian agency is able to respond to all humanitarian needs. Humanitarian actors must collaborate in order to share experiences, learn from each other and respond effectively to needs. MERCY Malaysia is affiliated to various entities (as listed in our website) in order to create a learning and collaborative culture within the organization and to encourage continuous improvement in its humanitarian efforts. Should you require further clarification, do write to us at [email protected] or [email protected] We will be glad to assist.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 01:42:51 +0000