By Sue Walsh (CENDEP alumna MA DEP 2021- 2022)
In September 2015, the world awakened to the image of ‘Humanity washed ashore’ 2 year old Alan Kurdi dead on a beach in Turkey. A whole other part of the world woke up realising this symbol of the migrant crisis was now a European one and did not just belong to the Global South.
This photograph was my introduction to volunteering, refugees and humanitarian aid. From that September 2015, I evoked community energy to canvassing radio stations, newspapers and groups to donate aid. We raised funds and dispatched it to Syria, Serbia, Hungary and Greece; regions selected because the march of the migrants along the Balkan route increased through the winter and their needs were ever great.
Me chasing the aid to Greece (as published in the Windsor Slough Express in September 2015)
I followed the aid. At the time I had no idea that a movement of relief organisations and volunteers supporting humanitarian disasters existed. Why would I? My background was horse racing, fashion and exercising elephants. I headed to Greece to use my practical skills: simply knowing how to ‘shift stuff.’ However, I was quick to pick up that volunteers unaffiliated with any NGOs, like me, could plug many gaps where politics and policies stifled NGO participation. For instance, at night a few of us took food packs into the hills to hand out to kids in hiding, petrified of being captured by police and traffickers. Some evenings we handed out gloves and hats, lit fires, and listened as the fleeing recounted their stories of resilience and hopes for safety.
School boy volunteer using google translate to chat with migrants, North Macedonia border, December 2015
A learning curve for aid
I spend time more wisely now, and not collecting aid. I advocate, campaign and talk to groups advising that where local infrastructure is still intact, do NOT jump in a van to drop donations at the nearest accessible border. That could be the wrong thing to do! It’s perhaps the right thing in your heart, but wrong for the environment, wrong for landfill, wrong for meeting the needs of the people, and is open to misuse.
The most flexible, transportable and trackable aid we can donate is money. How simple is that? Zap it on the App! It's efficient, kinder to the environment, uses less man-hours, reduces costs, and more importantly, it allows relief organisations to purchase what is actually needed locally and local communities will thank you for keeping their livelihoods operating!
£10 is cheaper to transport…
…than this!
Transport and storage (space that required additional funding) for overseas donations in Greece
Time to move on
Having experienced five years of working in and out of the field, skirting through borders regularly de-regulating themselves, watching humanitarian support being withdrawn, international laws breaking down, local laws stop working for migrants and more frequently for volunteers - e.g. being arrested for helping fishermen clear fake life jackets off the beach, which was interpreted as ‘stealing’ - it was time to head home and formalise my experiences.
Laws breaking down, Greece-Serbia border, January 2016
Local laws breaking down, Lesvos 2016
Reasons and expectations
I felt, as a seasoned voluntary aid worker, wiser to the global scale of humanitarian discrimination, injustices and political indifferences. There was more I could do and a Masters (in Development and Emergency Practice) at CENDEP (Oxford Brookes University) studying international migration, disaster development, shelter and human rights might be of help. I wanted to explore the landscape and broader perspectives of governments, organisations and global laws. Study policies and procedures that allow these people, having fled their own country, to be bitterly violated here in Europe.
What rights are for these people? Railway tracks, Idomeni 2017
I wondered whether being part of the global movement of spontaneous volunteers who converged on Europe to fill the gaps, if we had, in any way, helped the people and the systems. I was very naive.
Volunteers in context
Spontaneous volunteers are an invisible army of essential helpers, a phenomenon, a valuable resource of multiple skills, free from NGOs operational restrictions (and protection). Possibly over-brave, and relying on common sense and values, up-skilling ourselves in situ and reacting to situations as they are presented. However, I found that this movement and phenomena hadn't quite reached the attention of academic research. Following recent events, it will hopefully attract the academic attention it so needs.
We were effective in many local disasters – e.g., Grenfell Tower fire tragedy (London, 2017) was a spontaneous volunteer-led response keeping locals mobilised and donations off the street.
Unsorted donations blocking the street at Grenfell Tower, June 2017
In 2020/21, volunteers wrote themselves into history books in the UK during the response to the Covid-19 pandemic - the nation was in need and asking us for help and we did, in our thousands; for example, making personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep the NHS and Care Homes running, supporting communities with emergency response for food and medical supplies, and rolling out the vaccine program.
PPE for NHS made and donated by East Ilsley Volunteer Group during COVID (2021)
My research journey
My course was just a year long, so in no time discussions ensued for our dissertation and I was floundering. I was in need of stimulation of group chats, the spark that triggers actions. Zoom sessions were no replacement!
Having ditched the first score to research police brutality towards refugees, I decided to tackle the anomalies of volunteer participation in an emergency response. My research question was: “what prohibits spontaneous volunteers from inclusion in a formal emergency response and can their informal participation be managed to support the emergency responders.” My objectives were 1) to discover positive and negative impacts that spontaneous volunteers can have on an emergency response; 2) to identify any (or an) existing framework that supports inclusion and organisation of spontaneous volunteers in the Global North; and 3) to understand whether an emergency response controlled data platform could be used for the purpose of spontaneous volunteers’ coordination and utilisation.
Coordinated volunteers relocating donations, June 2017
I carried out literature reviews consisting of multimedia reports, academic journals and grey literature (issued by governments and NGOs). It was a lack of new knowledge that actually helped shape my research question and questionnaires. Available literature indicated that the perspective of the official emergency responders - police and fire departments - had not been canvassed in research. I considered their participation crucial as it influenced how their interaction with spontaneous volunteers may create an effective emergency response. Furthermore, their views were imperative for identifying problems and designing solutions particularly as the nature and scope of disasters are changing. The best way to record their opinions and experiences was through qualitative data (questionnaires).
Having analysed the structure of the UK's emergency organisations, I selected 18 police forces and 33 fire departments and one NGO, the British Red Cross. I sent individuals a brief introduction to my research along with the questionnaire. For comparisons, I sent the same to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA, USA), as they include spontaneous volunteer participation in their national emergency responses framework. For example, in 2001, FEMA managed 42,000 volunteers who arrived in the aftermath of the Twin Towers disaster. The NGO, National Voluntary Organisation Active in Disasters (National VOAD) was also selected as they operate in the USA.
Lessons learnt
COVID restrictions were playing havoc with my research! I had to scrap focused discussion groups with emergency responders. Those able to respond individually were mostly subject experts in their fields providing incredible insight into a range of disasters from acts of terrorism to local flooding.
When canvassing professionals, I made the assumption that the responders had greater knowledge and experience of spontaneous volunteer participation and I should have reflected on my own lived experiences of disasters in the UK to know that this was not to be the case.
Some responders requested video or telephone calls, adding knowledge and anecdotal stories that were not policy driven. This provided the essential ‘value added’ information, reality and depth to the research. I was enormously pleased that their interest in my research was intensive with invitations to continue discussions.
In conclusion and in shock, it was apparent that my research was on trying to solve a problem for the emergency responders that, for them, did not exist - yet! Maybe now is the right time to formally incorporate spontaneous volunteers into the UK's emergency practice frameworks. “Wherever there is a disaster, spontaneous volunteers will come!” (Schwarzenegger, 2001), so best to be prepared.
I wonder after Nilufer Demir took the iconic photo of Alan Kurdi if she had any inclination about the significant impact it would have on motivating a global spontaneous volunteer movement to help others?
About the author:
Sue Walsh worked in Greece, Serbia and Calais from 2015 to 2019 with volunteers, and NGOs Syria Relief Aid for Refugees and Refugee Community Kitchen. She successfully completed her DEP Masters degree in 2022, and her research project has received much interest from FEMA in the USA and the British Red Cross.
All photos are by the author.
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