Courage - In Their Own Words
By Arijana Palme, BSW, RSW and Carly Fleming, M.Ed., RP
Courage. We see examples of it in our daily lives from speaking in public, standing up for a belief or a person, asking someone out on a date or even seeking therapy. The act of facing something that frightens you is courageous and you exhibit courage on the daily, even if you wouldn’t identify it as such.
Unfortunately, sometimes courage does not come from choosing to face a fear but being forced to do so. We have seen examples of this very situation plastered across mass media outlets and our social media feeds over the last several weeks with the invasion of Ukraine. But this is only a piece of the picture, in one part of the world that’s facing unspeakable torment and danger.
This month, we have decided to highlight the courageous acts and people from various parts of the world where people are being forced to face fear, terror and violence on a daily basis. We want to share their words and experiences. They are the experts and we are honoured to move the spotlight of our blog onto these folks, however small that spotlight might be.
Zaina Erhaim is a Syrian journalist and feminist who strives to highlight atrocities across political lines, even when that results in very real danger for her.
“After I was kidnapped in a pro-regime town in Idlib province, I wrote about the leader of a militia who saved my life and protected me from being deported to Damascus, which would have meant a death sentence. For my friends, I was “personalizing the enemy.” But as a journalist, it is my job to help break the circle of hate and to humanize those being used as tools of war.”
The folks who run Live Updates from Syria believe in making noise to make change. They film real people and their daily struggles living through the war in Syria, sometimes in secret at great risk to themselves, to highlight the disparities between different regions. Their courage gives voice to people often overlooked, like refugees living in horrible conditions in makeshift refugee camps. Plus, they collect donations for food boxes and blankets to distribute to these very people.
The Tigray Youth Network aims to be a “voice for the voiceless” in highlighting the genocide in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. This ongoing atrocity is often overlooked by mass media outlets so TYN aims to “support, empower, and progress” the needs of the people directly affected.
“You can help defund the Tigray genocide by choosing not to fly with Ethopian Airlines and by joining our campaigns to pressure the Ethiopian government to end the Tigray genocide”
Nataliya Gumenyuk is a Ukrainian journalist who is sharing the stories of her country at war in major news outlets across the world. She has been deeply committed to documenting her country’s oppression and Russia’s aggression for many years. The courage required to not only put her own life at risk in order to tell the stories of her people, but to bear witness to the unimaginable pain being experienced on her home soil is worthy of acknowledgement. You can follow her on twitter @ngumenyuk or take a look at this story from the Washington Post for a beautiful look at how courage is playing out, not just on an individual level, but on a country-wide level in Ukraine.
It has been 7 years since a Saudi-led war on Yemen has created one of the world’s most terrifying humanitarian disasters and there are no signs of the fighting stopping. Most people in the West know next to nothing about the war in Yemen and western media outlets almost completely ignore what is happening there. It only takes a simple google search to educate yourself on the basics of what is happening in Yemen (That’s what we did to prepare for this blog post. Once you look, you can’t look away). If you take 10 minutes of your online time today to learn about Yemen, you will, in your own small way, be making a difference. If you’re on twitter, please follow @sukaina_yemen. Sukaina is a Yemeni mother and humanitarian worker. Recently she said, as an airstrike rocked the street where she lives with her young son, “ We can't do anything but sit, pray, and tweet as if you will all rush to the rescue.”
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