When Money Runs Out, Protection Must Not
When Money Runs Out, Protection Must Not By Tahir Ali Shah I have spent about twenty years working with families who had to leave everything behind. I have worked in Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Nigeria. In all those places, one lesson keeps returning. People can survive hunger for a while, but they cannot survive without safety. That is the meaning of protection, a word many people in aid work use and few outside it understand. Protection is not only about lawyers and legal papers. It means keeping people safe from violence, abuse, forced return and neglect. It is a lamp placed where women sleep. It is a latrine built close to the shelter. It is a child without parents being found and cared for on the first day. It is a registration card that tells a refugee, “you exist, and you have a right to services”. Listening to a recent interview with UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Protection made me think again about where we stand : Cli...