Journey from outer area to frontline support employee — International Points

Forward of donning a beige WFP vest and boots to face hurricanes, wars and refugee camps, the Portuguese scientist labored with satellite tv for pc imagery and cartography, creating maps to help humanitarian missions, till he realised he didn’t need to keep behind a pc display.

On the event of World Humanitarian Day, marked yearly on 19 August, Mr. Matos shared his story with UN Information.

From hurricanes to battle

“At a sure level, it simply wasn’t sufficient,” he recalled about his area engineering job. “I didn’t need to be making maps for different individuals to go and do humanitarian responses. I need to take these maps and be the one to do the responding.”

That’s precisely what he did. At WFP, he first developed maps on the bottom after which went on to coordinate the company’s emergency operations.

Since then, he has visited dozens of nations usually on the epicentre of crises, from Hurricane Idai in Mozambique to the outbreak of battle in Ukraine.

‘Like transferring a whole authorities’

Coordinating in an emergency response is like “transferring a whole authorities”, the place every UN company represents a “ministry” and the response solely works when everybody comes collectively over the 4 important areas in a disaster response: meals, shelter, water and well being.

Having simply returned from a mission in Bangladesh, he described efforts to reply at Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee camp and residential to 700,000 individuals who fled violence in Myanmar.

“We’ve been capable of present higher situations for individuals to reside on this limbo with a bit extra consolation,” he mentioned, additionally remembering his go to there in 2018 on the peak of the disaster.

On the time, “one million individuals crossed the border in a month.” At this time, though they continue to be in “limbo”, he pointed to enhancements similar to extra monsoon-resistant properties and roads, fuel stoves and reforestation.

Coronary heart-shredding challenges and profound rewards

The job has meant each challenges and rewards.

“We’ve additionally had just a few cases the place we’ve been kidnapped, or come underneath fireplace, however it’s not the issues that occur to us that influence us essentially the most,” he mentioned. “It’s the issues that occur to others which have essentially the most influence.”

Hurricane Idai in Mozambique was a Class 5 hurricane that hit Beira in 2019 was one of many greatest and most intense disaster, but in addition most rewarding, he mentioned.

“There’s this mixture of one thing that was very intense and arduous as a result of we couldn’t attain everybody, however on the identical time, the actual fact was that there have been many individuals – tens or lots of of hundreds of individuals – who would have died if we hadn’t been there,” he mentioned. “That was essentially the most impactful response in my 17 years on the United Nations.”

When he was in Yemen, “we have been bombed 20 occasions a day” within the capital, Sana’a, he mentioned, including that “there’s an odd normalcy” that develops.

“We discover ourselves saying issues like, ‘no, that wasn’t very far; it was solely 500 metres from right here,’” he mentioned. “It’s one thing I by no means thought I’d suppose or say earlier than doing this work.”

When reaching central Ukraine a number of weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022, he known as the scenario “very intense”. Inside per week, he and his colleagues started distributing cash to individuals coming from the frontlines.

“Once we interviewed individuals and requested them what they have been doing with the cash we gave them, it was very gratifying,” he mentioned. “It was stunning.”

Those that had been wounded within the battle have been utilizing the cash to purchase painkillers. Others used it to pay for fuel to flee the frontlines. One mom had been capable of purchase her daughter a scoop of ice cream for the primary time because the battle started.

“Her daughter was delighted,” he mentioned. “There are very rewarding moments.”

Feeding hundreds of thousands daily

“All of us suppose we all know what the humanitarian or support sector is,” Mr. Matos defined, including that the dimensions throughout a disaster is far, a lot bigger.

“I believed we’d be rehabilitating colleges, feeding 100 individuals,” he continued. “I by no means imagined I’d be feeding 13 million individuals a day in Yemen. The size is totally unbelievable.”

Nevertheless, humanitarian work is commonly seen as a separate job, he mentioned. Nearly each occupation that exists in non-public and authorities sectors additionally exists in an support panorama, from attorneys, those that work in procurement, like in supermarkets, and human assets.

“I principally do the identical work as social staff or firefighters,” he mentioned. “They do it right here daily, and I do it elsewhere. However, our work is in the identical discipline and really related.”

The worth of a Nobel Prize

WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020, a recognition that Mr. Matos obtained with humility.

“Our work is basically invisible, regardless of feeding 120 million individuals daily,” he mentioned. “It gave us a platform to lift consciousness about crises like Congo, Myanmar, Sudan and Gaza, which frequently go unnoticed.”

He mentioned his job is to present voice to the unvoiced when crises fade from information headlines. Regardless of the difficulties and dangers throughout his profession, Mr. Matos has little doubt about an important lesson he realized.

“Persons are basically good,” he mentioned. “When confronted with the imminence of tragedy, individuals are basically good and need to assist others, even when that different individual could be very completely different. It was good to grasp this as a result of it’s not at all times apparent once we’re removed from these crises.”