Kenro Oshidari recalls the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines in 2013, leaving a humanitarian crisis in its wake. As Asia Regional Director for the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) at the time, Oshidari says that it was the most challenging operation he led in his 25 years at the organization.
“We were faced with the task to deliver food to about 2.7 million people within the first two weeks of the disaster,” Oshidari tells the Taipei Times via e-mail.
The operation required 300 WFP staffers from throughout the globe to collaborate with the Philippine government, NGOs and foreign militaries — par for the course to an aid worker who oversaw a staff of 3,000 while on the ground in Sudan between 2006 and 2009. Since 2015, Oshidari has been using his experience to mentor young professionals who are willing to devote their lives to helping the less fortunate, which he says, begins with knowing what’s going on outside of your own country.
Photo courtesy of Kenro Oshidari
“Show interest in ‘what is going on in the world,’” says Oshidari, who has worked in conflict zones such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and North Korea. “People need to understand that, unfortunately, the world is quite an ‘unfair’ place depending on where you happen to be born.”
Oshidari will give a talk — Not Enough Food? What You Need to Know about Global Hunger — in Taipei on Saturday as part of the Lung Yingtai Cultural Foundation’s Taipei Salon series of lectures. He will draw on his extensive experience to cover a broad range of topics, including the globe’s 800 million food insecure people, the importance of investing in child nutrition, natural disasters and conflicts, as well as thinking globally.
A HELPING HAND
Though Taiwan is not a member of the UN and therefore has no formal aid agreements with the WFP, Oshidari praises the “incredible generosity of the Taiwanese people” when helping out after Japan’s devastating 2011 tsunami.
But more can be done.
“Taiwan seems to be rather modest when considering international standards of developed countries,” Oshidari says, while noting the complicated position Taiwan finds itself in internationally.
Oshidari says that the principle of humanitarian aid is “neutrality, impartiality and independence without political considerations.”
And with the recent announcement that the Donald Trump administration will dramatically cut funding to the UN, the shortfall will have to be made up elsewhere as the WFP struggles with potential famines in Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and Nigeria.
“This is obviously a big concern for the entire humanitarian community, including the NGOs, that work in partnership with the UN. Obviously it would affect not only these four countries but the well being of many more millions of people,” he says.
Compassion, Oshidari says, is a good place to begin when thinking about global hunger.
“You can donate money to charitable organizations, volunteer some time to help or pursue a career in international humanitarian work like myself. But the most important starting point is to realize that there are hundreds of millions of people without food, shelter, education [and] medical help, and to feel some level of compassion,” Oshidari says.
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