A Really Bad Day for Aid Workers in Pakistan

Today was a numbingly awful day here in Pakistan. This morning, six humanitarian workers from World Vision were killed in a brutal attack on their field office in an area called Mansehra. Seven other staff were injured and one person remains missing.

Current details suggest that a significant number of militants armed with guns and grenades stormed the office and began killing staff.

This attack comes after a massive bomb blast on Monday in the city of Lahore that targeted the police and killed innocent civilians. In addition, four Pakistani field staff from Mercy Corps were kidnapped several weeks ago in the province of Balochistan. And there continue to be small- and medium-sized bombings in less secure areas of Pakistan’s border region with Afghanistan.

So some might think to themselves: What business does a Christian humanitarian organization like World Vision have in a Muslim country like Pakistan? In a recent opinion piece, NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof addressed some of these liberal and conservative divides and spoke very positively of the massive and professional work of World Vision. I recommend the column to all.

My own opinion from here: World Vision in Pakistan leverages significant resources (some that would not otherwise be available) to provide impartial humanitarian assistance -- food, water and shelter -- to people most in need. And I can attest to the highly professional caliber of their Islamabad-based staff who I know and consider my friends. Today was a really bad day.

In addition, it is often assumed that faith-based agencies might be at a greater risk of attack in some countries. However, a 2009 report by the Overseas Development Institute found no trends to suggest that there were increased attacks on aid groups that were faith-based, American-based or highly vocal in advocacy. This point is also underscored by the fact that in 2008, four staff were killed in a very similar-style office attack on a secular British aid group, Plan International, in the very same area of Mansehra.

World Vision has indefinitely and rightly suspended all of their operations in the country. Sadly this attack will only further hinder the life-saving work of all humanitarian aid agencies trying to assist Pakistan’s poor, vulnerable and marginalized.

And as I wrestle with the ongoing security challenges that aid workers like myself face everyday here in Pakistan, one regularly asks: Is this food distribution worth it or is this important U.N. coordination meeting worth it? Today the simple question for some was: Should I go to work? These questions face both expats and Pakistanis, who are actually at far greater risk than expats like myself.

And the easy answer to these questions is that very few actions are worth dying for on their own. Yet, if no one took any daily collective risks or actions on behalf of humanity, there would be a lot more dead people in the world.

For now, I mourn the loss of colleagues and hope for fewer really bad days.

Photo credit: greg_flikr