Inspiring Lecture from Save the Children Director Gareth Owen OBE
On 13th May 2024, the Company experienced an insightful and impactful Annual Lecture from speaker Gareth Owen OBE, Humanitarian Director at Save the Children UK, who talked about his career and the places he has worked, starting as a 24 year-old in Somalia, to the current devastasting humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The evening began at Carpenters’ Hall with guests mingling having coffee, tea, and biscuits, before moving into the Livery Hall.
The event was kicked off by Julie Spinks, Managing Director at Water Regs UK and also part of our Women in the Livery team. The Master then said a few words, about how the title “No Life without Water: Saving Lives with Water in a Humanitarian Crisis” was developed by him and Gareth, before introducing the speaker.
Gareth started with the story of how he landed in Somalia in 1993, age 24, to rebuild a damaged school using his skills as a structural engineer where everything possible had been looted during the civil war, in order to survive. He also said that 24 year olds are no longer dropped into acute areas, and that Somalia is a bell weather for climate change.
Save the Children’s founders were sisters Eglantyne Jebb and Dorothy Buxton who set up the fund in 1919. Now the organisation works in over 100 countries and the Princess Royal is patron. Save the Children is one of the top 6 largest charities alongside the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières. In 2023, Save the Children had 2.5 billion dollars in turnover worldwide, with USAID being the most significant contributor, however, government money inevitably comes with red tape and bureaucracy.
Gareth talked though his slides, which showed examples of various aspects of real life disaster circumstances in countries ravaged by war or natural disasters, where Save the Children entered as an emergency responder, such as in Uganda, Afghanistan, Angola, the Nepal earthquake and the Rohingya crisis, which moved from Myanmar to Bangladesh, and how Sudan is one of the worst places to be a child.
He explained that 15 litres per person per day is the emergency allowance for clean drinking water and safe sanitation. That poor sanitation stops girls, in particular, from attending school. How contaminated water leads to unnecessary deaths, such as from diarrhoea. That simple handwashing saves lives and putting toys in soap makes children 4 times more likely to wash their hands.
One slide showed a Bedford flatbed truck with drilling rig to drill for bore holes to find water.
The biggest story, of course, is the situation in Gaza. Said Gareth simply:
It’s Armaggedon.
He went on to explain that Save the Children have been in Gaza for over 70 years, since 1953 and it is is one of the most densely populated areas on earth. Since October 2023, the team have been operating inside an active battle zone, where the whole of Gaza is a battle field. Over the last 7 months, there have been over 35,000 deaths and over 77,000 serious injuries. No where is safe in Gaza for children.
Gazans now rely on a polluted aquafa, there is raw sewage in the streets, and 270,000 tonnes of solid waste has accumulated creating an environmental and public health catastrophe. That emergency allowance of 15 litres of clean water per person per day, is barely 2-3 litres per day in Gaza. Then there is the unimaginable 37 million tonnes of rubble with unexploded ordinances.
Gareth introduced his colleague Rachel Cummings, Save the Children’s Team Leader in Gaza, as being legendary for having set up an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone. Rachel had recorded a video message from Rafah, who explained the devastating scenes on the ground and the overwhelming turmoil, which caught the attention of the room.
In Gaza, the safety of their staff is paramount. Save the Children currently have 12 international staff and 25 local staff on the ground. However, in December 2023, a staff member and his family were killed by an Israeli airstrike, and in March 2024, 7 World Central Kitchen workers where killed when their convoy was similarly hit in an Israeli airstrike. Bring on the front line means you may be killed.
For the logistics, Save the Children coordinate with other agencies and the Egyptian Ministry of Health in Sinai. Still, there are lots of delays in getting aid through.
Afterwards, there was an extended Q&A session with many people wanting to ask Gareth questions, such as how to deal with political obstruction, which Gareth answered: with stubborn persistence!
Professor Mala Rao noted that in her work, she had seen a rapid increase in people loosing access to water due to climate change, particularly affecting indigenous and First Nation people.
Lastly, three award winners were invited up on stage to receive their certificates.
The evening ended with drinks, and guests talked about the very thought-provoking lecture, and what they had seen and heard.
Gareth spoke with such compassion and eloquence, inspiring everyone to do more, and the Company thanks him very much for giving his time.
Steward Melville Gumbs and Senior Steward Philippa Stary