Kazakhstan model of interethnic accord and peace - Hanaa Singer, UNICEF Representative in Kazakhstan

ASTANA. February 6. KAZINFORM /Rizvana Sadykova/ When you see the immense suffering of those you are attempting to help, you are emotionally compelled to put aside your fears and postpone your relief to the future when you leave the battlefield?, tells ?Hanaa Singer, UNICEF, Country Representative.

Recently Kazakhstan hosted delegates of International conference held marking the 30th anniversary of the WHO/UNICEF Alma-Ata Declaration on Primary Health Care. UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said that health systems had to be scaled up through dynamic collaboration among governments, international partners, NGOs and the private sector. How did you see progress made through these years? There is a definite progress over the past years including in the number of lives saved and improved. New technologies and approaches in service delivery and partnership have become a key in achieving the current progress in combating diseases and improving health in developing countries. The lessons learned over the past decades tell us that powerful interventions and financial resources will not result in better health outcomes if efficient systems for delivery do not exist. Nowadays global solidarity, and here we mean governments, international partners, NGO and public sector, turned out to be even more important to supplement and support countries making slow progress and ensuring the conversion of the world?s health systems. Kazakhstan is one of the recent examples of those countries who are not anymore aid-dependent. It is remarkable that the country emphasizes that international cooperation and better health governance are the ways to accelerate the progress at global and country levels and target those still existing and even growing (as the data show us) health inequalities within countries. We highly appreciate that the Government of Kazakhstan recognizes the importance of addressing inequalities in the health status of Kazakh citizens just as overcoming existing regional health-related disparities in the country. You are an Egyptian Moslem woman, in one of you interviews you told that "There is a global misconception that women in my part of the world are secluded and grow up in a very conservative society". At the same time you are a highly educated woman professional having a top international carrier. Could you please tell us more on the above mentioned? And how can you explain to us this phenomenon? My challenge as a woman living in Egypt was to prove that you can be quite liberal, progressive and ambitious, without being particularly Western. Granted, my family did not conform to the stereotype. I grew up in a highly cosmopolitan and urban environment. My mother was a politically active lawyer, my father a university professor and army officer and both cherished the cause of girls' education as well as sports. Actually my entire higher education, it turns out, was financed by sports scholarships. From the age of six, I was a professional swimmer. I was a professional competitor at horse riding, rowing, karate and gliding. To top it off, I was the head of the Rotor Act Club in the Middle East, an organization involved in community service. This was all part of the challenge. While working on my thesis in political sociology on a very tough and politically sensitive issue (Islamic revival in the Middle East - a case study of Egypt) I was also teaching and I kept to a schedule that would have unbalanced a marine. During this time, I used to sleep between 9-11 p.m., wake up and work on my thesis till 2:30 a.m., sleep till 5 a.m., rush to my rowing or horseback riding practice, then to the university, and afterwards start my teaching. I suppose that all these contribute to what person I am now. On the professional side I was always intrigued by different challenges. In my home country Egypt I was involved in projects introducing Banking for the poor model (based on the Grameen Bank) that helped empower thousands of poor women in rural Egypt to have access to credit. I got also chance to work in some of the most challenging regions, Burundi, Haiti, Sri Lanka. Did several missions to Chechnya and the Balkans during difficult periods, was heavily involved in the support of cross-border operations in Afghanistan through the Central Asian countries and in Iraq from Turkey. My last duty station was Azerbaijan that culminated in one of the most fascinating professional experience that led to impressive movement for reforms in child and youth policies. They have all been amazing and enriching experiences in my life and sometimes also heartbreaking. I have been myself gravely wounded as our mission was ambushed once by terrorists in Egypt, identified friends and colleagues in a bloody plastic body bag in Burundi, undergone tremendous pressure and sometimes accusations when working in countries with ethnic violence. However, on a personal level, when you see the immense suffering of those you are attempting to help, you are emotionally compelled to put aside your fears and postpone your relief to the future when you leave the battlefield. Later on somehow it suddenly hits you, the pictures of human suffering, the inability to reach all those who needed to be reached, the sadness of leaving behind those who have nowhere else to go. But life goes on and human resilience is amazing and somehow the sun always shines after a long dark night and we continue living and loving again? A conflict between two countries in the Middle East has recently erupted again. What should the international community do to protect children and stop killings of civilians there? I want retaliate here what Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador said in her most eloquent and distinguished way in her last interview. Because I believe this represents the most suitable answer to your question. Article 1, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: ?All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights?, according to Article 3 ?Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person?. There is not only a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. There is a crisis in our global humanity. Today, I tell you, our humanity is incomplete without theirs. This is the message I am sending world leaders: Our humanity is incomplete when children, irrespective of nationality, are victims of military operations. What does the world tell to their mothers? That the children of Gaza do not have ?the right to life, liberty and security?? That they are collateral damage? That their lives don?t matter? That their deaths don?t count? It is imperative that every nation acts to end the fighting and open all crossings, to permit the uninterrupted passage of wheat, fuel, medicine, and other vital supplies. Everyone should know why we pushed for a ceasefire, a humanitarian ceasefire, a ceasefire for children, to help the wounded, to look for those buried under the rubble, to tend to the sick and elderly trapped in their homes, and to bring in vital medical supplies, equipment and staff. The children of Gaza, the dead and the barely living... their mothers... their fathers are not acceptable collateral damage; their lives do matter, their loss does count. They are not divisible from our universal humanity ? no child is, no civilian is.? There is a growing interest to Kazakhstan as one of the fastest developing countries in the region, in a crossroad between Europe and Asia. What is your impression of the country? How do you appreciate our traditions, human values and interethnic relations among the peoples? I am proud of working in Kazakhstan. This is an incredibly big and rich country, not only in mineral resources, above all, in people. I am impressed by the hospitality and generosity of the people I meet and the high level of education. The land in Kazakhstan is very diverse in types of terrain: flatlands, steppes, taigas, rock-canyons, hills, deltas, mountains, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. This is impressive?As for interethnic relations, I do believe that this is the GREAT treasure of Kazakhstan. It has shown to the rest of the world of how representatives of over 100 ethnic groups can harmoniously and peacefully live together. I pray other parts of the world learn the beauty of coexistence. Thank your for the interview.