To dispel their feeling of helplessness in relation to the war in Ukraine, ordinary citizens travel near the conflict zone to offer direct aid to the population. Even if it is legitimate to want to “save the world”, ex-humanitarians warn against the “blind spots” of these spontaneous operations.
“Our living room is made like a grocery store,” laughs Stéphane Beaudin while filming his apartment rented on Airbnb in Bucharest, Romania, with his phone. For a little over a week, this house painter from Farnham has improvised as a humanitarian worker to help Ukrainians.
With his rented van, he delivers hygiene products and food to families and also transports refugees to temporary accommodation. “We comply with the requests of [organismes] premises”, says this father who carries out his “good works” in the company of Cynthia Lemay, a specialized educator.
The donation he had first made to the Red Cross was not enough to appease him fully. “When I started to prepare myself, instantly, I saw my feeling of helplessness disappear to be replaced by the feeling of being in the action”, he says, sketching a broad smile.
Backed by a GoFundMe campaign that raised $16,000, he landed at Bucharest airport three weeks later, heart in hand, and an 80-kilogram suitcase in the other.
Zelie Geneix, a student at Paris Nanterre University in France, also embarked on such an adventure “on a whim”. At the beginning of March, she convinced her mother to go to the Ukrainian border to lend a hand to the victims of the conflict. “Since the beginning of the war, I had a lump in my stomach, the impression of not being able to act, of being powerless in the face of the situation”, says the young woman.
In 48 hours, a collection carried out in his native village, south-east of Tours, enabled him to fill two cars with donations. Zelie Geneix and her mother then made their way to the western border of Ukraine. On the spot, they brought up people who were fleeing the country, distributed donations in shelters, sorted medicines. “I said to myself that we had to act quickly. There are thousands and thousands of people crossing the border right now. It took people on site to help, ”says the political science student.
Who are we really helping?
This feeling of wanting to transform his helplessness into action, the former president of Doctors of the World Canada Nicolas Bergeron understands it well. “It is quite natural to feel distress in the face of suffering. And wanting to help is part of something quite fundamental, ”underlines the psychiatrist at the CHUM.
After all, humanitarianism was founded on this indignation at the suffering of others and this desire to annihilate it. “But where the shoe pinches is afterwards. Why do I do what I do and how do I do it? And above all, what need am I meeting? Am I doing it to feel good or am I really responding to the other person’s need? asks Mr. Bergeron.
Stéphane Beaudin does not hide the fact that he embarked on this adventure to respond in part to his irrepressible desire to feel useful. “I needed to do this, and since doing it, I feel better,” he admits. However, he says he never loses sight of the fact that he is there to help others. “We are proactive. We do not have the feeling that we are doing harm. »
According to Nicolas Bergeron, the best humanitarians in the world are still the people on site, who speak the language and know the needs. “If people come with toothbrushes and blankets and that’s not what’s requested, it won’t work,” he says. In addition to the issue of security, that of autonomy is also very important. The volunteer should never be a burden. “If we are sick or injured, we will come to entangle the health network which is already overloaded. »
The backwash of emotions
Above all, Zelie Geneix did not want to be an additional burden for the Ukrainians. “We slept in the car, we were self-sufficient in food and we were also self-sufficient in gasoline, because over there, they are rationed. But despite the quality of the experience, she came away with guilt. “It was very hard emotionally when we had to leave. I didn’t think it would be so much. I felt like I was abandoning the Ukrainians who had become friends there. The crisis means that the links are getting closer very, very quickly. »
According to Hortense Flamand, who was a psychologist during humanitarian missions, particularly in the Congo and the former Yugoslavia, helping others is good, but we must not neglect the emotional charge that this entails. “The feeling of helplessness, which was temporarily relieved, can turn into frustration and disillusionment,” she says. You have to lower your expectations. »
Overwhelmed by the magnitude of people’s needs, Stéphane Beaudin and his accomplice, Cynthia, admit to experiencing a backlash of emotions. “There are big limits to what our money can do here. It’s obvious to us right now,” said the entrepreneur when The duty heard from him a few days after the interview. “But you have to welcome the emotion of powerlessness. It hurts. But that’s normal. »