‘This village will disappear. Our community will disappear.’ — By Ann Esswein and photos by Felie Zernack MAROW, Vanuatu Mounds of heavy stones are all that protects Jeffrey Daniels’ home from the waves that wash onto tiny Emao, an island dotting the Pacific nation of Vanuatu. But the makeshift dams can’t stop his village from flooding during fierce tropical…

This pandemic is a taste of things to come. We’re not ready. — By Lydia Poole The humanitarian system has developed to respond to geographically contained and separate crises that are usually a long-haul flight from the centres of power and wealth that sustain it. But that is no longer how crises work. If you didn’t believe in systemic crises before, hopefully you…

First, there were whispers of women being sexually abused by aid workers during the Ebola response. Then, we heard 51 voices. — By Paisley Dodds, Investigations Editor at The New Humanitarian Early last year during a trip to the Ebola outbreak zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we were tipped off that aid workers might be sexually abusing and exploiting women. “Oh, they love our ladies,” reporter Robert Flummerfelt was told…

‘Someone has to step up. If we are silent and do nothing, then we fail the next generation.’ — By Caleb Quinley in Pattani, Thailand Years of conflict and violence have divided communities in Thailand’s deep south. Pateemoh Poh-Itaeda-oh is one of a growing number of women trying to build peace by bringing them together. In Thailand’s southernmost provinces, militants are fighting for greater autonomy for the region’s Malay…

In 1970, the tropical disease was only a danger in nine countries. Now, it afflicts over 100. — By Joshua Collins in Bogotá International scientists have for years warned that climate change is likely to lead to an increase in epidemics caused by pathogens and viruses. …

Joining the (quantum) dots on a public health conspiracy theory. — by Ben Parker Staff at a US-based non-profit have received death threats linked to erroneous claims about its work on digital ID in a case propelled by the tide of misinformation over coronavirus and false accusations against Bill Gates. Dakota Gruener, CEO of New York-based non-profit ID2020, told The New…

Lessons from the history of pandemics. — by Ken Arnold, Abbie Doran, and Danielle Olsen The authors are the International Cultural Initiatives Team at Wellcome, an independent health and medicine foundation. Jacob Burinescu, a Romanian Jewish immigrant, lived in New York City’s Lower East Side. He ran a cleaning business and was a member of the Yiddish…

By Sean McDonald WASHINGTON D.C. COVID-19 is no time to forget history. This is neither the public health sector, the humanitarian response sector, nor the technology sector’s first disaster — and we’d do well to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. As the world braces for the possibility of…

‘The coronavirus is a risk to everyone — but the greatest risks are to refugee communities like ours.’ — By Mohammed Arfaat in Cox’s Bazar Editor’s note: The coronavirus outbreak could be particularly devastating for people living in cramped refugee and displacement camps, aid groups say. In Bangladesh’s Rohingya camps, aid groups and the government are mapping out contingency plans, and trying to boost health systems and hygiene promotion…