How to Help in a Geo-Political Conflict as a Global Mobility Manager
How to Help in a Geo-Political Conflict as a Global Mobility Manager
We would like to share a few thoughts about the situation in Gaza. For the sake of humanity (as a whole, and the humanity of all our brothers and sisters in Israel and Palestine), please take these points into account when you read information online and especially before you like or repost something you find on social media. Use social media responsibly. Use social media to do good. Remember that acts of terrorism are committed by a minority and that the large majority of people in the world do not support terrorists.
If you are a Global Mobility Manager with an expat population in an affected area this might be helpful.
- Make sure you clarify your roles and responsibilities for the expat and business traveler population affected by conflict and war. Your company should have an emergency crisis committee. Gain access to become a member of this committee.
- Understand what your exact role is in handling life-and-death situations.
- Check-in with your Expats and Travelers personally. Make sure that they know and understand what to do and who to contact, especially if they are new to the country.
- Keep yourself informed about the security situation on the ground and in the neighboring countries through reliable resources such as International SOS. Check if you have a membership and who is covered by the membership. Make sure that all your local staff in affected areas have access to International SOS.
- Consider what you share on social media. We provide guidance on Digital Media Literacy here in this post. Sometimes it’s better to observe than to post.
- Decide how you want to control your media intake to be able to function. Ensure that you are mentally ready to support others and reach out to me if you wish to talk.
- Follow the WHO on WhatsApp for Health Alerts.
- If you have the capacity to help, volunteer your time as you have great skills and knowledge to help.
- Hold a fundraiser at your workplace and ask your employer to match donations.
- Inform yourself of refugee status updates if you have local staff on the ground who might become displaced by following UNHCR updates.
Keep these principles in mind when sharing news on social media
- Only share from trustworthy sources: The British government came up with this motto as mnemotechnic support: Take care with what you SHARE, where each letter forming the word “share” is a point on a checklist to make sure you are careful (Source, Headline, Analyze, Retouched, Error – https://sharechecklist.gov.uk/#the-checklist).
- Watch out for propaganda and fake news: It is easy to share disinformation unaware. Be critical and ask yourself who wrote or published the content, what are they claiming, and whether the site shows bias.
- Beware of clickbait: They appeal to your emotions and curiosity, but those do not warrant information quality by any means. You can often recognize clickbait and fake news in its persuasive language. Persuasive language can make any type of media more engaging and convincing. However, its ultimate purpose is to win your trust and influence how you think even if the facts do not support the arguments. Curiosity-picking language is typical of clickbait. Be careful, look beyond the rhetoric, and think for yourself.
- Give people space to grief: If you come across a post of a grieving person the best you can do is to offer support. Hate comments certainly won’t help anyone.
- Be aware of echo chambers: An echo chamber in digital media, is a consequence of the algorithms and activity tracking that govern what content a person sees on any platform. This results in that person only encountering information or opinions that reflect and reinforce their own. Echo chambers can create misinformation and distort a person’s perspective.
Donations and Grass-Roots Organization
Amid this chaos, there are countless organizations and spontaneous campaigns to help refugees and we wanted to be sure we gave to a trustworthy organization. We know there is a lot of goodwill out there, but it’s hard to know whom to trust.
If you consider grass-roots support these guidelines might help. Here are things you should consider:
- Does the relief charity meet Better Business Bureau charity standards?
- Can the charity get to the impacted area?
- Not all charities have the resources to provide relief as quickly as necessary. It would be wise to check and see if the charity already has a presence in the Middle East.
- Should you send clothing and food, these items may not be the most practical to send. They could create logistical challenges to deliver to Palestine and Jordan. They also often create a lot of extra waste if they cannot be used immediately.
- Is the charity experienced in providing emergency relief?
There are humanitarian organizations that are experienced in disaster relief and those would be the best to help deliver assistance as soon as possible. We would like to recommend you these organizations:
On sharing of Fake News.
Please let me know in the comments if you have any amends to this article. I will continue to update it.
