UNIT 2

HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

Look at the following picture. What is its message?

How concerned are you with the well-being of your family? How
about the well-being of the rest of the world? Do you donate to
charity? How do you help your community? What do you know
about the humanitarian mandate of the Red Cross and the United
Nations Organization? Is there anything more that could be done
to assist the needy?
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Write down three words you associate with each picture:

rescue

inferno

devastation

 
 

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to displace

 
 
victims

 
 
hunger

 
 

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Match the two columns according to meaning:

___ aftermath (n.) a. being in progress, continuing
___ to submerge b. in the future
___ ongoing (adj.) c. period following a ruinous event
___ to strain d. to cover or overflow with water
___ to restore e. to place in battle formation
___ to deploy f. terrific, extraordinary
___ to prey on g. to stretch beyond a proper limit
___ ahead (adv.) h. resolution, decision
___ awesome (adj.) i. to bring back to a former state
___ resolve (n.) j. to take advantage of,
intimidate

Track-13​ – Take notes on the speech, then summarize it in two

or three sentences using the notes you took.
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________ 

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For the bold words/phrases, select the best answer:

1. Bronwynne told me that the only ​ earthly possessions she has

left were the clothes on her back.
earthly possessions a. all the land owned
b. things possessed
c. everything someone desires
d. income from working the land
2. They've been ​ working around the clock​ , risking their own
lives to save the lives of others.
working around the clock
a. circling the clock
b. fixing the clock
c. making a continuous effort
d. constantly checking the hour
3. This is a ​
down payment on what will be a sustained federal
commitment to our fellow citizens along the Coast.
down payment a. money on the pavement
b. some generous donation
c. pay slip explaining expenses
d. part of the full money amount
4. This is a down payment on what will be a sustained federal
commitment​ to our fellow citizens along the Coast.
commitment a. pledge to do something
b. consignment to a hospital
c. romantic promise
d. something done
5. All Americans can be certain our nation has the character, the
​vercome​
resources and the resolve to o this.
overcome a. pull over
b. come over
c. game over
d. triumph over

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– Write down ​
Track-14​ T​ ​​
rue or F alse for these statements:
___ Not only Louisiana, but also Mississippi and Alabama were
affected by Katrina.
___ New Orleans was built at a higher altitude than the sea
level.
___ The bulk of the damage was rather caused by flooding
water than by the storm itself.
___ The Congress assembled to grant $100,500,000 in
emergency funds.
___ The assistance offered by the government was timely and
satisfactory.
___ There was a reduction in natural gas production of almost
80% after the storm.
___ The American nation was left with a 10% supply of
gasoline after the storm.

Track-14​
– Fill in the blanks:
Building after building under water. Refugees in shelters.
Thousands of others unsure where to go. _________ for help.
Anarchy. Bodies in streets. This is what one of America's historic
cities was reduced to this week by a powerful storm, Katrina.
Officials want everyone still left in New Orleans, Louisiana,
to leave __________. The mayor of New Orleans says
thousands may be dead. Hurricane Katrina also caused death
and destruction in parts of Mississippi and Alabama along the
Gulf of Mexico. Federal officials reported Friday that more than
one million five hundred thousand homes and businesses
remained without electric power.
New Orleans is famous for its wild Mardi Gras celebrations
and ___________ in the French Quarter. Yet the city of nearly
five hundred thousand people was built below sea level. New
Orleans has depended on levees, dams made of earth, to control
floods from the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain.
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Katrina struck on Monday. New Orleans avoided a direct

hit. But two of the levees failed the next day. Most of the city was
flooded. Helicopters dropped huge __________ to fill the
breaks. But the water had no place to go. Pumping stations had
no power.
America faces one of the worst natural events in its history.
President Bush says the recovery will take years. Congress
returned from a summer holiday to approve a request for ten
thousand five hundred million dollars in emergency
___________. The Bush administration is expected to ask for
more in the weeks to come.
People were told to leave the path of the storm. But some
would not or could not. Many of those worst affected by Katrina
are poor and black. African-American leaders and others were
angry that government ___________ did not arrive faster.
President Bush visited some of the damaged areas on Friday. He
said the way officials reacted to the crisis was unacceptable.
The economic effects of Katrina are being felt across the
United States. About one-fourth of the oil produced
___________ comes from the Gulf of Mexico. New Orleans is
also a major port for foreign oil and other shipping trade.
Energy officials say the storm has cut oil production by
ninety percent and natural gas production by almost eighty
percent. Some oil and gas operations have restarted in the Gulf.
But the full amount of the damage has not yet been reported.
The president approved a ___________of oil from
emergency supplies. But the storm also closed processing
centers that make oil into fuel. The Energy Department says the
nation has lost about ten percent of its gasoline supply. Some
fuel stations have no more gasoline. American drivers have been
__________ to use less fuel.
Oil and gasoline prices were already high before the storm.
Now many people are angry at what they see as attempts to
profit from Katrina.

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 Humanitarian Assistance

Hurricane Katrina had catastrophic effects. However,

today's technologies make it possible to raise awareness of
impending harm as well as to take measures to minimize the
damages and human losses. Brainstorm the steps you would
have taken before and after the hurricane hit had you been in a
position of authority.

Fill in the blanks with a word from the box. A change in form
may be necessary.

to tackle deliberately slight

to discredit to contemplateto compile
to mount perpetrator dire
 
1. During the campaign, there were many fruitless attempts
to __________ the Democrat Party candidate.
2. Countless people on the African continent are in
__________ need of immediate help.
3. The police are looking for last night's __________. If you
have any information about the theft, call….
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4. At home, I found him __________ the idea of leaving his

full-time job and getting a part-time one.
5. You must keep quiet during the experiment as the
__________ noise could alter the result of our project.
6. He meant to hurt me. I would have never thought he
would __________ parade with his new girlfriend.
7. Her assistant managed to __________ a list of various
organizations interested in donating to their cause.
8. The defense changed plea overcome by the __________
evidence the prosecution presented the Court.
9. The way he __________ this unexpected problem is
different from how I would have approached it.

In Conflict Zones,
Write down a title for each marked section of ​
Red Cross Becomes a Bull's-Eye​. An example is provided.
1. ​A Risky Endeavor .
NAIROBI, KENYA – The deaths of six employees of the
International Committee of the Red Cross in The Democratic
Republic of Congo last week have led many aid workers based in
the region to contemplate their own vulnerability. And questions
are being raised about what can be done to improve the safety of
aid workers worldwide. "No military in the world would allow
their soldiers to work unarmed in the kind of situations aid
workers are in," says Brenda Barton of the United Nations World
Food Program (WFP) regional office in Nairobi. She says the
murder of the six Red Cross workers is just the latest incident to
demonstrate the dangers of humanitarian work. "It's sending a
strong signal to agencies like WFP who are moving around a lot
on the ground that we cannot be passive about the security
situation."

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2.​
________________________
The safety of aid workers drew worldwide attention last
September, when, in the space of 12 days, four staff of the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were killed – three
massacred by rebels in West Timor and another shot in Guinea.
In 2000 at least 46 aid workers were deliberately killed around
the world, according to statistics compiled of UNICEF's
emergency programs office. "What is painfully obvious is the
attacks on humanitarian agencies and UN have gone up, and up,
and up," says Brian Golesworthy, a UNHCR field safety adviser in
eastern Africa.
3. _________________________
Various explanations are offered. One is that the vast
majority of conflicts since the end of the cold war have been civil
ones rather than international. Rebel armies are notoriously less
disciplined and often have little respect for such principles as
the laws of war. They also see the very neutrality that aid
agencies practice – giving humanitarian assistance to civilians
from both sides of a conflict – as provocative. They want aid
given to their supporters, but not to the other guys. In addition,
there are far more aid workers in the field than there were 20
years ago, and they're going into places that are more remote and
situations that are more dangerous than ever before. Some
critics believe the aid agencies are not blameless: In the
scramble for donor funding, they are keen to be involved in the
direst humanitarian crises and might be tempted to take
unsuitable risks.
4. _________________________
With evidence mounting that the humanitarian agencies
have become targets rather than shields, they have begun to try
to solve the problem. UN agencies and other humanitarian
groups are pushing for greater financial support to the office of

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the UN security coordinator, which makes decisions on the

security status of locations worldwide. "They are highly
under-funded and highly understaffed," says Barton. The UN
general assembly tackled the issue of staff safety in February
2000. During the debate, deputy secretary general Louise
Frechette called for the perpetrators of attacks to be brought to
justice. Despite the dozens of murders of UN personnel in recent
years, only two prosecutions have followed, she said. Aid
agencies are also asking the UN to give peacekeepers the
mandate to protect humanitarian staff.
5. _________________________
Yet it will remain difficult to protect aid workers in conflict
zones, because attacks could come from numerous potential
perpetrators and for various possible motives. Sometimes rebel
groups want to scare off the aid agencies to stop them from
bringing support to civilians; sometimes they want to clear an
area of potential witnesses to atrocities. One group might kill aid
workers in the other's territory to discredit their opponents, or
sometimes, they're simply looking to steal things. "It's very hard
to put hand on heart and say we have a solution to all ills," says
Mr. Golesworthy. "I don't think any security officer in the whole
organization will say there's a sure-fire answer to all this."
6. _________________________
Today, despite some progress on implementing a peace
accord, Congo remains one of the most lawless places on earth.
Vincent Nicod, head of the Red Cross's regional delegation for
eastern Africa, says his agency believed the area was secure last
week. "When we are operating in the context of an ethnic or a
religious conflict, we take even more caution than in other
situations," says Mr. Nicod. "Our staff had not the slightest doubt
they had taken all the necessary measures for security,
otherwise [the victims] would not have gone." The Red Cross has
temporarily suspended its operation in Ituri province of

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north-eastern Congo. Two senior staff from its Geneva

headquarters are now in eastern Congo investigating the killings.
❧✵❧
Write down ​
T​
rue or ​
F​
alse for these statements:
___ 1. In Nairobi, Kenya, 6 Red Cross employees were
murdered last week.
___ 2. Lately, the attacks on humanitarian agencies have
increased.
___ 3. Rebels are notorious for respecting the little laws of
war.
___ 4. Aid agencies compete frantically in order to receive
donations.
___ 5. Recent deadly incidents have made humanitarian
groups take matters into their own hands.
___ 6. UN has mandated the peacekeepers to protect
humanitarian staff as well.
___ 7. Rebels are not fond of witnesses to their despicable
deeds.
___ 8. UN security officers believe there is no guaranteed
answer to the problems posed by conflict areas.
___ 9. The peace agreement in the DR of Congo has brought
tranquility and prosperity to the country.
___ 10. The conflict in the DR of Congo may have been of an
ethnic or religious nature.

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 Humanitarian Assistance

Group the following words into phrases/collocations related to

humanitarian aid. An example is provided:
refugee heavy fund displaced humanitarian
trauma work relief extensive
population
raiser crisis shelter donations catastrophic
impact effects damage generous magnitude
camp dire disaster emergency tremendous
need rain aid injuries volunteer

refugee shelter

Write a paragraph using 5 of the phrases you formed above.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Choose one topic and complete the task.

1. Imagine that you are working for a foundation
which aids the victims of natural disasters.
Tonight you are to deliver a speech at a
fund-raiser in order to collect sufficient
resources for helping the victims of hurricane Katrina. You
have 60 seconds to prepare, then you need to take the floor,
and deliver a 3-minute plea for donations to your cause.
2. Imagine you are working for an insurance company and your
remuneration is dependant on the number of contracts you
manage to bring to this enterprise. You have just been invited
to speak before the townsmen of Lostdale. You are to deliver a
speech to your audience enticing them to sign up with you.
You may want to stress the frailty of life itself and of all earthly
goods, as well as the importance of ensuring a bright future to
the next generation. You have 60 seconds to prepare and 3
minutes to deliver the speech.
3. Imagine that you have been invited to the annual reception of
your county's elite. Since you work for a non-profit
organization involved in helping some of the developing
African countries, you feel that this would be a great
opportunity for you to raise awareness of the challenges the
continent is facing and to encourage your audience to donate
to your cause. You have 60 seconds to prepare and 3 minutes
to deliver your speech.
4. Imagine that you work for a humanitarian organization. You
need volunteers to help relieve a costal region of your country
where a recent storm wreaked havoc destroying properties
and leaving people homeless. Deliver a speech to your
audience to inform them about the imperative need to give
assistance and to enlist their help. You have 60 seconds to
prepare and 3 minutes to deliver your speech.

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Choose one topic and complete the task1​

∗​
.
1. You are part of a humanitarian organization. Recent heavy
rains have flooded the county of Riverland causing m​illion​
s in
damaged properties and leaving many people stranded and
homeless. You have to brief your personnel on the part you
are about to play in relieving the area. You may want to
address some issues related to the area itself, to the type of
help you will be providing, your team constituents, or
anything you deem relevant.
2. You are about to leave on a humanitarian mission in Somalia.
You need to inform your team on the part you are to play in
the area. You may want to address issues related to the
medical assistance you will be providing and the rebuilding of
the infrastructure as well as anything you deem relevant.
3. You have just returned from a humanitarian mission meant to
relieve the suffering of the natives of Quaketopia, a remote
area that has recently been struck by a destructive earthquake.
You have to inform your superiors about the proceedings and
outcome of your endeavor. You need to outline the main
events of your time spent in Quaketopia and conclude with
some recommendations for future similar missions.
4. You have just returned from a mission abroad where you
were involved in assisting the refugees of Hungrania with
food, clothing items, blankets, and moral support. You are now
to inform your superior about the development of your
enterprise and conclude with some recommendations for
future similar missions. Deliver an outline with the most
important occurrences of your undertaking in Hungrania.

1   For each presentation there are 7 minutes granted for preparation and 5
∗​
minutes for delivery. 
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Solve this puzzle using vocabulary items from this unit:

                1    2                 

                                     

                          3           

                                    4 

5                                     

                                     

                6              7       

                                     

                                     

                                     

    8                                 

                                     

Across Down

5. severe tropical storm 1. to think, to reflect on

with torrential rains and
strong winds
6. criminal, wrongdoer
8. somebody leaving his
country for fear of
persecution
something
2. on purpose, intentionally
3. to increase, to escalate
4. crisis, disaster which
requires urgent attention
7. help, assistance, support

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