As the world anxiously awaits news of the spread of the Ebola virus, one Greek Australian man is heading into the thick of it.
When the UN turns up in a crisis zone, that says something to the people suffering there, that the world hasn’t forgotten them, that it stand by them and will do what it can to end that suffering – Ari Gaitanis
UN spokesperson Ari Gaitanis arrived in West Africa this week to see through the first ever UN emergency health mission. The UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response has witnessed 8,376 cases and 4,024 deaths from Ebola based on information provided by the Ministries of Health of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
Ari has been dispatched from his post as the UN deputy director and spokesperson for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and been sent on a rapid deployment to West Africa.
He’s says the outbreak is “unprecedented” and implores the international community to step up and “meet this challenge head on”.
“There are concerns that the steps implemented by the international community are not nearly enough to halt the advance of the fatal disease,” he tells Neos Kosmos.
“With every day that passes, the number of sick people increases – the virus’ spread is either stopped now or we face an entirely unprecedented situation.”
For the suffering people of Africa, the spread of Ebola has been shouldered by them alone for a long time. They’ve witnessed the international response remain reactionary, with coverage of the topic making it onto people’s screens only after the threat of the virus reaches their shores.
For Ari, he feels the UN’s response will finally give the frightened people of Africa the sense that the international world is listening to their calls for help.
“When the UN turns up in a crisis zone, that says something to the people suffering there, that the world hasn’t forgotten them, that it stand by them and will do what it can to end that suffering,” he says.
The fight to contain the Ebola virus is not just about getting those sick safely contained and treated, but also getting people diagnosed as quickly as possible.
That can be helped by creating more laboratories in the surrounding communities of the outbreak, helping those who start to feel sick a chance to immediately seek help.
Ari says there’s a need for more funding to help the efforts.
“There’s a need for an increase in the number of diagnostic laboratories, transport support, and funding to help with operation logistics which would help aid the UN response to this crisis,” he says.
The virus has also created a new threat. The threat of social exclusion and fear, as many survivors, victims and their children are being spurned by their local communities.
Ebola survivors, as medical professionals have frequently reiterated, are no longer capable of contracting the virus. The virus itself is not airborne, and only be transmitted through bodily fluids of an actively ill patient.
The UN will also seek to address the stigma and discrimination facing Ebola survivors as such challenges undermines their recovery.
The five aims of the UN response is to stop the outbreak, teat the infected, ensure essential services, preserve stability and prevent further outbreaks.
For Ari, the trip brings with it new fears and troubles.
At least two UN volunteers and staff members have died in the effort to help fight Ebola, with one volunteer losing their battle while seeking treatment in Germany this week.
Ari says he can’t afford to be paralysed by fear, something he’s taken on board with him every time he’s been deployed.
“It’s not something you’d want to over-think as you wouldn’t want to be paralysed by that,” he says.
“You need to be professional, stay sharp and frosty with a clear mind in order to be able to do whatever it is that needs doing.”
It’s not the first time he’s been deployed to Africa. Ari travelled to Somalia during the famine when Al Shabab still had say over large parts of the country in 2011 and was in Sudan during the peace process to end its civil war in 2005.
For the past 20 months he’s been stationed in Kabul overseeing Afghanistan’s first democratic transition of power in the country’s history.
He’s definitely no stranger to conflict.
As the previous editor of the UN News Centre, the deputy spokesperson at the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, the public information officer for the UN
Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials in Cambodia, Ari has travelled the world trying to uphold peace and make sure the world knows what’s going on.
Born in Emerald in central Queensland and growing up in a Greek Australian family in Brisbane, it must be hard for his mother to deal with his dangerous roles.
“My mother does worry, but at the same time, she’s also been a rock throughout my life and work,” he says.
“When I’ve been deployed to hotspots, despite her worry and concern she’s been supportive all the way.”
As a young boy, Ari was buoyed by the pursuit of truth and innately curious about the world.
That pushed him into a career in journalism.
From selling newspaper outside Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital and getting 3.5 cents for each newspaper sold, to eventually working for the ABC and moving around the world for his job, journalism fed his need to be a good storyteller and a campaigner for what’s right.
“It’s one of the best ways to learn about people, society, life,” he says.
“I think most journalists have inside them a strong sense of idealism, of speaking truth to power, of keeping people informed of important issues, of doing some good for society.
“There’s this innate desire to help make the world a better place.”
That made the switch to the UN a natural step, he says.
His first job at the UN was working under the then Secretary General, Kofi Annan in New York. While he’s still based there, Ari has never stayed there for too long, always being transported to places in need.
Entering warzones, countries ravaged by famine and disease, the job is never easy.
In January this year, he saw four of his fellow UN employees die after a suicide bomb attack in Kabul.
Seeing such atrocities, living in warzones and seeing the worst of bad and unfair leadership has given him a unique view on the world and the need for peace.
“I’ve seen too much of what conflict can do to people and society to ever think it necessary for the greater good, for any greater good,” he says.
“I really do believe that any differences or contentious issues between people can be resolved through a mix of reasonableness, goodwill and compromise.”