Fariah Laikipian is a Rotary Peace Fellow from the University of Bradford working on an applied field placement with Islamic Relief’s advocacy team. Originally from Kenya, Fariah reflects on life as a young humanitarian and finding a voice between worlds.
In one of my classes during my master’s programme in Bradford, I sat with students from every part of the world. One afternoon we had a heated debate on a critical development and humanitarian crisis surrounding climate change. This session made me wonder; who gets to define a humanitarian crisis, whose voice is heard, and whose is missing?
Almost everyone at that table had either lived through a crisis like the ones we debated, or worked to change one back home, while some were hearing some of these issues for the first time
That room taught me something no lecture could. Humanitarianism is not only about responding to emergencies. It is about the different ways people understand the same reality.
Over the past 5 years I have moved from Kenya to the United States, Iceland, and now to England. Each move changed more than my address. It changed how I heard people talk about my country, my continent and its challenges, and it changed how I answered back.