The power of holding hands

This photo is about a distribution of core relief items to forcibly displaced Mozambicans. Items such as blankets, solar lamps, buckets, mosquito nets, mattresses, pillows, cooking sets, cutlery, clothing, soap and other hygienic items, etc....all the essentials you’d normally have at home until one day that is gone, no more roof over the head, no more protection from the elements, no more lighting at night.

It happened like that, from night to morning. Cyclone IDAI made its landfall in March 2019 in Central Mozambique, causing deaths and devastations, with hundreds of thousands of people forced to flee their habitual residences.

But it is not really about that I want to write here.

I want to share about the power of holding hands. Holding the hands of this child in the photo is protecting the most vulnerable, concretely, compassionately and silently – outside the noises and distractions of bureaucracy, rhetoric, politics of convenience, abundance of fake news and worse, hatred speeches.

Holding those tiny hands is about extending human rights. 
Holding my hands was a life-saver for this child. 
Holding his hands was a life-saver for me.

We are lucky to do this job; and we are lucky to dedicate our lives to extend the light of human rights wherever darkness still prevails. Human dignity and respect above all. Never cut protection and assistance. Especially not now, when economic crises exacerbated by the pandemic lockdowns are further eroding protection of fundamental rights. This is time to do the opposite: the time to implement an expansive political economy that sustains social and community safety nets, until we defeat this virus and can fly again to a ‘new’ normal.

Many many thanks to those who support holding hands! It is so fulfilling to deliver the ‘last mile’ of your global solidarity.