Salta Province, Argentina, December 2021

I have just arrived to Buenos Aires and I am preparing for travelling up north to Argentina's Gran Chaco. As you may remember, the northern part of the country (as well as south of Paraguay) are now experiencing fires. It is estimated that up to 10% of the Corrientes Province is burnt to ground, with forests, and infrastructure being destroyed. Things are so bad that Argentina decided to ask the EU to send assistance to help in getting the situation under control. If all goes according to a plan, the French firemen will arrive within some hours, and then some essential equipment from Norway will follow.

While I will be coordinating the receipt of this aid, I will also be travelling to the affected areas of Argentina and Paraguay to assess the humanitarian impact on the affected communities in both of the countries. Gran Chaco is mostly a very poor part of the Americas, where daily life is extremely difficult to its inhabitants even without challenges such as fires. Should we learn that people cannot cope without assistance, we will recommend release some additional funds to reach the communities along with the help to the Argentinian authorities.

As the mission to Gran Chaco progresses, I will be posting the photo reports too.

Meanwhile, I am observing the political situation in Europe with the greatest concern. The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, saddens and angers me. Although I have seen it a lot in my professional career, it is still difficult to accept that politicians are able to destroy lives and livelihoods (as well as sanity) of so many people so easily. Something is seriously wrong with our systems of governance on every possible level.

I guess the situation in Ukraine has an additional effect on me, as it is directly impacting my native Poland. It is estimated that just within 4 days of the invasion, over 300,000 refugees fled from Ukraine to Poland alone (and 150,000 more to Slovakia, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova). So far, it is impressive to see how the governments and societies of these countries seem to be managing the crisis, but surely the needs are great and challenges will be mounting in weeks to come. I am actually taking a close look at how my own organisation is supporting the humanitarian efforts, and have already volunteered to be deployed either to Ukraine itself or any of the countries around, should the need for my services arise.