From Crisis to Calling

A FINAL WORD

At the end of their long night’s debate, Sheikha Ali asked Sasha, “Are we humanitarians or are we not?” That was the question that crushed Sasha’s final defenses. Before it, his boss’s orders, the logic of the situation, his assessment of the risk, all crumbled. “Are we humanitarians?” It was a question one refugee worker asked another in the midst of a crisis. But the question applies to anyone who has to make a decision that affects his or her fellow humans. Are we humanitarians? Or are we not?

Most of those who tell their stories in this book didn’t think of their decisions in those terms; they responded to an instinct. Sasha followed ...