\u201cWe were the only international aid agency operating there at the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Seawright said the reality of being an aid worker in areas like Aleppo was that if you worked on one side of the line, you were then considered party to the conflict and considered a \u201clegitimate target\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking after the families in the middle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Seawright said he lost two colleagues who were moving aid along Castello Rd in 2016.<\/p>\n
Nicknamed the death road, Castello Rd was the only route for food, fuel and medical supplies to enter Eastern Aleppo.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was probably the most dangerous road in the world at the time,\u201d Seawright said.<\/p>\n
He said his colleagues would have to \u201crun this gauntlet\u201d avoiding fighter jets, rocket attacks and mortars just to get into the city.<\/p>\n
Although the majority of his team had since left Aleppo, Seawright said ReliefAid team leaders were still in Syria working with communities on education programmes, and providing shelter to people in camps.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe war in Syria is still volatile, but it\u2019s not open conflict any more,\u201d Seawright said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recently supported families in the northeast of the country when there was an offensive between Kurdish forces and the new government forces. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo lots of families were displaced. But a lot of people have simply been left behind in camps because they have no homes to return to.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Gaza, eight ReliefAid staff have been killed and two injured since October 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur entire northern team in Gaza is either dead or injured,\u201d Seawright said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a testament to our southern team who see what\u2019s happened and yet they get up every single day and deliver water in Gaza despite the risks even now.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said ReliefAid wasn\u2019t alone regarding staff losses in Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s happened across the board. Either incidental killings because there\u2019s been levelling of homes, apartment buildings or systematic attacks against humanitarian action such as water trucks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since starting ReliefAid, Seawright has seen hospitals and schools deliberately targeted, when they were once off-limits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got our team members who live quite literally in these areas and yet they\u2019re getting up, taking the risks every day just to help their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Seawright on the front line of the Russia-Ukraine war with ReliefAid.<\/p>\n
After starting in Syria, Seawright said the charity now also delivered aid to the frontlines in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Lebanon and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Seawright and ReliefAid were in Ukraine two days after Russia\u2019s invasion started.<\/p>\n
Seawright was in Europe at the time and quickly flew to the Romanian border with Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problems starts, [we] get in quick and start helping quick,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, the ReliefAid team had moved through the country as the front lines changed.<\/p>\n
Seawright said he\u2019d visited villages that were 80% destroyed, where all the men have gone to fight the invading Russians.<\/p>\n
Yet the remaining residents are determined to stay and lead their communities while drones endlessly fly over.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese older women would come up to me crying and give me hugs every single day, just because we turned up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis happens in every single settlement that we go visit because they feel forsaken in the midst of this war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Seawright on the front line of the Russia-Ukraine war with ReliefAid.<\/p>\n
Seawright said ReliefAid started with one person in one country delivering aid to 18,000 people, and now operated in six countries with up to 110 employees delivering aid to 1.7 million.<\/p>\n
He said ReliefAid had incredible support from Hawke\u2019s Bay and around the country and donors could choose where their donations go to directly.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoney today turns into water tomorrow in Gaza, homes and medical facilities in Ukraine, food to families in Lebanon, education programmes in Afghanistan and supporting kids in Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke\u2019s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany and New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe were the only international aid agency operating there at the time,\u201d he said. Seawright said the reality…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16942,1884,1561,1038,8452,1668,1976,194,18644,22511,5158,1456,3025,111,43,139,69,14786,239181,239182,145287,64150,61,3461,17450],"class_list":["post-474473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-afghanistan","tag-aid","tag-bay","tag-brings","tag-dangerous","tag-front","tag-hawkes","tag-kiwi","tag-lebanon","tag-lines","tag-man","tag-mike","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-palestine","tag-reliefaids","tag-seawright","tag-sudan","tag-syria","tag-to","tag-ukraine","tag-worlds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}