The weather phenomenon known as El Niño wreaked climate havoc across the globe from late 2015 into early 2016. As a result, harvests were decimated across Africa’s eastern and southern region bringing food insecurity for over 50 million people.

Concern’s senior management tried to figure out how we would raise public awareness and attract badly-needed funds for a crisis that the media was largely ignoring. Our instinct was that we needed someone high profile to put the spotlight on this humanitarian crisis. We also figured that if the Irish humanitarian organisations could come together and work in partnership to raise awareness of this crisis, we would achieve greater impact.

We approached Mary Robinson to see if she would consider travelling to Ethiopia with Concern, Goal and Trócaire. She most graciously agreed and fortuitously, in parallel to our discussions, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon asked her to take on the role of UN Special Envoy for El Niño and Climate Change.

In July we set off on a punishing four day visit to Ethiopia where Mary spent time talking with mothers, community leaders and officials throughout the country about how such a climate-induced food security crisis might be prevented in the future. As she moved through the country, we could see her developing the agenda that she would take back to the UN.

Her patience, generosity and positive spirit throughout the visit were awe-inspiring. When we reached this community nutrition centre in Tigray with the Gergera mountain range in the background, gangs of smiling, laughing children crowded around Mary, the special UN visitor.

It was a moment we had to capture. It was a moment full of hope.

Irish artist Brian Maguire in South Sudan

The first day of crisis response

Celebrating Irish volunteers and humanitarians