Let’s rise to the challenge of 2015 in a highly inter-dependent society

2014 was a difficult year for those of us who like to take the optimist’s view of life. 

Airplanes disappeared, a killer disease spread across West Africa, barrel bombs exploded in market squares and men of violence chose beheadings over diplomacy. During the year we saw the deliberate starvation of civilians as well as assaults on UN-run hospitals and aid convoys. Not since the end of the Second World War have there been so many refugees and displaced people in the world.

The glass, however, is more than half full. 2014 was also the year that a 16 year-old-girl from Pakistan showed us what personal courage means. It was the year in which many African health workers volunteered to travel to Liberia and Sierra Leone to help fight the ebola outbreak. And it was the year in which the UN showed us the statistics to prove that never before were so many primary school-aged children in school, and were humans so healthy.