8th February 2024
In the lead up to Humanitarian Xchange 2024 – the inaugural hybrid conference organised by Save the Children UK and the Humanitarian Leadership Academy, we have been speaking with panelists and speakers to learn more about them and what to expect from their HX platform.
We spoke with James Denselow, Head of Conflict and Humanitarian Policy and Advocacy at Save the Children UK.
James’ vast exposure working in the Middle East and as a writer covering geopolitical and security issues, will be experienced in his HX session discussing developing the ‘world’s first’ Paediatric Blast Injury Field Manual.
Humanitarian Xchange 2024 will hold on February 20, 2024 online and at the Business Design Center in Islington, London. Register for free to attend.
Hear from James:
In your journey, what is one personal experience that drastically changed your humanitarian outlook and possibly the trajectory of your work?
I remember visiting the Gaza Strip in 2015 with a team of British medics when I worked at Medical Aid for Palestinians. There was a young boy, I think he was 15, he’d lost his right leg in the escalation of the conflict in 2014 and had issues with a badly injured left leg. I remember the medical team working with their Palestinian peers but finding that amputation was the only way to save his life. The news was broken to the boy through a translator, and I’ll never forget seeing him digest the news with such sorrow and dignity. It was a powerful reminder that these injuries will be with children for the rest of their lives and that those should be a lot longer than adults who experience the same misfortune.
When I started working at Save the Children I was lucky to be part of the work between ourselves, Imperial College London and a host of other medics, researchers and NGOs that brought about the “Paediatric Blast Injury Partnership”. The basic tenant of the partnership’s work is that children are not “little adults” and have unique physiology that needs to be better accounted for by armed forces and groups in modern conflict as well as those responding as medics and humanitarians.
I remember having a meeting a year on from the partnership being set up at the “Royal United Services institute” (RUSI) where the new knowledge and approach to understanding paediatric blast injury landed with those tasked with the difficult job of running targeting and collateral damage assessments. After all you can only really understand the impact of your weaponry on children by better understanding children themselves; how especially young children have less blood, thinner skin, weigh less just to mention a few factors that will shape how they are injured by the weapons of modern war.
You can only really understand the impact of your weaponry on children by better understanding children themselves.
What should the audience look forward to during your session at HX?
The initial partnership work on paediatric blast led to the publication of the world’s first paediatric blast injury field manual, requested by medics from Syria Relief and authored by specialists across the continuum of care with Dr. Paul Reavley, former UK military doctor as lead author. This manual is now in over 13 countries and available in English, French, Arabic, Russian, Ukrainian, Dari and Pashto with Spanish and Chinese translations on the way.
Meanwhile with the launch of the Centre for Paediatric Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London, which Save the Children are proud to support – we’re seeing pioneering research into prosthetics for children that is more needed than ever if you consider the numbers of serious injuries children suffer in conflicts across the globe.
Yet this is just the start, and we need to do so much more – hopefully this session can bring people into the partnership and closer to the work of the centre to do just that!
More on James’ hybrid session:
Title: Understanding Paediatric Complex Trauma, the Science, Medicine & Long-Term Outcomes.
Time: 11:00-11:55GMT
Format: Panel Discussion & Debate
Where: Humanitarian Hub & Online
The team from Imperial College London’s Paediatric Blast Injury Study Centre will discuss survival of complex blast and crush trauma, and the life beyond survival for the world’s children at risk from these terrible injuries. Treating children with complex trauma is one of the most significant and urgent challenges of our time. Securing the best possible outcomes for them into adult life will require not only medical and rehabilitational commitment, but a scientific understanding of the disruption of the biodynamically complex mechanisms of growth.
About James
James is the Head of Conflict and Humanitarian Policy and Advocacy at Save the Children. His key areas of responsibility include the “Children and Armed Conflict” (CAAC) agenda, “Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas” (EWIPA) with specific reference to paediatric blast injury and Protection of Civilians (POC) policies. James has spent more than 20 years working on humanitarian and conflict issues with a focus on the Middle East, including time living in Syria and Lebanon. He is a contributing author to An Iraq of Its Regions: Cornerstones of a federal democracy and America and Iraq: Policy-making, intervention and regional politics since 1958. He is currently a Fellow at the Centre for Syrian Studies.