Karen Woo: selfless doctor gunned down in Afghanistan's badlands

[galvatron]

Karen Woo: selfless doctor gunned down in Afghanistan's badlands

Karen Woo believed there was no greater duty than to deliver medical care to the poorest people. Now she has been killed by gunmen in the remote province of Nuristan



$this->handle_bbcode_img_match('http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Admin/BkFill/Default_image_group/2010/8/7/1281197695303/Dr-Karen-Woo-006.jpg') Dr Karen Woo, of the Nuristan Medical Expedition 2010, who was killed by the Taliban. Photograph: Facebook Nuristan may be separated from the Kabul Health Club by less than a hundred miles, but they might as well be on different planets.
The club is a plush gym in the Afghan capital that charges $2,000 a year to the foreigners and privileged Afghans who can afford it. It was on the club's manicured lawn that dozens of well-wishers gathered on 8 July to help raise money for an 11-strong team of medical workers to visit the miserably poor valleys of Nuristan, one of Afghanistan's most remote, beautiful and dangerous provinces.
Over beers and canapes, Dr Karen Woo, the British organiser of the event, addressed the assembled crowd, telling them how her Nuristan Medical Trek would bring help to an especially impoverished part of the country.
Woo had come to Afghanistan intent on helping its people, but had been working in Kabul for months in a medical evacuation company.
After leaving school at 16, she worked as a dancer and wing walker, then made a late decision to return to studying in an attempt to become a doctor. After training at UCL, she began working as a surgeon at St Mary's hospital in London. She briefly dated millionaire Richard Farleigh, one of the panel members from Dragons' Den.
In October 2008, she was appointed assistant medical director of private healthcare firm Bupa but left the well-paid position at the end of last year in order to travel to the war zone. "She was a really amazing person," said Kabul friend Leslie Knott. "She was really excited about the trip because it was the whole reason she had come to Afghanistan, to do healthcare."
But for all the good intentions, the trip was fraught with risk. Woo witnessed the dangers first hand when she treated casualties after a suicide bomber struck just a short distance from the compound where she was living.
Last month, following the deaths of two friends in Afghanistan, Woo wrote in her blog: "All of these people come to Afghanistan of their own volition, they come knowing that they may pay with their lives... no one ever expects it to be them, perhaps not their immediate friends either, it is always some poor unknown person, a local national, a third country national."
Even in a country as perilous as Afghanistan, Nuristan is as remote and dangerous as it gets. Until the late 1800s it was known as Kafiristan, named after the "unbelievers", or "Kafirs", who had for centuries held out against the spread of Islam. Even today the wooded mountains that inspired the Rudyard Kipling classic The Man Who Would Be King sustain their own set of Nuristani languages, quite different from the dominant Dari and Pashtu in the rest of Afghanistan.
Although Nuristan and the bordering areas of Badakhshan province, where the group were gunned down, are far away from the Taliban's southern heartlands, other insurgent groups are active, including Hizb-e-Islami, a fearsome Taliban affiliate.
Fierce fighting in Nuristan, including the districts of Kamdesh and Barg-e-Mittal, has forced US soldiers to abandon outposts to the insurgents. In an effort to minimise the risk, the group took an indirect route to their destination, travelling north from Kabul through the friendly Panjshir valley, crossing over the 4,400m Anjuman pass into Badakhshan province. They then turned almost due south, dropping down into the western corner of Nuristan. The final leg of their journey to the isolated villages of the Parun valley was done on foot.
But even if they skirted areas where insurgent activity was most intense, they still had the problem of brigands operating in the area, who would obviously be attracted to three vehicles packed full of rich westerners and their equipment. And it was on their return journey, as they travelled back through Kuran Wa Munjan district in Badakhshan, that they were ambushed by around 10 gunmen who robbed them before killing all except one.
General Agha Noor Kemtuz, the local police chief, told the Observer that the group had been told of concerns about their route. "They had been warned by locals not to stay in the forest because it is not safe," he said. The team did not have armed security guards. Like many NGOs operating in Afghanistan they believed their best security would be keeping a low profile and staying on the right side of the local people. In general the low-profile approach has been successful for many aid organisations, with the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office in Kabul reporting a recent fall in insurgent attacks on charity workers.
Yesterday a Taliban spokesman claimed the group had executed the medics, accusing them of proselytising and carrying Bibles with them. Dirk Frans, director of the International Assistance Mission, denied the group tried to convert anyone. All Christian aid organisations operating in Afghanistan treat the issue with extreme care, and will often make sure any Christian literature owned for personal use by their staff is kept under lock and key.


link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...or-gunned-down

Related

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10903737

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-to-marry.html

[Trien Chieu]

Rest in peace. Dr. Woo, you are a selfless hero. There are 10 victims and they are all hero. My advice to them is LEAVE THE PLACE, COME BACK HOME.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapc...ex.html?hpt=C1

However, there are important lesson for people to learn. People should know where they can go and where they can't. There are places that people shouldn't go. Agains, this is not politically correct.

[kidd]

Some people are really really selfless. They can live a comfortable life in their home country, but, choose to go to war torn and dangerous places to help people that are not related to them. Some even spend their whole life there. Very altruistic of them.

I salute these people. R.I.P to Dr. Woo and the other 9 victims.

[remember_Cedric]

God bless this young lady. Her faith will be realised. RIP, Dr. Karen Woo. A Christian's mission trip is never easy.

[kidd]

Post deleted.

[remember_Cedric]

Maybe doing strictly humanitarian work without the intention to convert anyone will be better.

Always for non-Christians it's better, and gladly that is what Dr. Woo mentioned (Her zero intention of preaching) and did (I believe).

[kidd]

Post deleted.

[remember_Cedric]

I'm not pinpointing Dr.Woo, just missionary in general since you brought up the word. I saw Dr.Woo's work as solely humanitarian before that. Since you brought up the Christian's mission and I happen to see the video around the same time, I replied.

I still respect Dr.Woo for putting herself out to danger to help people in need. Not many can do that.

I just disagree with the idea of having ulterior motive when helping people (not saying that Dr.Woo did).

As a matter of a fact, some genuine Christians do practice humanitarian works of such i.e. put themselves in danger to save others, per se. If we have not forgotten, Mother Teresa is another. Sadly, it makes me think of the contrary, some Christians which did charity/humanitarian (perhaps over-passionate for some) and did not specifically emphasize (in any way that they can) that "Oh, I did this not to preach" were misunderstood. Is it the negative veil of the mind of people that should be questioned? Sigh....

[Lucre]

there are many work done by christians to help the needy without proselytizing.

however, it is those that goes around using aid to 'blackmail' people to conversion that brought about the rest of the christians a bad name.

[kidd]

Post deleted.

[Ian Liew]

If I'm a born-again Christian who believes in sharing the gospel at every opportunity, does that make every single nice thing I do have "ulterior motive"? Just because someone believes in sharing the gospel (whether it be proselytizing or not) as a life mission it doesn't cheapen all the work they do. Help never comes with strings attached and if it does it will be seen for the fake propaganda that it is. Gandhi once said that to the hungry man God appears in the form of food. Does that means any Christian feeding someone is guilty of ulterior motives? Do people even consider that perhaps it is the Christian background which motivated some of these people to do what they do (I'm not saying that all selfless people are Christian or doing it out of their faith, there are lots of selfless people by nature, or taught by their other faiths)?

I believe that a Christian motivated to love his fellow man through his faith has love which is the equal to that of any person motivated to love his fellow man by his own inborn nature. Negative perception arises when Christians don't practice what they preach and believe in brownie points for conversion of people, but when people do what Dr Woo and her friends do, being Christian shouldn't be held against them, even if they did believe that they had a chance to share their faith with others along the journey.

[kidd]

As promised. Post deleted. Thanks for sharing. Sorry for causing all these ruckus and unpleasantness.

[Ian Liew]

One last time. I NEVER once condemn Dr.Woo and her friends. But, since everyone think I did, I apologise. I'll also delete all the blasphemous comments I made on the holy selfless work that is missionary work. Missionary workers are all selfless people filled with love of the humankind. How dare I can even think remotely negatively of them. That means I'm making blanket judgement and think every Christian doing good things have ulterior motive. My bad. Very sorry. How can I be so blasphemous?

I'm not saying you did. I wasn't even referring to your posts specifically. I'm not even talking about missionary workers. Why is it when a Christian does these things they are missionaries, and when others do it they're just aid workers? By labelling them missionary in itself already pigeonboxes them into the "there to convert" category. Can't we just look at people and see people who are devoting their lives to helping those more in need, regardless of whether they're Christian or not, whatever their personal faiths are?

Sorry if my previous post came across as being snappy or self-righteous. It was never meant to be. It's painful reading about something like this (Dr Woo was the cousin of one of my schoolmates, so I had read about this a few days earlier) and in the same thread see the discussion sidetracked into a Christian-bashing session. Not saying Christianity doesn't deserve the bad PR at all - but there are bigots, hypocrites and people with less than genuine intentions from all walks of life. Tycoons frequently give donations for PR purposes rather than any real philanthropy, and not all of them are Christian. Some things should perhaps be discussed in a separate thread out of respect for the real people who gave their lives for something they really believed in.

[remember_Cedric]

#11 & #13

Well said, Ian! Unfortunately, I couldn't 'Like' the posts. Sadly, there are people who cannot choose to focus on the negative in various ways rather than exploring both sides of the coin, and it's always the Christians' fault due to their enthusiasm to share the word.

On a general idea, it's like the word that goes around saying, "People barely remember the good that someone did yet people can remember forever the bad that one do.". Same principle.

P/s: NO intention on directing this to anyone in particular.


Kidd, now, this is for you: I really don't see a need for you to jump? No one is forcing the words down your throat saying that you are pinpointing Dr Woo in any way or any of that sorts. My earlier post was intended to make a contrast for people to think about, i.e Food for thoughts since we're at that Christianity and blah blah.

[kidd]

As promised. Post deleted. Thanks for sharing. Sorry for causing all these ruckus and unpleasantness.

[Ian Liew]

This might get a bit dry, but perhaps I need to explain why Christians do certain things.

There's a difference between going somewhere and taking advantage of people's misfortune to spread the Word, and going somewhere to genuinely want to help and still spread the Word when there's an opportunity. Sharing the Word is something Christians do as per the "Great Commission" in Matthew 28:19-20 which says "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you....". We're not going to use that as an ulterior motive (at least not just from the talking point of view), but if an opportunity presents itself (and by opportunity I mean that I meet someone who is .. for lack of a better word, seeking) and I don't share, I'm shirking the responsibility which for some reason, I believe God has placed me there for. Common sense, of course, dictates when to just keep my mouth shut.

There's a pedantic difference between proseltyzing (a word with negative connotation which I never use and can't even spell) and sharing. Christians are not there to convert, not there to force people to accept, and certainly not there to blackmail people in a Hulu Selangor by-election way (vote for me and I'll develop the area and pay you the money I owe) - we just tell people what we believe in, so that people know, and if they want, accept. Maybe on the spot, maybe much much later, maybe never. It doesn't matter, it's not our job to convert for brownie points. In fact, I believe that if there's someone who hasn't heard the Gospel once, nobody has the right to hear it twice, and I'm really sorry if you've had a bad experience with some Christian friend or relative who just wouldn't stop going on about his/her religion and insisting that you go to church. There are tons of people like that, and no, I don't believe that they're doing the right thing. We're called to be witnesses not just by talking, but by the way we live our lives. We're called to be the light and salt of the earth, and not just hypocritically bible bash people for brownie points which, admittedly, many Christians do. It's particularly depressing when people drag more talkative church members to talk to their relatives when a good example or a few words from them themselves will carry so much more weight. However, it is quite unreasonable to only accept that Christians don't have ulterior motives if they explicitly declare that they are not going to share their faith, really (as if it was a thing to be ashamed of) - if I'm sharing through my life and not just my words, would I need to declare that I won't live a Christian life while I'm on that aid trip either?

Anyway, if you insist that I declare that I won't ever share, then you're asking me to, really, not be a Christian. If someone I help asks me "Why are you doing this?" am I to come up with a c&b story which excludes Jesus just to be politically correct? Matt 10:33 says "...but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." Eternal damnation versus the rejection of man and forum friends (and/or a bullet, probably).

And no, kidd, you're not the only one who feels that way, or who has expressed similar reservations in this thread, and I'm sure there are countless others who have kept quiet who yet feel the same way. There have been too many bad examples of Christians throughout the ages, and it's going to be cheap and irresponsible for me to say "they're not real Christians" (like some other religions are fond of disclaiming). However, putting my foot in it as I may be, I can honestly say that we're not all like that, even if we refuse to stop sharing ever again.

I know you never pigeonholed Dr Woo or her friends in that mould at all. But there are countless others out there (or who may no longer be) who may still share while out there, and their work is just as precious and loving as those of the non-Christians.

[HuangYushi]

Referring to post #16 (the long one):

Thank you, Ian. Well said!
And I absolutely agree.

PS: Joshua 1:8-9.

[kidd]

Ian, thanks for sharing.

[remember_Cedric]

Thanks for the words and your time, Ian. I hope people don't come back making fuss about Christians (as far as that is concerned) again.

[Ian Liew]

Thanks for the words and your time, Ian. I hope people don't come back making fuss about Christians (as far as that is concerned) again.

As long as Christians continue to set bad examples, people will always be upset with us, and rightfully so. All we can do is continue to be open to His will, and don't try to be smart and do things our way. Pray often, be grounded in the Word, and don't let our human pride blind us to what needs to be done. After all, if any of us were to be judged on our own merit and abilities, none of us would be here.