Al Jazeera: “By helping each other we help ourselves”

Al Jazeera Balkans aired a program called Context, which focused on how the worldwide coronavirus epidemic caused panic, but also humanity and community on March 29, 2020. The video call included psychologist Mia Roje Đapić from Zagreb, world and European karate champion and volunteer Luka Petković from Čačak and Maja Arslanagić, spokeswoman for the charity pomozi.ba from Sarajevo.

Following the introduction of the state of emergency in Serbia, Luka Petkovic also engaged a friend who started a private carrier helping the over-65s who had to stay in the apartments, bringing them all the supplies they needed. Their action also encouraged others to help senior citizens across Serbia. Maja Arslanagić spoke about the action of the pomozi.ba association to equip healthcare professionals with protective equipment – masks and visors that they lack. Namely, during the floods of 2014, their volunteers in the endangered areas had to wear masks, so there were 500,000 pieces left in the organization’s warehouses, which are now being shared by the scarcity of masks worldwide. At first, they intended to distribute them to citizens, but doctors and pharmacists appealed to send them protective equipment because they did not have enough. To help them, they also ordered 1000 security visors from the factory that manufactures them in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Psychology of the Zagreb Child and Youth Protection Center Mia Roje Djapic answered questions related to how empathy and humanity occur in times of crisis:

“We humans are social beings, oriented toward one another, especially when we feel when we feel unsafe and anxious, when we are afraid of something happening. In such situations, we have a strong need to group ourselves, to somehow check what is closest to us, to seek their physical closeness, which is not possible for us at these moments. However, what we are given is still social contact, regardless of physical distance. We also often identify with some people who are similar to us. In a situation like this, we are all similar to each other, we are humans, nature is on the one hand with the coronavirus, we are on the other.

Then it somehow ceases to matter who is cheering for whom, who is of what nationality and the like, because we really all form a common group, finding another enemy, in this case a crown, and in Zagreb, an earthquake, and we act together. We wonder if something bad has happened to us or our loved ones “why us, are we guilty”. If something bad happened to our neighbor, we wonder “can it happen to me tomorrow”.

We need the feeling that we can rely on each other in moments like this, the feeling that we are still doing something, that we are not helpless, because it is hardest for a person to be helpless and just sit at home. Although we cannot fully control now whether or not there will be viruses, there are things that we can control and that we can influence and then rely on. We turn to them, help one another, and thus help ourselves. So, this is not one-way altruism, because our day makes sense, we feel good, we feel good, that we still controlled some of this unpleasant situation, helped someone, made our day better. It gives us meaning, it pulls us from a sense of helplessness, passivity, from the sheer flood of information we listen to and look at all day long, which significantly raise our anxiety and anxiety levels.

I hope that this whole corona story will have a higher meaning, that is, there will be some repositioning of values, and that we will not forget a year from today what really matters in life, that we will not start sharing again with us and them, but that we will to at least keep parts of this community in their daily lives.

Why is there no empathy to this extent when it comes to the usual situation?

Let’s remember what we did, what we were worried about, why we popped out of our skin until fifteen days ago. These are probably funny things to us today. Otherwise, we turn to ourselves, society is such that it increasingly pushes us into individualism, so it is paradoxical that now that we have to, it is so hard to be at home, watch movies, be on the internet, etc., and in times when it is a beautiful and sunny day Outside, when there is no epidemic, a lot of people choose just that way of spending time at home rather than hanging out with loved ones. So, when things are going the routine of daily life, we are much more focused on ourselves and on some minor stresses.

Unfortunately, sometimes we just need this kind of threat from the outside, the threat of nature, the threat to life, health, dignity… that is, integrity, physical or in any sense, to remind us of what really matters to us. What cell phone do we have, who said what, who gossiped about it… it all just falls into the water in moments like this.

We will never say that it is good that these situations have happened, but when they have already happened, let’s try to really get something good and everyone out of our position, and not let us get into that routine of materialism again… values that are important to us now, ”said psychologist of the Zagreb Child and Youth Protection Center Mia Roje Djapic.

Source: Al Jazeera Balkans: http://balkans.aljazeera.net/

Disclaimer: This is unofficial translation provided for information purposes. Zagreb Child and Youth Protection Center cannot be held legally responsible for any translation inaccuracy.