Chewing over better health

Olivia Carey | 11th April 2022 | Comment
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At times of humanitarian crisis, small measures can solve complicated problems

As the war in Ukraine escalates and a humanitarian crisis unfolds, we need practical solutions to help desperate people, and fast. The war aside, severe disruption to health services caused by the pandemic is now being compounded by millions of Ukrainian refugees crossing into the EU. Watching them do so reminds me of a story from the last time Europe witnessed upheaval on this scale, in the aftermath of the Second World War. 

Back then, it was Berlin that was bearing the brunt of Russia’s aggressive expansionism. Its encirclement of the city posed a similarly grim dilemma for the allied democracies. How to alleviate human suffering without causing further catastrophe?

Colonel Gail Seymour Halvorsen of the United States Air Force had a novel answer. Haunted by the sight of children’s faces pressed against the barbed wire fences at the airport, he decided to drop candy and chewing gum to them, using handmade miniature parachutes.

The airlift itself averted a humanitarian disaster and kept West Berlin alive. Colonel Halvorsen became known as “the Berlin Candy Bomber”. And thanks to Halvorsen, plus the generosity of thousands of American families and candymakers, a whopping 23 tons of gum and chocolate were dropped from over 250,000 tiny parachutes. 

Nor did Halvorsen stop there. Over the next 25 years, he became an advocate for children in conflict zones and performed candy …

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