Julie Helen: I feel so helpless - and lucky - as war hits Middle East

THERE is part of me worrying that if I don’t write an opinion on the conflict in Gaza, that readers will think I just don’t care that people are dying in a horrendous war.

Children are dying, world powers are donating funds to humanitarian aid, but maybe they need to step in, like the U.S stepped into the peace process in Northern Ireland.

All I know is that I am very grateful our little island is at peace and that the process that keeps that peace is held up as a beacon of hope all over the world.

I cannot comment on the nuances of the conflict between Hamas and Israel. Of course I support a ceasefire so that people can be helped and saved, of course I wish the bloodshed would stop. 

I wish every child in the world had the love and safety my son has but, beyond that, I don’t really know how to contribute in a meaningful way to the story.

I feel it is OK for me to avoid the graphic footage crawling across our newsfeeds. I feel sometimes it gets a bit overwhelming and there is a pressure in the online world to share posts and be seen to be against such-and-such a thing or for another thing.

I am definitely getting repeat images in news stories and post, so it makes me wonder who is curating it and what algorithm is controlling what I see and through what specific lens is my news filtered?

There has been propaganda in every war, this one will be no different. I donated to UNICEF to support children in the conflict, that is literally all I can really do to make any difference and the rest is up to decision-makers. 

I am aware how lucky I am to feel safe, I do my best to pass on that safety to my own son and people I love, that’s all I can really do.

I got so frustrated with the online space recently, I actually deleted X, formerly known as Twitter. Before the rebrand of the company ‘likes’ and ‘retweets’ were very important in my professional world and the aim was always to be growing the profile, sharing meaningful content and achieving impressive reach.

In the disability sector in particular, when I had the time and space to step back and really think about it, most of the time we were speaking to our own bubble of like-minded professionals, or parents or family members impacted by the work that we tried to do. The impact of work in the disability sector, or advocacy work in general, is very hard to measure or quantify. A lot of the time, people just need to be heard and understood but it is not actually easy to solve the concrete issues they may be having. It is then that the metrics of social media statistics or submissions made to government become the things we cling to, in order to prove to funders or the public that we are truly making a difference.

I believe telling stories is very important - the stories of individuals and the experiences they have - but I am now sure a platform like X is the place anymore. I am not sure about any of the social media platforms, but because communication is something I care about, I still immediately regretted deleting my profile.

I found a use for the channel only a few days later when a group of advocates asked for my help for a campaign. It is a tricky business trying to find the balance!