Her delightful smile belies the terror of her ordeal. Sharon Commins paid a high price for her willingness to work as an aid worker among the poorest of the poor. But her resilience and the courage she and fellow hostage Hilda Kawuki showed during their 107 days captive in Darfur are an example of the power of the individual spirit in adversity.

Their ordeal should not put others off development work. The poverty existing in sub-Saharan Africa is humbling in the extreme and the service shown by ordinary individuals who go out there to try to make a small but significant difference should never be underestimated. Nor should the treatment of Sharon Commins and Hilda Kawuki by their violent bandit kidnappers deter the government from providing badly needed aid for this region.

Micheál Martin's promise of aid in the event of the Goal workers' release was the right course to take. For the sake of the impoverished and hungry people with whom agencies such as Goal continue to work, it must not be an empty pledge.