What Have You Done Today to Make You Feel Proud? E-Learning For Journalists. Migration and development: The aid workers who really help. Advice for First-Time Aid workers | Aid Workers Network. Going to the field for the first time as an aid worker? Even if you have extensive experience traveling in developing countries, there is a lot you should do to prepare for your first experience as an aid worker. It's impossible to list absolutely everything you will need to take, and duty stations vary tremendously in terms of security and infrastructure. The author of this page has tried to make a list that includes universal essentials, but you will need to do much more research on your own to prepare for your first placement.
Predeparture Do as much research as possible, before you leave, about the country where you will serve (its history, its current political situation, the names of its key leaders, the living standards of its people, cultural aspects, the availability of medicine, the types of food, etc.). How much stuff should you take with you? Upon arrival Some organizations provide new arrivals with an induction/orientation document. How to become an aidworker? Last updated: Dec 27 2011 (updated all links) I regularly get emails from people asking more information on how to join one of the humanitarian organisations, either full time, part-time or as a volunteer. One of the goals of this site is to provide people with inspiration, and -if possible- make them think about humanitarian issues. So, getting that amount of queries is really great, and I try to give sufficient information to get them on their way.
If you have been interested in this field of work, but never dared to ask the question, then today's post, is your post: "How to become an aidworker, in 1-2-3" or something like that :-) I write this with the fear of being grossly incomplete and vague. 1. Many of the people who wrote to me, talked about being on the crossroads of life. 3. Or "Do I have to be a doctor or a nurse to work in the humanitarian field? " Well, let's compare a humanitarian organisation to something we all know. A humanitarian organisation has both parts too. 4. 5. 6. Aidworkers are like driftwood. Last night I arrived back in my apartment near Rome. As I opened the door with a key I had not used for almost three months, the familiar smells and sights engulfed me. It felt as if I had just walked out of the door for a few minutes, to buy a pack of cigarettes in the shop downstairs. A pair of shoes stood under the small table in the hallway, with next to it some spots of volcanic sand from the previous stroll on the beach now ten weeks ago.
I walked into the kitchen to unlock the backdoor, switched on the boiler, picked up a glass on the way back, hooked up my iPod to the sound system, selected Italian opera, checked messages on the answering machine, drew the curtains aside and opened the living room windows. All of it made it feel as if I only left for a few minutes. But what is "home" for a wandering aidworker? What is home really? In thoughts, I pushed my travel bags in a corner, sat down, and opened a bottle of Prosecco, realizing this life I lead is a weird life. Why I am a humanitarian aid worker. They ask "So what do you do for a living? ", cocktail drink in hand. When I answer "I am an aid worker", there are two kinds of people: Those that roll their eyes and those that say "Really? ".For the first, I don't do an effort to go any further.
Either they are not interested or it goes beyond their level of imagination.For those that look me in the eye, I know I will have a hard time to explain what exactly I do. And why. Over the years, luckily many people has asked me why I do the work I do, far fewer have rolled their eyes.. So what do I answer? Well, let me tell you a story. It is a slightly reworked version of the shortstory "Scene of War", published in my eBook. June 1999. Richard, Alf and I are standing on a mountain pass, at the border crossing between Albania and Kosovo. A long, slow moving stream starts from far behind us. A stream not of water, but of people. Two F16 fighter jets blast low over our heads.
Would they know I am thinking of my daughters? Rumble: So You Want to Be an Aidworker, hey?