A desire to cross the border into Syria

2 December 2015

We frequently read in the news about violence against humanitarian aid workers.  Thousands of Syrian humanitarian workers are providing aid in the most hostile and dangerous areas in Syria. This at a very high cost to their own physical and psychological well-being. They are often subjected to personal assault, injury, threats, kidnapping and even death. 

Unfortunately little psychological support for aid workers exists, so I am honoured to be part of an intervention team that does just that. The people helping victims of violence and suppression should not become victims themselves.

I am on a mission for the humanitarian aid organization World Vision International, and they fortunately do recognize the impact of aid work on staff. They recognize the importance of stress management training and psychosocial services led by peer supporters and mental health professionals. The peer support intervention team is therefore made up of aid workers too. They provide psychosocial care for fellow colleague aid workers. 

As an intervention team we are encouraged to share our thoughts, feelings, and reflections about our experiences on a daily basis with each other.  This is a critical activity to protect ourselves against the impact of secondary trauma. 

Blogging also has its advantages as for me it has become a great form of personal, self-guided debriefing.

Yesterday all World Vision staff in Gaziantep, including some of the local staff from Syria, received stress management training facilitated by Johara. In this training staff learn about different types of stress, the effect of stress on their physical and emotional well-being, including the signs and symptoms to watch out for. Lastly we were taught basic coping mechanisms. That is what pretty much kept me busy the whole day. It was good to see the active participation of staff, and the presence of senior leadership was encouraging. 

Today I met an amazing, inspirational man. He is employed by World Vision International as the Relief Director for the Syria Response, which covers Syria, Turkey, the Kurdish Republic of Iraq and Jordan. He has worked all over the world to lead World Vision programmes in man-made and natural disasters. 

He has a lot of experience in humanitarian aid and left the USA with his wife to settle where his help is mostly needed.  He speaks passionately about his experiences in the field. In answer to the question how he copes with all the misery he has seen and dealt with in his work, he told us that his wife is his best support. He added that he always tries to find a good work/life balance and get enough sleep. On top of that he regularly goes on vacation to destress. Good advice from a truly inspirational aid worker. 

Although it is far too dangerous and impossible for me to cross the border into Syria, I felt a strong desire to join the Syrian staff when they returned to Syria after the training. 

Tonight I have an overwhelming feeling that there is not enough care for aid workers. We must not only care for the Syrian war victims, but also for aid workers who are assisting them. 

World Vision is a global relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice, e.g. in disaster situations such as the Syrian crisis. www.wvi.org