Demand grows for relief workers in trouble spots

By JULIE MIDDLETON

Wanted: professionals from all backgrounds to lend their skills to disaster relief projects in countries such as Afghanistan, East Timor and India.

The call comes from the Auckland branch of the Register of Engineers for Disaster Relief (RedR), a global movement which matches paid volunteers with top-notch skills to disaster relief projects all over the world.

It aims to fulfil requests for staff from organisations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Oxfam, Red Cross and Save the Children - and the requests are increasing.

Eighty New Zealanders are on the register's books. Just six are women, and RedR would like more.

Six Kiwis are now overseas. Two are in the East Timor capital, Dili, working on road and bridge rebuilding and power restoration.

Three, one a woman, are in Peshawar, Pakistan, helping Afghan refugees fleeing American bombs.

Another is in the west Indian state of Gujarat, where an earthquake in late January killed an estimated 170,000 people.

But a growing need for people with project management and accountancy skills means the demand is no longer for engineers only, says director Neil Mander, one of the founders of RedR NZ in 1994, who is now enjoying a busy retirement.

"Originally the intent was to take qualified engineers, but we're finding that the requests we are now getting ask for project management and accountancy expertise," he says.

The ethos of RedR will continue, he says, but the range of expertise on the books needs to widen.

Jobs now available include a six-month posting as a programme manager to north-east Afghanistan with French agency ACTED.

Another is a three to six-month job for an accountant, wrapping up a British Save the Children Fund project in Kinshasa, capital of war-ravaged Congo.

In Kosovo, a one-year post is available for an architect with project management skills to oversee housing reconstruction in a war-damaged town 20km north of Pristina.

But Mander acknowledges that employers are often reluctant to let staff go.

"Part of our ongoing publicity is to encourage employers to release people for short-term assignments," he says.

The pay for such jobs depends on which organisation is paying. The likes of UNHCR pays well; charities may not be able to pay more than air fares, accommodation and a modest daily allowance.

But you do not go backwards financially, says RedR board member Annette Scarfe, a 57-year-old Waiheke Island nurse and veteran of 16 assignments for various agencies since 1973. Her latest, three weeks in cyclone-hit Madagascar, involved assessing whether British charity Oxfam needed to send in an emergency team. The eventual answer was no.

Scarfe says her work is addictive. "It's one enormous buzz."

"The people you work with - the locals - are so resilient and so resourceful, and they bounce back no matter what's thrown at them."

She describes her opportunities as a privilege. Rather than skimming the surface of a country as a tourist might, she says, she gets to know other cultures from the inside.

Scarfe has worked all over east and northern Africa and in Asia - mostly in Muslim countries where women's freedoms may be different from here.

Although she has worn a headscarf at times and has occasionally had to tolerate situations where men were not allowed to speak directly to women, Scarfe has often felt safer overseas than in Auckland.

"Most of the people you work with have this hierarchical respect for their elders," she says.

The desire for challenge sent Nepalese-born, Auckland-based Ram Bhattu to India for five months this year to work for Red Cross.

He helped to rebuild public facilities, such as schools and health centres, demolished by the Gujarat earthquake.

Settling in, he admits, was difficult at times, but he is seeking other chances to volunteer.

Register of Engineers for Disaster Relief