So you wanna be a relief worker? But your careers counsellor couldn't tell you what subjects to take?

By Tom Sizer

Working as a relief worker in a developing country is a uniquely satisfying job for people who have a strong desire to change the world. But you need more!

It best suits people who do not have families, or don't like them very much. It is a bit like being a submariner with six months on and six months off where, they say, whether you love your wife or not, you get six months paradise a year.

Relief work does not pay well. Many positions are virtually voluntary. There is normally little job security. Three to 12 month contracts are the norm.

It is often dangerous. Most humanitarian disasters involve civil strife. Dozens of relief workers are taken hostage each year. Some are killed. Almost all long-term relief workers have a near-miss story or three.

On the other hand it is exciting and rewarding work. If you really want to make a difference in peoples' lives, there are few jobs closer to the cutting edge - delivering food, shelter and health care to thousands of hungry, sick and often desperate people.

So how do you prepare?

There are three ways to become a relief worker. The first, if you have a generalist degree and, preferably, post graduate qualifications, is to work in project programming. This involves taking relief projects through the project cycle - situation assessment, analysis, project design, securing donor support, monitoring and evaluation. Management is also an option.

The second stream is to get post-graduate qualifications in an appropriate discipline - water, health or agriculture - then get appropriate experience and apply for the job.

The third stream is logistics – dealing with commodities. This is pretty much the only way to get into the industry without tertiary qualifications.

Qualifications

Aid agencies need nurses, doctors, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. They require logisticians, agriculturalists and water engineers. They need mechanics - particularly those who can rebuild a Landcruiser with a Swiss army knife and fencing wire.

They also require some unlikely professionals - communications, finance, computers, strategic planning and program design.

Tertiary education courses in third-world or development studies are available. But ensure your course is tailored towards employment. It is a good idea to talk to an agency first and arrange some work experience.

Contacts

RedR Australia (Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief) run pre-deployment and security/ communications courses. Check them out on www.redr.org . Some missionary and Non- Government Agencies have courses too: and organise work experience trips to developing countries. ACFOA( Australian Council For Overseas Aid), the peak body of Australian international development agencies, has a members directory to help you get all the addresses: and if you click on ‘events and training' you will find a good list of links and ideas about getting into aid work. www.acfoa.asn.au . Aidworkers( www.aidworkers.net ) has a fantastic site. Reliefweb ( www.reliefweb.int ) gives links everywhere all over the world.

Demonstrate your interest

Become a volunteer for an aid agency here in Australia . Put legs on the motto think globally, act locally . Join Agency Support groups and get on the mailing lists. Attend forums. Help teach English to Ethiopian migrants. Learn Indonesian or French.

If you have a transferable skill, you may wish to have your details included on the registers that most agencies maintain for rapid deployment in the case of need. RedR, Oxfam and AVI ( Australian Volunteers International) maintain deployment databases.

Resources

Read. As with any subject which is easier to write about than actually do, there are lots of books available: there is a starting list list of resources on my website: www.tomsizer.com . Keep up with international news. Subscribe to the journals Crosslines and New Internationalist. Do a google search on ‘humanity development Library': 3000 relief and development texts fully searchable on-line or by CD-Rom. (Google seems to be best for development searches) The best email service is without doubt www.dev-zone.org , where you can subscribe for weekly mailouts of development news, job vacancies and resources.

Look out for Engineering in Emergencies: A Practical Guide for Relief Workers , available from RedR. It's not cheap so you may prefer to harass your local library for a copy.

Other useful texts include The World's Most Dangerous Places by Robert Young Pelton and Coskun Aral (Fielding Worldwide, International Internships and Volunteer Programs by Will Cantrell and Francine Modderno (Worldwise Books) and Overseas Work, Learning Holidays, Adventure Travel by Bryan Havenhand and Joanna Maxwell (Global Exchange).

SCF and World Vision publish excellent security manuals. It pays not to be complacent about this. Its not long ago that Jakarta went from being a model city of Asian development to a riot-torn disaster zone overnight.

Develop a spirit of adventure

Hire a 4WD and do an off-road driving course. Definitely get a first aid certificate. Learn about navigation and survival. Join the military reserves or your local State Emergency Service. Learn to operate machinery, tie a clove hitch and work in a team.

Go camping without a microwave. Do a bush tucker course. Understand that in a developing country you won't get to eat what you are used to. Boiled bull testes are prominent on the guest menu in Sudan , along with goat intestines and milk curdled with urine. Need I mention eyes? Bon appetit!

Developing country experience

Ultimately no relief agency can know whether or not you can handle working in a developing country until you have done it. Many relief workers get their start backpacking. Spending some time in a developing country is essential for the agency - and for you - to know whether you will survive. An orientation trip is a must. Try to tee up some volunteer work before you leave.

Ship out as soon as possible. Stay debt-free while you are getting established in the industry. Most people find they work for a few years for starvation wages before getting a chance to work for big bucks for the UN! Experience is way more important than a Master's degree in Development!

Avoid romantic attachment with anyone who does not share your spirit of adventure and hepatitis resistance. Children should also be avoided. Otherwise you may find yourself stuck behind a desk worrying about school fees and the mortgage and wondering where your life went. Plan to save the world for ten years and get it out of your system. You will still have time to start another career, as a parent or a stockbroker, or deteriorate into management.

Prepare to be a trainer

Building the capacity of the local people to take care of themselves is the primary goal of all relief operations. Any adult education or train the trainer experience will be highly regarded.

Get your act together

You are preparing to be part of the solution, not the problem. Aid agencies are looking for mature and capable professionals. Gandhi once said, from memory, ‘everyone wants to change the world, but no-one wants to clean the tearoom'.

If you are sharing a bat-infested bombed-out hovel through the monsoon season with 16 colleagues from 10 different cultures, it's the little things that matter. I recall a fisherman from the Isle of Man staging a late night booze-up in Sudan with the local military and loudly exhorting them to kick out the relief agency staff who were trying to sleep in the next room. And it may surprise you to discover that not everyone enjoys Dolly Parton at 60 decibels at 6:00am . (or not.)

Patience and a sense of humour are essential, along with the following:

Humility

Be prepared to learn. Local solutions are often more sustainable than imported western ideas. Maintaining the attitude that you have as much to learn as your local colleagues will smooth the way. Besides, it is probably true.

Interpersonal relations

Diplomacy and conflict-resolution skills are crucial. Interestingly, Australians and Americans often get along worse with each other than with the local people. Similarly, ex-military spit-and-polish deminers often find a cultural chasm between themselves and ex-hippy save-the-world types, though they will both get along fine with the Nuer tribespeople.

Resilience

You may find yourself eating rice á la beefcube for weeks on end and starting to wonder about scurvy. Remember that no-one much will be interested when you get home except, possibly, your mum.

Stress management

Ability to cope with competing demands in a stressful environment is essential. Imagine you are overseeing distribution of food to thousands of hungry, restive people. Your interpreter has disappeared and guys with guns and glazed eyes are moving through the crowd. You have malaria and a classic case of the runs, and if you don't finish in an hour you will miss the plane out and the last chance of a proper bed for a fortnight.

As I say, agencies are looking for mature, controlled professionals.

The payoff

You will gain that incredible feeling of having made a real difference to the world. You will make some great mates. (One of whom is sure to make UN Secretary General down the track and you can hit them up for a job) You will build a stock of extraordinary life experiences to reflect upon in your retirement and a collection of amazing stories to enthrall your grandchildren ... Turkana youths bounding and chanting at dawn ... elderly custodians singing the song of the country as you drink from a sacred well ... the screaming of a youth as a health worker swabs his gunshot wounds with surgical spirit ...

Do you really want to be a relief worker?

Tom Sizer is an independent Consultant with a twelve- year history in international development and disaster Management, in Australia and 21 countries in Asia , Africa , the Middle East and Eastern Europe . Specialising in Capacity-building of indigenous development workers, he has worked in health, environment and sustainable agriculture, as well as disaster mitigation and emergency response. He is presently working on a major project, running training in Corporate Governance for Community- Based Organisations.

To read more about Tom go to http://www.tomsizer.com