Irish aid worker takes helm of relief operation in tense Darfur
NEWS STORY: Gillian Sandford/ACT-Caritas
PUBLISHED: October 20, 2005
NYALA, SOUTH DARFUR, SUDAN -- Anne Masterson, a Dublin-born relief worker with experience across Africa, has just taken over as head of one of the largest emergency relief operations in South and West Darfur.
Masterson -- who was brought up in the Newry/Armagh area of Northern Ireland -- takes over from Norwegian Bjørg Mide as director of the ACT-Caritas response, a joint humanitarian response by the two faith-based networks ACT International and Caritas Internationalis, which is based in Nyala, regional capital of South Darfur.
"This job represents a great challenge, especially at this time when violence and banditry is increasingly targeted directly against aid agencies making it hard for us to work."
"But men women and children forced to flee their homes since the conflict began in 2003, remain confined to camps and dependent on the shelter and relief that we provide. We will continue to monitor the situation carefully – but are committed to working here and to supporting them."
Masterson, 47, has worked in Africa for more than 20 years and for the last nine years was director of the Lutheran World Federation Program in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
She is joined by a new head of programmes, Margaret Gaynor, 32, who has taken a three-month leave of absence from RPS in Dublin, where she works as a senior design engineer in water services. She previously spent several years in development work. "Darfur is the biggest humanitarian crisis at the moment and risks being totally abandoned," she says.
ACT (which stands for Action by Churches Together) has combined with Caritas to form an unprecedented grouping of Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox relief agencies for the Darfur emergency.
Since its start, in June 2004, ACT/Caritas and partners have helped more than 470,000 displaced people, who mainly live in camps to which they have been forced to flee; however, the programme is also reaching out to vulnerable communities who remain in their villages.
Working with national members and partners -- the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), Sudanaid and the Sudan Social Development Organisation (SUDO) -- the operation provides shelter and basic non-food, such as plastic sheeting and water containers. It runs a supplementary feeding programme for malnourished children and breast-feeding mothers. It drills wells, digs latrines, builds and equips clinics and schools, trains local people in human rights, provides counselling services to traumatised victims of the conflict and has distributed seed and tools.
Interview with Anne Masterson
What attracted you to this job?
I’ve been in Africa for more than 20 years and was for the last nine years with the Lutheran World Federation as programme director, first in Rwanda and then for both Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
I feel that many of the issues in Rwanda and DRC are relevant to the situation in Darfur. I also thought this job would be a huge challenge.
The Lutheran World Federation is a founding member of Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, along with the World Council of Churches. I’d worked for the Federation for 13 years in all, but I come from a Roman Catholic background. So I was interested to see the two big aid networks of ACT and Caritas working together. It’s a very significant development and I’m proud to be a part of it.
What’s your professional background?
I’m a social scientist and community worker. I studied at the University of Ulster in Jordanstown, Belfast, at a time when there was a lot of conflict in the North of Ireland. So my first job was working to resolve cross-community conflict between the two communities in the North of Ireland. I did lots of work on reconciliation issues, bringing the communities together over issues of common concern: problems such as housing, poverty and unemployment.
I then spent time in Israel and the occupied territories, doing research that looked at young people living in conflict and I compared the situation of the Palestinians with young people in Derry. I studied how a conflict impacts on young people’s lives, their freedoms and their future.
I had a period working in Greater Manchester on a government action research programme, looking at the problems of people leaving home. I was there for four years.
Then I left for Botswana with what was then Voluntary Service International. I was working to develop local branches of the Red Cross. I moved from there to Zimbabwe, where I was with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on an Irish Aid project aimed at strengthening local organisations in Eastern and Southern Africa. It was the first time the United Nations was looking seriously at local and national organisations and their potential.
After taking a Masters Degree in development policy and planning at Swansea University, Wales, I became a programme coordinator for the Lutheran World Federation in Uganda and then went to Rwanda.
In what ways can you draw on this experience for the work in ACT-Caritas?
I can bring experience of working in complex emergencies where things are not always clear and there are lots of different dimensions working at one time. I’ve also got experience of working among a civilian population that feels it is powerless and just a pawn in a game. I’ve worked in many situations like that and know that it’s important for all people to have a voice and have a say. I understand that great plea of ordinary people just to have a normal life – and security; and that’s one area where the ACT-Caritas network with its huge reach can really contribute.
Tell me briefly about your personal background.
I was born in Dublin. My mother was from Fermanagh and my father from Tyrone, Donegal. I’m the sixth of nine children. When I was about four or five years old we moved to the North of Ireland, finally settling in the Newry/Armagh area. This was at the start of The Troubles, so most of my youth and teenage years were spent in quite a difficult situation and the whole issue of Northern Ireland was beginning: the civil rights movement, the Red Strikes. The situation impacted on everyone. Employment was difficult. If you went out to a dance, you always had to think about the security situation. I grew up amidst a heavy British Army and paramilitary presence, which affected the way we all lived every day.
The experience of living in that environment led to my interest in other communities of people who live in a conflict and who feel discriminated against. Then as I came to these other communities, I could see problems that were exactly the same.
This year has seen terrible disasters: from the tsunami to the Pakistani earthquake. Why does Darfur matter when there are so many other pressing demands on our charity?
The issue of Sudan and resolution of the North-South civil war is a critical one. The North-South peace agreement that was signed in January this year offers real hope; but it remains fragile. It it’s successfully implemented, it will help in bringing stability to the whole region.
Darfur is not generally recognised as a part of the North-South problem, but it’s got to be addressed as part of the whole peace process.
In Darfur, we have nearly 2 million people displaced who can’t grow food, who can’t send their children to school. This could lead to a generation growing up who are unable to contribute to the future of their country. There is a need for all Sudanese to live in an environment of peace and stability.
If we look back in all of our history, we all went through conflict. And we came to democracy through having a say.
Now we send our children to school. We enjoy a certain level of security. We have economic growth. Africa deserves the same. This new nation has had conflict and turmoil -- and it needs to be supported so that it can have a chance of peace.
Darfur has become increasingly dangerous for aid groups and several ACT-Caritas vehicles have been robbed and looted. How long is ACT-Caritas prepared to stay in this environment?
We have to keep in mind the security situation and monitor it. We are in contact with the UN and have local partners who work here and we listen to them. But we feel its very important time to be with people at a time like this. We are a faith organisation and want to be here.
We are planning to stay. We are not planning to leave here. We feel our presence in support of our partners and the people who live here is critical.
How can people help?
People can help in many ways. We are still helping local partners to help those who have fled their homes and those who remain in their villages, but are vulnerable. We are providing shelter and relief: plastic sheeting, blankets, and supplementary food for mothers. We dig latrines, drill for water, promote good hygiene, build and equip schools and clinics. We help people to learn about their rights and counsel trauma victims. But we need money to do this. We also need people to remember Darfur; to keep it in the media spotlight.
Darfur has many echoes of Bosnia and Rwanda. The international community said after both those tragedies that it would never let such things happen again. Yet we have Darfur: Were the promises worth anything?
I think the international community has shown its concern for Darfur. We have the presence of the AU troops -- monitoring the situation. I think UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said a lot about Darfur. But I do think that in these last few months, Darfur has started to be forgotten – and yet the situation is deteriorating again. So, the international community needs to take notice and to become involved: it needs to ensure that things don’t get worse - for the sake of the people of Darfur.
Anne Masterson, new Director of ACT-Caritas operation in Darfur, Sudan.
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