Welcome back after a short break due to my personal constraints as I was moving duty stations so I was not able to record the last episode. I am excited to be back with a new episode where I am talking to global GBV expert Sarah Martin, a Lead Associate with the consultancy group Gender Associations. Sarah has extensive experience in research, advocacy, training and project management with international organizations. She specializes in strengthening gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response in humanitarian settings and addressing sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping and hum ..read more

Today we speak to global HR Director Melly Preira with the Jesuite Refugee Service (JRS), a global faith-based organization based on the Jesuit philosophy and values. We will be talking about some of these values and how they have been used to inform a specialized staff wellbeing programme for JRS staff firmly grounded in the religious traditions and values, while also catering to staff of other or no faiths. One of my key questions walking into this conversation was whetehr staff in faith-based organizations might be affected by the daily toll of their work in a different way than non-religio ..read more

When we face unprecedented challenges, our mind and our emotions can get carried away sometimes and if unable to change things for the better, we easily feel helpless. 2020 has been a rough year for all of us, a protracted COVID-19 pandemic leaving us unable to see our loved ones, the debates about racism and discrimination in the aid sector, the recent Beirut explosion, and the commemoration of our fallen humanitarian aid workers due on 19th August on World Humanitarian Day! Where does that leave us and our emotional status? How are we dealing with the current situation? To what extent are we ..read more

Whether you have just started out in the humanitarian field or you’ve been in the sector for 20 years, you can experience a sudden traumatic experience that can trigger compassion fatigue (also known as “secondary traumatic stress”). What lies behind this term, termed by author Charles Figley, which has become some sort of a buzzword in recent years? A term initially coined in the military context for soldiers returning from war zones can be useful to understanding the mental health challenges aid workers and others working in caring professions. In the last episode, Dr Don Bosch from the Head ..read more

The Humanitarian Self-Care Podcast is a newly established show by and for humanitarian aid workers to provide a space for discussion and reflection around everything related to wellbeing and self-care in the midst of crisis and helping others in need.  The idea for this podcast came out of our host's Iris Adira's own realization that we go through our professional careers as aid workers with a strong sense of passion, compassion, drive and empathy for those most vulnerable people who have been forced to flee due to conflict, poverty, or the effects of climate change on their communities ..read more