World Humanitarian Day 2019: Tough Questions for Even Tougher Women

This year, in honor of World Humanitarian Day, the international humanitarian community is celebrating the accomplishments and sacrifices of women. Here at USAID, over half of our humanitarian staff — field-based and at headquarters — are women. Today we get personal with some of them.

Sonia Walia, Public Health and Nutrition Advisor

Q: You’ve worked at OFDA for 8 years. Why do you continue to do this work?

“I really love my job and the work that I do. I find it very rewarding and it’s something that fulfills not only my professional goals, but my personal goals in that I like to give back. I can do that with this job.”

Q: If you had to do it all over again, would you do anything differently?

“I would not change anything because the experience that I’ve had made me who I am and I’m very lucky to have had those experiences. Do I wish that I had more of a personal life? Yes. But not to the extent that I would change anything that has happened to me.”

Q: What is the most important piece of advice you share with other young women in the field?

“Humanitarian work is not only a professional choice but also a personal choice. It really affects the way you live your life, because you are deployed so often. For example, I have been deployed five months out of this year. If there are certain things you want, you may not be able to achieve them, and you have to be okay with that. Like whether or not you want a long term committed relationship with children or not —and that is a personal decision — you have to be happy with that decision no matter how you chose.”

Shawntel Hines, South and West Africa Deputy Team Leader

Q: You’ve worked at USAID for 10 years, including several posts overseas. What was it like working overseas as a woman?

“I was a Foreign Service Officer in Ethiopia and Côte d’Ivoire, and spent some time on our South Sudan DART in Juba. In some of these posts, like in West Africa, I had the decision-making power. But as a woman, it was hard for people to take me seriously because I wasn’t a man. They didn’t realize that I had the power to decide on the direction of our programming and ‘cut the checks.’

As a then-single woman overseas, there were also some subtle and not-so-subtle questions about my dating life. In professional settings, I was getting asked questions such as, ‘Are you single?’ or other references to my marital status outside of work — questions that I don’t think my male counterparts would have received. Some people would follow up and say, ‘Maybe you will find a husband here.’ And I would say, ‘I’m not looking for a husband right now.’ These comments caught me off guard.”

Q: Is there an advantage being a woman working in humanitarian assistance?

“When I was working and living in Africa, many of the beneficiaries I worked with were women and children. I think that being a woman gains us entry in a way that makes our beneficiaries more open and willing to talk to us, particularly around issues like gender-based violence, domestic abuse, or the challenges of managing a household — the issues particular to women or mothers. I’ve been in meetings with beneficiaries where women direct their questions to me because they think, ‘You would understand. You would get it in a way that the men don’t.’”

Jacqueline Montoya, Disaster Risk Management Specialist & Manager

Q: How did you get into this line of work? What made you want to be a humanitarian?

“My altruistic character comes from home. I grew up in a home full of love and kindness, so I learned to value life and help others by the example of my parents and family. I studied industrial engineering and when I finished my studies, I decided to be part of the emergency brigade of the company for which I was working at that time. In that process I began to work with the Red Cross, the fire departments, and health authorities. Years later, I worked for the Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia in the Emergency Management Office as an engineer in charge of coordinating response operations, and then with USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance through its Regional Disaster Assistance Program (RDAP). Now, as RDAP’s Manager for the Andean Countries, I am very proud to be able to contribute a grain of sand for the life and well-being of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Q: When you go to an emergency response meeting, are there many other women at the table?

“Always! In Latin America and the Caribbean, as in many other parts of the world, women have the academic and vocational training, character, experience, and ability to take on different leadership positions within the world of risk management. It is therefore very common to find women in charge of emergency offices, NGOs, and participating in decision-making processes at all levels.”

Q: What are some of the advantages of being a woman in this field?

“A woman’s unique life experiences in some aspects can be key to improving programs, and quickly understanding the life context of vulnerable people. In the areas of operations, planning, and logistics, there are also details that we might think about or anticipate, like the need to ensure emergency assistance doesn’t inadvertently make women or children more vulnerable. For this reason I would love to see more women working in operations!”

Kara Zinger, Program Officer, Yemen response

Q: What are some challenges you have faced in the field and how do you overcome them?

“Living on compounds in Iraq, there were lots of resources available for men as the population there is majority male. But, for example, something as simple as getting a haircut could be difficult for a woman. On one compound, there was a barber on site for the men but there was no place for me to get my haircut. I had to wait until I got home for haircuts which was almost half a year! Similarly, everyday items that many women use — things like bras, tampons, and even certain basic medicines — were often tricky to track down, and sometimes, something even as simple as finding an accessible women’s restroom was a challenge. With few other women on the compounds, it was difficult to find others who could relate to those daily frustrations. I think developing your own personal resilience is really important, particularly when it comes to the unique challenges that female humanitarians face.”

Q: Describe some of the sacrifices you’ve had to make spending so much time in the field?

“Of course it’s been a challenge to be far away from loved ones, and I’ve missed having a predictable schedule or the simple comforts of home. Since 2010, I’ve been gone for at least 50 holidays, weddings, births, and so on. While, I would have loved to have been home for them, it’s amazing the sense of community you can find abroad to still celebrate those moments, even if they do look a little different than usual.

For example, potlucks with colleagues have become a staple when deployed over Thanksgiving. One year, in Iraq, we assembled versions of our favorite dishes using ingredients gathered from the dining hall— I made a cheesecake with (many) single-serving cream cheese packets and a green bean casserole with ingredients from the salad bar! The next year, in Jordan, Thanksgiving dinner consisted of baked potatoes and hummus around a campfire with colleagues in Wadi Rum. While there may not have been turkey or pumpkin pie, finding community with others who were also far from loved ones kept the spirit of the day alive.”

Nidhi Bouri, Acting Strategic Interagency Team Leader

Q: Why did you become a humanitarian?

“My grandmother and her sister were badass ladies, especially for their generation. My grandma worked with Gandhi during the peace movement in India, and they both really pushed the limits in terms of doing things that you believe in. My grandma passed away when I was really young, but when I was in high school, I volunteered with her sister at an organization outside of Delhi that provided education and health care services in slums. It was my first hands-on experience helping people and it’s what really got me into this field. But what I really admired was that it wasn’t work to her, it was just a way of life. She crafted a lifestyle centered around public service, and I was inspired by her dedication and commitment.”

Q: As a humanitarian, you deploy a lot. How does that affect your personal life?

“In the past six years, I have been away from home for at least a third of the year, but usually half of the year. So, I would be lying if I didn’t say I missed a lot, and I have had many stretches where I’ve felt like I’m a visitor to my own life. I’ve also definitely had relationships that were just too early to withstand me leaving for an extended period of time. And you can’t blame people, it’s tough. But, it’s a bummer because you don’t want to feel like there’s a trade off, but there is.

On the flip side, one of the things I love so much about this work is that I have such great relationships with coworkers. You spend so much time together, especially overseas, living together for months at a time. You get to know people in a way that in other jobs you just don’t.”

Q: Have you worked in a country where you were treated differently because of your gender?

“I’ve been a lot of places where culturally men and women have very different roles, but it was very overt in Afghanistan. You wouldn’t see women walking by men. You don’t see a lot of integration or interaction between them. As a sign of respect for the cultural practice there, I would dress modestly, meaning wearing a hijab and covering my arms to the wrist and legs to the ankles. But, depending on the month, it can be hot! One time, without thinking, I rolled up my sleeve slightly because I was just really warm, and I noticed some men looking at me in not a very pleasant way. I pulled my sleeves back down immediately. You really have to be quite careful because you don’t want to draw attention to yourself as an outsider or disrespect cultural norms.”

Angela Sherbenou, Humanitarian Advisor

Q: How did you get started in humanitarian work?

“I don’t know if I actively looked for a career in humanitarian work, but humanitarian work found me. I started with USAID in the training unit because my background was adult education and training, and that’s what I loved to do. I had also previously worked in hotel management. I often get asked, ‘How did you get to disasters from hotels and hospitality?’ Though it might not seem like it, in some respects, they are very similar. It’s a lot about risk management, understanding your clients, understanding what they need, and, when a crisis occurs, reacting to that, and being able to see the full picture.”

Q: Do you feel that you, as a woman, bring a unique perspective to your work?

“During my time with OFDA, I worked closely with the military and was often the only woman in the room and the sole humanitarian voice. As you can imagine, this wasn’t always easy, and to be good at my job, I had to be able to read people and persuade people.

I think women tend to be better negotiators. Women really want to try to figure out how to make things work. As women, we are always juggling lots of pieces. We have to figure out how to make it work for our family as well as for our careers. I think that just inherently just makes us better at looking for all of the options.”

Q: Do you feel like you’re treated differently because you are a woman?

“There was one decision that I made in my career that I asked a male colleague to deploy instead of me, because the deployment was going to be on a ship, and it’s all guys. When I tell that to women, they sometimes get mad, but I made the choice. We needed the access, we needed to influence people who didn’t understand humanitarian work, and I found a solution. Working with the military when you’re the only female can be very lonely. Especially on a response, like the Haiti earthquake response, working with all of those men was very isolating for me. But you push through and hope that those aren’t the long responses.”

Maryann Chong, Deputy Manager of Operations, Ebola Response Management Team

Q: How does being a parent affect the way you do your job?

“I did not know how much your capacity for love, empathy, and heartbreak could stretch and grow before I had kids. In all the faces of all the children that we serve, I see the faces of my two kids. In all the faces of all the moms, I see myself; I see my sisters; I see the moms from the lactation room at the office. I know their stories and I know their struggles. I cried when my kid did not make the weight percentile because he was losing weight when he was first born. I know the fear of asking, ‘What can I do?’ And having to admit that I don’t know how to fix this and I don’t know how this will get better.”

Q: Any advice for other women working in humanitarian assistance?

“One of the reasons that I took it was because I wanted to prove that a working mom could do it. I wanted it not just for myself, but to demonstrate to other women that you could work on a Response Management Team in a leadership role and also be an involved and engaged parent. So if I were to give advice to other women, I would want them to know that they can be and do anything they want as long as they work hard. I’d also want them to know that there is a community of support here; a community of mothers who are cheering for one another, supporting one another, and building up one another.”

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