Luciana Grosu from Bucharest, Romania, interviews Bartis Ervin about how he ended up as a humanitarian worker in Sri Lanka and Sudan, and asks him to give some advice to teenagers interested in international aid as a full-time adventure.

Ervin is a Romanian humanitarian worker who currently works for Comité d’Aide Médicale/Medical Aid Committee (CAM), a French organization that provides medical aid around the world. The organization was created in 1990 and originally started working in Poland. Following this, CAM provided medicines to hospitals, and trained and sponsored health professionals, in Ukraine, Hungary and Romania. Nowadays, CAM is becoming more involved in global humanitarian projects in countries such as Angola, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Mali. Its mission is to support communities affected by conflict, natural disasters and epidemics.

You don’t need a certain qualification in order to work in the humanitarian field. Every organization, be it for-profit or non-profit, needs people that have competencies and skills in different areas: administration, project development, management, economy, experts (medical experts, technical experts and architects), public relations.

One can actually have a diploma in almost any field in their pocket and go "on field" with a humanitarian organization. Ervin is an example himself.
 
I graduated from the Faculty of Law and worked with a few organizations focused on defending human rights and offering assistance to refugees. I eventually got 'on field' with a Polish organization. But without exaggerating, I must recognize that I had to start all over again and learn everything I didn’t know.
 
He eventually became an expert in project development and this specialization allowed him to travel all over the world.
 
After the tsunami (in Southeast Asia), I started coordinating a project in Sri Lanka. Its aim was reconstructing schools on the East Coast, a region seriously affected by the giant wave. Then I focused on management and I became the head of mission of the same organization in Southern Sudan. And now I am back in Sri Lanka. I coordinate two projects: one is building a medical center and the other is about water sanity.”

So what's a day at the "office" like for a humanitarian worker? There are no ordinary days in this profession. The assignments one receives vary greatly based on your specialization and on what you've learned by experience.

As I work on projects, 50 per cent of my time is spent on office work and the other 50 per cent is dedicated to field work. I love my job because, on the one hand, I can have direct contact with the project beneficiaries and, on the other hand, I can apply the juridical knowledge I have to solving procedures, contract issues, etc.

Some places are better than others.  Though there is rarely time for humanitarian workers to prepare for their next destination, they have to think carefully about the conditions they might face.

In South Sudan, I was shot at a few times or, at least, I can say that they tried to shoot me.  I had malaria and once, following an incident, I had to undergo surgery directly in the operation theatre in a Medecins sans Frontieres tent.

This is definitely not a job for the faint-hearted. I lived in a tent for nine months. My “shower” was a bucket and a glass. You can’t talk about comfort in this case. However, in capitals such as Tbilisi, Nairobi or Colombo you can live in luxury conditions you could never afford in Europe.

At the moment, I live in Ampara, Sri Lanka. After the South Sudan experience, I’d say we have excellent accommodations here.  My colleague and I live in a five-room house with a kitchen and a living room. We have Wi-Fi and a shower with hot water. Another great thing here in Ampara is that I can really enjoy riding around on a bike as I am no longer forced to use the car all the time.”