My name is Annie Brett and I am the Project Development Officer with Solidarites International in Dhaka, Bangladesh. I am from Northern Ireland and I have been working in the humanitarian sector for 3 years.
In September 2014 I had finished my undergraduate degree and had to start looking for internships and jobs. I knew I wanted to work in the humanitarian aid sector, and I also knew that it was a difficult sector to break in to. I had some experience doing relevant volunteer work whilst at university, but I had no real experience working in the humanitarian sector. Around this time I found DisasterReady.org and started doing some introductory courses while I applied for internships.
Then I saw a posting for a role with an INGO in London, in their emergency response team. They were looking for a volunteer to analyse their funding proposals and reports for gender awareness, something donors increasingly require. The first preferred profile criterion was a degree in gender studies, which I didn’t have. But all the other criteria fit well with my experience, and entry-level roles of this kind were proving hard to find.
"I had some experience doing relevant volunteer work whilst at university, but I had no real experience working in the humanitarian sector."
I logged in to DisasterReady.org and entered a search for gender. The Inter-Agency Standing Committee online training ‘Different Needs-Equal Opportunities: Increasing Effectiveness of Humanitarian Action for Women, Girls, Boys and Men’ appeared. I registered for the training, and over the next few evenings completed all the modules. The course was interactive and as well as teaching me about mainstreaming gender, it gave me an immersive introduction to the different elements of an emergency response operation. I learnt about many of the different areas in which gender needs to be considered, even down to the little things like putting locks on latrine doors. It also introduced me to the IASC Gender Marker Coding system, ranking project design on its awareness and inclusion of gender related issues. This was very similar to what had been referred to in the job description for the volunteer role.
I wrote my application for the role, adding the course to my CV and discussing the IASC gender guidelines in my cover letter. I was asked for an interview and during it we discussed the IASC guidelines and different aspects of gender in emergencies. At the end there was a test in which I had to rank the gender awareness of a number of sample project descriptions. Having done the course, I was much better prepared to identify the nuances of what was really gender aware and what was merely lip service.
I was offered the job shortly after the interview, and I continued to use what I had learnt in the course throughout my 4 months working there. When I asked why they had chosen me over the other shortlisted applicants, my manager said it was because I had a much better knowledge of humanitarian practice on gender, and of the IASC standards. Doing that initial search on DisasterReady.org and completing the IASC course got me my first role in the humanitarian sector.
"Doing that initial search on DisasterReady.org and completing the IASC course got me my first role in the humanitarian sector."
Several years on, and I recently had an interview for a field position with a humanitarian NGO focusing on WASH and FSL. The interviewer mentioned she had noticed on my CV that I had done a short course on hygiene promotion and WASH – another one I found on DisasterReady.org. I have just finished my first week in that position.
This is the second in our series of DisasterReady Learning Champion profiles. Recently, we invited a select group of DisasterReady learners from around the world to share their stories of how training in DisasterReady has impacted them personally or professionally. Our hope is these stories will inspire more members of the DisasterReady community to embark on their own journey of professional development.
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