Child soldiers and being robbed at gunpoint? It's all in a day's work
Irish aid worker Simon Brown tells Joe O'Shea how he copes with the dangers of life in Africa
Simon Brown helps set up hospitals in regions where child soldiers carry AK47s
Friday June 19 2009
The 34-year-old has spent the past five years working for aid agencies in Africa, struggling day and night to run Bush hospitals and clinics in regions where even UN peace-keepers cannot go.
He has been robbed at gunpoint, talked down trigger-happy child soldiers and has dealt with everything from temperamental generators to medical supplies that go missing in the Bush.
Back at home in Ireland for a short break between assignments, Simon is about to start his next mission, spending nine months running front-line health services in a remote region of the Central African Republic.
A logistics specialist by trade, Brown will be working for Médecins Sans Frontières, the French aid organisation that specialises in delivering emergency medical aid to parts of the world devastated by natural disaster, conflict and extreme poverty.
MSF (known as Doctors Without Borders in the US) has a reputation for being the most fearless independent international aid agency, with a "first-in" policy that sees their volunteer medics go where most others fear to tread.
Brown's job is to ensure the doctors and nurses have electricity, medical supplies and at least a tent over their heads as they treat the people that the international community either can not or will not help.
After getting a degree in International Disaster Engineering and Management at Coventry University, Simon decided he wanted to put his skills to use in the parts of the world that most desperately needed them.
"I'm a logistician and, in the real world, that's basically somebody who gets something from one place to another," says Simon. "But in humanitarian work, it basically means you are responsible for anything that's not medical. It's managing supplies, transport, making sure there's electricity, food, water and every other kind of supplies no matter where we are.
"It's my responsibility to make sure it gets done so the medics can get their job done."
Simon's job would be difficult enough (imagine trying to find, say, an air filter for a power generator in Darfur) without the danger that comes with living and working in lawless regions ruled by irrational men with access to heavy weaponry.
"It's a problem. In the Congo, we did have our compound robbed by armed gangs on two occasions recently," he says.
"It's not so bad when you are dealing with soldiers who at least should have a bit of discipline and somebody in charge.
"I grew up in Belfast and you would be used to soldiers walking around with guns and you at least knew that they wouldn't just start shooting for no reason.
"It's the child soldiers that make me nervous; you could have a 13-year-old with an AK47 and you have no idea what they are thinking and what they are going to do".
Simon says the MSF staff have extensive training and advice to fall back on in these situations.
"But mostly it's about keeping calm, talking to people, showing them that you are not a threat and you are only there to help," he adds.
His family and friends at home in Belfast do worry but Simon stays in touch through regular emails and occasional calls on the camp's satellite phone.
"But you can only use that once a month and you just have enough time to say hello, everything's fine and that's about it".
When he started out working for the Irish aid agency, GOAL, in the Congo in 2005, Simon soon learned that it's the little things from home that can make all of the difference.
DVDs and luxury foodstuffs are very much appreciated in the Bush.
"I remember when I was working for GOAL, it was always Tayto cheese and onion crisps that everybody wanted you to bring out.
"Now I'm working with mostly Dutch people and it's all about cheese."
His mother back in Belfast did try to send him a luxury from home, a loaf of Belfast's famous Veda Bread.
"It took six months to find me and it was a bit mouldy by that stage, but I did appreciate the thought," he says.
Single and with five years in aid work behind him, Simon says he doesn't know if this next nine-month stint in Africa could be his last.
"You don't do this for the money, that's for sure," he says.
"Even back when the banks were throwing money at people, it was impossible for me to get a mortgage although I could have paid it with my salary because we don't spend much money in the Congo.
"But Africa kind of gets under your skin. I remember talking to a South African guy in the Congo and he told me that once people go to Africa, they find it very hard to leave and I can see what he was talking about".
When he does return home, he finds it takes time to reconnect with his friends who are now settling down with families and regular jobs.
"We talk about what they're doing and what I'm doing but what usually happens is we just regress to what we were like when we were kids and we're 17 again."
His motivation is simple -- he has the skills and the determination to help MSF help impoverished communities that lack basic health services.
"Sometimes there are moments when you think; 'What the hell am I doing here?'" he says.
"And when you are back home and people think you are some sort of saint or something, that's embarrassing because I don't think any of us are suitable for sainthood.
"But every day you see people that would not get any kind of help if you weren't there and that's why you do it".
These are tough times for the international aid agencies, hardly a priority for governments even during the good times.
The Irish Government has cut development aid in the last two budgets and donations are down because of the recession.
The budget for aid has been cut by 20pc over the past two years. This year Trócaire expected to receive €23m but it has now been reduced to €16m.
Meanwhile, in a tent somewhere on the Sundanese-CAR border, a pale-skinned Belfast boy will be struggling to fix a broken-down water pump, wondering how far he is from the next packet of cheese and onion.
For more on Médecins sans Frontièes in Ireland, see www.msf.ie
