Guide to Personal Risk Assessment for Aid Workers (humor & discussion)
20:30, 14 August 2009
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An ongoing, mostly annoying, debate on The Thorn Tree discussion for Afghanistan is about risk and safety in Afghanistan. Is the country safe enough for tourists, let alone aid workers? The debate rages on.Many people new to aid work dream of an experience that will be exciting, personally-fulfilling, inspiring and full of photo opportunities. But the reality is that aid work is often filled with a lot of danger, conflict and frustration in exchange for the "excitement." Similarly, many seasoned adventure travelers dream of going off the beaten track, to countries and regions where there are few other tourists, so they can experience something "pure", and they assume their tourist status will somehow protect them from the forces that make an area relatively tourist-free, forces like violence and conflict.
For either of these groups, Afghanistan is NOT what you are looking for, IMO.
I've been both an aid worker and an adventure traveler. My first two months in Afghanistan had me dreaming of bringing over my husband and enjoying some of Afghans' gorgeous natural, historical and cultural treasures together when my contract ended. The last two months of my contract had me wanting out of the country as quickly as possible, as violence and kidnappings escalated. A year later, we opted to take a month-long tour of Eastern Europe, including several post-conflict zones (Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina) -- the perfect mix of not too many tourists, not too many risks, tons of great places to experience, and a limited infrastructure to keep it that way for a while.
Believe it or not, Northern Iraq is nothing like the rest of Iraq, nor like Afghanistan, in terms of violence, corruption or insecurity. The semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq has a growing number of hotels, a not-entirely-awful infrastructure (water and electricity), and a population that moves around in relative freedom. There are huge markets where hundreds of people shop regularly and, with appropriate precautions, its safe to walk down many streets. And I'm sure that's exactly why those three Americans went to the region -- the three Americans who have been detained by Iran while hiking in Northern Iraq near the poorly marked Iranian border. Even with that incident, I wouldn't try to talk a seasoned adventure traveler out of going to Northern Iraq -- provided they steer clear even seeing the Iran border.
Oh, the perfect balance aid workers and tourists seek as they work and travel abroad... It's a funny thing. And it's best summarized by a fantastic graph created by one of my favorite bloggers. Saucy language, so if you are easily offended, don't read the blog nor look at the graph.
