AID WORKER TELLS HOW SHE TRIES
Humanitarian Anna lives in a shipping container in South Sudan, helping the nation recover from a brutal civil war that has killed an estimated 383,000 people and seen millions flee their homes.
Research group Humanitarian Outcomes’ 2019 security report found the central African country has the highest number of attacks on aid workers, including hostage takings.
A total of 115 aid workers have been killed there since the outbreak of violence in December 2013.
Brave Anna left her friends and family gobsmacked when she got posted there three years ago while working with the UK Government’s Depar tment for International Development (DFID).
The 28-year-old, from Appin, near Oban, said: “My parents found it amusing that I wanted to work in South Sudan because I’m the kind of person who won’t do certain sports – such as shinty or hockey – because I think it’s too dangerous.
“Even out cycling with my mum, I’ll be like, ‘I need to stop here, that is too steep a hill’ and she is just looking at me going, ‘You work in South Sudan, how can you be scared of a hill?’
“My mum knows I’m generally quite a risk-adverse person and not gung-ho in any way. I think that helps her not worry about me too much.”
It seems Anna, who is a technical solutions coordinator for the Danish Refugee Council, was destined to do humanitarian work after a school teacher noticed her potential and made an astonishingly accurate prediction.
She added: “On my primary school report when I left for high school, my head teacher wrote something like, ‘I look forward to Anna working for the UN one day.’
“I’ve been to cities like Singapore and Sydney and thought, ‘I’d love to live here’ but I can’t imagine a single