Name: Adem Shaqiri, 41, from The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Job title: Field Officer, Yemen, in charge of providing protection and aid to internally displaced people, or IDPs, in six governorates.
Years at UNHCR: 10, working in West Darfur/Sudan, Libya, Lebanon, Jordan, and at headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Why did you become an aid worker?
I’m from The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and during the Kosovo conflict I witnessed first-hand what it’s like to be displaced or a refugee. There were buses arriving in my village one after the other, every day for weeks. They brought women, children and elderly people without anything, just a few bags with their clothes, whatever they could grab when they left Kosovo. A lot of people from the village, me and my friends, were distributing food and water when the buses arrived. The idea of being an aid worker came from that moment when you give something away to a person that needs it. You see their face, the satisfaction. Since then I have always felt I should be a humanitarian worker.
Most rewarding/challenging thing about your job?
Three months back, I went to Mokha. We were responding to IDPs who were literally living under the trees in the heat. You can see the faces of people when they receive assistance, even if it’s just a mattress and a sheet, because they literally did not have anything. But the challenge is that it’s never enough. The number of people in need is just too high. There are over two million people displaced. The most challenging part is that you can’t help all of them. When there are two families in need, you have to choose the one that is most vulnerable.
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