Time’s up; tomorrow I’m heading back to the Netherlands after a fascinating and challenging month of working for the World Food Programme in Cairo. I’m going home with a greatly improved understanding of the UN and the world of humanitarian aid, of logistics and of myself.
emilie voskens
First name:
Emilie
Last name:
Voskens
Biography:
I'm part of the Internal Communications team at Head Office. I'm spending most of my time doing communications around Moving the World. What's more: I'm also part of TNT's Emergency Response Team; a group of diverse people ready to go help during any emergency operation at WFP's request.
I am Dutch and live in Haarlem. I have a Master degree in English language and culture. In my free time I like to hang out with friends and family, do sports, travel, play music, and read.
History
- Member for
- 4 years 7 months
Latest blog items
Operation on Quicksand
22 August 2011
emilie voskens
4 Comments
‘Planning a logistics operation in a conflict zone is like building a castle on quicksand’ uttered Cluster coordinator Riaz this week, after adjusting his contingency plan for the third time in three days. Who controls what in Libya is on top of everyone’s mind here. Every move the rebels and pro-Ghadafi forces make has a direct impact on the humanitarian operation. And they’ve been moving quite a lot lately.
I am IM
11 August 2011
emilie voskens
This August, I’m working in Cairo, functioning as an Information Management Officer in the Logistics Cluster for Libya. The Logistics Cluster, led by WFP, coordinates logistics support for the humanitarian community in emergencies. It is basically a group of organisations working together to improve the effectiveness of relief response. In every Cluster there’s someone who takes care of information management; keeping track of all actions and situations and feeding them back into the right channels.
Circus in Pakistan
25 October 2010
emilie voskens
The few days I spent in Pakistan have impressed me deeply. It is a country with which so many things are wrong that it is impossible to tell where they should start fixing it. The whole experience - driving from a city where shootings, bombs, and corruption are part of everyday life, through a poor and waterlogged country which lacks any kind of embellishment, to hungry and homeless people living in camps along the road - was intense.
Mission accomplished
22 October 2010
emilie voskens
On our way to the distribution points, far into the rural areas of Sindh, the devastation left behind by the floods became more and more visible. It is incredible that, two months after the flood, large parts of Sindh are still under water. Some roads are hardly accessible, which means that trucks / cars / buses / donkeys / camels get stuck in the mud and there’s chaos all over the place.
