Zacapa Guatemala, 1998 It is in Palestine where Fotini feels she made the most impact. Serving the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for I know that the work that I do is far agency has faced, citing allegations of staff affiliation with Islamist militant groups and the withdrawal of funding by some member Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the West Bank between 2002 and 2005, Fotini worked as an operations support officer negotiating from enough, but it is the best we can states that this has provoked. Fotini praised Ireland as a country that increased its aid contributions to UNRWA despite this humanitarian access with Israeli officials, as well as the release of detained Palestinian staff and also facilitated the safe evacuation do and that is more than nothing criticism and described the allegations as a ‘concerted attack’ and ‘not something new’, crediting the organisation for 75 years of of Palestinian people from military zones. essential services to Palestinian refugees. ‘The feeling of fulfilment that I had when I was on the frontline with UNRWA is something that I didn’t have before or after that’ she said. Fotini returned to UNRWA at their Headquarters in Amman from 2019 to 2020. Here, she ensured that the humanitarian principle of neutrality was being respected in all five UNRWA fields and that no UNRWA installations such as schools and medical centres were being abused by any parties to the conflict. When questioned on the challenges associated with a life of international service, Fotini highlighted ‘challenges on the personal side, especially if you are a woman’. Speaking to the unpredictability of this line of work, Fotini asserted that ‘your work as a humanitarian does not depend on you, it is decided by others’. She explained that because humanitarians are responding to the world’s happenings, this is not a career that you can clearly map out. Given societal structures that place Unsurprisingly, Fotini is monitoring the current war on additional caring responsibilities on women, she said that it is Gaza closely and is frustrated by the recent criticism the often more difficult for women to move freely between posts
Download PDF file