Birke Herzbruch: no time to get frustrated Photo: Malteser Hilfsdienst
The foreign aid department of German NGO Malteser Hilfsdienst was founded in 1966 but the organisation&${esc.hash}39;s roots reach back to the 11th century. Emergency aid programme officer Birke Herzbruch spoke to Beth Watts about the Malteser history and her own personal journey into humanitarian aid.AN: What is the history behind the Malteser Hilfsdienst organisation?
BH: The foreign aid department, where I work, is just one part of the Malteser Hilfsdienst organisation. The organisation is a Maltese Catholic NGO working largely on social and health issues. The whole thing was founded by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which dates back to the 11 th century. All those centuries ago, the order got the authority to build a convent and a hospital in Jerusalem. They ran the hospital in the Holy Land and their role was to help the sick and injured pilgrims of the Crusades. In 1219 the order moved to Cyprus and then had to flee to Malta in 1530. Although they didn&${esc.hash}39;t have their own territory, they received land as a gift from Malta and this is where our organisation got its name. So, historically the organisation has a military and religious background. Even though things have changed a lot since then the spirit is the same, to help the poor and sick as much as we can.
AN: How long has the organisation been in place in Germany?BH: In 1953 Malteser Hilfsdienst was formed in Germany by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and Caritas Germany. Today, it&${esc.hash}39;s one of the biggest German welfare organisations. There are about 30,000 active volunteers and 3,700 staff. Our part of the organisation, the foreign aid department, has been set up since 1966 with offices in Cologne. We have 25 staff here in Germany and about 50 expatriates in the field.
AN: What kinds of programmes does the foreign aid department deal with?BH: Firstly, we provide emergency relief. We deal especially in health and water sanitation as well as primary health care and mother and child related projects. Additionally, we are involved in rehabilitation and development with local partners. We are also dealing with what we call the &${esc.hash}39;grey zone&${esc.hash}39;. This means trying to bridge the gap between emergency and development aid and extending emergency aid into development projects. Another of our roles is to support partners in central and eastern Europe and provide medical services for U.N. peacekeeping missions, for example, those recently in East Timor. We are asked to do this by the German Foreign Office. We provide medical personnel and take care of U.N. people as well as people from the countries involved.
AN: How did you come to work for Malteser Hilfsdienst?BH: I joined Malteser two years ago. I was brought up in a very international environment due to my father&${esc.hash}39;s business. We moved around a lot and had lots of contact with U.N. families. I was aware of many development problems. This background influenced me to study political science and international law, both in Germany and in South Africa where I lived and worked for two years as part of my studies. I did an MA in political science, international law and modern history and then started working for the Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development. I came to Malteser in August 1999 when the Kosovo situation was still ongoing. I became involved in the Kosovo team, in charge of donor projects, project administration for emergency aid and rehabilitation. From this role I was then put in charge of emergency aid projects.
AN: What does your current position involve?BH: I coordinate emergency projects worldwide. I work very closely with a senior medical officer who looks at all the medical aspects of a project. At the moment, we&${esc.hash}39;re dealing predominantly with Afghanistan but I was also recently working on projects for El Salvador and Mozambique. My job includes everything from fundraising to creating and drafting project proposals for ECHO, the U.N. and the German Foreign Office. I also deal with the project administration, the monitoring of the project and work on developing &${esc.hash}39;grey area&${esc.hash}39; issues. I am also responsible for the implementation and training of relevant standards and measures. As you would expect, my days are very varied. At the moment 90 percent of the time I&${esc.hash}39;m working on Afghanistan but I can&${esc.hash}39;t forget my other projects either so there is a lot to do.
AN: How exactly are you involved in Afghanistan?BH: Well, first we had to decide whether or not to get involved. We weren&${esc.hash}39;t already present in the country, so it was a difficult decision to make. But we decided we wanted to send in an assessment team to the Iranian border with Afghanistan. When the assessment team came back, we decided we would assist. We will focus on medical and water sanitation aid and also rehabilitation and reconstruction.
AN: Can you give another example of a project you have worked on?BH: After the earthquakes in El Salvador in January and February 2001, we immediately distributed food and non-food items to try to help rebuild the people&${esc.hash}39;s lives. Then we become involved in a reconstruction programme to assist 1,400 families. We also provided medical services and other aid. We are still involved, now we&${esc.hash}39;re trying to extend this emergency aid into more long-term assistance with further rehabilitation of houses.
AN: Is it difficult to bridge this gap from emergency aid to more long-term programmes?BH: It can be. You get funds from various sources, which are used during the emergency phase, but not so much is given for the rehabilitation stage that follows. We are currently having strong discussions to try to get funding for the second stage of our programme in El Salvador but it is difficult. These sorts of discussions and proposals take a lot of time to get approved and in the meantime you need the funds to continue. Unless you have your own funds to continue it&${esc.hash}39;s very difficult. And it&${esc.hash}39;s frustrating as for some areas, like Kosovo, you get so much funding you can take projects through but for others you can&${esc.hash}39;t even seem to raise a dollar.
AN: Which experiences with Malteser have really marked your memory?BH: Africa is special for me. I think it&${esc.hash}39;s the atmosphere. Last year I was in Mozambique and these people had just lost everything, it was all destroyed, but they kept on laughing all the time. When you see this and you see the children running around, always smiling, despite all the distress, you see how precious life is. In Africa people are always laughing, and I think it&${esc.hash}39;s a &${esc.hash}39;women&${esc.hash}39; thing as well. If you&${esc.hash}39;re with a group of women they will always laugh, talk and try to make the best of things.
AN: What makes you proud to work for Malteser?EH: I think the development side of the whole Malteser organisation is very impressive. In southern Sudan the Malteser Africa desk did really well during the conflict and crisis. We were the only NGO that were allowed to stay and they&${esc.hash}39;ve done a great job. They&${esc.hash}39;ve been fantastically supported as well, even to the point of demonstrations being organised for Malteser. They have a great presence there and that makes me proud.
AN: And in contrast to this, have there been more difficult times to cope with?EH: One difficult time was during the Kosovo situation. We had a very nice refugee camp in Albania for Kosovan refugees but it got looted by the Albanians. This was a pretty bad experience. The real problem was that the refugee camp was probably more salubrious than the Albanian area itself and the gap caused friction. Next time, hopefully, it will have been learned that camps should be positioned in more appropriate surroundings. The trouble was that there was so much money available to spend for Kosovo that this sort of thing happened.
AN: Did you find this frustrating?BH: I didn&${esc.hash}39;t get too frustrated. In the end you have to look at the bigger picture. If you have managed to do some sort of good then it&${esc.hash}39;s worth it. Even when we do assessments and it&${esc.hash}39;s decided that we can&${esc.hash}39;t really offer anything as it&${esc.hash}39;s all covered or it&${esc.hash}39;s over populated with NGOs then that&${esc.hash}39;s still a result as we learn more about where we are useful. The thing that is more frustrating is when you have funding for emergencies but you can&${esc.hash}39;t continue projects and make them long-term because there are no more funds left. It takes so long to get proposals approved between the two phases. I would like to see this change. Generally though I find I get over the frustrations. Maybe this is because of my age. I&${esc.hash}39;m 27 and haven&${esc.hash}39;t had time to get really frustrated yet!
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