Katherine
Galliano (pictured above) has just returned from a six week trip to Darfur
in western Sudan
– the biggest humanitarian medical emergency the world is facing today.
As
head of HR for the UK
branch of charity Medecins
Sans Frontieres (MSF), Galliano
was tasked with managing the flow of hundreds of volunteers – both Sudanese
nationals and foreigners – coming into the area to provide essential aid and
medical care.
Galliano,
a qualified nurse and midwife who has been head of HR at MSF in the UK
for the past two years, said she faced some unusual challenges in Darfur.
"Travelling
to and from the various project sites is a mission in itself," she said.
"Driving across country in a four wheel drive, through rivers and fields
of sorghum in heavy rain, hoping you get through the muddy ditches, isn’t what
I would describe as a comfortable journey, but the amazing landscape you get to
see on the way by far makes up for it. Â
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"Driving
past a herd of about 200 camels or being stopped by cattle meandering across
the road isn’t quite the same as the delayed 07.37 to Waterloo."
