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ongoing social support from family, friends, and colleagues; coping skills for self-care and work-life
balance; and staff care/personnel programs. The mental health and resilience of personnel in humani-
tarian operations significantly impacts the effectiveness and success of their interventions, especially
if their terms of reference include the protection of civilians. If humanitarian personnel themselves, as
helpers, are chronically stressed and traumatized (often without being fully aware of their condition),
their productivity and relationships will begin to decline, ‘burnout’ can develop, and, in some scena-
rios, abusive behaviors towards others can occur. People who are sent to do good can thus become
people who do harm.

It is vital for all those in humanitarian work to be trained to develop and/or to maintain good social,
coping, and helping skills before being deployed. Further, humanitarian personnel must learn to reco-
gnize early signs of stress and trauma, assess the severity of their own or their colleagues’ symptoms,
and be given a clear guide in how to proceed when follow-up is needed.

For people in humanitarian work, core beliefs and values (human worth and dignity, sense of duty)
along with a strong personal faith and spirituality (transcendent purpose, meaning, hope) can be
foundational to motivation (“calling”) and resilience. Less discussed, but deeply impactful, are the
thoughts and feelings which challenge one’s spirituality or core beliefs about God, humans, and life.
Humanitarian workers witness and wrestle with some of life’s extremes—violence, death, misery, in-
justice—which can lead to disillusionment and shattered ideals.

Notice two factors in Fawcett’s quote at the opening of Part Two, which are essential to a positive
outcome when facing such anguish : 1) “knowing the challenge will come”—realizing it is inevitable,
even normative, can help one begin to process the difficult emotions and 2) “close friends who can
hear your questions without harming you”. Investing in enduring friendships is one of the best ways
to cope with the spiritual challenges of humanitarian work. One thing is certain, humanitarian work
will change you on the inside and how you experience your faith and spirituality. “Humanitarian work
is a profession that carries with it huge potential for spiritual disruption on the one hand and spiritual
growth on the other.” (McKay, 2010, page 7).

2. Care and Support of National Staff in Humanitarian Work

“A full local staff support program will need to consider the practical conditions of life—food, housing
, job security, education, health, insurance, and so on. Psychological support may be required. Coun-
seling services, based on local cultural practices, will almost certainly be needed. Spirituality, the need
for a person to meet with God, must be central with understanding/respect being shown towards
previous religious experiences.” Fawcett (2002, page 285)

As the nature of international humanitarian work continues to change in the direction of more invol-
vement and leadership by local partners, it is imperative that organizations work with national staff
to co-create and develop culturally sensitive support programs. This means that those who will both
implement and benefit from such programs need to design them from the outset. Most likely this
requires a planned process to identify and define what is “stress”--or idioms of stress--and “psycho-
logical trauma” in the local culture, how it impacts local staff at a personal and organizational level,
how it is typically addressed, what local resources are the available, and agreement regarding the in-
dividual and organizational responsibility for the resulting plan. This is followed by an ongoing phase
that involves the plan’s implementation and evaluation. World Vision has developed an assessment
process that meets these criteria which Fawcett describes as an inexpensive, “technology-free...based
on verbal conversations,...portable and applicable in a wide range of environments, ... with small or
large numbers, for urban or rural programs.” Fawcett (2002, page 283)

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