Caring for those who care – aid worker safety and security as a source of stress and distress: a case for psychological support?

Each day news reports describe deliberate targeting in Sudan, bombings in Iraq and shootings in Afghanistan. They attest to intentional robbery, banditry, kidnapping and murder in Chechnya, Bosnia, West Timor and Iraq, crossfire in Angola, hostage-taking in Liberia and hijacking in Somalia (AFR/851 IHA/874 2004; Helton 1997; Slim 1995). These are just some examples of the growing security hazards faced by aid workers in the workplace known as the ‘field’. Ironically, on 12 August 1999, as the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Convention was being celebrated in Geneva with the signing of a declaration for combatants to respect these treaties, six medical relief workers from Norway, the UK and Italy were held hostage by an alleged rebel faction in Liberia.