Humanitarian profiles

Kate Bowen
International Projects Officer, Disaster Management Team, Tearfund

It didn't take me long to realise that my English and History of Art degree would not lead directly to a career which would satisfy either my practical nature, or my adventurous soul. So, soon after leaving university, I began looking for other things, and secured an 18-month administration role with the Midland Refugee Council – a UK-based organisation which worked with refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

After this, I decided to study Development and Emergency Practice at Oxford Brookes Centre for Development and Emergency Practice. This was a steep learning curve, covering topics such as humanitarianism in armed conflict, the mental health of refugees, human rights and economics. The MSc was great, but after it came the gloomy time of trying to find employment. Like most people, I struggled to get a job without the experience, but couldn't get the experience without the job – crazy!

To side-step the problem, I looked for voluntary work. I lived at home for a bit while I applied for, and eventually secured, a voluntary placement for a year in Jalalabad, Afghanistan with Serve, a British NGO working with disabilities. My role was Technical Advisor to a female Afghan manager of a disability project; and I probably learnt more from her than she did from me. But I felt at home in this environment, and after six months I was asked to take on the voluntary role of Regional Director; this involved more responsibility, and was a great experience. As ever, things come at you that you never expect to have to deal with and you just deal with them as best you can.

After returning from Afghanistan, I took a direct approach to securing a job by contacting the agencies I wanted to work for even if they weren't advertising. Although I was eventually successful, it was after 5 months of trying. Finally I got an interview for a Tearfund job in Burundi, but realised that I would rather be in Afghanistan. A month later, they offered me the position of Area Coordinator in Southern Afghanistan, based in Kandahar – my ideal job.

I spent just under two happy but stressful and sometimes scary years in Kandahar, followed by a short-term post in South Sudan, before returning to London to take up my current position as International Projects Officer. After two years in this role, I am due to return to Afghanistan as Tearfund's Deputy Programme Director; this is a country I want to contribute to and am passionate about.

People often ask me how to get into the sector. Pursuing voluntary placements is an excellent way into the field, and some academic study can be really valuable too. There is no obvious pathway, but if you really want it, you'll find a way in. The sector needs people like that; people with the drive and commitment to make things happen, even – or, especially – when it's not easy.