Humanitarian profiles

Matt Wingate
Emergency Adviser, Save the Children UK

I'd always been interested in developmental issues, and was lucky enough to go to Zimbabwe during my GAP year, to work on a small, self-funded development programme. This sort of volunteering gave me some much-needed experience, without which it would have been much harder to get anywhere. It also gave me some background context for my International Studies degree at Leeds University, a large portion of which was dedicated to international development. During my degree I went on a student exchange programme, also to Zimbabwe. Outside my academic studies, I joined the student network People and Planet, which campaigns to end world poverty. This gave me greater exposure to the relevant development debates, and did my CV no harm. After graduating, I took part in a further exchange programme to Zimbabwe.

When I came back to the UK, I took another voluntary post, this time as a Humanitarian Assistant in the Campaigns and Advocacy team at Oxfam. This was a part time position lasting six months. As I was only reimbursed for my lunch expenses, I saved money by living with my parents, and worked both as a gardener and as a waiter. I was getting used to two aspects of working in the humanitarian sector: being flexible and working hard.

Once inside Oxfam, I was more able to see what jobs were available across the organisation, and after proving myself in the UK, I secured a 2 month placement in Peru. This was followed by longer-term roles, still with Oxfam, in Liberia and Sierra Leone. In these later deployments I was an Office Manager, which involved running field offices and organising logistics.

For two years I left the third sector and worked for a DfID-funded initiative called the Local Government International Bureau, before coming back to the NGO side. In 2007 I started at Save the Children, where I work as an Emergency Adviser in the Emergencies Section. Although my current job is based in London, it does require frequent overseas travel – in fact, I'm on my way to Pakistan today to support the Save the Children response to the huge number of IDPs leaving the Swat Valley.

The key to getting into this sector is to do your best to get as much relevant experience as possible. Don't be too picky about what that experience is; for instance, you may find that you start off doing work that you don't need a degree for. You need to be flexible, work hard, and ensure that you absorb as much as you can from whatever environment you find yourself in. It's not been easy, but it's been worth it.