How to break the anxiety cycle: Ken Gibbs

It is impossible to imagine what relatives of the Israeli hostages are facing, day by day, not knowing if they are alive or not, nor even knowing whether there is a feasible route to their release. For those serving in active war situations, the stresses can be just as acute but are different. Is it small wonder that people finding themselves in such situations frequently suffer mental trauma ?

Working as we were in the three northern governorates of Iraq in 1996 to 1998 and later, the stress levels suffered by national staff who effectively had no escape, were palpable. Soft, reassuring words did little to help them, but sometimes, a little light humour was quite useful to divert attentions away from the guns, the bombs and the killing.

Having a UNICEF Coordinator for the Northern Governorates in the guise of Robin Medforth-Mills was fortuitous because he had a lively sense of humour, and never took it ill if he was the target – as indeed he was in most issues of the Erbil Burble (Check this link). He even had a pin-board on which a few well selected photographs were displayed under the banner of ‘Caption Competition’, which attracted some bold – and dare I say it? risky responses. Political correctness went out the window if one could raise a laugh or two.

Robin worked even when he was confined to bed. We had done a lot of work on zoning areas of the three northern governorates with respect to provision of water to enable us to prioritize which areas should be served first. All areas had been mapped and areas of low water provision were coloured red; those with fair provision were coloured amber; and those with good service levels were coloured green. I had had the maps all printed out and laminated, and Robin asked to see them before they were posted. I arrived and was told that the maps would be taken up to Robin, and lest he thought that these were his own copies, I simply told the carer that Robin was allowed to look, but not to touch the maps. They duly disappeared upstairs where there was some discussion when the carer reappeared with the maps and on top there was a delicious looking Belgian chocolate which the carer noted that I could look at, but not touch. . . . . Naturally we all fell about laughing.

When Robin fell ill with an affliction giving him very high blood pressures - which Dr Paula Abdulkader told Robin brightly that he should have died with such pressures - he was Medevaced, surviving sufficiently that we continued to keep in touch with him. What follows is a ‘Get-Well-Card’ which was crafted and sent by e-mail. When reading it, reference to ‘Little Deer’ was a tame Indian deer which had been rescued from the local Erbil market where it had been on sale as a fawn as live venison, and she behaved much like a dog, being led to the office every morning and back home every evening.

Records do not allow us to publish Robin’s reply to the card, but from memory, it was in impeccable English, assuring us that he was taking – as suggested – a rest cure.

I can think of few Representatives or Senior Supervisors who related as well to staff as did Robin with one possible exception, a former staff member who had been fired by UNICEF in Africa, but who tried to soft-talk Robin into providing UNICEF funds for ‘his’ NGO. Happily, Bush Telegraph worked so efficiently that Robin had been informed about the firing before he knocked on Robin’s door. Robin politely declined to provide ‘his’ NGO with any UNICEF funds, but he did the next best thing. He telephoned the office of the NGO concerned, suggesting that they contact UNICEF Headquarters about the references that he undoubtedly put on his application to work for them, as they would find that he had actually been fired by UNICEF.

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