RedR Member builds WATSAN skills and expertise in Chad

RedR member Claire Grisaffi recently returned from a year working for MSF in Chad. A qualified Civil Engineer, Claire’s main role was as a Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) Specialist for two health clinics providing services to 40,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) and residents in the villages of Ade and Kerfi. WATSAN is essential to ensure people have access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities.

"I was making sure that the clinics had a water supply, proper sanitation and appropriate waste management. I also worked on a community latrine building programme and maintenance of a water point supplying part of an IDP camp, Claire explains."

Claire also trained national staff to develop local capacity to deal with water, sanitation and hygiene issues – a part of her role she found particularly inspiring:

"The most interesting part was the training with staff in the clinics - understanding and preventing the spread of disease, making chlorine solutions and hygiene promotion. Together we tried to put in place systems of monitoring and improvements which would need minimal supervision by an expat."

A RedR member since early 2008, Claire feels she gained a lot from attending RedR training courses, such as Essentials of Humanitarian Practice and Personal Security in Emergencies, before heading off to the field.

"The RedR security course made me much more aware of security issues and helped me to understand the risks involved before I went to Chad. It was also really useful for all the practical stuff, such as operating HF, VHF, movement logs and incident reports," Claire summarizes.

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