The beauty of my memory lane trips back to Holland is catching up with old friends and former colleagues. Yesterday I met again with several of my colleagues from my years with MSF (Doctors without Borders). On the photo two members of the Management Team of MSF Holland during my time as Director Human Resources & Training (1993 & 1994): Annedien who had the Communications portfolio and Joke who oversaw the Finances of the organization. The husband of Annedien, Marc, worked at the Dutch Embassy in Maputo during my time there (1988-1990) and through him we were able to rope in Annedien in our expat team there on a local contract. She was always fantastic! During the years I was coordinating to set up MSF Canada (1991-1992), Annedien was my liaison with the European sections. Seven years of working together in Mozambique, Canada and Holland. Marc was during all those years always the epicenter of positive humor and relativity, a hugely important influence when you are constantly at risk of losing yourself in the challenges of international medical relief work in war zones and refugee camps....
Freek ended up working with MSF after an early career in the tourism business as a project logistician. Later he worked in our HR team in Holland and started a not-for-profit travel business organizing travel for relief workers around the world. Currently he owns a company called Better Places which aims to have people travel in a sustainable way. His idealistic entrepreneurship never stops to amaze me!
No comments:
Post a Comment