chasing chaos my decade in and out of humanitarian aid

She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY and works for the United Nations.

at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, focusing her research on accountability in humanitarian action. She received a Masters of Public Health and Master of International Affairs from Columbia University in 2005. Her research there was used as expert evidence in the case against Charles Taylor, former President of Libera.Īlexander is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, and the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs at Fordham University. Alexander is a Fulbright Scholar who received the award to research child soldiers in Sierra Leone in 2006. She has responded to crises in Rwanda, Darfur, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Myanmar, South Sudan, Pakistan, Haiti and the Horn of Africa.

Over the past 12 years, Jessica Alexander has worked in humanitarian operations for the United Nations and various NGOs. Tracing her personal journey from idealistic and naïve newcomer to hardened cynic to hopeful but critical realist, Alexander transports readers to some of the most troubled locations and shows us not only the impossible challenges, but also the moments of hope and recovery. But we also see the alcoholic parties and fleeting romances, the burnouts and cyncism, the plans and priorities that constantly shift and change. We watch as she helps to resettle refugees in Rwanda, manages a 24,000-person camp in Darfur, and helps a former child soldier in Sierra Leone get rid of a tattoo that was carved into his skin by a rebel group. In this honest and irreverent memoir, she introduces readers to the reality of the life of an aid worker. But the world that she encountered in the field was dramatically different than anything she could have imagined. Jessica Alexander arrived in Rwanda in the aftermath of the genocide as an idealist intern, excited to be a part of the international humanitarian aid community. Used Very Good (1 available) Former library book used book that is in excellent condition.An eye-opening and intimate memoir about life as an international humanitarian aid worker in the field in Rwanda, Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Haiti.

Chasing chaos my decade in and out of humanitarian aid