Julian — a worldclass man of compassion

Englishman Julian Gore-Booth, co-ordinator of the sub-regional delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Trinidad, came close to apologising for the tears that welled up in his eyes during our interview. At the time he was describing one of the most wonderful experiences he has had as a refugee affairs officer with the United Nations in Rwanda, Africa a few years ago. He told People: “I had been in Rwanda after the genocide. Eight hundred thousand people were killed and it’s hard to put that number into real terms in your mind. That is a completely traumatised country. I had the wonderful job of re-unifying families when they were split. “We were trying to locate the relatives of a child, four years old. We had about 15 people in the back of our Land Cruiser and my counterpart and I drove from Rwanda to Zaire going from refugee camp to refugee camp holding up pictures. Sometimes when you find the parents you have to tell them to wait there and don’t move until we return with their child which may take sometimes three or more hours. “We eventually found the mother of the four-year-old and the mother had a desire to give me a hug, and I was completely destroyed by that and that was the first time I allowed myself to cry. But it was nice. I never want to forget Rwanda,” Julian said as he dried his eyes.

Prior to working in Rwanda, Julian taught English at a school in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. He did not know the native language, but was able to effectively communicate with the few phrases he learned. “When you learn various phrases that helps to put smiles on people’s faces,” he said. He is, however, fluent in French and Spanish. He also worked with Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. “I was totally and completely immersed in that job. We spent the whole day in the community driving from village to village, talking to Israeli armies trying to get them from going over the top. My heart is very much with Palestinians,” Julian said. Julian has been a part of the humanitarian world since 1991 working with both the UN and the Red Cross. Born and bred into a “diplomatic family” helped nurture his goals. His father was a member of the British Foreign Service and it was not unusual for Gore-Booth Sr to take his family wherever he was assigned. How many of us, at age 35, can say that we have practically lived “out of suitcases” all our lives in no less than 45 countries? Actually, Julian wanted to be a doctor, “but then every kid wants to,” he said, but life’s experiences led him to a course in preserving animal life and later, preserving human rights. “I saw a lot of destruction of people’s dignity. It is being able to live with dignity. Through travelling to Africa and India I saw what happens when people take that dignity from them. It’s like they never had it... I’m a realist. I like to think that I’m not, ah, not blind to the realities of the world. I see the good and the bad and accept them as being part of who we are. I’m definitely scared by some of it. I’ve seen things that I wish I hadn’t, but I’ve positively been affected by it.”

Since he has never really settled in any one place for too long, he oftentimes finds himself reminiscing on what “could have been.” He related: “Sometimes I regret my lack of roots and sometimes regret not having a close-by family. I think wastefully as to how it might have been if I’d chosen another line of work — but never too long.” He was referring to working with the largest humanitarian organisation, which is dedicated to providing assistance without discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies was founded in 1919 and is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The federation is a membership organisation made up of 178 national societies throughout the globe, with 14 regional offices and over 60 sub-regional offices. Julian and his team of six, recently set up office in Trinidad at Victoria Park Suites in Port-of-Spain, since, as he explained, “we wanted to work with the eastern Caribbean. Trinidad is a good, regional hub. It is more economically viable for us to be in Trinidad than some of the eastern Caribbean islands.” This sub-office works closely with the regional delegation in Panama. Their main areas of work include community health and care, disaster response and disaster preparedness, and promotion of humanitarian values. “We want to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilising the power of humanity...helping people through people. We’re about communities, grassroots. We train people in the community to become peer leaders and they in turn prepare the community in the event of a hazard. We provide technical and financial support in these areas in the form of tools, expertise and guidelines,” Julian informed.

In the Caribbean, the federation is currently focused on a programme of disaster preparedness, HIV/AIDS and reducing the stigma associated with HIV. “We are also involved in the prepositioning of materials and helping the local Red Cross so they are readily accessible in times of disaster.” For the four months they have been in Trinidad, the federation has produced a “together we can” manual and instituted a Vulnerability Capacity and Assessment (VCA) workshop which prepares communities to better handle disasters. “If you can accomplish a sense of pride and a sense of worth in the community then you know it has worked.” He emphasised the need of the Red Cross to make its presence felt globally, and especially in the Caribbean. “We need to change the perception that the Caribbean is all about offshore banks and holiday resorts, but we are also talking about vulnerability, poverty, HIV/AIDS. I think that gets hidden behind the popular perception of the Caribbean... “Yes we’ve got a long way to go, yes there are the challenges, but we need to make the most of the regional and global Red Cross and bring that to the Caribbean... It’s difficult (for the world) to focus on the Caribbean when there are huge needs in other parts of the world, but it’s necessary and important. I think the support (from government) will come but it needs to come a bit faster. There is no need for the Caribbean to become a statistic, we need to address these issues.” In the meantime, Julian is happy to be in Trinidad with his family — his wife, Amanda, a travel public relations specialist from Jamaica, and his Guatemalan-born daughter, Jemma. “I hope that our next baby will be born in Trinidad so that when anyone asks I can say that we are a multinational family, everybody being born in different countries,” Julian laughed. The couple will celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary as well as Jemma’s first birthday next month.