Episode 11-Interview with Tatenda Diura

In this episode we chat with Tatenda Diura, a humanitarian worker from Zimbabwe. 

 

We discuss:

• A brief introduction of her background, her current work and where she is based, and what she specializes in, in her work 
• What is safeguarding and how long has she been doing this work? 
• Her background and journey to public health , what she studied, her internship experience in Zimbabwe
• How she found out about public health and how she ended up doing her Masters degree in public health 
• What influenced her career decisions at every juncture in her journey
• How she used resources available to her to search for jobs
• How she navigated the catch 22 of jobs requiring experience and experience being gotten through jobs and got her first job after her Master’s degree
• How she has leveraged changing organizations and roles to grow in her career
• The principle of do not harm and how it is the cornerstone of safeguarding work in humanitarian settings
• Examples of the kind of work she does in safeguarding
• Behavior Change Communication and how her sociology degree is now relevant in her work 
• What a survivor centered approach in humanitarian work is and what that looks like
• The importance of understanding context in populations that we serve in public health 
• How heavy humanitarian work can be at times 
• What Tatenda’s likes the most about the work that she does 
• What measures are in place in the humanitarian field to ensure that humanitarian workers maintain their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing 
• Burnout in humanitarian work 
• The risk of being desensitized doing the work and the importance of rest and unplugging between projects and assignments
• The importance of empathy and mot sympathy while doing work 
• What keeps Tatenda going in the field, even with high turnover rates
• What does public health mean for Tatenda
• Vulnerable populations that Tatenda works with and how that is defined
• Words of wisdom 
• How Tatenda has used LinkedIn to grow in her career