How working for Doctors Without Borders in Prague changed my life

“I was one of those people who thought MSF only hired doctors,” says Sattar, “But in 2011 I saw an ad on the Czech MSF page for administrators and I thought ‘I could do that!’ so I applied.”

Gruber says that MSF hires from Prague for positions across a broad scope of sectors including logistics, administration, HR coordinators, project coordinators, heads of missions, engineers, and architects.

“The only specific language for the field is English. English is a must. French or Arabic is a huge asset,” he adds, as is two years of any work experience.

Sattar began her work with MSF as a field administrator and then as Head of HR for MSF Czech Republic, where she was responsible for recruiting field staff. She is currently an induction trainer, going to missions to provide training for new staff. Her work has taken her to South Sudan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Dohuk, Syria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She was in Sierra Leone during the Ebola epidemic, Ukraine, Donetsk People’s Republic, and Yemen.

She says that working for MSF is actually the perfect job for expats who’ve already faced the challenges of living in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language and must regularly deal with culture shock.

“When I first arrived in Yemen it was more than 40 degrees every day. We did have air-conditioning but in some rooms, even with A/C it was still 30 degrees. It can be hard to work when you’re so uncomfortably hot.”

The rewards of working for MSF, however, outweigh the extremes. “I’ve gotten to see parts of the world that are inaccessible to most and I’ve become more aware of just how lucky I am to have had access to education and health care — this doesn’t mean I don’t still have ‘first world problems’ but I do have a different view on what’s truly a problem and what isn’t.”

Eighty percent of an individual donation goes directly back into projects.

It’s also possible to help in other ways. According to Gruber, one of the specializations of the Czech office, aside from digital communications expertise, is crowd mapping, where missing maps are compiled by volunteers.

“Everyone thinks if you open Google maps you have maps of every country,” he says. “But when you compare the satellite image to Google maps, you see the Google map is blind and actually, there are cities, rivers, and streets which are not up there.”

Like Gruber, Sattar sees the humanitarian aspect as one of the greatest benefits of a career with MSF, even for those who staff “back-office” positions such as administrators.

“I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to do a job that I love,” she tells us. “It’s really tough work, exhausting both physically and mentally, but also incredibly rewarding. You see the patients that you are helping, you know that the work you do has a direct and positive impact.”