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