ered We’re pow by people. At the core of our work is a team of highly-skilled, highly-experienced Humanitarian Support Personnel. Logisticians, accountants, engineers. People from all walks of life. Many of whom use the skills they’ve learnt in the private sector to save lives.
“It’s incredibly satisfying to deliver the solution and see the realisation on people’s faces that somebody really does care.”
“The best teams have a strong ‘bolshy’ element. The last thing you want in critical situations is a bunch of yes men and women.”
Profile: Graham Mackay
Profile: Eleanor Britton
Deputy Humanitarian Director
Humanitarian Support Accountant
Graham has been at the forefront of Oxfam’s emergency responses in recent years. In that time, he’s faced challenging experiences like severe weather conditions in North Korea, and being trapped in a war zone in northern Sri Lanka. Graham sees his role as being first about problem solving, second, making sense of chaotic situations, and third, getting people to work together. “At its worst, I’ve been known to lock engineers in a room and only let them out when they’ve got the picture,” he says. “The biggest problem to overcome is inertia. In emergency relief, we’d much rather give the go ahead with 70% or 80% of the solutions worked out than wait for the full 100% solution.”
Eleanor has recently returned from a major project working in Jamaica – helping to restore water and sanitation to 300,000 people forced from their homes by Hurricane Dean. “This was the toughest challenge of my career so far. You tend to think of Jamaica as an idyllic holiday destination rather than as an emergency location, but the widespread poverty and vulnerability of people away from the tourist areas is very evident – especially in the south of the island. We had to think quickly on our feet on a daily basis to come up with solutions that worked. It wasn’t just a case of reacting to the destruction wrought by this hurricane, but trying to implement disaster preparedness for the next one and the one after that.”
Background
Background
BSc (Hons) in Chemistry, PhD in Analytical Chemistry, MSc in International Development Policy, Certified Diploma in Accounting & Finance. Graham spent six years with LGC, four years with assorted NGOs around the world and two years setting up the charity ‘Mango’. He’s been with Oxfam for seven years.
BA (Hons) in Accounting, CIMA Qualified. A trained management accountant with Fujitsu and Motorola, Eleanor also worked directly for the Financial Director of Amazon Europe as UK Accounting Manager for four years before joining Oxfam.