Profile - Hélène Caux

Sometimes Hélène Caux dreams that she goes back in time and urges colleague Aleksandar Vorkapic to join her and others for dinner at the UNHCR guesthouse in Peshawar, Pakistan rather than return for dinner at his own nearby hotel.

In reality he did go back to the Pearl Continental Hotel – and was killed in his fourth floor room when a suicide bomber's truck loaded with 500 kilos of explosives smashed into the building on June 9 this year while Vorkapic, an information technology specialist from Belgrade, was serving as part of UNHCR’s Emergency Response Team.

"When a colleague you've been working with is killed in the line of duty it leaves you with deep scars and a sense of vulnerability," said Hélène, a communications officer normally based in Geneva, who was also on an emergency deployment with the Team. "A feeling of guilt also, simply because you escaped death and your colleague did not," she added, reflecting on World Humanitarian Day, which was marked on August 19 and which carries great significance for UNHCR staff, since the agency has had 30 employees killed in the line of duty since 1987. Of them, three were killed in Pakistan this year alone.

Humanitarian workers have increasingly come to be seen as targets in conflicts, with traditional respect for aid workers disappearing and the lines between military and humanitarian action increasingly blurred both by armies and their armed opponents.

"I worry for my colleagues and friends in Pakistan," says Hélène. "They are exposed every day to insecurity and still they honour their commitments and dedication to the displaced and continue their crucial work to help thousands of desperate people."

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Hélène Caux is a fieldworker, photographer, and spokesperson for UNHCR. She has recently returned from Pakistan following a three month deployment with the Emergency Response Team.