Menu ENN Search

What became of………..Killian Forde?

Ebola TeamLike a crazy bag lady rummaging in the skips, she was on her hands and knees on the floor searching carefully.

In her hand, a red pen and on the floor, the first issue of Field Exchange, all sellotaped together so it made one massive sheet that covered the entire office floor.

You see Fiona O’Reilly, for some reason that neither of us could recall, decided to do the layout and publishing herself. Beside the fact that she had zero experience of the software and the same amount of experience in design, she threw herself into learning it within two weeks.

And in those two weeks, Fiona, my boss had become slightly obsessed, borderline demonic, working 14 hours a day to get the first issue out on her own self imposed deadline.  And out on time it went.

My own contribution to the design of Field Exchange was my insistence it needed to look different, look attractive to read for those in the sector. Fiona and Jeremy took my views on board and we started a practice of looking for stunning pictures from the aid sector that wrapped around the whole front and back page.

Other than that, I proof read dozens of articles about a subject I knew little about but in my time working there could tell my MUACs from my JFNAMs.

It was in ENN that I got my taste to be an Aid Worker and it was from there that I got my first post, as a programme manager for an Irish NGO based in Bosnia.  I loved the place, staying in the region for five years and ending my time there working with an amazing small team of people in Montenegro with WFP.

A dabble in and subsequent retirement from electoral politics followed, a few years running a policy think tank and then suffering from a mid life ponder, I went out to Sierra Leone during the Ebola emergency.

Being away from aid work for so long I forgot how intense the work is but the main difference to me is the extraordinary amounts of internal paperwork required to implement programmes. Emergency NGOs were established partly in response to the slow and bureaucratic international organisations’ response.

Certainly transparency and good governance are essential to our work but the cost is  both efficiency and speed of response.

The aid sector has also become more professional with aid agencies looking to nurture and care for their staff that wasn’t the experience of many 15 years previously. And organisations such as the ENN were perfectly placed at a time when the Internet was just beginning it stellar rise in use.  The web means that now based in a rural part of Sierra Leone, I can log on and read the latest Field Exchange and share my learning with others.

I’d like to thank Fiona and Jeremy for the break they gave me and wish their little baby a happy grown up 50th edition.

Killian Forde

 

Killian Forde was the first employee of the ENN in 1997 working on administration and sub-editing of Field Exchange.

He left in 1998 and spent five years in the Balkans, before returning to Ireland and becoming involved in Irish Politics. He spent seven years on Dublin City Council following which he was CEO of the influential policy think tank, The Integration Centre. He is currently in Sierra Leone working on the post Ebola response. 

More like this

FEX: What became of …………Fiona O’Reilly?

Dear ENN, Congratulations on your 50th issue of Field Exchange! It seems like yesterday when Jeremy and I were putting together the very first issue of Field Exchange....

FEX: Issue 03 Editorial

Dear Readers, Welcome to our third edition of Field Exchange. Our reminder about the questionnaire is opposite so we will not continue to harp on about that! Instead we take...

FEX: The Backpage

Cartoon Corner by Jon Berkeley The ENN Team: Fiona O'Reilly is the ENN Co-ordinator, and Field Exchange co-editor. Fiona has been involved in the area of nutrition, health...

FEX: What became of......

by Killian Forde In the first of a series of "What became of...", we will try to inform you as to the whereabouts of people, places or things, connected with the...

FEX: MERLIN

Name MERLIN (MEDICAL EMERGENCY RELIEF INTERNATIONAL) Headquarters LONDON, ENGLAND Headquarters staff 40 Telephone 44 171 487 2505 No Of Overseas staff 60 Fax 44 171 487...

FEX: Issue 18 Editorial

By Fiona Watson Fiona Watson has been involved in assessment and evaluations of emergency nutrition and food security programmes for the last 10 years. She is currently a...

en-net: SQUEAC after (health) disaster

Dear colleagues, I would highly appreciate any input you may have on the following: I am currently in one of the Ebola-affected countries and we are brainstorming about...

FEX: What became of ...

On October 24 1984 a seven and a half minute film of the inhabitants of three towns in Northern Ethiopia; Mekele, Almata and Korem was broadcast on BBC's Six O' Clock news. The...

FEX: People in Aid (issue 06)

Fiona O'Reilly and Acuil Malith Banggol Caroline Gullick and Brigitta Grosshinsky Jason Matus, WFP Loki Willie Norton (Loki airport manager with assistant Phelix...

en-net: Infant feeding and Ebola Outbreak

Posted on behalf of Fabienne Rousseau, ACF I have a question related to infant feeding in the context of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Our teams are engaged in...

en-net: Question to those working on Ebola in charge of feeding patients

Dear colleagues. In 2014, WHO launched interim guidelines on Nutritional care of children and adults with Ebola Virus Disease. I would like to know whether these guidelines...

FEX: Experiences of the Sustainable Nutrition and Agriculture Promotion (SNAP) programme in the Ebola response in Sierra Leone

By Sibida George and Georgia Beans Sibida George is Team Leader with International Medical Corps/ SNAP and is based in Sierra Leone. Georgia Beans is the Chief Of Party with...

FEX: Medecins Sans Frontieres - France

Name Medecins Sans Frontieres - France (MSF-F) Chief Executive Phillippe Biberson Headquarters Paris, France No of Headquarters staff 100 Telephone (33) 1 40 21 29 29 No Of...

FEX: Interview with Rita Bhatia

Personnel profile by Fiona O'Reilly Rita in action - Ethiopia 1989 Most people working in the food and nutrition sector of emergencies have met, or know of, Rita Bhatia. As...

en-net: Health facilities assessment on quality delivery of High Impact Nutrition Interventions

I have been working in a program implementing High impact Nutrition interventions but my major challenge has been on how assess the quality of services being offered in this...

FEX: Using trials of improved practices to shift nutrition and hygiene behaviours in Sierra Leone

By Jennifer Pietropaoli, Philip Moses and Heather Forrester View this article as a pdf Jennifer Pietropaoli is the Outreach and Communications Officer for the SPRING Project....

FEX: Concern Worldwide

Name Concern Worldwide Website www.concern.net Headquarters Dublin, Ireland Type of Work Emergency relief, Health, Community development, Agriculture and Natural resources,...

FEX: Issue 20 Editorial

Mother with malnourished childern in Benadir Hospital, Mogadishu, Somalia, 1991 I stood perplexed in the bomb blasted shell of what had previously functioned as the regional...

FEX: Documenting the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan (2001)

By Pieternella Pieterse Pieternella Pieterse is a free-lance photojournalist. Based in Ethiopia, she travels extensively throughout eastern and central Africa. Earlier this...

FEX: Aid and Erosion of Humanitarian Principles in Sierra Leone

Guinea - Sierra Leonean refugees in the Gueckeodou region Published paper David Keene's article which is largely based on a review of humanitarian agency documents about...

Close

Reference this page

Killian Forde (). What became of………..Killian Forde?. Field Exchange 50, August 2015. p4. www.ennonline.net/fex/50/killianforde

(ENN_4968)

Close

Download to a citation manager

The below files can be imported into your preferred reference management tool, most tools will allow you to manually import the RIS file. Endnote may required a specific filter file to be used.