Feature 3: Shocks and tough choices are necessary to move forward

 

Very often in life, we can tend to show the glamorous side like modern-day influencers. Knowing how important is to remain balanced nowadays is essential to have a good life. At times, we have to face up to difficult choices and shocks in our lives and careers. So why don't we talk about them?

Fact 1: Continuing your studies without a clear professional back up for the future

In October 2001, I started my professional life as a Research Assistant recruited by UNFPA Côte d'Ivoire and assigned to the Coordination Department of the National Reproductive Health and Family Planning Programme of the Ministry of Health, Public Hygiene and Universal Health Coverage (Côte d'Ivoire). For a beginner fresh out of ENSEA, the salary was relatively comfortable. However, in February 2002, I was contacted by the Belgian Embassy, which was checking my interest in continuing my studies at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in an international public health course, as I had expressed the previous year in a scholarship application sent to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Integration and Ivorians Living Abroad. Three months later, I was notified that I had been awarded the Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC now ENABEL) scholarship. I took the plane for the first time on Monday 9 September 2002, bound for Brussels via Paris. I resigned for the first time the weekend before, with a twinge of regret, as I embarked on a life adventure outside my home country that has now lasted 22 years. Why leave an initial comfort for a situation of professional uncertainty? Making this choice gave me the qualifications I needed and exposed me to another culture, which was an asset when I came back with UNFPA later in 2004.

Fact 2: Overcoming the misfortune and proving to yourself that you can change things

After 6 consecutive years with UNFPA in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 2004 and 2010, I was going through a period of personal doubt about my ability to use my skills outside the DRC and UNFPA. I was even mocked and ridiculed by some colleagues because of this supposed inability. Although I appeared to be joyful and, above all, was doing my best to fulfil my duties, I had never applied for so many positions for what turned out to be a rather meagre harvest. Discouraged in secret, I prayed constantly to regain my mental strength so that I could keep going. After several fruitless written tests and interviews, I ended up with a great opportunity in a lateral move. Joining the Trust Fund for Victims at the International Criminal Court in The Hague in the Netherlands was God's reward for meeting my two requirements. Professional movement by direct recruitment from Europe to Africa is more common. The opposite is less common, I think. It gave a nice flavour to this opportunity because I was also leaving my own field to work in the new world of international justice.

                                              Discussion session with young Burundians

Fact 3: What's the point of seeking the world if you have to lose your family?

Each of us evolves with our own personal and universal principles with a view to living in harmony with others. In 2011, I had just become a father for the second time. During a holiday in Côte d'Ivoire, my first daughter didn't recognise me and was reluctant to approach me. I must admit that I took a serious blow. My prolonged absence from my job without a family called my principles into question. I had to make the choice to rebalance things. Admittedly, this choice had a major financial impact and put projects that had already been started and thought through on hold, but it was necessary at that precise moment. The question before me was simple. Between family and career, what was more important? For me the choice was clear: family.

      The Battle of Vertières monument symbolising Haiti's liberation from French colonial rule

Lessons to be learned:

1.      Current comfort can jeopardise future comfort. Taking risks and leaving your comfort zone, even if you're not always sure of the outcome, can be necessary in certain circumstances.

2.      Having the impression of being static in a dynamic world can be psychologically difficult when you want to progress. However, we must never lose sight of the strength that lies within us. ‘The true strength of the human being lies neither in the body nor in the mind, but in the spirit’. - Michele Camposeo.

3. ‘If anyone does not care for his own, especially those closest to him, he has denied the faith; he is worse than an unbeliever.’ (1 Timothy 5, 8). As far as possible, I try to make this Bible verse my own and constantly use it as my compass.