GEMMA WOODS

Gemma Woods, 37, from Luton, is currently based in Uganda. She has worked for UNHCR for 13 years also serving in the U.K., Yemen, Tunisia, Iraq and Kenya in protection, resettlement and refugee status determination.

A typical day for Gemma might involve visits to refugee camps, discussions with refugees, training sessions for staff or partners, reviewing the cases of extremely vulnerable individuals, and putting in place support for those most in need. “I am always trying to close the loop and make sure that refugees can shape discussions which affect them and make sure that policy and practice reflects their priorities,” she said.

What really sticks with Gemma is how quickly people’s lives can change and how whole communities can be displaced in a single night, without warning. Among her more enduring memories is the flight of residents of Mosul, northern Iraq, in 2014 after the city fell to extremists. Gemma was supporting at a checkpoint as tens of thousands of civilians came streaming through, clutching handfuls of keepsakes. “Many of them had no idea where they were going, or where they would sleep that night. I spoke with one family who had reached the checkpoint and just sat by the side of the road in the heat and the dust with their small children - they had no idea what they were going to do next.”

I am always trying to close the loop and make sure that refugees can shape discussions which affect them and make sure that policy and practice reflects their priorities.

© Andrew McConnell/Panos for DFID

UNHCR protection officer, Gemma Woods, talks to a displaced Iraqi family were living in a dis-used building on a university campus in northern Iraq.

Being away from home, she misses family and friends, the verdant green of the U.K. countryside and the British sense of humour. Gemma met her husband through UNHCR in Yemen. “We both still work for the organisation 11 years, two children and several countries later,” she said.