Simon Doreille, breaker of taboos
Simon Doreille’s mission is to immerse oneself in a culture that is completely unknown to us, to fight one’s own prejudices, to show sensitivity in order to share one’s know-how and to support national societies that help local populations. As a technical reference in the Middle East for the French Red Cross, he ensures the coordination and coherence of technical interventions in the areas of water, hygiene and sanitation during humanitarian disasters or conflicts.
An engineer by training/formation, he turned to humanitarian work in 2010. “I told myself that I wanted to work in humanitarian work. See a little country, give back a little of what I could receive. I told myself that I was going to do this for six months, so I applied to all the job offers I found in humanitarian work.” (2’14) His first mission : Pakistan, following the 2010 floods that killed more than 1,600 people.
Nine years later, he’s still on a mission. Currently based in Lebanon, he supports national societies - the Syrian Red Crescent, the Iraqi Red Crescent and the Lebanese Red Cross. “When there is a humanitarian catastrophe, the one we have right now, we have three : the civil war in Syria, instability and the war in Iraq, and Covid. So when there are these events, it’s making sure that the population has access to quality drinking water, making sure that we manage the waste - the waste, it can be poop or solid garbage - and put in place hygiene measures that people apply to prevents epidemics from spreading in these contexts that are often a bit precarious” (7’30)
During his engagement, he realized that there were several taboos to be broken, including menstruation. With a participatory approach, he organizes workshops on menstrual hygiene and wants to create a link with the communities with which he works. “my goal, the goal of the French Red Cross and the national societies we work with, is to have communities that are able to help themselves. to get organized to be stronger and solve the problems that are often terrible they have. we try to avoid the clichés of the white humanitarian who brings things that are not necessarily useful in a context he does not know, but we try to be as close as possible to the communities” (12’18)
Like Simon Doreille, each year, around 50 French people join the international mission of the French Red Cross to contribute with their expertise to meet the principle of humanity, that of “prevent and alleviate the sufferings of men in all circumstances.”