During my time with the UN Refugee Agency I’ve come to believe that the contribution an individual makes can make a profound difference – sometimes to millions of lives. I want to do something for humanity. I have had the privilege to work with some truly exceptional people in trying to improve the lot of refugees, people who can go into horrendous situations and begin to create order out of absolute chaos.

I was in Chad in the early days of the crisis when people were streaming across the border in a terrible state in early 2004. I returned a few months later and was astonished by what we’d achieved for them having constructed camps for 200,000 people, organised, with sanitation, food supplies, clean water, shelter... so much, and yet we had to do it with so little money.

I’ve also worked in emergencies in Guinea, Iraq, Kosovo, Macedonia, Rwanda and in Pakistan as well as assisting the Headquarters response to various others. There’s a great deal of stress in these situations, and its very demanding physically and mentally, but if you stay focused on why you’re there it helps you to cope with the hard stuff. Refugees are so inspiring. When everything has been stripped away from them, they still show a powerful hope, and a determination to be dignified.

I remember being present in Eastern Chad when we were moving refugees by truck to a camp we were opening. There was a sandstorm – like a thick, hot, brown fog so thick that you couldn’t breathe. After we had brought the refugees to the camp they were lining up to be registered and to receive a basic minimum of items with which they would survive in the camp. Amongst them I was struck by a young woman standing tall in the line as the sand swirled around her. In her hands she was clutching a handbag. She’d come through all the horrors of attacks on her village, the flight into Chad and survival on next to nothing and this handbag seemed to me to be the last shred of who she used to be, the last vestige of dignity she had. So many people like that stay with me. It’s a privilege to do this job, to at least contribute something for people in often appalling conditions.