Behind-the-Scenes: the beating heart of environmental work at the UN Refugee Agency

Displaced people are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis. We know this at UNHCR, and that’s why we hire people like Daniel to be Environmental Field Advisors. He brings a civil engineering background to the role and goes to work every day serving both the environment and people who have been forced to flee their homes. No two days are the same for Daniel and his journey toward a career in the humanitarian sector wasn’t an easy one. He received two rejections for positions at UNHCR before finally being successful.

Welcome to "Humanitarians at Work", UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency's biweekly newsletter where we share motivations, challenges and advice from staff working in the humanitarian sector. If you would like an exclusive sneak peek into the lives of humanitarian workers and tips on how to enter the sector, please subscribe.

In this edition, we’re chatting with our colleague Daniel. A refugee himself from Cuba, Daniel works in Boa Vista, Roraima, in the north of Brazil. His “office” is better known as the Sustainability Centre. There, he oversees environmental programmes from composting to hydroponics to teaching classes on sustainability for young people.

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📹 Discover a day in the life of a UNHCR Environmental Field Advisor. Watch his #JobIn30Seconds video now:

I don't know if it was by chance, but in Cuba I didn't have the opportunity. Here in Brazil, I saw a vacancy in a humanitarian organization and I went for it. I worked for several organizations in this field beginning in 2018 and one of them was Fraternidad Humanitaria Internacional. There I worked as a Community Engagement Officer in several shelters. Then I worked as a Distribution and Logistics Officer and in another year I became a Registration Officer, working on documentation. I was also an Infrastructure and WASH coordinator where I oversaw several shelters here in Boa Vista, and a shelter in Pacaraima, on the border.

In 2021, I joined the AVIS organization where I focused on infrastructure. I know everything about the infrastructure of the shelters here in Boa Vista. At that time, there were vacancies at UNHCR, and I applied, but I couldn't get through. Finally, after two unsuccessful attempts, I was hired as an Environmental Field Advisor.

I am not trained as an environmental engineer, I am a civil engineer, but in Brazil I had the opportunity to expand my field of knowledge. I studied a lot about electricity and, since I managed to revalidate my degree, I am preparing myself to enter the university to study electrical engineering here. And to work in this role I had to prepare myself a lot in the environmental area. I dare, nowadays, to talk with people who have a master’s degree in this area, about carbon credits or anything that has to do with the environment.

We have several projects here at the Sustainability Centre. One of the pillars of the Sustainability Centre is innovation, another is peaceful coexistence and finally environmental awareness. In terms of environmental awareness, we have a greenhouse, tree planting and reforestation projects for the shelters. In the past, there was nothing here. When it was time to set up the shelters, the greenhouse was built. As part of the pillar on peaceful coexistence, we have managed to develop activities that include both refugees and Brazilians. Other projects we have here include aquaponics, hydroponics, fish farming and composting. We work with volunteers. In the shelters, we managed to create a Sustainability Committee. This year we want to see if we can create a vegetable garden at one of the indigenous shelters. In other shelters it is a bit more difficult because of the relocation process where refugees are moved from the border to other parts of the country where they can find opportunities. People only stay in the shelter for a relatively short period of time, so the work is a bit harder. Every so often you have to go back in to implement the project again, but in the indigenous shelters it is different because they stay longer. In addition, their ABC has to do with agriculture.

This year we want to expand and get out of the Sustainability Centre a bit. We are going to maintain it, maybe create new things, a biodigester or solar panels. But this year we're going to get out of the centre and implement inside the shelters.

Well, my day to day, from the outside might look very quiet, but it's very active, because we must supervise all the projects that we have every day. For example, the project with the fish, they are living things that are there, we must feed them. We have to test the water, verifying the levels of nitrites, nitrates, PH, ammonia, oxygen and temperature. Plants are also living beings that are there and you must take care of them.

A typical day also includes going to the shelters, wherewe have the Sustainability Committees. We must visit them at least every two days, go for a walk, and see the projects that are going on inside the shelters. It's work that doesn't stop. You can't stop. A day off would be impossible.

The other daily task is to constantly look for partnerships. We work for the environment, and we need help because we work with volunteers. For example, we have a partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture. We are looking for partnerships with schools in the neighbourhood. I have a son who is eight years old and one Sunday, going through his notebooks, I saw that he’s learning about sustainability, about global warming, about climate change. I said: 'gee, that's what I do'. This year we also want to start those partnerships with schools.

Sometimes I must take off my UNHCR clothes, put on a big sun hat, a long-sleeved shirt and get muddy. Volunteers come when they can, sometimes one or two hours a day. Once I remember we had a group of four volunteer friends who were part of a musical group. One played the guitar; one played the flute and during the work they played music and it was interesting because it gave a different approach to the work.

Environment, care and love.

The most rewarding part is working with children. The most difficult audience to talk about the theoretical and practical part of the environment are teenagers and young people. It's difficult to reach that audience, but before that age, I get a lot out of children.

I remember that when I was a child, I didn't know what I was going to study, I really liked computers, I wanted to do cybernetics or computer science. In the end I ended up studying civil engineering because at some specific moment in my childhood someone came along and spoke about it, and as I really liked physics and mathematics, I directed my professional life in that direction. That's the most gratifying thing for me: when I manage to spark something in children. We teach a lot of theory classes in addition to our projects. Sometimes we deal with the subject of electricity, anything to do with the environment, and I can see the children's attention on their faces. There are subjects that they just ignore, but there are subjects where I can see the sparkle in their eyes. Tomorrow a biologist or a chemist might be born out of this. That's rewarding for me.

There is a boy, I don't know his name and he doesn't know my name. He calls me "rapaz" and I also call him "rapaz" – it’s something friends call each other here. He passes by and he always brings something, a seed, whether it's from an orange, an apple, or whatever he ate or found. He wants to plant the seeds here. One of the reasons we got a vegetable garden in his shelter was because of him. He's little, he's maybe six or seven years old, no more, but he's already planting. That's gratifying.

The most difficult thing is to get through to younger people between 22 and 30 years old. And I understand them, I'm a refugee too. When you leave your country, you leave for various reasons. Political problems, social problems or economic problems. Sometimes it also has to do with climate change. So, when you leave, you don't leave to live in a shelter, you leave hoping for a better life, to be able to have the life you didn't have elsewhere. To raise environmental awareness with them is a challenge that I want to achieve this year.

In one of the shelters where I worked, I met many people, thousands of Venezuelans that I managed to help directly. But one of them marked me: Hernán. He lived with his wife and they had a child here in Brazil. He had a disability; he was missing a leg. I don't know if it was because of an accident in Venezuela. He was about 25 years old. I never saw him in a wheelchair or sitting down. He was always active. His time for relocation came, and he left with his family. A year went by, and one day, coming to work early, I got a WhatsApp message with a picture of a man standing up. I opened it and said 'Wow, Hernán, what did you do?' He had got a prosthesis. That day I cried because he used to collect and sell aluminum and plastic here and it was very gratifying to see him better, like that. I saw that he had managed to take a step forward in his life. I don't know if that was the best day in my job, but that day I cried with happiness and with joy.

From a technical point of view, you must be trained in environmental issues and related technical areas. For example, my speciality is civil engineering, electrical engineering and automation. It is essential that you know how to transmit information because you are giving information to young people, adults and children. This information must be precise.

Another important quality, which I think is vital, has to do with respect and sensitivity. The heart must beat. Not just blood flowing, the heart has to beat, and you have to really feel it. Why? Because we are dealing with people that come from difficult situations. Every character and every way of being is different. You must deal with people. You must have a lot of sensitivity.

Well, this job has to do with protection and refugee issues.  And as I said before, you must have a beating heart and you have to be sensitive. If you don't have that sensitivity, you're not going to make it.

And you also must be prepared. Luck doesn't exist for me. What exists are opportunities that pass in front of you and if you have the preparation to grab it and not let it go, it's yours. For me, starting to work here was not luck. The opportunity happened, I had the preparation, the possibility, and I made it mine. You must be prepared from a technical point of view as well as in terms of sensitivity.

🎶 I recognize that one must know how to differentiate between work and home time. For me, I really like music. I listen to a lot of instrumental music, it relaxes me.

🎸 I have a challenge: at the end of February, I'm going to buy a guitar. I want to learn to play guitar. So, I plan to buy a guitar and by December, I have to play at least one Christmas song.

❤️ I also like to spend time with my family at home. And speaking of family, my mother is still in Cuba. I've tried twice to bring her here and failed. I'm now going for the third. I think the third time is the charm.

🤔 Your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below on what surprised you the most about Daniel's role as an Environmental Field Advisor or with any questions you might have about this role.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. Together with over 20,000 staff working around the world, we strive for a world where every person forced to flee can build a better future.

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Ilaria Rapido and Lorey Campese