Médecins Sans Frontières - Portrait of staff - Workshop Manager

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF220163

Date taken / Date Recorded 09/01/2018 12:00 AM

Country Unspecified Country

Commissioning section MSF-LUXEMBURG

Copyright MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) External Media, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Video format h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 1m53s

Maximum Size 720px × 576px 36.90 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist I'm a flying handyman. I'm a bit of a ‘Jack of all trades’, so yes, you could say I'm a mechanic.
The bulk of my work is actually training.

Christian - Mechanic Trainer

You have to try to get information across, both for them and for us. Everyone’s a winner.

The people we train are happy to be trained and MSF also benefits by having more reliable vehicles.

My journey has been very simple. I left school at 14 and got a vocational diploma as a car mechanic.

I was in the Navy and then I met my wife, so I wanted a bit more stability. I left the Navy and joined the police force. As a police officer I used my skills as a mechanic.

Then, after I retired, I wanted to do something. I left the police force at 53, because I was a bit fed up of it.

In Bordeaux, there’s an organisation called Mécanique Sans Frontières and I called them. They told me that my profile wasn’t right for them, but suggested I contact Médecins Sans Frontières.

It had never occurred to me that a medical organisation—because for me MSF is a medical NGO—would need mechanics.

I did my 8 days of first mission preparation and then stayed on for an additional week or 10 days to understand how the logistical and mechanical aspects of MSF work.

I went on my first posting to DRC in October or November 2001. I'm now on my 13th and am still enjoying it just as much as back then.

On the technical, mechanical side, I deal with the vehicles, all aspects of training drivers, repairers and mechanics. My role isn’t to work as a mechanic; it’s to find people who can do the maintenance and pass the information on to others.

Bandundu was one of my first missions and I was having a look around the hospital, which was being refurbished. In the operating room, the surgeon was operating on a patient; he was quite short and the operating table was quite high, so he was standing on a wooden box.

I said to him: “Why are you standing on that thing?”
He replied: “The table won't go down any more”, so I told him I would have a look at it with the driver.

At the bottom of the operating table there was a jack mechanism. I emptied the oil out of the jack and cleaned it—standard maintenance. Then I tried it, and it worked.

I called the surgeon back. He knew that the table went up, but when I pushed down on it, it went down, like a hairdresser's chair. I swear I'll never forget the look he gave me when he saw the operating table go down.

I'd achieved something and it felt good.

Portrait of staff - Workshop Manager - Christian (ENG)

Portrait of staff - Workshop Manager - Christian (ENG)