Diaries from the Field
Event Summary
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work in a humanitarian emergency?
Event Details
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work in a humanitarian emergency?
Join us for a film screening of “Diaries from the Field,” which follows University of Toronto alumnus Nicholas Papachrysostomou along his personal journey working as a Head of Mission with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Bangladesh, where nearly one million Rohingya refugees remain confined to overcrowded displacement camps after fleeing violence and persecution against their communities in their home country of Myanmar.
This person-centered documentary is based on Nicholas Papachrysostomou’s private thoughts, as recorded in his journals. In these journals he questions his decisions, motives and role, as well as the real impact of modern-day humanitarian action. At the same time, he also tries to understand how his journey took him from a career in the multinational corporate sector to the front lines of major humanitarian emergencies.
The documentary was first screened in September 2019 in Athens, and features English subtitles.
We hope to see you on January 23, 2020, from 6-7:30pm, at Sidney Smith Hall for an inside look at a career on the front lines of the world’s most challenging humanitarian crises.
MSF is a Nobel Prize-winning emergency humanitarian medical organization that has helped tens of millions of people since its founding in 1971. MSF now has more than 40,000 staff members responding to humanitarian emergencies in close to 70 countries. MSF has been delivering urgently needed medical and humanitarian assistance for several years in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and has intensified its presence following a massive exodus of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in 2017.
About Nicholas Papachrysostomou:
Nicholas Papachrysostomou was born in Cyprus. He studied Economics and Finance at the University of Toronto, and started working with a multinational company in Athens. After a few years in the financial sector, he was promoted to a managerial position and began to question his choices. In 2013, he joined MSF, working with the organization in Yemen, South Sudan, Colombia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In 2016, he took on his first assignment with MSF’s Emergency Unit as Head of the Search and Rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean. Since then he has continued to work as a Head of Mission and has led interventions in Iraq, Bangladesh, Cameroon and Burkina Faso. He is currently in Democratic Republic of Congo, helping MSF respond to the ongoing Ebola emergency.
