'Dream job' landed this time

Tracee Knowler

Burying ebola victims in West Africa would, for most people, be as far from a dream job as possible. But not for Houhora's resident police officer, Senior Constable Tracee Knowler, who is about to embark upon a new role job as an international humanitarian aid worker for the Red Cross.

Once she officially starts in February, she could be sent at short notice to conflict and disaster zones anywhere in the world.

Ms Knowler said she first applied for her "dream job" in 2010; she tried again this year, and got the phone call saying she had been accepted while she was driving a tuktuk on a 3500km fundraising mission across India with Northern Advocate reporter Kristin Edge.

Last month she undertook a 12-day course in Switzerland to learn about dealing with the deceased in disaster zones. She'd only been home two days when she was asked to go to Guinea to help bury ebola victims.

She had to decline - her resignation from the police won't take effect until February, which is also when her youngest child heads off to boarding school - but when the next call comes in she'll be ready.

Ms Knowler said the humanitarian aspect of Red Cross work appealed to her, but the biggest attraction was the personal challenge, and being forced out of her comfort zone.

Although born in Kaitaia, she grew up in Papua New Guinea, and has twice been deployed as a police officer to Bougainville, an island wracked by civil war, so she has no qualms about working in the developing world.

"I like the fact that you've got to get stuck in and make things happen, even if you don't have the resources," she said.

She expects to be sent to natural disasters - tsunamis, cyclones, earthquakes - and conflict zones around the world for six to 12 months at a time, and is particularly keen to work in countries affected by war.

Under the Geneva Convention, the Red Cross checks every military detention centre to make sure prisoners are properly treated.

The organisation also helps reunite families, for example in South Sudan, where many families are split between different refugee camps.

One of the attractions of the Red Cross was its emphasis on neutrality and impartiality.

"I could end up helping people on either side of a conflict, including the side that might be seen in the West as the bad guys. Unlike police work, there are no goodies and baddies," she added.

If she did end up going to West Africa she had no fear of ebola, saying Red Cross training, equipment and safety procedures were "top notch". She had met two Kiwi nurses just back from West Africa, whose advice was reassuring.

"There's a lot of myths around ebola. It's often fatal but it's relatively hard to catch. Far more people in Africa die of malaria every day," she said.

Ms Knowler, who made a name for herself nationally by her use of Facebook to solve crimes, would miss the teamwork of being in the police, but was proud of her achievements, in particular her time as a member of the Kaitaia CIB, dealing with victims of sexual abuse.

In one case the abuse had occurred more than 50 years earlier; the victim had not wanted the then elderly offender sent to jail, she just wanted closure and to be believed.

"The change in her was obvious. Her whole body lifted," she said.