Menty Kebede spoke about her professional experience in global humanitarian work at the first virtual event this fall organized by the UMass Human Security Lab.

An alumna of the University of Massachusetts with a degree in political science and legal studies, Kebede is an associate humanitarian affairs officer with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Prior to this, she worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross as a humanitarian diplomacy and policy associate.

She holds a master’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University and a certificate in refugees and humanitarian emergencies from the Institute for the Study of Migration. Kebede was also involved in refugee protection and resettlement in Jordan, Greece and Ethiopia.

She gave virtually attending students a sense of the challenges encountered in humanitarian work through speaking about her time interning at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Ethiopia. She described the problems faced by urban and rural refugees in Ethiopia and how the UNHCR created focus groups to better understand refugees’ needs, as well as the process of training several volunteers and making structural changes in their operations.

“I did case management for all arriving refugees for 90 days,” Kebede said. “That means helping them get a social security card and enroll their kids in school, helping them find jobs, getting health checks. It’s very intense. Very hands on and is not a nine to five job.”

When asked about the core reason for why she chose to go into humanitarian work, Kebede said that apart from the “unconscious programming” of having been raised by refugees in the U.S., the main reason for her choosing this career path is because of the “genuine frustration” she felt “on behalf of other people who were being messed around by politicians who did not understand how their lives [were] being affected by this, or who didn’t care.”

Professor Charli Carpenter, the director of the Human Security Lab, moderated the event. Carpenter leads the Conflict, Violence and Security working group in the Department of Political Science. She has published works for several journals and consulted for the United Nations, State Department, Department of Defense, Human Rights Watch and other human security NGOs.

In an interview with the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, Carpenter said that she found the event to be “fantastic” and that “Menty was an amazing speaker just as she was an amazing student and young professional.”

“I thought the event was really inspiring,” Tegan Oliver, a senior majoring in public health and political science, said.“There’s often a disconnect between students, and honestly everyone, and career diplomats. Having conversations with professionals like Menty, particularly UMass alumni, makes those careers feel more attainable and real.”

Saniya Jain can be reached at [email protected].