“It was supposed to last three days… it’s been almost twenty years”

CAREER PATH. Naser Kasami started working at SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL in 1999 in Macedonia. Twenty years and a few positions later, he’s getting ready to depart from the organization whose HQ he’d joined 5 years earlier.

A look back at the commitment of a lifetime

It was supposed to last three days … It’s been almost twenty years. Three days to conduct an assessment in the border area separating Macedonia from Kosovo… And twenty years since I’ve joined “Sol”. Three days to get to know this small, little-known French NGO – the only one who would work in this border area, a place hard to reach and feared by many … And twenty years watching it grow, develop, become more professional, open and close missions in so many countries.

ONLY 20 PEOPLE

Back then, SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL employed about twenty people at its HQ. There were no technical or internal audit department … Already in place, though, were the supporting services per geographical area, the very first financial director, and Logistics of course. Well, the one and only logistician they had anyway. There was also a Director; generous, curious, tireless, who founded the association almost forty years ago and who remains committed to this day : Sir Alain Boinet. To him, twenty years of “Sol” probably doesn’t sound that long!

“THEY MADE ME UNDERSTAND WHAT HUMANITARIAN WORK WAS ABOUT”

Twenty years ago, at SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL in Macedonia, I met a team of committed expats; they trained me, encouraged me, and supported me. They were young, had studied at France’s most prestigious universities and could have stayed in their homeland, living a quiet life – but there they were, in my country, facing difficult living conditions and yet they were doing so much for my people …. They made me understand what humanitarian work was about. They passed on to me their willingness to be useful and eventually took me down on a path I would have never imagined. This path led me to discovering so many countries and cultures, immense tragedies and great joys, too many injustices, but so much solidarity.

NASER IN 5 DATES

August 2nd 1968 Birth
August 1999 Started working at SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL
December 2003 1st expatriation
June 17 2014 Joined HQ
June 14 2019 Left SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL