Aid Worker: 'I was Drugged And Raped By A Fellow Humanitarian'

Megan is determined to use her experience positively, cracking open the silence around sexual abuse

While on a mission for a humanitarian organisation in South Sudan, Megan Nobert was drugged and sexually assaulted by a fellow humanitarian.

Given a cocktail of drugs, she blacked out, waking up hours later, naked, alone and violently ill.

Here she describes how her experience pushed her to stand up to sexual violence against humanitarian workers, and break down the shame and silence surrounding the issue.

On 7 February 2015, my life changed. It was that night that I was drugged and raped by a fellow humanitarian, a colleague who worked as a contractor for UNICEF, while working in a camp in Bentiu, South Sudan.

The events that followed were traumatising and, in many ways, deeply damaging. The reactions of the NGO that employed me at the time were unsettling, dismissive, and callous, driving me at one point to dark suicidal thoughts.

But that was not the real life-changing aspect of that night. Rather, it was in the weeks and months that followed, where I found an internal strength that I had never thought possible.

It was in finding my voice, standing up tall, and saying that what happened to me was unacceptable that my career and path shifted.

When I went public about my experience with sexual violence, roughly six months after it occurred, I was inundated with messages from other survivors.

It created a movement that began with the founding of my own NGO, Report the Abuse, which started conversations about sexual violence in the humanitarian community in absolutely every corner of our world.

From the top levels of the United Nations to the most remote field site, aid workers began reaching out, asking questions, and demanding change.

Although we are still in the beginning stages of that change and more is to come, the way humanitarian organisations have reacted in the last three years has been encouraging.

Survivors are speaking up when incidents occur, investigations are starting to happen, and perpetrators are starting to be held to account.

Policies are being strengthened and training rolled out around the globe.

Increasingly less tentative steps are being taken to make humanitarian workplaces safer.

It is worth saying that the majority of aid workers are incredible people working under difficult circumstances around the world.

The cracking open of the silence and shame around this specific issue has resulted in humanitarian organisations reaching out and asking for help.

There is a vulnerability that is allowing for growth, one that is and will continue to lead to more positivity in the sector.