"The more dangerous the situation, the calmer I am”

Christian Lenz, you have worked for the ICRC in Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. Are you able to maintain friendships or relationships in this job?

CHRISTIAN LENZ: (Laughs) As a matter of fact, I met my partner in Yemen. She was also working for the ICRC and we were lucky that we were both able to next be deployed in Beirut. Since the summer, it has now been four years that we have been based in Geneva with our two children, which makes things a lot simpler. It’s not actually easy to maintain friendships when you are constantly heading off on a new mission. That’s one of the drawbacks of our work.

You have technical responsibility at the ICRC for all engineering projects in the Middle East worth a total of 50 million Swiss francs. How would you describe a typical working day for you?

Since being based in Geneva, I coordinate projects in six countries and regularly visit the teams on the ground. I’ve just come back from four days in Lebanon and ten days in Syria, where I was visiting hospitals and prisons. Together with our local representatives, I also inspected a water pumping station not far from the border with Syria, which was affected by military skirmishes several years ago. My work in Damascus and Aleppo is also primarily concerned with ensuring that people have access to water and electricity, that the health services are working properly and that the needs of people in prison are fully provided for.

You grew up in Vilters near Sargans – did you ever dream of taking on such work when you were a kid?

No, as a child I spent as much time as possible in the workshop building soapboxes, repairing mopeds and constructing model air planes. When I left school, I wanted to become a carpenter. I spent six months working in a carpenter’s workshop, building roofing. Later on, I really wanted to become a pilot like my godfather but I was thrown out of pre-flight training, which annoyed me a lot. It was only years later in Yemen when we experienced nightly air strikes that I thought: maybe it is better that I didn't become a military pilot after all.

How did you get involved with the ICRC?

I had two gap years between leaving school and going to university. I started by travelling and took on occasional work to keep my head above water and then I did my military service, making it up to officer rank. An instructor in the army had studied international law and regularly gave us lectures on the law of armed conflict and humanitarian work. It was at this time that I came to understand the significance of the ICRC. Shortly after this, I got my teeth into my course in mechanical engineering. I worked part time as an audio engineer and later became an in-house technician for the Rote Fabrik, a music venue and cultural centre in Zurich. The ICRC was based not far away.

But instead you and a friend from school founded a company specialising in acoustics with the glamorous name “Rocket Science”.

(Laughs) The working conditions were far from glamorous – at the start, we paid ourselves just 1600 Swiss francs a month. But in terms of content, the work was insanely exciting. Creating the perfect sound for a concert or any other form of art is just as challenging as an architectural office working on solutions for how club-goers can enjoy a loud base without it disturbing people living nearby. Over the course of two years, we developed a specific hardware for suppressing sound. Unfortunately, we started to fall out more and more so after almost three years I took the decision to move on and try my luck with the ICRC after all.

As someone changing career, how did you find an opportunity at the ICRC?

I too thought it might be hard since I didn't have any specific experience in the field and I heard nothing for a long time following my application. But then things got moving very fast: I passed two linguistic tests, one interview with HR and one with the technical supervisor. A week later and I was accepted, another week later and I was on the job.

Did you realise what you had taken on?

No, I approached it all relatively naively. I only realised what the job actually involved after a few weeks in Iraq. A colleague had tipped me off that I should take good shoes with me so I would be prepared for long marches – what he actually meant was, in case I was kidnapped. I then soon realised how hard it is to undertake engineering in war zones. You have to find pragmatic solutions in awkward situations; you don't speak the local language and see an incredible amount of suffering without being able to change it directly.

Have you ever feared for your life?

There have been a few tricky moments. In Yemen, we were stationed a few kilometres away from the front and were often unable to sleep because of air strikes. Once we were locked into the compound following threats to our team. We had to destroy all our documents and technical equipment and work out evacuation scenarios. It was during this incident that I noticed a strange phenomenon: the more dangerous the situation, the calmer I am. Many of my colleagues were nervous and were struggling to control their fear, yet I felt an inner feeling of certainty despite all the dangers.

That may well be true at the time but doesn’t it catch up with you?

Of course, pushing things away isn't a good strategy in the long term. This is why the ICRC organises debriefing sessions with psychologists. One colleague I lived with in Yemen was shot dead at a control point. You can't help being affected. The crazy thing is that while you are greatly shaken by such an incident, you don't let it get to you. Even though I too have been threatened by someone with a weapon, I don't ever think that the same could happen to me. But I do notice that I've become more sensitive since having kids.

Has your view on life changed as a result of your humanitarian work?

Earlier on, I always found it very hard to come back to Switzerland and all its luxury problems after a stint in the Middle East. These days, I’m better able to switch over. Of course, every now and then I think that with a few of the billions we give to our banks I could solve the biggest of Iraq’s waste water problems in one go. But most of the time, I’m just grateful that through our engineering work we are able to substantially improve the quality of life for needy people. Doing something meaningful, that makes a huge difference for others is a very rewarding job.

When was this most apparent to you?

When I arrived in Yemen, the country was suffering from the biggest outbreak of cholera ever recorded; 2.5 million people were infected. Over night, we and some local fishermen built a primary care centre where 700 people a day were treated as a result. I remember seeing a father and three-year old child a long way back in the queue. I should actually have been working on the water supply, but I saw that this child could die at any moment. I went to the father and brought him straight into a treatment room where a doctor was able to save his child’s life. I will never forget the way in which the father looked at me when we next met …

Can you imagine moving into something different again after your time at the ICRC?

Yes, I’ve got lots of ideas – but life has taught me that you need to give ideas time to mature and that luck also has a role to play. I’ve long been concerned about environmental pollution and climate change. There is very little water in the Middle East and there is a great urgency to our projects. So we often don’t choose the best solutions but simply those we can get up and running quickly. For example, we put in generators rather than photovoltaic cells. I could well imagine myself running environmentally-friendly projects in the future as a “social entrepreneur”. Big organisations like the ICRC have a lot of clout but they often tend to be rather sluggish. I like innovation and entrepreneurial spirit and so I can see myself founding my own company again.