A HUMANITARIAN from Wokingham is ensuring that aid is making it to those most in need following natural disasters.

Karen Lewin, 32, holds the role of Humanitarian Capabilities Team Leader at the Department for International Development (DFID), and it is her job to make sure the organisation has the capability to respond to humanitarian crises, including volcanic eruptions, mudslides and hurricanes.

Last year Karen, a former Holt School pupil, oversaw the supply of 1,950 tonnes of emergency relief items to help avert Yemen, South Sudan, Nigeria and Somalia.

The law graduate's department is responsible for monitoring volcanic activity; keeping government ministers updated on situations and advising on responses; and providing full-scale rapid onset response to emergencies such as Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.

Karen is currently on secondment to the Democratic Republic of Congo, supporting DFID's humanitarian team and seeing first-hand how an emergency nutrition project is helping children and nursing mothers recover from malnutrition.

Karen said: " I’ve always had an interest in the world and believed in the work that DFID does. I never dreamed that I would be lucky enough to have a job that would take me to so many fascinating places and experience so many different cultures.

"My first trip was one week in the Ethiopia office in Addis Ababa in 2013. I went on a visit with Girl Hub Ethiopia to meet beneficiaries of the girl effect project. It was my first time witnessing that kind of poverty first hand and it really put DFID’s work into context. I met a girl who had dropped out of school after both her parents had died from AIDS, it made me realise the huge challenges these girls, and people, face and recognise why UK aid is so important.

"Seeing DFID’s work empowering local communities is always a proud moment.”