Back in 1999 I was involved with support groups working in East-Timor and that was when I heard about PBI. I was very active in Canada, denouncing the complicity of Canadian corporations in East-Timor, Burma and Tibet. This led me to contact PBI asking them to get involved. It was then that I learned of PBI’s non-partisanship principle and how they work, and decided to get involved.

PBI were just starting the Indonesia Project (IP), and were actively recruiting, so I had an interview, went to the training, stopped my current work on East-Timor and joined the IP. After my protective accompaniment work, I was on the Project Committee, working with publicity and public relations. In 2002 I joined “Exec”, an advisory body that can make quick decisions or bring people together in urgent situations when there is no time to assemble the whole Project Committee.

Protective accompaniment, in its physical manifestation, is obviously important, but just the presence of PBI as an organisation seems to have a positive effect of morale: It was more of a moral safety net. Sometimes the most important thing is the fact that we are somewhere rather than the fact that we are accompanying someone physically”.

The best thing about working with PBI was the direct contact we as a team have with the clients. This contact gave me the feeling that I was really doing something for peace. After every trip when I go home, I feel so much better, I’m really doing something and I’m not just sitting in a country far away. The most difficult part is that of course I still have to make a living, so I’m not able to make as big a commitment as I would like.

I’m very happy that we’re now in Papua where I feel our presence is becoming more and more effective.