I was lucky to
achieve my first work practice within the institution of the ICRC 30 years ago.
Therefore I have been faced to conflicts which are not any more really of news
but I still keep a living memory of this period as well as of the intense
moments which I was able to live during these almost seven years of ground
experience.
Then, retrained in finance
and wealth management I have join the AAD in 2002 in order to find a little humanist
oxygen in a period of important
worldwide crisis. Member of the "Comité Romand” since 2004 and more
particularly active within the SAR and within the group Connexion, itself active
in giving assistance to the delegates to reintegrate the professional life in
Switzerland.
STRASSMANN Irma(Vice-President)
2001 – 2003
: ICRC-missions as WatSan in Burundi, Angola, Sri Lanka and Congo Kinshasa.
Back in
Switzerland in 2004 I started working for a private engineering company in the
Bern area. I live in Ostermundigen with my partner and our 7-months-old son.
With
support of the AAD/VED and thanks to its network a small active group has
formed around regular reunions that I organize in Bern. These meetings should
create a place for seeing friends, for exchanging ideas, for finding people who
understand questions that might come up after leaving ICRC.
KUHN Michèle (Secretary)
Born in Bern, Michèle
holds a degree in translation and a master of law. She spent five
years serving in the Swiss federal administration. She joined the ICRC in 1990
and worked as a delegate in Asia and
Africa, mainly in the realm of protection, but also of information /
dissemination of IHL and cooperation with national societies. In 1997 she was assigned
to the doctrine and cooperation unit at headquarters, acting, amongst other
tasks, as Madame Emblème.
She
left the ICRC at the end of 1999 and joined the AFD.
BUENZLI Kurt (Treasurer)
Kurt
originates from eastern Switzerland and lives nowadays together with his wife,
a former ICRC anesthesiologist and his children in Sarnen
OW. He studied history at the university of Zurich and has been working
for 25 years as a history teacher and historian. He does research in social and
economic history as well as autobiographies.
In 1988–90 he took the
opportunity to work for the ICRC in Afghanistan. The unique experience of this
mission induces him to join the Zurich section of the AFD, where he is now a
member of the executive committee. Similarly he gets involved with the
periodical meetings of former delegates in Bern and in Swiss high schools he
reports on his experience as a delegate of the ICRC.
VILLIGER Lucia (Member, Chapter Zürich)
Employed by the ICRC from 1981 until 1992, first as a case
handler in the CTA (Central Tracing Agency), then as a Delegate as of 1984 and
subsequently: Coordinator, Head of Desk and Deputy-Head of delegation, in
particular in protection / detention activities.
Left the ICRC to start a family life in Zürich (3 daughters,
age 15,16 and 18). Married to a journalist, she works part-time as an german
language adult trainer in integration projects.
She has been an AFD member for 13 years, several of which on
the board of the Zürich Section and has been elected to the Central Committee
in 2007 and acts as the Webmaster for German-speaking Switzerland.
BRODIER Jean-Etienne (Coordinator Chapter Genève)
It is a fortunate visit to the RCRC Museum that brought me to the RCRC family in 1994, as a volunteer of the Geneva Red Cross, then 11 years in the ICRC in the headquarters and then in the field, and since 2006 the International Federation as Senior Officer in organizational development, manager of a Capacity Building Fund and Secretary of the Empress Shôken Fund. I have done a Master in Humanitarian action and a Diploma in non-profit management. In 2009-2010, I have helped the University of Geneva to create a Certificate of Advance Studies for voluntary organizations' managers and am in charge of the module Understanding strong voluntary organizations. I joined the Association of Former ICRC delegates in 2006 and had the pleasure to become coordinator of the Geneva Chapter in 2010.
KOOTZ David (Coordinator Chapter Bruxelles)
David Kootz has a legal background. He joined the ICRC in 2002 and worked there until 2008. He started at the legal department in Geneva, researching for the Customary Law Study. He then went on the field as a delegate in Burundi (2003-2004), in Iraq/Jordan (2004-2005), in Afghanistan (2006) and in+ Israel and the occupied territories (2007-2008). His function within the ICRC were mainly oriented towards protection activities.
In 2008, he settled in Belgium and worked for two years as programme director for a Belgian NGO working in the field of justice, mainly in the African Great Lakes region (RCN Justice & Démocratie). Since 2010, he is director of a centre for the reception of asylum seekers for the Belgian Federal Agency Fedasil..
He joined the AAD upon the creation of the Brussels chapter in may 2010. He was elected as member of the executive committee in May 2011. He collaborates with the animator of the Brussels chapter to organize regular events in the European capital.
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KUHN Michèle 
