Alfred Petters was born in Dacono, Colorado, USA, on 10 July 1957. He attended the Central Catholic High School in Denver from 1973 to 1975 and then went to the University of Colorado in Boulder where he studied advanced mechanics (1975-1977). After leaving university, Alfred joined the US Marine Corps as a vehicle mechanic, serving for four years. On leaving the Marines, he found work in a company in Aurora, Colorado, manufacturing compressors and generators.
In August 1983 Alfred joined the US Peace Corps and embarked on the first of many humanitarian assignments to Africa that would span the best part of two decades. He spent the next two and a half years working as a rural development volunteer in Liberia, West Africa, building wells. In April 1986 Alfred joined the Bong Mining Company as a mechanical foreman working at an iron ore concentration plant north of the Liberian capital Monrovia. Following the outbreak of civil war in the country in 1989, Alfred returned to Colorado where he worked for a Littleton-based construction company supervising the construction of water and sewer treatment plants.
He returned to Africa with an Italian engineering company in 1991 for a short assignment as a water and sanitation engineer working on the reconstruction of Monrovia’s water treatment plant. This was followed by a six-month stint in northern Sierra Leone in 1992.
In August the same year Alfred embarked on his first ICRC assignment. He was seconded by the American Red Cross to work as a water and sanitation engineer in Somalia and northern Kenya. Much of his one-year assignment was spent in the Somali cities of Kismayo and Mogadishu constructing wells, latrines and designing refuse collection programmes. Alfred, who brought a great deal of professional experience, made an immediate impression on his new colleagues as someone who was hard working, resourceful and good at solving problems. He was also sensitive to others and always willing to lend a hand.
He returned to Somalia with the ICRC in early 1994 to help fight the cholera epidemic sweeping the country. Not long after arriving, he was kidnapped by gunmen at a checkpoint in Mogadishu. Alfred was released unharmed a few days later; although the incident meant that his assignment was cut short.
This tragic event did not shake Alfred’s deep love of Africa. Writing to an ICRC colleague in June 1994, he spoke warmly of Africa’s culture and its people, and the “high quality and dedicated” Somali staff with whom he worked. He said it pained him to see the constant negative international headlines about Africa.
“When it comes to self-sacrifice, volunteerism, kindness, compassion, and even, honour, the ordinary African you never hear about in the news sets the standard for the rest of the world. I know this because I have witnessed it first-hand,” he wrote.
Alfred returned to the continent in April 1995, spending two years in Rwanda, based at the ICRC’s delegation in Kigali. He worked in most of the country’s 13 prisons, improving water supply and sanitation facilities, as well as repairing urban water treatment plants. Once again he applied himself wholeheartedly to his work and improving conditions for those in need. An excellent “trouble-shooter”, he was sought out by colleagues for his technical knowledge and skills, and unerring capacity to get the job done whatever the pressures. After Rwanda, Alfred spent a year (August 1997 to September 1998) in Lubumbashi, southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, running a joint American Red Cross/ICRC water and sanitation project.
In 2000 he was back in Kenya for an assignment managing a water and sanitation project in the Kerio Valley, scene of bitter clashes between farmers and pastoralists. The ICRC and the American Red Cross collaborated on a series of long-term projects in the area, building around 65 kilometres of road, digging more than 70 wells and rebuilding some 40 schools. It was just the kind of assignment that Alfred loved to get stuck into – and he did. He also spent many days attending reconciliation meetings in the valley, earning the respect of the two communities, both of whom were participating in the construction work. He knew how important it was for the success of the project to earn their trust. Sadly, Alfred died in a car crash on 26 February 2002. He was 44.
Later that year, at a ceremony to inaugurate eight schools in the area, hundreds of villagers paid tribute to Alfred, remembering him as a true friend. It was a mark of the deep respect and love in which he was held by people in the Kerio Valley and beyond.
