Angela Gago Gallego was born on 18 April 1959 in Barcelona, Spain, where she went to primary and secondary school. She also attended medical school there, graduating in 1984. She began working while still a student: from 1978 to 1981 she served as a nursing assistant in a local geriatric hospital, and from 1982 to 1985 she was a radiography assistant in an emergency department. Between October 1985 and February 1986, Angela earned a diploma in tropical medicine at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium. She then completed a course on medical work in developing countries, run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Brussels. The course covered such topics as medical care in refugee camps, war surgery, emergency medical care, emergency nutrition and vaccinations, along with more general topics such as managing medical projects, car mechanics, radio communications, project logistics and managing drug supplies.
Angela then embarked on a series of relatively short assignments for humanitarian organizations, punctuated by periods of further training. From August 1986 to March 1987, she worked as a medical coordinator for MSF in Colomoncagua, Honduras. There, she managed and coordinated a medical team composed of three international staff and 20 local employees in a UNHCR refugee camp. She then took on similar positions for MSF in Danli, Honduras, in October and November 1987, and in Mocuba, Mozambique, from December 1987 to June 1988. In August and September 1988, Angela completed a course in Paris, France, on populations in precarious situations, covering subjects such as epidemiology, nutrition, hygiene, crisis planning and public health. She completed two other courses in 1988: one in epidemiological surveillance systems and the other in information technology and public health. During this period she also began working with USAID as a medical consultant in Maputo and Quelimane, Mozambique, where she designed and planned a project targeting rural areas of Zambezia province. In December 1989, she took on the role of medical coordinator of the Pilot Child Survival Project with MSF, still in Quelimane. Incidentally, it was in Quelimane that Angela first came into contact with the ICRC and met her future husband Christian Bugnion.
Her position with MSF came to an end in July 1990, and a few months later she started a master’s in public health in Brussels, which she completed in June 1991. Between February and April 1992, Angela worked as a health and nutrition consultant for three UNHCR camps in Mauritania that housed Malian refugees. And from May to September of that year, she served as a field delegate in health and nutrition for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; she worked on a programme addressing drought-related problems in southern Zambia among the local population of 350,000 people.
When she applied for a position with the ICRC in early 1992, Angela spoke French, English, Italian and Portuguese – in addition to Spanish and Catalan, her two native languages. And despite her frenetic work schedule, she had already travelled privately to various countries in Western Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Central America.
Angela’s main professional interest was in setting up, implementing and coordinating medical assistance programmes, and it was for those purposes that she was hired by the ICRC in 1993. Her first assignment was in Luanda, Angola, where she worked as a medical coordinator from April to October 1993. Over that six-month period, she visited detention centres in Luanda and southern Angola to assess the health of detainees and to interview local medical staff; surveyed medical structures in four cities in the Planalto region; organized an ad hoc medical assistance and oversight system; and assessed the need for medical activities falling within the scope of the ICRC’s mandate. She also liaised with UN agencies and NGOs in Luanda and with organizations operating in the field. Lastly, she provided international ICRC staff with medical care and managed evacuations as necessary. Angela proved to be a valuable colleague. She was direct, reliable and got on with her job.
For her next assignment, Angela was sent to the ICRC’s delegation in Peru in January 1994. Here again, her role was that of medical coordinator. On 25 February 1994, just over a month into that assignment, Angela was flying back to Lima from Tingo Maria when her plane went down in the mountains. Everyone on board – 26 passengers and five crew members – perished. Angela was 34 years old. The victims included another ICRC employee, Julia Nelly Narrea Ternorio, who was the secretary in charge of the ICRC office in Tocache, northwest of Tingo Maria.
Determined, energetic, goal-oriented and strong-willed – these are some of the adjectives typically used to describe Angela. She was also a team player eager to share her ideas and experience with others. It is thus not surprising that she pursued her humanitarian career with such passion.
