We remember Anne-Lise Chevalley-Aburabi
Anne-Lise Chevalley was born on 7 August 1957 in Lausanne, Switzerland. After completing her compulsory education in 1973 and spending some time in Germany to improve her German language skills, she attended paramedical school (1974 to 1975) and nursing school (1975 to 1978) in Lausanne. Her nursing diploma was in the field of maternal hygiene and paediatrics.
Anne-Lise’s first work experience was with Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), where she was employed in the neonatal intensive care unit. Her employment there, from 1978 to 1980, was punctuated by a short period of study (1979 to 1980) at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium. She then worked for Gianni Moretti, a private paediatrician in the Lausanne area, from 1981 to 1982. Her aim in taking that job was to spend a year away from what she termed “technical paediatrics” in order to have more contact with patients and their families. As the office receptionist, she did just that; Dr Moretti was effusive in his praise for her ability to deal with difficult parents. She also carried out lab work and provided medical support as needed. Once the year was up, Anne-Lise found her way back to a hospital setting. She took a position in paediatric intensive care at Geneva Cantonal Hospital, which she held from 1982 to 1984. After a stint in England to learn English, Anne-Lise worked as a paediatric nurse in a regional hospital near Switzerland’s border with France from 1985 to 1987. The following year she was engaged as a nurse at a mission in St Croix, one of the US Virgin Islands.
In February 1989, motivated by an ever-present yearning to learn more and hone her professional skills, Anne-Lise applied for work as a paediatric nurse with the ICRC. She brought with her a wide
range of experience, glowing evaluations from past employers, and a desire to work abroad – in other cultures, in a non-hospital environment, and in countries in need of outside aid.
The ICRC wasted no time in hiring her as a field nurse. She was sent on her first assignment in April 1989 to the organization’s subdelegation in Sidon, Lebanon, on the coast south of Beirut. Her tasks were varied: assessing health facilities and medical conditions in detention centres; helping manage and distribute medical supplies; serving as a point of contact with various outside entities, including detention authorities and other humanitarian organizations; and taking part in mobile clinics together with members of the Lebanese Red Cross. This first assignment, which ended in December 1989, was far from easy, but Anne-Lise turned out to be a fast learner and a much-appreciated colleague.
Anne-Lise quickly moved on to her next posting, in Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. This assignment – which Anne-Lise extended twice – lasted from January 1990 to March 1991. Still working as a field nurse, she quickly made her mark with her professional versatility and soft skills. Her duties included assessing wounded civilians in hospital; supporting efforts to protect the civilian population; visiting military detention centres in order to check on the prisoners’ health, screen medical cases and evaluate the medical infrastructure; and assessing medical facilities in the northern West Bank. All of which she accomplished with aplomb. It was during this time that she crossed paths with Dr Raed Abu Rabi, an emergency doctor who would become her husband.
After a short break, Anne-Lise was sent to Kampala, Uganda, for a six-month assignment (May to November 1991). She was mainly responsible for visiting both civilian and military detention centres and assessing the conditions there from the perspective of nutrition, hygiene, health and medical care. She also participated in discussions and negotiations with medical authorities. Thanks to her experience, drive and team spirit, Anne-Lise was respected and appreciated by those she worked with, both inside and outside the ICRC.
After taking some time off, Anne-Lise was next assigned – as a field nurse, as always – to Bosnia-Herzegovina (October 1992 to April 1993). In this role, she stood out for her negotiating skills, hard work and collaborative spirit. Her tasks included assessing medical facilities, distributing surgical materials, visiting detention centres (in Herzegovina and Dalmatia) and coordinating with other aid organizations. She also took part in evaluating public health conditions – nutrition and sanitation in particular – in the region.
It was then back to Africa for Anne-Lise. Her subsequent assignment took her to Kigali, Rwanda, where she worked from August 1993 to February 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. She was a seasoned professional by now and could be counted on in challenging circumstances. As a field nurse in the northern Rwanda conflict zone, she led and managed mobile clinics, evaluated health facilities affected by the conflict and distributed material support. She also set up an emergency plan and delivered emergency medical training to Rwanda Red Cross staff.
Her next posting for the ICRC was to Port-au-Prince, Haiti (July to October 1994). This was a relatively short assignment, and she hit the ground running: she assessed the local hospital system, ran a nutritional survey, supported the National Society, took part in detention visits and liaised with other organizations and with the ministry of health. She was lauded as a responsible, flexible and attentive colleague, a good communicator and someone who simply got things done.
Anne-Lise then returned to Kigali. This was a three-month posting during which she assumed nursing responsibility for Kigali Central Prison (6,000 detainees) – including oversight of the dispensary and dysentery ward – while also supporting the prison in Gitarama (3,000 detainees). Her broad objective
was to lower the mortality rate, and she quickly got a fix on the obstacles in her path. Her interpersonal skills served her well, as she maintained an excellent relationship with detainees and detention workers, the staff at King Faisal hospital, and the authorities and NGOs operating in the area. Anne-Lise thrived in this highly stressful environment thanks in part to her pragmatic approach, composure and ability to inspire confidence in those around her.
For what would be her last assignment, Anne-Lise was sent to Burundi in June 1995 along with her husband, who was the medical coordinator. At the end of the year, Anne-Lise returned to Switzerland for the holidays and quickly fell ill from a disease contracted in Burundian prisons. She passed away the night of 1 January 1996 in hospital. She was 38 years old.
Anne-Lise served as a field nurse in every one of her assignments over the course of nearly seven years with the ICRC. But her experience and responsibilities grew with every posting. She was an inspirational colleague – someone who connected with those around her and could be relied on to get things done whatever the circumstances. Her untimely death left a significant void among those who knew and worked alongside her.
The ICRC in
Burundi, 1996
Burundi was caught up in the throes of sectarian violence in 1995. The country had been subject to bouts of violence between two of its main ethnic groups, the Hutu and Tutsi, ever since gaining independence from Belgium in 1962. In 1993, despite the country’s new constitution designed to implement multi-party democracy, the simmering tensions degenerated into a civil war that lasted until 2005. The 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda, whose ethnic composition was similar to that of Burundi, also triggered an upsurge of violence in Burundi. Following the death of the presidents of both Burundi and Rwanda in a plane crash in April 1994, a coalition government was set up in Burundi in late 1994. For nearly two years, before it came apart, the coalition government attempted to govern a country consumed by ethnic conflict. In 1995, a burst of violence in late March triggered clashes between the army and gangs of armed extremists, causing thousands of civilians to flee the capital Bujumbura. In the countryside, attacks on the military led to retaliation that largely targeted civilians. Violent confrontations between displaced people and local residents also took place repeatedly. Over the course of the year, over 200 people were killed per week on average and thousands were wounded. Tens of thousands of people were displaced, living in camps inside or outside the country. Abandoned homes were looted and destroyed, fields and harvests burnt. In some areas water and electricity installations were sabotaged. The ICRC did what it could in this volatile situation. We sought to deliver humanitarian assistance all over country, but the fighting restricted our teams’ movements in some areas, and it was too dangerous to go into the hills. Our delegates were able to work in detention centres in an effort to prevent ill-treatment and disappearances among detainees and encourage the authorities to improve living conditions. Our staff searching for missing people distributed some 100,000 Red Cross messages, many related to the crisis in Rwanda; we also registered over 12,000 unaccompanied Rwandan minors and reunited nearly 500 of them with their families. Medical personnel – Anne-Lise among them – did their best to assess health needs in conflict areas and camps for displaced people, provide supplies to health and medical facilities, and run mobile clinics in underserved areas. We delivered core relief items to vulnerable groups in ten conflict-affected provinces, reaching nearly 350,000 displaced people. Our water and sanitation specialists carried out repairs or supplied clean drinking water from tankers and mobile water purification units to avert the threat of both diarrhoea and cholera epidemics.
Memories
Naplouse 1.4.1990, ICRC office. An ICRC nurse.