I know what it is like to live and work in a hostile environment. Growing up in Iraq has increased my ability to adapt quickly. This skill has become especially useful during my current deployment to Yemen with the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC).

In Aden, there are broken ceilings, smashed rooftops and shattered windows in many buildings. All UN security telecoms infrastructure has also been severely damaged. During the current conflict, the radio room – which had provided shared security telecoms services for humanitarians – was badly damaged. The telecoms tower was cut in half.

When we were asked to do an assessment, our options were limited as the airport had been bombed. The best solution was to fly to Djibouti, and then go on to the Gulf of Aden by boat, for two weeks. ETC mission was to provide humanitarians with the means to communicate to ensure their security and to coordinate relief efforts.

The team was a real multi-agency group, featuring three staff from UNHCR, one from UNICEF, one from UNDSS, and myself.

Transporting three large pallets of telecoms equipment in such a situation was always going to be a challenge. With help from the Logistics Cluster, we tried to ensure that it all travelled together from Djibouti to Aden, that the necessary paper work was ready, and that it was reloaded, all without getting wet!

In Aden, we leave the boat in the morning and make a 40-minute journey in two armoured vehicles to the UN compound in Aden, passing through many checkpoints.

While there we've assessed all the problems and prepared the way for the mission that will follow up and hopefully restore the connections. Then we've returned to the boat in the evening, sailed out into the water a little, for safety, and slept there.

Sometimes it has been too dangerous to travel to the compound though. This means staying on the boat for up to three days at a time. And the sea gets rough sometimes!

Whenever I step back on land again, instead of walking to my right, I involuntarily steer left. Also, occasionally I feel the office is moving when it is not. Having joined the Yemen operation straight from my mission in Nepal, this feels somehow similar to the earthquake aftershocks which I experienced in Kathmandu.

Not only does it take some time for our balance to re-adjust, but also for our determination and courage to return. And we need both to keep going in the midst of this civil conflict. Nonetheless, we will make it happen and will keep moving forward.

Knowing that operations had to continue, and the crucial role that telecoms plays in this, me and a colleague from the Fast Information Technology and Telecommunications Emergency and Support Team (FITTEST) – whom I met up with in Djibouti – installed internet on our new floating home in a little over two hours.

Getting the internet to work was an unusually daunting task – when you are walking down the boat's hallway, the waves make you crash against the walls. But we did it.

Our two weeks on this mission and based on the boat are coming to an end, but the situation in Yemen is not getting any easier. Thankfully a full radio room and two generators have arrived in Aden and are ready to be installed. That will be the mission for the next team that's deployed.

ETC Coordinator, Yemen