By Elizabeth Millership

Oyintare Kalama – known as Tarex– joined the ETS in North-East Nigeria as an Information Management Officer (IMO) ten months ago just as the COVID-19 pandemic started to unfold.

Believing in the power of communication, Tarex says she was drawn to the ETS out of a “desire to do more and be more.”

Her results speak for themselves.  In a recent ETS user survey, 97 per cent of humanitarian responders operating in North-East Nigeria said the ETS information materials are extremely useful in supporting critical decision making within the response community.

“Since Tarex’s arrival, the quality and amount of information reaching the humanitarian community in the region speaks volumes. It has had a direct impact on the visibility of the ETS and the growing interest of humanitarian actors in need of ETS services,” says Khawar Ilyas, ETS Coordinator in Nigeria.

“Having a very supportive team makes my work engaging. I have team members that see the best in me and challenge me to do more,” Tarex says.

And more she has done: in May 2020, only weeks after joining the team, Tarex launched a 14-page ETS newsletter which was distributed on humanitarian flights across the country. The latest edition is available here.

The publication seemed like “a daunting task because of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the new remote working requirements,” she says. “However, I found a way to coordinate this and seeing the finished product…that was my wow moment.”