Remembering Kari Egge: a Friend and Inspiration
Posted on 06. Feb, 2012 by Christie Getman in Lutherans, Program Areas
From time to time people ask me what inspires me to work in the field of international humanitarian aid and development. In fact, it’s not always about what, but who. It is the people I meet and have the privilege of working with. Kari Egge was one of those people. Kari has been in the forefront of my thoughts this past week, since she recently lost a hard-fought battle with cancer. It is not every day you meet someone like Kari, and today I mourn her death and celebrate her life as someone who inspired me both as a professional and as a mother.
I have known Kari since late 2005, when we were part of the team that started up the American Red Cross’s Tsunami Recovery Team — Kari as our Regional Technical Advisor for health based in Bangkok, and I as the Head of Programs for Sri Lanka. Kari was invaluable in helping me build our health teams and health programs in both countries, and we became fast friends. I think we had a similar sense of humor — slightly sarcastic and irreverent, yet lighthearted. We could make light of our tough jobs and the crazy situations we found ourselves in, especially in the early chaotic days of setting up the tsunami programs. It was no coincidence to learn that we had both been head of the same crazy social running club in previous countries where we’d lived.
American Red Cross Health Delegates in Indonesia (from left to right): Kari Egge, Steve Well, Christie Getman and Melissa Quimby
Fun times aside, there was no question that Kari was a top-notch health and humanitarian expert. What amazed me about her was that she not only had the ability to analyze detailed technical information and stay up on the latest research, but she had the practical skills to know how to apply it and make it relevant to program implementation. She could roll up her sleeves and work with our international, national and local partner staff, coaching them to design and manage better, more effective programs. She taught me to bring a higher level of rigor to our programming, how to listen to the evidence, and about the importance of a sound methodology. And the spitfire that she was, she also taught me — no, she modeled herself — how to tirelessly advocate for program improvements that mattered, even if it meant swimming against the tide.
As the years went on, I started to also look to Kari for another kind of advice. She kept nagging me, “when are you going to have a baby??” I couldn’t fathom how I could handle my job and be a mother. I would watch her enjoying her two young children, somehow managing to make the balancing act look so easy. She encouraged me and convinced me that I could handle it. When I finally got pregnant with my son Griffin, I was delighted to share my secret with her, even as I was petrified to tell the rest of my office. I remember her telling me stories of bringing her son Dylan to this country or that country with her, so that she could continue to work as usual and also stay close with her young baby. When I worried about one of my own international trips in my new job last fall, I heard her voice in my head and packed up Griffin for Nicaragua — we had a great trip.
Oh, was she an advocate for breastfeeding! I last saw Kari in late 2010 and was delighted to introduce her to Griffin — then about 3 months old — especially since by then her cancer had begun to advance. She was so proud of me for attending the large meeting at the Red Cross headquarters and sneaking out to a side room every couple of hours to pump breastmilk. In fact, she even asked why I bothered to step out and miss part of the discussion when I could just toss on the “hooter hider” and pump right there? It was a meeting about public health, after all!
I could probably write pages more, and am in awe of the number of people all over the world who have written similar stories and posted them on Kari’s Facebook page, where her family will archive them for her children. When you work for an international NGO, you often spend many of your adult years living overseas, away from your family, old friends and traditional support network. But you learn to build your own support network of friends and coworkers to keep you going, and I’m honored to have been touched by Kari as part of mine. I’ll miss you, Kari.
Kari’s funeral was Friday, February 3 at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi, Minnesota. Read Kari’s Obituary in the Minneapolis Star Tribune
Christie Getman is Lutheran World Relief's Director of Monitoring & Evaluation
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