The second time it happened, Kate Roberts made a decision. The aid worker — who was then focused on helping children affected by Syria’s civil war — swore she would never work at a humanitarian organization again.
“I felt like I had experienced too many similar situations with too many different organizations, and I thought, you know what? This is the way it is, and it's not going to change,” said Roberts, speaking to Devex five years later. “So I left.”
At the time, Roberts was traveling across Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Egypt, providing psychosocial support to those facing unimaginable circumstances. But even so, Roberts felt like she wasn’t being heard — and as a result, she felt like she wasn’t making an impact. Roberts was experiencing burnout, a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion brought on by stress.