As a thank you to key workers in our Columban community, we will be sharing their stories to highlight their incredible work during this unprecedented time.

This week's story is from Old Columban, Derek Spranger C78, who is a Security Officer for the Red Cross in El Salvador:

"In 2012 the International Committee of the RedCross (ICRC), for whom I had worked previously, would contact me out of the blue and ask me to reopen an office in El Salvador as Head of Mission. I accepted and for five years was involved in visiting imprisoned gang members amongst a myriad of other activities.

At the end of June 2017, I left ICRC and assumed a new position in the Salvadorean Red Cross as Security Officer. Between July 2017 and March 2020 my focus was on ensuring that Red Cross personnel were able to operate safely in areas where gang members are present.

Since the declaration of a red alert on the 13th March by the government of El Salvador due to the coronavirus, the Salvadorean Red Cross has had to re-orientate the majority of its operations. As the Security Officer, I am a member of the Crisis Management Team which is activated whenever a major incident occurs.

Together with doctors from the Medical Department I had to quickly implement measures to ensure the safety of all administrative staff and Red Cross volunteers, designating and restricting access to sterile areas in the Red Cross headquarters here in San Salvador, establishing entry points to the installations with sanitation stations and giving talks in different branches throughout the country on the measures necessary.

The biggest challenge has been to change people´s behaviour to ensure social distancing and to ensure that face masks are worn at all times when on duty.

The Salvadorean Red Cross will shortly begin to transport patients suspected of having contracted COVID-19, using two ambulances in San Salvador to support the ambulances of the Ministry of Health. In order to protect the personnel working in the headquarters, a nearby branch office is being converted into a base for the ambulances and personnel involved in this operation. As Security Officer, I will have to make daily visits to this base to ensure that all security instructions are being rigorously followed and also to give moral support to the colleagues working there. We will also organize psychological support sessions for them.

At the time of writing there are only 555 confirmed cases of COVID-19 here in El Salvador. The figures are currently increasing day by day, and the health system in the country only has the capacity to treat some 11,000 patients before becoming overwhelmed. The situation here is bound to get worse.

The days of the week no longer have much meaning for me. Weekends are a thing of the past and twelve-hour days have become the norm. I still force myself, as do the other members of the Crisis Management Team, to have two days rest per week, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and on Sundays I deputize for the Head of the Emergency Operations Centre as he has to take time off as well. In my 30-year career with ICRC and the Salvadorean Red Cross this is undoubtedly the biggest challenge that I have faced, but at the moment I would not want to be anywhere else."

Thank you Derek for your service and sharing your story with us.