AFTER braving some of the world's worst trouble spots, aid worker Kate Ogden is looking forward to a change of direction in her career.

Kate, 37, of Castle Road, Colne, has just returned home after spending three months carrying out a nutrition survey in war torn Kosovo for international charity organisation Action Against Hunger.

Kate is used to working in dangerous and demanding situations. She has also worked in Liberia and Sierra Leone in Africa and in Chechenya at the height of the civil war with Russia.

Now Kate is considering staying with aid work but moving away from long-term assignments to concentrate on shorter but equally as important projects helping some of the communities worst affected by war and famine in the world.

"After three years travelling the world I don't really want to do long-term work," explained Kate. "If they were stuck and asked me I still would but now I'm wanting to concentrate more on exploratory missions, going out to places for a couple of weeks for example to assess the food situation." Kate, who was based in Pristina while in Kosovo, helped run programmes distributing emergency food to people who had had to flee their homes into the mountains to avoid Serb attacks.

She was also involved in distributing seeds and tools to farmers. Much of their output was disrupted as the conflict forced them to abandon their farms.

"A lot of humanitaran aid was going into the country but it was a matter of getting it to the right people," explained Kate. "It was a very complex situation. The tension was rising as the deadline for peace talks and the threat of Allied air strikes approached.

"Aid agencies moved their staff to safer areas. I was due to leave anyway."

Action Against Hunger is one of the leading organisations in treating malnutrition, operating in more than 30 countries.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.