Inside Geneva’s Summer Profiles: Stéphane Jaquemet

Send us Fan Mail On World Humanitarian Day, Inside Geneva spoke to a man who has dedicated his life to humanitarian work. He grew up in a quiet Swiss village – so what inspired him to take this path? “When I was young, I quickly realised that many people didn’t have the same opportunities, they didn’t have equal chances. And to me, that felt fundamentally wrong,” says humanitarian worker Stéphane Jaquemet. His first posting was to Gaza in the 1980s. “Gaza was already in a bad state at the time. I think there were nightly curfews and raids by the Israeli army. They would break into homes and mainly arrest young people,” he says. Then came the 1990s and the conflict in Yugoslavia. “A conflict in the middle of Europe: I don’t think we were ready for that, or for witnessing the same kinds of violations. It was a truly horrific conflict; we saw real ethnic cleansing.” Aid workers today face big challenges and serious personal risks. Yet Jaquemet remains committed. “I would encourage young people to remain interested in humanitarian work, ” he says. Would he do it all again? “Yes, I would. I’m still motivated.” Join host Imogen Foulkes on our Inside Geneva podcast. Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en Thank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or

You can listen to Inside Geneva’s Summer Profiles: Stéphane Jaquemet online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Inside Geneva’s Summer Profiles: Stéphane Jaquemet is an episode from Inside Geneva by SWI swissinfo.ch.

This episode is 30:07 long.

This episode was published on Sep 2, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Inside Geneva when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.