Nenad Knezović began his career in logistics as an ambulance driver for the Clinical Centre of Serbia. In 2021 he joined the WHO Health Emergencies Balkan Hub as one of the Hub Fleet’s drivers. With around 26 090 km covered ensuring that WHO
experts were where they needed to be, and countless hours spent far away from his family, Nenad spoke to us right before a well-deserved holiday.
What drew you to WHO?
After working in both security and the military, followed by a few years as an ambulance driver, I moved to a private sector company providing limousine services. This company happened to have contracts with various United Nations agencies in Serbia and, to cut a long story short, I ended up driving a lot of UN staff to their missions. At one point WHO was looking for a driver so I took that opportunity, and now I’ve been with WHO and the Health Emergencies Balkan Hub Fleet for a year and a half.
What does working for the Fleet entail?
In a nutshell, our Hub Fleet – consisting of my colleague based in Pristina and me – provides transport and logistics support for technical support missions in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo*. We make sure experts from our hub are where they need to be: whether it is for trainings, preparedness or emergencies missions, or capacity building missions for country support. In March 2022 we spent a full month in Moldova and got up to almost 5000 kilometers on the road. In July, at the request of the WHO Representative in Ukraine, I joined our WHO team in Lviv as they urgently needed drivers. In Ukraine, my job is really at a grassroots level of the response: it’s everything from driving our expert staff to warehouses for supply deliveries to driving our WHO Shuttle three times a week between Lviv, Ukraine, and Czechów, Poland. Driving the Shuttle, I pick up colleagues who completed their mission in Lviv and take them to Czechów, where I pick up experts who are about to start their mission in Lviv.
After long hours spent behind the wheel, how do you take care of your own health?
I like to take long walks, and we have a nice forest close to where I live. I also get massages to take care of my back. Time with family is particularly important since I spend so much time away from them. Sometimes I’m home only for a day and have to head out again, so when I’m home, we read books, go for a walk, play... My kids are eight and six years old, so the time we have together is very precious. When I’m away, they of course miss me a lot, but we call each other every day. These daily phone calls were especially important during my mission in Ukraine. Naturally, they know about the war, as you can’t really escape the news, and they were really worried about me. But we talked about it a lot, and I called them every day to reassure them. And they know that I'm “driving doctors to help people”.
That’s such a lovely and inspiring expression. How about you – what inspires you?
It’s great to be a part of this team, with colleagues who are really amazing, and with a supervisor who looks after you, motivates and encourages you – in your day-to-day work but also in your career development – and makes sure that you take a day off to rest when needed. What I also like about my job is that no two days are alike. And I’ve been lucky so far during my drives – I haven’t even had a flat tire. Knock on wood!
Most of us have been told by our parents not to slam car doors or put our shoes on the bench. Any strict rules in your car?
I’m very accommodating, I promise! We have a stash of snacks in the car for the long drives. You’ve got to take care of your colleagues’ blood sugar levels, right? So even if I like to keep my car clean, I’m pretty relaxed about it. And sometimes we listen to music, either from local radio stations – which is very interesting because it gives you a taste of the country – or from a USB stick with different songs on it for every taste.
Speaking of music, what’s your favourite song?
Desert Rose by Sting featuring Cheb Mami. It’s great, and Sting is a fantastic musician.
What’s the latest book you read?
It’s called “2034: A Novel of the Next World War”, by Elliot Ackerman and James Stavridis. It’s a troubling, quite dark book about geopolitics, the role of all the technology we surround ourselves with, and the consequences of a potential clash of superpowers. It’s about what our future might look like. It really makes you think.
Who, present or historic, would you invite for dinner and an interesting conversation?
Nikola Tesla. I would like to know how he figured it all out – how he came to think of all his inventions with electronic devices such as alternating current, the AC motor or high-voltage transformers… How did he get the idea? That’s something I would like to ask him.
Last question. Where are you driving to next?
I’m heading home tomorrow. But my next mission will be to Montenegro, unless there’s a change of plans!
* All references to Kosovo in this article should be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).
The WHO Health Emergencies Balkan Hub
- Number of staff: 8
- The WHE Balkan Hub, established in 2018, is part of the WHO Regional Office for Europe. Working with existing subregional networks, it works to coordinate and facilitate WHO/Europe’s health emergencies activities in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo*, for a collective population of over 21 million, across a land mass of 165 786 km2.
- The Hub monitors, supports and builds emergency preparedness, COVID-19 response capacities and needs through technical support missions, training and capacity building activities, and supports WHO country offices to organize and repurpose staff for better support to their counterparts. The closeness of WHO hub teams with the countries they serve facilitates a swift and agile response.
- Since the onset of the war in Ukraine, the WHE Balkan Hub team has been instrumental in assisting WHO’s work with governments and partners in Ukraine-neighbouring countries, monitoring and responding to the needs of incoming refugees on entry, and ensuring that the capacity and access of health systems and service can accommodate large numbers of refugees.