I address this note to spouses of UN(HCR) international staff, specifically the African international civil servants, whose culture I understand and share. My writing is based on personal experiences, first as an active international civil servant, and now as a private citizen.
I must add that the majority of spouses are female.
In order to discuss my point, I will review the issue only based on my personal experiences. And again, my overwhelming conclusion was that female spouses suffer most from not knowing how social security for UNHCR staff operates. And for a retiree, social security is simple and based on two elements, if, like most of us, you have dispensed with the national social security systems:
The monthly retirement income, and
The ASHI – After-health health insurance.
It is first of all an opportunity for me to commiserate with our women spouses, who now and then seem to suffer by holding the shortest and toughest end of the stick, due to non-disclosure by their husbands. And this is the core of my article.
It is unfortunate (and I am a practicing catholic, and catechist for that matter) that the bible has actually reinforced our cultural attitudes towards women, and by transposition, towards our wives. Should you have the time, and are intellectually curious, read Genesis 3 (11-17). Now, I do not know about my reader, but I will relate my earlier attitude towards my wife to this timeless reference when it comes to how we relate to our women.
Now, you will realize that joining the UN in 1989 was a huge prestige for me as a National Officer already, let alone as an international civil servant a year and a half later. But as a young man, I kept a few secrets from my wife, you will understand, and I will not elaborate. One of them was my salary level. The other was the bank account in Geneva and access processes. After all… (you can fill in the rest).
I will recount here two situations I was actively involved in illustrating our need to change attitudes.
First shock: I cannot remember the exact year, but that was during my second assignment to Geneva, when a colleague, quite young and quite fit, collapsed in the gym and on arrival at the hospital was pronounced dead. The wife came to Geneva from their country, and sought assistance from UNHCR Geneva in sorting out their issues, including a letter from the office to the bank. The bank was not impressed with any paper, except a signature deposited in the bank making her a co-signatory, which did not exist. No death or marriage certificate or UNHCR letter impressed the bank. Banks outside of Africa behave differently. The risk is that rich banks are getting richer with similar tricks, knowing as they do of our cultural specificities.
Second shock: There was this fellow retired UNHCR Representative (late) who, being admitted in a hospital, still kept his health insurance card in his pocket. The wife never even knew that he was insured. He was admitted to a quality hospital, where quality means expensive. They first handled the situation in the classic way, out-of-pocket payments. Probably in the expectation of future claims for reimbursement. Except they quickly reached a point where the bills went beyond their capacity to pay and the hospital threatened to suspend services.
I was the local UNHCR Representative and started a solidarity harambee. In two days we collected $3,000, and I gave it to the wife. Through different communications, we were informed by HR Budapest, to where we had expressed our anxieties over the sustainability of solidarity campaigns, that there was a lighter way of covering hospital costs: as soon as hospitalized, the insurer or his family should have requested a letter of guarantee, enabling treatment without cash disbursements, because the letter allows bills to be settled directly between the hospital and the insurance company, and the staff could be subjected to deductions later.
All UNHCR staff know that this insurer settles bills through reimbursements.
Experience also taught me that as we get older, cash transactions become as difficult as climbing the stairs. So, letters of guarantee are an expedite and lighter way of proceeding that few of our spouses know about. And then, when I looked at my own backyard, if you could call it that, it occurred to me that
My wife never knew or asked for, her health insurance number.
My wife never knew the importance of my UN index number.
My wife never went into the UNSMIS website, mainly because I always take the initiative to send all submissions.
My wife never kept the emergency telephone numbers of UNSMIS.
Third shock: All of these situations became more present recently when, not hearing from a UNHCR long-time friend since the beginning of November, I manage to get the phone number of the wife. You see, we established a routine of talking almost every week. So, I called the wife in Nairobi, only to understand that the reason we were not communicating was because he was himself admitted into Nairobi West hospital. And in the discussion with the wife, it transpired that the family was overwhelmed with the hospital bills, and the food was poor.
So, it was a revelation to her when I mentioned the option of a letter of guarantee and direct settlement of bills by the insurer. Then I thought to myself: one day I may not be able to help my wife navigate through these difficulties. Why not get her accustomed to it while I can?
For sure she is a co-signatory in our account (still in Geneva). That she does not go into e-banking frequently (or not at all), that is not the issue. She knows she has all the access credentials recorded somewhere.
Dear retirees,
Dear prospective retirees,
You ought to get your spouses to know of this. It feels pitiful that sickness should become a whole drama to a UN family otherwise at ease with itself.
Jose
11 January 2025
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