The first female officer of the Serbian Armed Forces in the peacekeeping mission
FEMALE DOCTOR ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE EQUATOR
During the next six months, Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, will be the new home of Dr. Lieutenant Natasa Stosic, who is to join the Serbian Air Medical Evacuation Team (AMET) in the UN multinational operation MONUSCO, with five colleagues on 25 October. However, what distinguishes this determined 29-year old woman from other "peacekeepers" is that she is the first woman officer of the Serbian Armed Forces, who will wear the blue beret in a multinational peacekeeping operation.After more than two years in initial military duties, at the position of a Commander of the Second team in the medical training company of the Logistics Training Centre, Training Command, Lieutenant Natasa Stosic felt it was time to make a step forward in her career. Mission in Congo seemed the right place where medical officer can experience something new and different.
- It was great honour for me that I had been selected for such a challenging task, given the fact that there were many more experienced colleagues. I know that this is a developed mission, to which the members of our armed forces have been deployed for many years. I am to face responsible, commanding duties, but also document keeping, control, and logistic duties. There is also organization of taking over patients, transport and putting them to relevant institution – Dr. Stosic pointed out, who after completing the Nis Medical Faculty and the School of Reserve Officers was admitted to the medical service of our Armed Forces.
She sets off on a long journey with great support by her family and friends, and as she says, her colleagues cannot wait for her to come back and share her experience with them. Separation from her loved ones, she says honestly, will be easier to stand with the internet, and for the time being it is the secret to whose address the first postcard from Congo will arrive.
