A portrait of an aid worker as a young man: Rebel Without Borders is released.

TORONTO. March 25, 2008.

Shipping this week to bookstores across North America is Rebel Without Borders: Frontline Missions in Africa and the Gulf, by Marc Vachon. The book is an eye-opening personal account of a front lines humanitarian aid worker and a compelling example of how helping others can lead to personal salvation.

As a logistician with Doctors Without Borders, author Marc Vachon has been on missions in the world’s most troubled areas: Iraq, Mozambique, Sudan, and Rwanda. Rebel Without Borders recounts the unique challenges and requirements of each region. For example, he describes the near super-human achievement of setting up a cholera camp for 800 sick refugees during the Rwandan genocide.

But Vachon’s story begins in another trouble time and place – his own youth in Montreal. He tells of a painful and lonely upbringing, after a succession of foster homes he turned to a life of drugs and crime. It was a chance encounter with Doctors Without Borders that provided Vachon with a window into a more compassionate world. Rebel Without Borders tells how the experience would change his life forever.

The book provides an unforgettable example of the healing power of humanitarian work. Vachon’s candid revelations demonstrate how and why aid workers are driven to help others, frequently at the risk of their own safety. It also reveals how power struggles within the humanitarian sector frustrate even the most dedicated and selfless individuals.

About the author: Marc Vachon is a humanitarian worker from Montreal, Canada, with 17 years experience in the field. He is now based in Paris and still works for the UN and NGOs as a consultant.

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