A FORMER Ilkley woman is to use her academic skills for a humanitarian cause when she helps the United Nations' work with refugees in West Africa.

Ruth Dixon, 23, will be under constant guard and will stay in accommodation with a barred panic room' when she begins her internship in the war-torn Cote d'Ivoire next month.

Miss Dixon recently completed a masters degree in the control of infectious diseases at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

A former Bradford Girls' Grammar School student, she described the work as her dream job, and hopes it will lead to a permanent humanitarian aid position working for the UN.

Warring factions in the African republic recently agreed a ceasefire, but there is still unrest, and a UN peacekeeping operation has been working there since 2004.

The conflict has displaced and made homeless many people, and Miss Dixon's work will be to help these refugees within their own country. She will be staying at the UN's base in Abidjan, the largest Ivorian city and former capital.

Her work will mainly focus on an HIV control programme and work to set up a campaign against gender related violence.

"Internally displaced persons are so vulnerable because they have little access to healthcare," she said. "They often don't come under standard government mandates so they're very isolated from society.

They're very transient, and don't have access to regular treatment, which is very important with HIV, as they need retrovirals every day."

She has long had an interest in working for a humanitarian cause, and fell in love with Africa after she first visited the continent while travelling during a gap year in her studies.

As part of the Masters Degree, Miss Dixon worked on a project in Kampala, Uganda, on urban health.

Among the most devastating diseases on the African continent are tuberculosis, HIV and malaria. Refugees forced to move around are most unlikely to have access to the regular medical care needed to manage and prevent the further spread of these diseases.

Infectious diseases such as meningitis and hepatitis are also a serious problem.

Miss Dixon says she was drawn to the study of infectious diseases as she was interested by the mix of medical science and social studies involved in trying to contain the diseases and prevent the spread of infection.

She said: "This is my dream job. They don't pay me, they pay my accommodation and such when I'm out there, but it's essentially voluntary. I pay all my own flights and insurance."

She is also confident in the UN's security arrangements for protecting its workers. "There's a huge amount of unrest. It's the third most dangerous place to go, but the UN have big security arrangements in place. I'll be in a guarded room with access to a panic room. We don't go anywhere unaccompanied."

Bradford rotarians have already given her hundreds of pounds to help fund the internship, but she is keen to hear from other organisations who would like to sponsor her. Groups who would like to sponsor her can e-mail her on (strooth_ruth@yahoo.co.uk).