F*$k!!!

So, I am well aware that even the title of this post will offend some of you. I hope you keep reading as there's a reason for it.....

A couple of weeks ago, my non-boss boss as he's affectionately know to friends and family (i.e. not officially my boss, but in reality manages me day to day); asked me to go with him to one of the new areas my team are working in. He hadn't been through for a while and just wanted to have a look around, gauge progress etc.

So one Friday morning, off we set. This area is called Qayyarah and is a fairly recently re-captured area. It takes between 2 and 2 and a half hours to get there depending on traffic and check point queues. You have to have prior access permissions in place and security is tight, for a mixture of reasons. There are oil wells burning in the area from the retreat of ISIS, and so the air is full of smog, all the sheep are black. The destruction in the town and surrounding areas is phenomenal. The old stadium which ISIS had used as a public execution ground has been demolished and is just rubble that has become a children's play area. Our warehouse had 'property of ISIS' spray painted on the outside wall (needless to say, we covered that up pretty quickly). Everywhere you look is a reminder of what has happened in this place. And then the camps. There are now 7 camps in the immediate area to house people who have fled ISIS. My organisation manages 1 that currently houses over 20,000 people. It's still under construction and when finished will house 60,000 people. The other camps combined hold about another 20,000 people. These camps stretch as far as the eye can see. Tents are placed incredibly close together to fit everyone in. Each tent is the size we might call 6 man. It's a single room with a concrete floor. The ceiling is curved and at it's highest point I can just about stand upright. Each set of 20 tents share two latrines, two showers, and a set of taps for drinking water. Water is delivered daily to large storage tanks as at the moment there is no central water provision or pipeline. On an average week we deliver over 2 million litres of water to try and ensure that every resident has access to 20 litres per day for all their needs. On arrival each family receives a kit of non-food items (thin mattresses, blankets, kitchen kit, hygiene items etc) and a small food parcel. Different agencies work in the camp providing very basic services. There is a temporary, emergency school being set up, a mobile clinic, some business regeneration (there's already a fairly thriving small economy in the camp), psycho-social services, child-friendly spaces, food distributions.

One of the mobile clinics serving the camp

We visited the camp first to see how things had progressed in the last couple of weeks. We saw the expansion currently being built, answered multiple queries about assistance available, spent time with our new team providing advice and guidance. Then we went in to the town to look at possible houses to rent so that our staff can start to spend the night in the area to cut down on travel time and position us for more work in the wider area. We discussed the security of the area, the upgrades we'd need to do if we decided to rent one of these properties in order to make it safe enough to leave expat staff in overnight, we talked about whether to take this step in this particular town, and what other options we could consider to keep our staff as secure as possible.

Empty Tent, Qayyarah Camp

 

Destroyed house, Qayyarah

Throughout the whole day, my non-boss boss would periodically exclaim 'f*$k!!!!!'. This is a man who has worked all over the world doing this. He has seen a lot in his time. And yet, he was still reacting. Everywhere we looked people were living lives they shouldn't be, trying to pick up the pieces from situations they never should have endured. This kind of evil leaves it's mark for a long time. It's tangible even after it's gone. He wasn't cursing offensively at someone, it was his way to express everything that there are no words for.

I thought about it for days after. How we should never lose that reaction. How ever it comes out of us, we should never be faced with suffering and be unresponsive. It's much easier, much more comfortable to pretend these things are not happening around us. It's hard to face them head on. But however you respond, whether that's with your time, your money, your faith; it's vital that there is a response. That we don't simply close our eyes. 'All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.'