This week one of my field days was to Qayyarah. Just a regular visit. As we approached the area, we found ourselves surrounded in all directions by military vehicles. There were vehicles full of soldiers, there were pick up trucks with rocket launchers fixed in the back, there were flat bed trucks stacked with boxes of ammunition, there were tanks, there were military humvees, there were trucks stacked with food supplies. We knew it would be like this, we were anticipating the launch of a new offensive against ISIS in an area called Hawiga. And it's not exactly the first time I've seen this kind to troop movement. But as I watched all the movements, all these different armed groups (it's not as simple as the Army, RAF and Navy - we have all different ethnic factions with their own groups of fighters, their own flags, their own unique goal in mind) it struck me again what a truly dirty war this is.
Earlier in the week I was in my office listening to some new security information that staff had learned and we were trying to decide whether to suspend movements in an area based on these rumours. I was told in some detail (before I had a chance to say I didn't want to hear the specifics) of the torture that had been carried out on a captured ISIS fighter in order to try and glean information about sleeper cells.
As I watched all these men heading off to new frontlines this week, and thought about the treatment of those captured; I just kept thinking 'all of these men are sons, fathers, brothers, friends'. They are all leaving someone behind praying for their safe return. That's the reality of what is happening here and it's heartbreaking. If you pray, please continue to pray for peace in this country.
Saturday, 23 September 2017
Tuesday, 12 September 2017
Mine Risk Education
I think I have mentioned on here before the issue of mines and explosives in this country. The years of different conflicts have left the land littered with unexploded bombs and mines. The latest conflict has seen a truly evil use of explosives hidden in children's toys, abandoned house, religious books etc; as well as the usual remnants of weapons that have failed to detonate. All of this puts populations at huge risk. I can't tell you how many stories we hear of children picking things up that then explode, or families returning to homes they have fled to find them booby trapped.
Part of my organisations work is highly specialised mine action work. This includes mine clearance, but in this post I want to tell you about Mine Risk Education (MRE). If you were returning home after fleeing during a conflict would you be able to spot potential dangers? Would your kiddies know how to stay safe? And how would you train them without scaring them?
This is where the incredible work of MRE comes in to play. We have teams that go in to pre-schools, schools, community centres, any where they can find groups of children or adults gathered regularly and teaches them about how to spot potential mines, how to report the sighting to the right agency, how to mark it so others are aware, and how to deal with an emergency. They do all this in fun, interactive ways that keep people's attention and helps them remember what they have learned.
Recently I went and watched an MRE session in a primary school and was astounded by the way the team made such important but difficult lessons accessible to kids. It reminded me of watching earthquake safety lessons in Haiti - children really are knowledge sponges. It's impossible to know what the true impact of this work is, but I really believe that it is a critical part of recovering from conflict.
P.S. Apologies for the awful quality photo - it's hard to get a photo of kids that doesn't show their faces when you're the foreigner in the room!
Part of my organisations work is highly specialised mine action work. This includes mine clearance, but in this post I want to tell you about Mine Risk Education (MRE). If you were returning home after fleeing during a conflict would you be able to spot potential dangers? Would your kiddies know how to stay safe? And how would you train them without scaring them?
This is where the incredible work of MRE comes in to play. We have teams that go in to pre-schools, schools, community centres, any where they can find groups of children or adults gathered regularly and teaches them about how to spot potential mines, how to report the sighting to the right agency, how to mark it so others are aware, and how to deal with an emergency. They do all this in fun, interactive ways that keep people's attention and helps them remember what they have learned.
Recently I went and watched an MRE session in a primary school and was astounded by the way the team made such important but difficult lessons accessible to kids. It reminded me of watching earthquake safety lessons in Haiti - children really are knowledge sponges. It's impossible to know what the true impact of this work is, but I really believe that it is a critical part of recovering from conflict.
P.S. Apologies for the awful quality photo - it's hard to get a photo of kids that doesn't show their faces when you're the foreigner in the room!
Tuesday, 15 August 2017
Water
Water - we all know it's the source of life. In Iraq, water is pretty scarce. You wouldn't know if from the amount of pavement watering that goes on in the summer months, but the reality is that in certain areas we suffer huge water shortages. Add to this the increased demand due to heat and the need for additional water for religious washing; and suddenly safe water provision is critical.
One of the areas that the Danish Refugee Council has developed expertise in within Iraq is water infrastructure. This means that our water and sanitation (WASH) teams not only work at providing latrines, showers, household water tanks, hygiene items and so on, as is standard in this kind of work; but we also take on large scale construction projects to develop the water infrastructure. The WASH team in my areas have been doing quite a bit of this recently. Last week, they triumphantly returned to the office from Western Mosul with a bottle of water from a pumping station which we have rehabilitated. It had just been turned on, and is now supplying about half of Western Mosul with water.
A few months ago, we took on a project to build from scratch a water pumping station and treatment unit on the banks of the Tigris to supply our camp with water, and the surrounding villages. This kind of work has the double whammy effect of assisting displaced people, but also helping the country as a whole to recover from years of conflict and damage. It helps to mitigate the tensions between those who are displaced and the communities they are taking refuge in; as all benefit, rather than just those who are displaced. We are currently operating this plant ourselves, but we are also training government workers who will take on management of the plant in a few months time. The team have put significant effort in to writing manuals in the local Arabic language, equipping the teams with the right kind of tools and doing hands on training so that when we leave the unit continues operating well.
A couple of weeks ago I took our Regional Director on a tour of our work, including the treatment plant. This was the first time I had seen it since it had been completed. I had hoped to visit earlier, but ISIS had made some territorial gains in the area meaning it was not safe for us to visit for a few weeks. We had to remotely manage our staff there, who incredibly were still working despite having to hide out in the office in the compound sometimes to avoid being caught up in cross-fire. Thankfully the area has been re-secured by Iraqi forces and so now we are able to visit, and our staff can travel freely between home and work again. Even more wonderfully, the local Sheikh was able to prevent any looting of the compound during the instability and so we had no repairs to do once we could access it again.
It really is quite an impressive piece of engineering. It pumps out 200,000 litres of treated water every hour, and runs for around 10 hours a day currently. The only way to describe it is to show you some photos.
One of the areas that the Danish Refugee Council has developed expertise in within Iraq is water infrastructure. This means that our water and sanitation (WASH) teams not only work at providing latrines, showers, household water tanks, hygiene items and so on, as is standard in this kind of work; but we also take on large scale construction projects to develop the water infrastructure. The WASH team in my areas have been doing quite a bit of this recently. Last week, they triumphantly returned to the office from Western Mosul with a bottle of water from a pumping station which we have rehabilitated. It had just been turned on, and is now supplying about half of Western Mosul with water.
A few months ago, we took on a project to build from scratch a water pumping station and treatment unit on the banks of the Tigris to supply our camp with water, and the surrounding villages. This kind of work has the double whammy effect of assisting displaced people, but also helping the country as a whole to recover from years of conflict and damage. It helps to mitigate the tensions between those who are displaced and the communities they are taking refuge in; as all benefit, rather than just those who are displaced. We are currently operating this plant ourselves, but we are also training government workers who will take on management of the plant in a few months time. The team have put significant effort in to writing manuals in the local Arabic language, equipping the teams with the right kind of tools and doing hands on training so that when we leave the unit continues operating well.
A couple of weeks ago I took our Regional Director on a tour of our work, including the treatment plant. This was the first time I had seen it since it had been completed. I had hoped to visit earlier, but ISIS had made some territorial gains in the area meaning it was not safe for us to visit for a few weeks. We had to remotely manage our staff there, who incredibly were still working despite having to hide out in the office in the compound sometimes to avoid being caught up in cross-fire. Thankfully the area has been re-secured by Iraqi forces and so now we are able to visit, and our staff can travel freely between home and work again. Even more wonderfully, the local Sheikh was able to prevent any looting of the compound during the instability and so we had no repairs to do once we could access it again.
It really is quite an impressive piece of engineering. It pumps out 200,000 litres of treated water every hour, and runs for around 10 hours a day currently. The only way to describe it is to show you some photos.
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| The intake unit on the Tigris - draws the raw river water in to the water treatment unit. To the left of the foreground is the old intake unit for the previous water treatment plant which was destroyed by ISIS as you can see. |
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| Overview of the water treatment unit showing multiple pipelines. |
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| Looking down in to some of the holding tanks. |
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| Chlorination system in the white tank, large blue tanks in the background are the holding tanks. |
Wednesday, 2 August 2017
Making a house a home
For most people fleeing their homes one of the most urgent needs is shelter. If you arrive at a camp this is for the most part sorted for you (albeit not particularly adequately a lot of the time). However, many displaced people do not live in camps. This happens for many reasons: they might not be able to physically reach a camp because it's too far, they might not be allowed to enter certain areas due to ethnic tensions, they might prefer to try and find somewhere to live out of the camp context to try and maintain some normalcy to their lives.
One of the projects in my area therefore is working with families who are displaced but not living in camps, to try and improve their shelter conditions. In Iraq, due to the pre-crisis context, there are huge numbers of unfinished construction works. Most people here build their own home at some point, and many people were doing just this when the latest crisis struck. At this point construction generally halted - either the families themselves moved away, often overseas; or there was simply suddenly no money to continue. Villages, towns and cities are therefore full of displaced people squatting in unfinished buildings. These are buildings which are at different stages of completion, but typically will be missing windows and doors, will be made simply of breeze-blocks that would have been concreted over later, are not connected to power or water, have no kitchens or bathrooms and may be missing internal walls among other issues. Often several families will be living in a single building together, and will pool resources to try and make things vaguely habitable. They may have received NFI (non-food item) kits of mattresses, blankets, kitchen utensils etc that they can use in the house. Different charities have provided different things like putting in pit latrines outside so that people at least have a private toilet, or providing tarpaulins to cover windows and doors to try to weather-proof the building a little.
DRC (my charity) has been working on some slightly more substantial upgrades to houses in certain areas. As always, there's never enough to go around, and so the selection criteria that were agreed with the donor for the project are pretty strict. We are focusing on over-crowded buildings which can reach a certain level of upgrade at a cost of up to $2,000 per building. Selecting contractors to carry out the work turned in to an enormous saga (possibly the understatement of the year), and so last week I was thrilled to go and see the work in action which I have been discussing and planning with the team for so long.
We are working primarily on putting in proper windows and doors, connecting houses to electricity and water, putting in very basic kitchens and bathrooms, installing stair rails and ceiling fans. The difference that it makes for such a relatively small amount of money is phenomenal. Families say it quite literally transforms their lives as they feel safer, gain personal space, and are able to cope with the extremes of weather better. I particularly loved seeing some little touches that families were able to make that were turning their houses in to homes - hanging empty food tins with plants in them, pinning up a mirror or some plastic flowers. People have almost zero belongings and yet were still able to take pride in their homes, and to add personal touches here and there.
Here are a few photos to give you an idea of the context.....
One of the projects in my area therefore is working with families who are displaced but not living in camps, to try and improve their shelter conditions. In Iraq, due to the pre-crisis context, there are huge numbers of unfinished construction works. Most people here build their own home at some point, and many people were doing just this when the latest crisis struck. At this point construction generally halted - either the families themselves moved away, often overseas; or there was simply suddenly no money to continue. Villages, towns and cities are therefore full of displaced people squatting in unfinished buildings. These are buildings which are at different stages of completion, but typically will be missing windows and doors, will be made simply of breeze-blocks that would have been concreted over later, are not connected to power or water, have no kitchens or bathrooms and may be missing internal walls among other issues. Often several families will be living in a single building together, and will pool resources to try and make things vaguely habitable. They may have received NFI (non-food item) kits of mattresses, blankets, kitchen utensils etc that they can use in the house. Different charities have provided different things like putting in pit latrines outside so that people at least have a private toilet, or providing tarpaulins to cover windows and doors to try to weather-proof the building a little.
DRC (my charity) has been working on some slightly more substantial upgrades to houses in certain areas. As always, there's never enough to go around, and so the selection criteria that were agreed with the donor for the project are pretty strict. We are focusing on over-crowded buildings which can reach a certain level of upgrade at a cost of up to $2,000 per building. Selecting contractors to carry out the work turned in to an enormous saga (possibly the understatement of the year), and so last week I was thrilled to go and see the work in action which I have been discussing and planning with the team for so long.
We are working primarily on putting in proper windows and doors, connecting houses to electricity and water, putting in very basic kitchens and bathrooms, installing stair rails and ceiling fans. The difference that it makes for such a relatively small amount of money is phenomenal. Families say it quite literally transforms their lives as they feel safer, gain personal space, and are able to cope with the extremes of weather better. I particularly loved seeing some little touches that families were able to make that were turning their houses in to homes - hanging empty food tins with plants in them, pinning up a mirror or some plastic flowers. People have almost zero belongings and yet were still able to take pride in their homes, and to add personal touches here and there.
Here are a few photos to give you an idea of the context.....
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| Iraq Landscape |
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| Digging cess pits |
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| New kitchen |
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| Kitchen Cabinets |
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| I loved these hanging tins of plants on the outside wall of one house |
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| New shower |
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| Adding railings to stairs and landing |
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| New safety railings |
Sunday, 16 July 2017
Always say yes to chai
I know I've spoken about this before, but one of the things that always amazes me is the generosity of people here. It brings in to stark contrast the consumerist and individualist culture we have in the west.
Last week I visited the camp for some general monitoring. I was with some of the team in an area of the camp looking at a small piece of unused land, discussing how we could use it best to provide some shops for this far end of the camp. As usual a little crowd of adults gathered a short distance from us, and kids swarmed around us. A blonde-haired female boss is always a sight to behold in these parts. As we went to return to our car (the camp is so big we have to drive around it), one of the ladies who had been watching us invited us to her tent for chai. It was one of those moments where you have a difficult choice to make. I was on a schedule, as were the staff with me. It was 45 degrees outside. Chai didn't really fit with our plans. But one thing I have learned here is that drinking chai with people is usually a good decision. So I said yes (with a caveat of 'a 5 minute chai please').
There was immediately a flurry of activity as thin mattresses were put down on the tent floor for us to sit on. We went in to the tent, and sat down on the concrete. Many people joined us, and the children flocked around each end of the tent blocking all air flow. The temperature got higher and higher. Water was passed around while the tea was made. Sugar was spooned in to the little glasses, and the tea poured on top. We talked about schooling, how to cope in these circumstances in the heat, how to manage cooking for a family in this weather. We took selfies on each others' phones and laughed at the results.
As I sat in that little tent, with a family who's entire possessions fit in a little corner of the space; I was struck again by their generosity. A mother who struggled to feed her children, used precious sugar and tea to make me a glass of chai. A family who had been displaced from their home spent time welcoming me in to their new house. And as I received their generosity, in a back to front way, I brought them joy.
Being generous looks different to all of us, depending on our circumstances, and on the circumstances of those we are showing generosity to. It can be as simple as giving your time and friendship to those who are lonely. It can be sharing something precious to you with another. It can be financial gifts. I am learning that choosing to be generous brings me joy, even if it seems sacrificial on paper. And accepting other's generosity towards me brings them joy. Basically always say yes to those chai moments, however they present themselves.
Last week I visited the camp for some general monitoring. I was with some of the team in an area of the camp looking at a small piece of unused land, discussing how we could use it best to provide some shops for this far end of the camp. As usual a little crowd of adults gathered a short distance from us, and kids swarmed around us. A blonde-haired female boss is always a sight to behold in these parts. As we went to return to our car (the camp is so big we have to drive around it), one of the ladies who had been watching us invited us to her tent for chai. It was one of those moments where you have a difficult choice to make. I was on a schedule, as were the staff with me. It was 45 degrees outside. Chai didn't really fit with our plans. But one thing I have learned here is that drinking chai with people is usually a good decision. So I said yes (with a caveat of 'a 5 minute chai please').
There was immediately a flurry of activity as thin mattresses were put down on the tent floor for us to sit on. We went in to the tent, and sat down on the concrete. Many people joined us, and the children flocked around each end of the tent blocking all air flow. The temperature got higher and higher. Water was passed around while the tea was made. Sugar was spooned in to the little glasses, and the tea poured on top. We talked about schooling, how to cope in these circumstances in the heat, how to manage cooking for a family in this weather. We took selfies on each others' phones and laughed at the results.
As I sat in that little tent, with a family who's entire possessions fit in a little corner of the space; I was struck again by their generosity. A mother who struggled to feed her children, used precious sugar and tea to make me a glass of chai. A family who had been displaced from their home spent time welcoming me in to their new house. And as I received their generosity, in a back to front way, I brought them joy.
Being generous looks different to all of us, depending on our circumstances, and on the circumstances of those we are showing generosity to. It can be as simple as giving your time and friendship to those who are lonely. It can be sharing something precious to you with another. It can be financial gifts. I am learning that choosing to be generous brings me joy, even if it seems sacrificial on paper. And accepting other's generosity towards me brings them joy. Basically always say yes to those chai moments, however they present themselves.
Monday, 10 July 2017
Choose not to forget
This week, the Iraqi Prime Minister declared the battle for Mosul over. He traveled to the city to congratulate the military forces on their successful fight to re-capture the city from ISIS. This news then popped up on my facebook feed from multiple friends in the West sharing various reports. Interestingly, none of my local friends shared the story on social media. We didn't even really discuss it in the office. For those of us so close to the fight, still caught up in responding to the effects of war, still seeing multiple reports every day of attacks inside Mosul, still choosing to head in to areas full of destruction in order to provide what services we can; it is too early to celebrate. We know that this is not the end. We know that re-building Mosul is going to take years. We know that there are further battles for land across Iraq to be fought - Tel Afar, Anbar, Hawiga. All places you are probably not even hearing about. We have already seen in the last two weeks a massive up-surge in the number of suicide attacks carried out by ISIS in Iraq. This will be the tactic they use now. 10 days ago a suicide bomber disguised as a female IDP blew himself up inside a camp. Late last week ISIS launched an attack on a village 2km south of our camp, they took everyone by surprise, forcibly abducting residents, bringing them back behind frontlines, and then sending them back to their village with explosives strapped to them. The locals couldn't repel them and now ISIS have controlled that village for several days. I have no doubt that in a few days the Iraqi Army will have pushed them back again, but it's a stark reminder of the resources ISIS still have. These are just two incidents out of tens of incidents we have heard about in the last 2 weeks.
So please do celebrate the re-capture of Mosul. It is truly good news for those who were living under ISIS control against their will. But please don't forget to pray for the re-building of that city and this country. Don't forget those who continue to live under ISIS control in other parts of Iraq. Remember families who have been torn apart by this war. Choose not to forget even if the news coverage moves on.
So please do celebrate the re-capture of Mosul. It is truly good news for those who were living under ISIS control against their will. But please don't forget to pray for the re-building of that city and this country. Don't forget those who continue to live under ISIS control in other parts of Iraq. Remember families who have been torn apart by this war. Choose not to forget even if the news coverage moves on.
Monday, 19 June 2017
Home
A much lighter blog today as I'm in England for my R&R. Beyond getting to see wonderful family and friends, here are some of the things I love about coming home:
- Flushing toilet paper down the loo rather than putting it in a bin.
- Not having to deal with a bin of dirty toilet paper.
- Green. You have no idea just how green England is compared to much of the world.
- Wall to wall carpet.
- Having a bath.
- The total lack of guns.
- Not seeing military personnel all over the place.
- All sorts of food - pork, prawns, fresh fish.
- Late sunsets.
- Being allowed to go where-ever I want when-ever I want.
- Not automatically doing currency conversions in my head every time I'm in a shop.
- The beach.
- Flowers.
- Weather - all the seasons in one day.
- Drivers who use indicators and generally follow road markings.
- Using credit cards anywhere rather than having to remember cash.
- No check points.
- How quickly traffic lights change.
- People saying things like 'I'll just have a quick wee love'.
- BBC iplayer.
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