Mission to Iraq

Between 4 and 14 June, a team from HAMAP-Humanitaire's head office travelled to Iraq for a mission under the project “Contributing to a safer Sinjar through clearance and explosive ordnance risk education, by building the capacity of the local NGO SHO”.

This was our new managing director's first visit to Iraq, and so an opportunity for a first meeting with our local partner, Shareteah Humanitarian Organization (SHO).

With HAMAP-Humanitaire's support, SHO is today a solid and recognised organisation with more than 100 employees. They carry out the project with the support of HAMAP-Humanitaire's clearance experts.

Of the 10 days of the mission, 3 were devoted to visiting activities in the district of Sinjar. Clearance work on the last minefield treated had just finished, but the team was able to visit the site, still set up, and hear SHO's operations manager explain how the teams are organised, the safety arrangements and the types of explosive ordnance found. Several weeks of training were also organised for two clearance teams, along with a train-the-trainer course for their managers so that in future they can set up new teams themselves. This activity is part of the plan to build our local partner's technical capacity, which began in August 2022. The head office team also observed explosive ordnance risk education sessions delivered to children through a puppet show. Finally, a meeting was held with the Mukhtar and the imam of the village of Al-Mawalih, where the teams cleared land under the previous project, to discuss reusing the land after clearance and the village's other needs.

The remaining days were devoted to meetings with key mine action actors among the local and French authorities, in order to continue the work in the best possible conditions and to discuss the future of mine action and international aid in Iraq.

Finally, an event bringing together the HAMAP and SHO teams was organised under the project, near Dohuk. This team-building day was an opportunity for all the staff to share a friendly moment outside the framework of the project.