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Australian Graham Baker is an engineer. He spent six months on assignment as a logistician with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), in Kurdish autonomous Region of Iraq, supporting Iraqi displaced people and Syrian refugees. As the attack on Mosul continues, Graham tells the story of six months with the people of this region.
“In Ninewa, my assistant had his house ransacked and destroyed by ISIS. He lost all his possessions, but now he is in the process of rebuilding it,” Graham said. “His family has lived there for generations and chose not to leave. Although he worked in the USA, he decided to come back to his community. For me, that was a picture of the great resilience of this people”.
The Australian engineer spent the first three months in Dohuk, in the north of the Kurdistan region near the refugee camp of Domiz and the last three months in Ninewa province where he was supporting the mobile clinic and the rehabilitation of the maternity clinic at Tal Marak.
”In Dohuk I was supporting the maintenance of the maternity clinic of the refugee camp and looking after the MSF facilities office, guest houses and central warehouse,” Graham said. “In the warehouse, we had the Field Surgical Unit (FSU), which has now been deployed near Mosul as an emergency preparedness unit for the victims of the on-going battle in the city”, he said. The FSU is a small but complete emergency hospital set up as a combination of tents. It includes a triage area, emergency room, operating theatre and post-operating room. It also has sterilisation facilities, a laboratory, a power generator and a water supply.
“In the Ninewa province, I was based in Zummar. Our programs included a mobile clinic that was going to three villages. Sometimes we had to change the villages we visited depending on the security context,” Graham said. “The second part of my assignment was the rehabilitation of the Tal Maraq maternity clinic. And the first baby was born on the day when I left the country in the last week of October. I was happy that the work has been completed and our medical team can take over to deliver health care”
Security was a major issue
Security was a major issue in Ninewa as the region has been controlled by the so-called Islamic State and taken over recently by the Peshmerga, the Kurdish armed forces. It is still a highly militarised area and going from one point to another can take some time as there are security checkpoints to control movements. “Fortunately, the roads were reasonably well constructed, but sometimes we had grooves right across the road and we had to stop altogether, go through this bump and start off again,” Graham said.
“Most of the work I did was management”
”I’m an engineer but I hardly used my technical skills,” Graham said. “I was managing drivers and daily workers, who were doing refurbishment work. There was financial and expenditure control to make sure we respected our budget. I relied strongly on my assistants. They had good English, good trade skills and good contact with the communities. That was precious.
I enjoyed being in a different environment, meeting with people who have been forced from their home, who are displaced or refugees, to see how they live and how they perceive their future,” he said.
Many Syrian refugees in Domiz camp are looking to go to Europe to seek asylum, but not all.
“I met some people who would rather stay in Domiz until they can return to Syria safely. All in all, my mission was an amazing experience and I’d be happy to go back in the field with MSF, in Iraq or another country,” He said.
