Arriving in the Middle East soon after war erupted in Iraq, World Vision communications officer Andrea Swinburne-Jones came face-to-face with the reality of war’s aftermath. Following is an email she sent describing the early days of her experience...

I arrived in Amman, Jordan on 31 March. I was originally seconded from World Vision Australia to the World Vision Iraq Emergency Response Program for two months, however that was extended for eight weeks. I have worked in a Muslim context before (when I gathered stories and photographs for World Vision in Somalia in January 2002), however this is my first short-term contract in the Middle East.

I have always been concerned about injustice and inequality in the world, so it was a natural progression to work for a humanitarian relief and development organisation.

My role in Australia is communications officer in World Vision, based in the Emergency Relief Project Team. Our team is on call to travel anywhere in the world to assist with World Vision's response to disaster situations, such as floods, earthquakes and other situations which lead to refugees and internally displaced persons, so where we go is not a matter of choice - the situation chooses us!

Here in Amman I am also the communications officer - my main role is to gather and then disseminate information to the World Vision partnership - this means all the offices around the world in places such as the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, Korea, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Ireland. Three times weekly I write a situation report updating all our staff on the progress of assessments, potential funding avenues, our projects in Iraq, security reports, and also provide 'human interest' stories for our media and marketing teams.

I also provide support to the two communications managers (at the time of writing they were in Iraq), arranging media interviews around the world. I am based in Amman, but travel into 'the field' (as we say in this industry) as needed.

The World Vision team is made up of people from around the partnership. We currently have people from countries including the Philippines, Canada, England, Portugal, India and the United States. Two other Australians have joined the team. In a relief setting, people are generally on a three months contract.
World Vision staff have only just accessed Iraq in the past two weeks due to a highly insecure environment. This has been extremely frustrating for our team! Of course, we are wanting to get into Iraq and complete assessments of needs so we can begin assisting people.

Information is currently gathered by our program officers doing assessments of the need in Iraq and our communications staff in the field (two at the moment based in Arbil, northern Iraq. These communicators are travelling during the day into the nearby town of Mosul. The security situation is still insecure, hence daylight stay in Mosul and return to Arbil before nightfall).

Security is obviously a huge concern for World Vision. Our staff are constantly updated on the situation. Information comes from the Humanitarian Assistance Co-ordination Center (HACC) which is a information co-ordinating body founded to help non-government organisations in these types of relief settings.

I travelled to Al Rutba, western Iraq last week (Sunday 4 & Monday 5 May). Travel from Amman, Jordan to Al Rutba, Iraq by car took about seven hours. It was five-and-a half hours to the border, which was manned by US forces. A former painting of Saddam Hussein and a sculpture (Saddam astride a horse) at the border crossing were damaged. The words 'Welcome to Iraq' were graffitied in Arabic across the former leader's painting.

It was an eerie feeling finally crossing into Iraq. I didn't quite know what to expect. We have heard stories of NGO convoys travelling from Amman to Baghdad being shot at and being ambushed and all their equipment stolen. One group was even driven into the middle of the desert and left Fortunately they were not killed. Twenty, thirty, forty years ago, journalists and aid workers were left to do their work. Not anymore! This work is becoming more dangerous, with NGOs and the media caught up in insecure situations. Thank God, our staff have been protected so far in this emergency response.
Al Rutba is a small town of 25,000 people, with one hospital serving the area. Unfortunately, the Al Rutba Hospital was destroyed during the early weeks of conflict World Vision is rehabilitating the temporary hospital site.

As we were visiting the former hospital, the temporary hospital site and the streets of the town we had to be extremely careful where we were walking. Thank goodness I have completed security training courses (this covered landmines awareness training) with World Vision - made me feel less nervous!