Facing humanitarian challenges in Iraq – Hameed Kareem

Meeting Sphere standards can at times be very challenging, says Hameed Kareem, but they are still relevant. Photo: © Bilal Jarekji / The Sphere Project

“At that time, all of us had to leave our homes, because we were afraid of the Iraqi army, when they came back to kill and torture us. It was a massive displacement that involved about three million Kurdish people,” Kareem recalls.

Upon returning home and as a young university graduate, he began his involvement in the humanitarian sector with CARE International. “It was really a very difficult period. Long working hours, big distances to travel. At that time, my family told me to quit. But I said ‘No, I like it.’ So I stayed and it’s been some 24 years now.”

Currently, Kareem is Country Director for International Relief and Development (IRD). His work puts him in contact with Syrian refugees, the communities hosting them and bearing the strain of sharing limited resources as well as local organisations responding to the needs of religious minorities.

Kareem is based in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, where an important part of IRD’s work consists in assisting people who were internally displaced when they fled from the Islamic State group.

“We have built a camp of 1,500 tents with all its infrastructure and are now expanding it to receive some 500 additional families,” says Kareem. The camp, known as Laylan, is located 20 kilometres southeast of Kirkuk city.

Kareem’s involvement with Sphere principles and standards dates back to the very first edition of the Sphere Handbook. “Since the first time I saw it in 1998, I was interested,” he says. And in what looks like a typical path for a Sphere practitioner, his initial commitment has continued throughout his professional life and across aid organisations.

He used the Handbook during his work with UNICEF in 2000-3; provided Sphere training to local NGOs while working for the International Rescue Committee in 2003; and trained government officials and international NGO staff as an IRD staffer after attending a training of trainers course in Tunisia in 2009.

“Sphere is a very good tool which helps you achieve a common understanding with beneficiaries, the government, other agencies and even among your own team. This is one way in which the minimum standards are helpful,” says Kareem.

Which explains why IRD is currently translating the Sphere Handbook into Kurdish, as part of its programmes in emergency response and capacity-building of community-based organisations. Kareem expects the Kurdish version of the Handbook to be ready in mid-2016.

However, he also acknowledges that “meeting Sphere standards can at times be very challenging.” For instance, when the Islamic State group attacked the Yazidi minority in August 2014, the influx of displaced people was overwhelming. “In a city like Dohuk, the ratio of displaced people to host community reached one to one.”

Under really dire conditions, Sphere standards could not be attained. “We had two, three families sharing one tent. We could distribute only bread and water to people who otherwise got only one meal a day. The government, the UN agencies, the international NGOs – everyone tried their best, but the need was simply too overwhelming to cope with,” recalls Kareem.

“Of course it’s a problem of insufficient funding. But it’s also about the situation being too tough,” Kareem explains. “So there were periods in which, in agreement with our donors, we focused on keeping people alive, on preventing them from dying from cold and hunger.”

For Kareem, this does not take one ounce of relevance away from Sphere. Because even in such situations, Sphere core values continue to guide humanitarian work: “We believe that when people are in need, it’s their right to be supported and it’s our mission to support them – and their dignity.”

[Hameed Kareem participated in the 3-4 May Sphere regional practitioners’ workshop in Amman.]

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