* Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
This week, emergency relief organisation Medair is distributing essential health and hygiene items to more than 7,000 people in Wana, northern Iraq.
More than 1,400 families have returned to Wana since it was liberated from militants in February, and people are in urgent need of health and hygiene support. Many arrived home to find their houses pillaged or destroyed, electricity access severed, and livelihoods wrecked. Medicines and equipment had also been looted and tampered with in the town’s health clinic.
Medair will distribute hygiene kits, including soap, shampoo, and feminine products, as well as run a health screening programme to address the outbreak of scabies in the town. Medair is also supporting the understaffed and under-resourced local clinic by providing health services, seeing approximately 90 patients a day from Wana and the surrounding villages.
“Wana is a tough place to live. Families are returning to looted homes in the best of cases, and homes that are completely destroyed in the worst,” said Chappy Rago, Medair’s Shelter Manager. “On top of this, humanitarian relief can be held back by the risks of going to areas so close to the front lines, which shift with the constantly fluctuating boundaries of the conflict. These are places that are hard to reach with lots of people in need.”
In August 2014, militants swept through Wana, forcing thousands to flee for safety, some of them becoming trapped in nearby Mosul. Now that Wana has been reclaimed, cleared of explosives, and the front lines are holding, families are beginning to return.
A local farmer told Medair he had escaped Mosul and recently returned to Wana after hearing it had been liberated.
“Mosul was occupied by ISIS when we fled Wana last year, but the whole area around us was closed off by fighting, so Mosul was the only place we could get to,” he said. “It felt like we were suffocating there. When we learned that our area had been liberated, we started making plans to come back. When I first returned to Wana, I saw that some of the houses had been blown up. There was death everywhere. Now it’s starting to feel more secure here ̶ liberated.”
Since the surge in violence between armed groups and government forces started, more than 2.7 million people have been displaced across Iraq and millions of people are in need of assistance.
Medair helps people who are suffering in remote and devastated communities around the world survive crises, recover with dignity, and develop skills to build a better future. For more information about what Medair is doing in Iraq, please click here.
For media
Interviews, photos, and stories are available upon request.
For enquiries and interviews from Iraq, please contact: Bethany Williams, Communications Officer (English), comms-irq@medair.org +964 (0) 750 311 7326
For more information, please contact Abigail Woodcock, Press Relations Officer (English) abigail.woodcock@medair.org+41 (0)21 694 84 72 or +41 (0)78 635 30 95
Note to media
Iraqi and Kurdish military, with international support, have been making advances against armed militants and have taken back several key areas. People are returning to these areas, and there will be need for support as they rebuild their homes and local economies. The population still remains fluid. Though some have been able to return, others may become newly displaced due to ongoing clashes between Iraqi forces and militants. Medair continues to assess where the need is greatest.
Medair’s Iraq Programme is supported by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development in partnership with World Renew, the World Health Organization,the US Agency for International Aid, Medicor Foundation (LI), Dorcas Aid International (NL), Transform Aid International (AU), and private donors.
This press release was produced with resources gathered by Medair field and headquarters staff. The views expressed herein are those solely of Medair and should not be taken, in any way, to reflect the official opinion of any other organisation.
