Volunteers Needed in Iraq

Alekz Londos

My name is Alekz Londos, an independent photojournalist. I have been witness to the unimaginable widespread destruction of catastrophic super-storms, man-made and natural disasters. After seeing so much destruction, death, mass suffering and failed international humanitarian responses, I was driven to make a difference and became involved in emergency services. I focus on projects that will benefit humanity, our environment or inspire compassion towards a tragic event.

I have self-deployed to snowstorms, wildfires, floods, car accidents, one commuter train crash and went tornado chasing in Oklahoma. I have been through three hurricanes as well as volunteered during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. I was in Ghana during the Ebola Outbreak and in Nepal during the 2015 earthquake aftermath.

I recently traveled to Erbil in the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq to help Syrian, Kurdish and Iraqi refugees. I went as a humanitarian though now trying to raise awareness of the crisis and encourage outside involvement. I collaborated with the Kurdish Government, Peshmerga Military, refugee camps and Habib Al Malih Medical Center. I brought International Survival Kits [ISK], food, medicine, medical and military equipment. Most of this was donated to the (under-equipped) Peshmerga Soldiers fighting ISIS on the front lines and courageously protecting humanity.

The Habib Al Malih Medical Center opened in August of 2014 to assist families fleeing ISIS from the Nineveh plains and Mosul located 40 miles West of Erbil. They treat an average of 150 patients each day and were out of most medical equipment and medications. They did not have facemasks, diabetes test strips or a single blood pressure cuff in the clinic. The residents of Christian Iraqi Refugee Camp a mile away also receive health care from this clinic. The doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and staff sat down and wrote a detailed list of their needs. I then purchased what was needed from several stores in Erbil.

While in Erbil I acquired access to Qushtapa Syrian Refugee Camp from the Ministry of Defense. The high security surrounding the camps protects refugees from terrorism. I was authorized to deliver supplies, interview the lead social worker and take pictures for my projects. This camp is 10 miles South of Erbil and houses 6,100 people. Most of them continue to struggle for consistent income and prosper like they had before ISIS. Some residents constructed stores in the camp to generate income and independence. There were 400 new families that the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) cannot feed because of limited funding.

I met Mustafa on my fourth week, a 19-year-old Kurdish Peshmerga soldier and refugee from Mosul. The day ISIS entered Mosul in June of 2014, his father told him to leave the city. He fled to Erbil while his family stayed behind. Mosul was taken over by ISIS that day and has been under their control ever since. Mustafa lost contact with his family two months ago when ISIS removed everyone’s ability to communicate. ISIS shut down the Internet, confiscated cell phones, radios and satellite boxes to avoid informing people of the impending liberation of Mosul. Mustafa lived in the house right next to Saddam Hussein’s old mansion.

When the US invaded Iraq and threw Saddam out of power they built a military base on the property. Mustafa became friends with the US soldiers and occasionally played football with them. He said the US withdrew the remaining troops in 2012. They left their military equipment because of the high cost to ship the equipment back to the US. The US Army never activated the kill switches so ISIS took the abandoned military equipment, vehicles and arsenal. Fortunately, the larger anti-aircraft missiles internal batteries would have died and no longer functions.

Mustafa has grown up surrounded by war and now separated from his family. He tells me there is no future in Iraq and asks how to obtain US asylum to create a new life. Over 251,000 people have died since the 2003 invasion, according to the “Iraq Body Count Project.” It’s upsetting that because the US invasion of this region it now lies in ruin.

We must transition towards a caring society and improve international relations or unstable regions will become more hostile and dangerously unpredictable.

I established the internal connections for international aid organizations and those working in emergency services. Please contact me if you are a doctor, nurse, paramedic, philanthropist, journalist or aid worker and would like more information about volunteering in Iraq.

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Alekz Londos CEO of Advanced Disaster Relief http://www.advanceddisasterrelief.com

 

Photos:

 

Alekz Londos (center) with Peshmerga Military