The Mercy Corps women of Baghdad

Although I don’t have any statistics on this subject, I feel pretty confident that Mercy Corps is probably one of the only international organizations in Iraq whose Baghdad Office was primarily opened and established by women.

I am the last of the original Baghdad women, and I will be leaving Iraq this week. I wanted to thank my national colleagues for their trust and support over the last two years; and for their patience as we set up office systems and procedures along the way. I’d also like to thank them for helping us to create a warm and open office, with a lot of laughter and fun in spite of the incredibly challenging environment where we live and work.

Some of the women of Mercy Corps Baghdad: (from left) Liza Baran, Emily Gish, Ghelda Chrabieh and Jill Morehead. Photo: Sahar Alnouri/Mercy Corps

I’d especially like to take a moment to celebrate the amazing expatriate women I have worked with over the last two years, some of whom are still with Mercy Corps and many who have moved on to new challenges. Liza Baran, a Ukranian, was the first Mercy Corps woman based in Baghdad. She set up and managed Mercy Corps’ Governance Promotion through Conflict Management program during its first year. This program is continued by Alto Lubetubun and, through their combined efforts and their amazing staff, the program has successfully negotiated more than 90 conflicts in Iraq.

In March 2009, Liza was joined by Jill Morehead, an Iowan who almost single-handedly managed the relocation of our Baghdad office that July and who, through sheer spunk and determination, laid the foundation for our emergency programs in Baghdad governorate. Jill trained a talented team of Iraqi program staff (I called it "Jill’s Boot Camp") who after a year with her are true humanitarian professionals.

Emily Gish — from Lexington, Kentucky — moved to Baghdad from our Sulaimaniyah office in August of 2009 and took on the daunting position of Baghdad head of office and deputy country director. Among many other things, Emily was our fearless leader and the main person responsible for the safety and security of the entire office — not a small responsibility in Baghdad.

Ghelda Chrabieh, of Lebanon, was our regional finance manager — not even Iraq staff — but she spent so much time here with us in the early days helping to get our finance and compliance systems in place that we considered her part of our team. I’ve never met another person who slept so little and completed such volumes of work so quickly. Ghelda is a powerhouse and was a wonderful source of support and guidance while we were all figuring out our roles in the Baghdad office.

As for me, I am a New York native of American-Kuwaiti decent who moved from our Sulaimaniyah office to Baghdad in July 2009. I am Mercy Corps’ Iraq gender program manager and I’ve been the acting Baghdad emergency program manager for the last few months.

Some of the highlights of my time in Iraq have been meeting US Vice President Joe Biden, staying in Baghdad during the 2010 national elections and designing a process to help incorporate illiterate Iraqi women’s needs into community development processes. My biggest accomplishment by far was contributing to the development of the Mercy Corps Baghdad team.

Although I am very sad to leave our Baghdad office, I know that I am leaving behind passionate and dedicated Iraqi staff, as well as an outstanding team of expatriate men and women to continue managing our programs and empowering our staff and the Iraqi people.

To Liza, Jill, Emily and Ghelda — I would like to say thank you. You each taught me a great deal about strength, perseverance, patience and never giving up. I will carry these lessons with me for the rest of my life.