The fight for Mosul: Edmonton woman gears up for refugee crisis
'All I knew about Afghanistan and Iraq was what I saw on the news. Which is war'
As thousands of people flee from embattled Mosul, an Edmonton woman will be waiting to help on the outskirts of the conflict zone.
With the military campaign underway to retake the Iraqi city from ISIS, Sue O'Connor is waiting for word so she can travel into the epicentre of the humanitarian crisis.
The offensive is expected to displace 200,000 people.
O'Connor lives in northern Iraq, where she works as a communications officer for humanitarian-aid organization MedAir, an agency that is establishing mobile health clinics and shelter distribution centres in a sweeping perimeter around the city.
'I just find that strength so amazing'
As the organization prepares to mobilize, O'Connor said she is not afraid.
She finds strength, she said, in colleagues who have family members still trapped inside the city, especially one young man who escaped, while his mother, father and sisters decided to stay behind.
"His family decided to send him out of the city, because it was more risky for him, as a healthy young man, and possibly being forced to fight.
"He said he can't be angry and he can't be worried, because then he would always be angry and worried and it would control him. And so he has to move on, and just hope every day that his family will be OK. And I just find that strength so amazing."
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During her five months in the Middle East, O'Connor has had a quick education in the tragedy wrought by the ongoing conflict.
"I was just like everyone else," she said. "All I knew about Afghanistan and Iraq was what I saw on the news. Which is war.
"You hear about the conflict and different cultures and how they clash. But I got to meet the people, and be in their homes, be offered tea and hospitality and learn that they have the same dreams for their families that we do."
'People who have so little still reaching out to share'
She said her time in the Sharya refugee camp in northern Iraq was especially surreal.
There, some families she visited had been trapped at the encampment for more than two years. Even out in the baking sun, in crowded conditions, she said people lived "with such dignity."
Even as their children were being treated for malnutrition, the refugees were welcoming and generous, O'Connor said.
"Every tent was swept and clean and we were offered tea and cake, even asked to join for lunch. People who have so little (were) still reaching out to share.
O'Connor began her aid work a few years ago, when she left behind her peaceful life in Edmonton and headed to Africa to do missionary work at an orphanage in Swaziland.
"I found that I grew so much and learned so much that I wanted to continue doing overseas work. It presented itself to me more than me seeking it out," O'Connor said.
She found a new passion for helping others, and eventually moved to Afghanistan with MedAir.
"Afghanistan was a completely different context. There was a lot of security, we lived on lockdown, we had safe rooms in our house. But also the impact of the projects went a lot deeper."
'That's really been a gift to me'
During her deployment near Mosul, O'Connor will be interviewing people about their experiences. She hopes the stories she tells will put faces to the overwhelming statistics of the coming refugee crisis.
"I love to tell stories, and so being here and experiencing this, I can share what I've experienced, and say, 'This is what I've seen for myself — a loving culture, a peaceful culture, a group of people that really help each other and open their homes and their hearts, even to foreigners, because they know we're here to help.'
"I really know now for sure that I can't judge any situation from the outside, that without experiencing it I really don't know anything about how another culture lives or feels.
"That's really been a gift to me."
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