No: 5 E- Newsletter June-July 2010 Foreword Foreword IKMAA conducts a summer school project Siraj Barzani * n the Kurdistan region of Iraq, I human resource management in Mine Action faces difficult challenges in keeping qualified staff from moving to rising local and in- ternational industries offering lucra- tive payments. During June and July, Kurdistan Regional Government’s Mine Action Agency proceeded with a sizeable hiring process to make up for loss of staff due to normal attri- tion. Around one hundred positions ranging from deminers, surveyors, MRE team members and storekeep- ers to finance and administration staff were up for grabs at IKMAA. One interesting lesson learned from Ako Aziz Hamad* this round of hiring was that it was rather the non-qualified positions W ith the financial support of UNICEF lets and a CD, which contains a package of such as basic deminers which were the Mine Risk Education directorate MRE lessons, photos of common mines & of Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agen- UXOs, official & local mine warning signs fairly more difficult to fill in rath- cy started implementing a summer school and MRE instructions. Moreover, the CD er than the qualified ones. In our project in two highly mine affected villages: includes the demonstration of some typical Rawanduz location for instance, a Shewarash in Choman district in Erbil gover- MRE education cases: if you see a mine/ number of deminer positions avail- norate and Barchi in Amedi district in Duhok UXO what is best to do? If you enter a mine- able were left vacant due to insuf- governorate. field, what is best to do? If you see some one ficient number of applicants on the The project started on 15th of July and will who plays with a mine or UXO what you one hand and age, health and other take 22 days. 260 children from four villages have to do? These demonstrations will help physical conditions which led to a (Shewarash, Saidawa, Haji Omaran and Bar- the children behave safely and protect them- number of applications being turned chi) are participating in the training courses. selves from the danger of mines and UXOs. down on the other hand. The aim of the project is raising mine aware- Besides, a number of TV dramas are also in- As for qualified positions, the job ness among children in general and those not serted into the package of the summer school market has not been able to absorb attending school in particular. training to enable children to pass on the in- Another aim of the project is exploiting the formation to their family members as a way waves of new graduates entering the summer holiday vacations by providing ba- of applying Child to Adult approach. job market each year. In our experi- sic and fundamental information to children It is worth mentioning that Shewarash vil- ence, the great majority of candidates which keeps them busy with beneficial train- lage is close to the Iranian border, and Barchi applying for qualified jobs were new ing courses. is close to the Turkish border. In addition to graduates with good education level In addition to Mine Risk Education, different being surrounded by a number of minefields, but no or scant experience. lessons are taught by professional instructors the recent shelling and air strikes by both The IKMAA department of train- to the children. The courses include: Music, neighbors has also further affected the ordi- ing will be one of the busier sections Computer, Health care & environment pro- nary life of the civilian people. Implementa- of IKMAA preparing to receive the tection, Drawing, and Role play & story. The tion of the summer school projects, which newcomers for the next few weeks. instructors use Data show in their presenta- was carefully studied to cover areas in need, tions to the children and apply participatory will provide much needed awareness to the methods among children to conduct class children and their families in these areas. * Head of IKMAA activities. * Director / Directorate of Mine Risk Education / IKMAA The participating children will be given leaf- [email protected] [email protected] No: 5 E- Newsletter June-July 2010 2 IKMAA mechanical team cleared minefield in Haji Omaran Rafat Babaker* n May 18th 2010 IKMAA deployed O heavy mechanical assets (front-end loader /excavator) in order to clear (Zawi saydawa) minefield located near the border area of Haji Omaran district in Erbil governorate. The minefield was located in the center of Saydawa village and close to Hamilton strategic road connecting Iraq to Iranian border. Many people were wounded and killed in this minefield. A total area of 56500 m2 was cleared, more than 640 antipersonnel mines and 54 ERW found and destroyed removing the threat on the adjacent main road and villagers. The cleared land will be used for construction and govern- ment projects. IKMAA support major tourism project Hand over ceremony Mukhlis Sharif Sofi* Rafat Babaker* or its beautiful landscapes and gorgeous The minefield blocked the progress of the F countryside with mountains and rivers cable car project between the well known n the 1st of June 2010, in the combined with thousands of ancient Bekhal summer resort and Korek mountain O presence of head of Iraqi Kurdis- archeological sites, Kurdistan is on its way top. The project located in Rawanduz district tan Mine Action Agency, Direc- to becoming a major tourism center in the of Erbil governorate is considered a major Middle East. Many tourists visit this secure tourism project in Iraq. IKMAA/ Directo- tor General of technical Affairs ,May- and stable part of Iraq every year. The great rate of Implementation -Erbil has provided a or of Mergasor ,The Border Transition majority of the tourists are Iraqis coming demining team to clear the mentioned area. Team from US army, US regional from center and south of the country fleeing Clearance operations are currently ongoing. reconstruction team, Mass Media and agonizing heat of the season. An increasing The total area of the minefield is 56,500 m2. local residents, IKMAA Erbil Directo- number of foreigners visit Kurdistan sum- Around 12442 m2 has already been cleared rate of Implementation Handed over mer resorts and archeological sites as well. by the manual demining team. Two Anti- Kani Baba minefield located near In June, IKMAA received a request for clear- personnel mines and 6 UXOs have so far Kolaka village of Mergasor District. ance of a minefield on top of Korek Moun- been found and destroyed. 55 Anti Personnel mines from all types tain (2100 meters high) from a company Operations Manager/ directorate of implementation- Erbil and 18 UXO were destroyed. A total which is implementing a cable car project. [email protected] area of (73348 m2) cleared land hand- ed over to the community. The cleared land will be used for agriculture and grazing. A variety of clearance equip- ments were displayed in Hand over ceremony and the event covered by the media. On the same day and on the occasion of the internnational chil- dren’s day IKMAA distributed gifts to the children of Kolakan village. Director/ directorate of implementation- Erbil [email protected] The Deminer Post staff: Siraj Barzani Ako Aziz Hamad Akar Jalil Head of IKMAA MRE Director Graphic Designer.