Most Canadians have no idea how lucky they are to live in this country, according to Julia Saurazas.
Saurazas, who is originally from Ontario but makes her home in the Cowichan Valley, recently returned from spending nine months in Iraq working as a human resources coordinator for the Doctors Without Borders organization.
She spent most of her time in northern Iraq, close to Kirkuk and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, working in a number of refugee camps where Doctors Without Borders, the world’s leading independent international humanitarian organization, have been operating.
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“A lot of the area had been destroyed in the fighting against ISIS forces, but there is rebuilding going on and many people that were displaced are now coming back,” Saurazas said.
“Many of them are physically okay, but a number are mentally shocked after seeing a lot of death and other horrible things.”
Saurazas said one camp where she worked consisted of widows and the children of ISIS fighters.
She said that, because of their affiliations with ISIS, the towns where they came from don’t want them back and many in the government want nothing to do with them either.
“But Doctors Without Borders does not take sides and were willing to work in that camp,” Saurazas said.
“It’s a sad camp which is all locked up and nobody is allowed leave. ISIS fighters are still operating in the area and there’s often suicide bombers and shootings during the nights. They have recently started taking to burning crops to starve the people and destroy their livelihoods.”
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But Saurazas said there weren’t any incidents in which she felt that her life was in danger largely because Doctors Without Borders has relationships with all the warring parties so members of the organization are generally left alone.
“I also only travelled during the day when it’s considerably safer,” she said.
“Travelling by night is another matter altogether. It certainly was not a regular job.”
Working in Iraq was just the latest chapter in the international working life of Saurazas.
Before she began working for Doctors Without Borders two years ago, she spent many years working as an administrator helping to set up new universities in developing countries like Bhutan, Cambodia, Botswana and Quatar.
But she said one of the aspects of working with Doctors Without Borders that she finds so different and interesting is working directly with the people of the countries where she is sent.
She was in Bangladesh when almost one million Rohingya fled from Myanmar and made their way to the country as refugees after an army crackdown in their home country in 2017.
“It was a very difficult and desperate situation,” Saurazas said.
“I witnessed many terrible things there, including children being killed. Those people needed not only physical help, but psychological as well. It was a hopeless situation for many of these people but at least Doctors Without Borders was there to help as best we could. It really changes your perceptions of the world.”
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Saurazas is spending the summer relaxing at her home in the Valley before she heads out once again, possibly to Pakistan or Nigeria, for another mission with Doctors Without Borders.
“When you’ve been to places where people are starving, there is no internet or newspaper and there’s only limited education, you appreciate how lucky we are to live in Canada,” she said.
“We live in luxury here with modern medical services, infrastructure and pension plans. But I’m a compassionate person and I like helping out those in need. There’s not enough people doing this kind of work so I encourage people to look beyond their own communities and help those in the world that are desperate. I’m certainly quite a different person that I was 30 years ago.”.
