Erbil, 14 December 2017 – The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) held a certification ceremony for 11 mine action personnel from the Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency (IKMAA) and 8 mine action implementing partners, following their completion of the ‘risk education managerial skills’ workshop to enhance the respond to the explosive hazard threat in liberated areas in Iraq. A similar workshop was organized last October in Baghdad.
Participants from IKMAA, Danish Demining Group (DDG), Mines Advisory Group (MAG), Handicap International and Spirit of Soccer were actively engaged in discussions and group work throughout the five-day workshop, which covered various tools and techniques, development of new and innovative materials, as well as a report and proposal writing.
“We aim at establishing a new format for risk education practice with new methods and tools. We encourage such workshops which contribute to upgrading the planning and managerial capacities, and we welcome the cooperation from all risk education operators here present” said Mr. Ali Hamad Beg, Deputy Head of IKMAA, during the certification ceremony.
Ms. Shaimaa Ahmed, a participant from DDG, stated: “We are deeply grateful to UNMAS for holding this training which gave us additional information for our field work. I particularly benefited from the session about photography”.
“I benefited a lot from the training by acquiring important knowledge and understanding about new topics, specially Communications, Case Studies, and Call for Proposals.” mentioned Mr. Mutassem Saadallah, a participant from MAG.
UNMAS appreciates the support of the Governments of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Italy and the United Kingdom, which have funded this second training course.
Contact Pehr Lodhammar, UNMAS Iraq, Senior Programme Manager, lodhammar@un.org