This article is from page 98 of the 2008-07-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 98 JPG
ENNIS based politician Paul O’Shea is heading for Baghdad to take up a humanitarian mission with the Unit- ed Nations.
Mr. O’Shea, who is standing as a Labour party candidate for next year’s local elections in Ennis, de- parted for Jordan on Sunday.
He will travel to Iraq this week to work on a humanitarian mission with UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund. Mr O’Shea, who is a member of the Department of For- eigen Affairs, Rapid Response Corps is to be the first Irish aid worker to be deployed with UNICEF. Mr O’Shea will spend six months working in the region.
The Rapid Response Corp is part
of an additional initiative designed to respond to emergencies. There are currently 10 Irish members deployed in Ethiopia, Kenya, Darfur, Demo- cratic Republic of Congo, Nepal, Burma, Sri Lanka and Iraq.
There are an additional 50 people with specific skills on the register who are trained to respond to emer- gencies who are ready to be deployed within 72 hours.
Mr O’Shea will work as part of the child protection unit aimed at reach- ing out of school children, youth, working children, street children and other vulnerable children. Working with Iraq ministries in Baghdad and Erbil as well as non governmental organisations and local partners, the project aims to get children back into to educational programmes.
In co-ordination with a rehabili- tation team, UNICEF will provide necessary school equipment, teach- ing materials, health and hygiene kits. Mr. O’Shea completed a two week security awareness training programme organised by defence forces at the United Nations Training School at the Curragh.
The programme included a naviga- tion and radio communication, 4×4 driving, hostage taking, land mine clearance and first aid.
Despite working in politically un- stable regions, Mr O’Shea admits Baghdad will be a totally new ex- perience. He said, “This will be my first mission to the middle east, hav- ing worked in Africa and South East Asia for a number of years. I expect it will be very different culturally”.
The situation in Iraq has calmed somewhat in recent months though Mr O’Shea and other members of the UNICEF mission will receive armed escort when traveling around the oltielsa’s
Mr O’Shea said the training he re- ceived in the Curragh was first class and but is hoping he won’t have to put all of his new skills into practice.
“It was very good and pretty inten- sive. We were given courses in four wheel drive, communications, sat nav even hostage taking. Obviously I’m hoping not to encounter any situ- ation like that. But definitely, it will be an interesting experience”.
Mr O’Shea also recently worked in Kosovo as the Irish long term elec- tion observer with the council of Eu- rope.