Mrs. Katea, 30, lost her husband in a car accident in Hit, a town in Anbar province west of Iraq in 2016. He was survived by her and two children; the oldest was nine years old at the time.
Due to the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Mrs. Katea and her family were displaced from their home shortly after her husband’s death. Her and her family ended up in Anbar province in al Khalidiya camp, which houses thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Mrs. Katea struggled financially and eventually her oldest son, then 10, had to drop out of school to work. He began selling bottled water and tissues to residents in the camp.
Mrs. Katea’s plight was brought to the attention of International Relief and Development (IRD)/Blumont’s protection team by women’s committees working in the camp.
The IRD/Blumont protection committee invited Mrs. Katea to its protection sessions where women are provided with psychological support and encouraged to fulfill their roles by working and supporting their families.
Following the sessions, a volunteer offered financial assistance to Mrs. Katea to open a small candy shop in the camp. She currently makes enough money from the shop to support herself and her family.
With Mrs. Katea’s now employed, her son has been able to return to school where he is enrolled in fourth grade.
“I would have been lost without IRD,” Mrs. Katea stated.
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Mrs. Katea is a beneficiary of IRD/Blumont’s Camp Coordination and Camp Management/Conflict Resolution and Resilience Building (CCCM/C2RB) programs. CCCM provides camp management in four camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Iraq, including accommodation and community mobilization activities. C2RB improves the lives of individuals in Iraq by identifying and implementing solutions to mitigate violence and conflict among IDPs and host communities. They are both funded by UNHCR.
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