The land of tulips and windmills.🌷
25 years ago, the Dutch government 🇳🇱sponsored me, a young law grad from India🇮🇳, as a Junior Professional Officer (#JPO).
The JPO programme allowed me to work with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency for three years in Tanzania🇹🇿.
After the programme ended, I’ve continued to serve with #UNHCR around the world, and today I’m leading the fantastic UNHCR team in #Nigeria🇳🇬 that is finding solutions for refugees and internally displaced. Nigeria is home to 3% of the world’s 120 million forcibly displaced people.
-
12 weeks ago, when I landed in Abuja, I met AbdulRaheem Al-Ameri - a young Yemini🇾🇪 English-lit grad, and also a Dutch-sponsored JPO with UNHCR where he is helping ensure refugees have access to education and other critical protection services.
Raheem was an active community volunteer even when he was at uni in Ibb, Yemen.
Upon graduation, he decided to work with displaced and fragile communities in Yemen, first with NGOs and later as a national staff with UNHCR. The civil war in his country continues - even today - to tear the country apart.
It became immensely difficult for him to even visit his own family that were living in another part of the country. The roads were closed and he had to cross the desert for 7 hrs, risking being kidnapped or even killed by bandits. He also had to cross multiple checkpoints where he was constantly interrogated.
Because he was addressing protection issues at work, he was threatened multiple times by armed men to stop his activities.
Many humanitarian workers like Raheem are soft targets even today just for doing their job.
Thankfully, last year, after a rigorous global vetting process, Raheem was selected as a JPO by the Dutch and was posted with UNHCR Abuja. We are all delighted he is part of the team.
-
Without the Dutch JPO programme, our lives would have taken a different trajectory. So in every country I’ve served, I have sought out the Dutch ambassador to tell them that I am, for better or for worse, a product of their JPO programme.
When Wouter Plomp, the Ambassador of the Netherlands to Nigeria heard of a current and former Dutch-sponsored JPO with UNHCR in the country, he immediately invited us over for a quick chat — an immensely kind gesture as he was in the throes of concluding his assignment and departing Abuja the next day.
-
I wish that more countries extended these opportunities to people like Raheem who has, quite remarkably, put his life on the line to help fragile communities in need. Like many of our colleagues in war-torn countries, he is a survivor of conflict, but has risen above it to help others in need, with just a little help from the land of tulips, windmills and a fantastic JPO programme!
(Published with all relevant permissions. Photo ©️Jesica Odudu/Consulate General of the Netherlands in Lagos)
More info on the Dutch JPO programme at:
https://lnkd.in/eWg79p88
