By Gretchen Crowe
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 7/29/04)

Iraq is a regular in the news these days — a suicide bombing, a shooting, an abduction. Death overshadows life, and good news from that corner of the world is hard to come by. But for Anna Schowengerdt, a native of Denver whose parents recently moved to Alexandria, good news in Iraq is a way of life.

As director of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program in Iraq, Schowengerdt spent last year organizing and helping complete 120 humanitarian aid projects in the southern third of the country, near Basra. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the one-year program was titled "Iraq Community Action," and, according to CRS’ Web site, had two goals: "to enable Iraqis to identify and prioritize the critical needs of their communities" and to "develop and implement projects that address those needs."

"The Iraqis were thrilled to receive the support and surprised that a humanitarian effort had come from abroad," Schowengerdt said. "We would go to a meeting together, explain the purpose of our organization and help mobilization of a ‘community action group.’"

Forty percent of the community action projects dealt with school rehabilitation. Schowengerdt said there was a "critical need" for work on nearly 40 schools.

"In some cases we had to start from the ground up," she said. The buildings were "not necessarily damaged by the current war, but had been neglected over the last 20 years.

"We also constructed a number of new schools," she said. "A community would come to us and say ‘we would really like a new school,’ so we helped them do that."

Instead of taking over the communities, Catholic Relief Services and Caritas Iraq worked hand-in-hand with the Iraqis in a unique program of aid and empowerment.

According to Schowengerdt, the Iraqis were taught how to develop an action plan for projects that they wanted CRS and Caritas Iraq to help them tackle by developing project proposals that both assessed and prioritized the needs of the communities. CRS then funded the proposals under the condition that the communities contributed 25 percent of the cost through either cash, land, labor — "sweat equity" — or through donating equipment such as tools.

Under Sadaam Hussein’s regime, it had been illegal for the Iraqis to represent their own communities and towns.

"Our programs helped them learn how to operate in a democratic way for maybe the first time in their lives," Schowengerdt said. "We had to work with them against apprehension of vocalizing ideas. We were paving the way for a democratic Iraq — more important than rebuilding the physical infrastructure."

The groups also improved access to clean water, re-stocked health clinics, built playgrounds, paved roads and cleaned up communities after air strikes.

Because it was somewhat dangerous for an American group to be in that area, CRS stayed "under the radar as much as possible" and worked through Caritas Iraq to "put an Iraqi face on the aid," she said.

Eighty local communities — over 1 million people — worked on the projects in the area of southern Iraq occupied by British troops.

According to Schowengerdt, the Iraqis were "pretty tolerant and supportive of the coalition.

"There were times when we were nervous about our own personal security — but there were more times when we were concerned about the security of the local communities," she said. "It was a danger zone."

Schowengerdt said that the most difficult part of working in Iraq was that "there were so many different dynamics at play" — the humanitarian needs plus the "political blanket thrown over the country.

"There were times when we were struggling, both as an agency and individually, as how to relate with the Iraqis as a non-governmental organization," she said. "We had to be careful about who we worked with to maintain our neutrality. Often I felt like I was on a tightrope trying to maintain those conditions."

Living conditions were at times dangerous. And, as Schowengerdt is a blond-haired, blue-eyed American woman, she said she often wore a full burka to keep a low profile.

Four international staffers, including Schowengerdt, worked with the Iraqis through CRS. Fifty-five others, mostly locals, were recruited by Iraq Caritas. For Schowengerdt, the most rewarding part of working in Iraq was this community that she worked with.

"We had some wonderful Iraqi colleagues," she said. "(They were) a wonderful group of people who instantly bonded." This was a big achievement considering 25 percent of the group was Christian while the remaining 75 percent were Muslim. They celebrated their differences by observing both Christmas and Ramadan.

"A lot of those people had never talked to, much less worked with, members of the small Christian population in Iraq," she said. "They became wonderful friends of mine — as well as with each other."

When Schowengerdt arrived in Iraq at the beginning of her one-year stay, conditions in her area of Basra seemed good. "The British troops had things under control," she said. However, as time progressed, conditions deteriorated — once in August and then again in November. By May 2004, things had taken a turn for the worse, and Schowengerdt and CRS, having finished their projects, made the decision to leave the area a month early.
"There were more bombs and shootings in the streets," she said. "You could count the number of incidents to see things were getting worse." They were also worried about placing the local communities at risk because everyone knew there was an American organization working with them.

Schowengerdt continues to stay in touch with others still in Iraq, and has heard that conditions in southern Iraq have improved since she left in May.

Does she want to return to Iraq?

"I would love to go back for a short-term assignment," said Schowengerdt, with enthusiasm in her voice. Then she paused. "But I don’t think I’d spend another year there. It was too hard."