CRS official says Iraqis respond to help with curiosity, eagerness

Published: 2003-11-03

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Iraqis have responded to Catholic Relief Services' initiatives with curiosity and eagerness rather than the hostility some higher-profile foreign agencies have found, said a CRS official who recently visited Iraq. "Our ability to work over these last several months has been helped because we are not so high-profile and have a low number of expats," said Christine Tucker, CRS regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. She said CRS, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency, deliberately hired a primarily Iraqi staff in order to give the Iraqis a sense of empowerment of their own abilities to reconstruct their country. CRS has received a "great deal of support" from their Iraqi partners and local residents, she said. "The face of our work in Iraq is an Iraqi face, and that has helped mitigate what may otherwise have been a hostile reaction under other circumstances," Tucker said in a phone interview. Tucker and Deputy Regional Director Kate Moynihan returned to Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 2 from a weeklong assessment visit to the Iraqi city of Basra.

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