Email this page

AFSC Symposium on Iraqi Refugees

Symposium Speakers and Presenters

Kristele Younes was Refugees International's lead person in preparing The World's Fastest Growing Displacement Crisis (March 2007). The report addresses the plight of Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria. She recently appeared on CSPAN as a result of her testimony to a Congressional committee looking at the US' failure to provide visas for Iraqis fleeing the violence. She joined Refugees International in February of 2006 after working as a Legal Officer with the Coalition for the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Noah Merrill recently returned from six weeks of intensive work in Jordan among Iraqi refugees displaced as a result of the ongoing Iraq crisis. During this time, he conducted more than 40 in-depth formal interviews with Iraqi families, and met informally with many more. Merrill participated in frequent consultations with staff of international humanitarian organizations, UN staff, and representatives of Iraqi civil society and political groups.

Ra'ed Jarrar is a political analyst and activist currently based in Washington DC, working with AFSC's Iraq Program. He was born in Baghdad and spent most of his life in Iraq. After the 2003 invasion, Raed Jarrar was the country director for the only door-to-door casualty survey in post war Iraq. He also established an NGO called "Emaar" that carried out work in Baghdad and the nine cities of the south in coordinating with local authorities, community leaders and other NGOs. Emaar implemented hundreds of community-based projects around the country on an extremely low budget.

Mary Trotochaud first traveled to Iraq with a U.S. religious leadership delegation. In March 2003, Mary joined the international staff of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) as Iraq Country Representative. Living in a Baghdad residential neighborhood, she worked with emerging Iraqi civil society organizations while coordinating relief and development projects for AFSC. Mary has also worked as a policy advocate on Capitol Hill and throughout Iraq. Mary continues to write for AFSC and facilitate projects in Iraq.

Rick McDowell has been involved in Middle East-related issues since 1988. Between August 1996 and December 2002, Rick led or accompanied fifteen delegations to Iraq, including a Fellowship of Reconciliation delegation of Nobel Peace Laureates and an AFSC/Quaker delegation. He has worked with AFSC as an Iraq Country Representative, and with FCNL as a policy advocate. Rick continues to write for AFSC and facilitate projects in Iraq while maintaining contact with Iraqi friends and associates in Baghdad and throughout Iraq and the Diaspora.

Leila Barclay is co-founder of al-hakawati Arab Cultural Trust, and editor of their webpage. al-hakawati is an educational non-profit organization; its mission is to provide a virtual library of Arab heritage, and to promote understanding of Arab culture. Leila has been active on Middle East committees at the AFSC since 1999. She was born and raised in Beirut and has a Lebanese, Iraqi, Palestinian background. SHe was a journalist in Beirut from 1982-84, and is a member of Haddonfield Monthly Meeting, Haddonfield NJ. Quaker.

Robin Aura Kanegis serves as Director of Public Affairs and Washington Office for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), providing strategic direction for all aspects of the organization’s engagement with Congress and the Administration. Prior to joining the AFSC Aura served as Director of Campaigns and Iraq Peace Campaign Director for the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a Quaker lobby in the public interest which partners closely with AFSC on legislative concerns.

^ Top of page