IRAQ: Ms Margaret Hassan began her long career in humanitarian relief in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon where she met her husband. She moved to Iraq 30 years ago and has worked for aid organisations for 25 years, the last 12 years for Care International, writes Michael Jansen in Nicosia
Ms Hassan's office in her home on a tree-lined street in the diplomatic Mansur district of Baghdad has always been low profile. Care International, which describes itself as a global humanitarian organisation co-ordinated from Brussels, was one of the few foreign aid organisations permitted to operate in the country under the ousted regime.
It is also is one of the handful to continue functioning after the bombing of UN headquarters in August 2003 and the subsequent attack on the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross which prompted most relief agencies to pull out foreign staff.
In January, 2003, in the run-up to the US war on Iraq, Ms Hassan told The Irish Times that the Iraqi people were already "living in a crisis" due to 20 years of war and a dozen years of economic sanctions.
This crisis would be transformed into a disaster by military action, she asserted.
She warned that people's resources - family savings and women's gold jewellery - used to provide a livelihood during times of distress - had been exhausted.
When war erupted in March, she remained in Iraq, shifting her 60-member team from water and primary health projects to the provision of essential supplies to hospitals and the restoration of electricity and water supplies.
She also campaigned for the resumption of the rations distributed by the government under the UN's oil-for-food programme.
"Most people have no cushion to live on. Without rations Iraqis would have nothing," she said when I interviewed her. Although the US initially wanted to scrap the oil-for-food programme, dedicated individuals like Ms Hassan helped convince Washington to reinstate it.
Care International estimates that her work before, during and after the war has benefited 21 million Iraqis out of a total population of 24 million.
After a meeting in Jordan last year, Sir William Deane, chairman of Care Australia, said that her decision to remain in Iraq and carry out emergency work throughout the conflict was "typical of a truly remarkable woman."
Care International, one of the world's largest independent relief and development agencies, has its headquarters in Belgium and operates in 72 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and eastern Europe.
It has 11 offices in Europe, Australia, North America, and Japan and supports projects that benefit about 30 million people a year.
Ninety per cent of Care International's 10,000 staff worldwide work in their home countries. Its programmes receive support from many governments and institutions, including the United Nations, the World Bank, the European Union and the British government.
Care International has worked in Iraq since 1991 and is the only international non-governmental organisation to maintain a continuous presence in southern and central Iraq, according to its website, careinternational.org.uk
Care Iraq's emergency relief work during and after the war benefited more than 12 million Iraqi citizens, according to the charity.
The aid organisation says it is currently "actively involved in responding to the needs of ordinary Iraqis affected by the conflict". - (Additional reporting by Reuters)