Mohammad AlHamwan, Humanitarian Affairs Specialist, UNICEF Jordan.
Tell us a bit about your background.
I am a Jordanian, born and raised in a small village in the North of the country. My background is as a Military Officer, I joined the military academy in 1992 and stayed there until 2010. I left to pursue my Masters degree in HRM in Webster University in the US. Then I completed my Ph.D degree, also in HRM, in the university of North Malaysia and participated in two UN DPKO missions in Haiti and Sierra Leone.
What do you do?
Since 2013, I am a Humanitarian Affairs Specialist with UNICEF Jordan Country Office. During this time, I have managed a large and cross-sectoral refugee response to the Syria crisis. This includes UNICEF’s response for children in all settings - camps, host communities and cross-border where our programming is carried out with remote monitoring. It requires a great deal of expertise in humanitarian analysis and civil-military relations. One of the most complex environments we operate in is the berm where we thankfully have a proven track record in successfully negotiating humanitarian access for vulnerable children and their families.
What’s your working day like?
A typical day starts very early, usually 5.30am. It takes me an hour and a half to drive to the office and after that my day can vary as I spend most of my time in the field. If it’s a day when I am leading UNICEF response at the berm, then it involves a two-and-a-half-hour drive through the desert to reach a service area near where 50,000 people are stranded at the northeastern border between Jordan and Syria. In the evening, it’s back to the UNICEF field office to continue our coordination meetings and make plans for the next day. If I am not at the berm, I spend the day in the host community or in an ITS, which is an informal tented settlement, working with my UNICEF colleagues from other sections, partners, UN agencies and local authorities to reach the most vulnerable children and women. Usually I arrive home before 8pm to spend some quality time with my family.
How would you describe your job to a 5-year-old?
My job is to find children who need help, because, for example, they don’t have enough clean water to drink, or a school to go to or they are not feeling safe. I then provide them with the support they need to be healthy, happy and go back to school. To do this, I work as part of a team of people who each specialise in one important area of a child’s life. I make sure all these people work well together and don’t leave any child behind.
What did you want to be when you were a child?
I always wanted to be a leader but, at the same time, I had a calling to help, protect and support vulnerable people, especially children and women. I think this is the reason why I joined the military and peacekeeping missions in the early stages of my career, which allowed me to be a facilitator and a leader to ensure things happen on the ground.
How/when did you join UNICEF?
I joined UNICEF in 2013 as a Field Officer in a refugee camp in Jordan and then became a humanitarian specialist working in the camps, and also the host community and at the berm. I applied to many jobs in the UN in the past but I was always particularly interested to join UNICEF as I saw the organization’s great work first-hand in Haiti and Sierra Leone. I believe that children and women suffer first, and the most, during an emergency and that’s why UNICEF’s role is so important.
What are the most satisfying parts of your job?
I think the most satisfying part of my job is working with, and for children. For example, seeing the smile on a child’s face when they receive their warm clothes in winter after we’ve worked so hard to reach them. Working for UNICEF is one of the highlights of my life so far.
What’s the most challenging aspect of your job?
One of the greatest challenges of my job is working in the very dynamic environment of the Middle East, where there are many crises affecting children and women with many different actors operating inside and across borders. It can make it difficult to access children who need our support but we never stop trying.
What’s your best UNICEF experience/memory?
In the early days of our response at the berm, we were travelling 400km every week moving between Amman and the border every day. It was an extremely challenging environment to lead the UNICEF response, including distribution of essential items and services for children. No one from the team got much rest but it was worth it when we saw how happy the children were to see us every morning and when we managed to get education and protection to the children.
What’s one of the biggest risks you’ve ever taken in your life?
I frequently work in high-risk zones, including militarized areas. Delivering humanitarian assistance to affected populations in these areas requires a lot of preparation and planning to mitigate the security risks and threat that you face and I always give careful consideration to the safety of my team in these circumstances. But it makes me feel very proud to deliver for children despite the risks and challenges.
What are your passions? How do you spend your free time?
I like to think out of the box so I would describe my passion as challenging reality and defying the odds to deliver and reach my goals. I love to read and stay informed about my area of work, so I closely follow all developments in the Middle East because it impacts my work and my ability to reach all affected populations. I love to spend time with my family and friends at the end of the day and enjoy their company. Traveling is one of my passions as well and I’m lucky that I can see the world with my job.
What advice would you give others who are seeking a similar job as yours?
If you want to work in a humanitarian role, you have to be incredibly patient and have a huge amount of passion for your job. It is very challenging and you will face difficulties, so you need to believe in and love what you do to be able to deliver and keep delivering.
Who do you look towards for inspiration?
All of my colleagues who are doing the same job as me, in even tougher places in the world. But my biggest inspiration are the children and women affected by all crises and conflicts in the world who need UNICEF and other support in order to survive.
My colleagues don’t know that…
I’m an expert in desert hiking, I spend a lot of time in the desert of Jordan.