I suspect a lot of Germans do not care much about a better life in Iraq. On the contrary, they seem to feel Schadenfreude when getting bad news from there. But fortunately not all Germans: This weekend at a meeting of pro-American and pro-Israel bloggers I had the pleasure to meet Thomas von der Osten-Sacken, the CEO of WADI, a German NGO fighting for a better life in Iraq. Irony: This German NGO is mainly US-funded.
Caroline Fetscher has written a great article on how WADI is “Helping to empower people” in the “Atlantic Times”, July 12, 2007. Read the beginning here:
He is a realist, a pragmatist. He is a human rights activist, a profound believer in democracy. And above all, this 38-year-old German is a mover, a shaker, a doer. Tall, slim, fair-haired Thomas von der Osten-Sacken seems to be unable to rest.
We will always celebrate the day Baghdad fell and the day Saddam was captured,” said Thomas von der Osten-Sacken. While millions took to the street in spring 2003 to protest the upcoming invasion of Saddam’s torture-regime by U.S. troops, he and his co-campaigners of the Frankfurt-based nongovernmental organization WADI e.V. belonged to the three dozen demonstrators in favor of toppling this totalitarian system.
“I was a keynote speaker,” he remembers with a broad smile. “Later I was often congratulated on this by Iraqis, Kurdish and others, when they met me in the marketplace in Arbil or Suleymaniyah.” By the time these crucial days had arrived, the work of WADI’s activists for a better life in Iraqi Kurdistan had already been going on for over a decade.
“We came to the north after people in southern Iraq in 1991 told us to support the Kurds, since they managed to liberate them from the dictatorship of Saddam,” the campaigner said. “Ever since 2004, we have indeed almost been the last German NGO left in Iraq.” Three years ago, Berlin’s Foreign Ministry urged all registered charities to evacuate – yet as WADI remains independent of German state funds, the group was able to keep following its own agenda – and stick around.
Enabling WADI’s work are mainly American institutions, foundations and donors. Major contributions to WADI projects were and are, for instance, made by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and various private funds from the U.S. (…)
Go on reading here and do not miss to check out the WADI blog as well.