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Partnering with NGOs and International Aid Agencies to Help Refugees

Posted on 11/08/2016
Stc Suli 4 May 2016

We live in dangerous times, and along with the rise of ISIS in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region has come a tidal wave of people who lived in occupied regions and are now running for their lives. The UN estimates that more than 65 million persons were either refugees, asylum seekers or internally displaced (IDPs) by the end of 2015 – and over half of those are children.  Within Iraq alone, in addition to 1.9 million Iraqi IDPs, there are well over 220,000 Syrian refugees currently registered, the vast majority of whom now live in camps and towns in the northern Kurdish region.

This influx of vulnerable groups into Iraqi Kurdistan has brought with it a myriad of international aid agencies aiming to help these victims of war. Most come with almost nothing and have few (if any) means of support. Many humanitarian agencies have set up programs to deliver job-seeking and vocational training to this displaced population, and MSELECT Academy (the educational branch of MSELECT) has partnered with several over the past two years to provide much needed capacity-building.

Some of the major international organizations we've worked with include:

  • ACDI/VOCA

  • DRC (Danish Refugee Council)

  • FHI360

  • IOM (International Organization for Migration)

  • IRC (International Rescue Committee)

  • InterSOS

  • MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres)

  • Save the Children

  • UNDP (United Nations Development Program)

  • USAID Foras

  • World Bank/IFC

For those NGOs serving the internally displaced and refugee populations, we offer vocational training in Hospitality, Basic Security Guard, Human Resources (HR), Retail Sales and Customer Service, as well as employability skills such as CV Writing, Job Interviewing, and Job Search Skills. In 2015 alone, MSELECT delivered these courses to more than 11,000 Iraqi IDPs and Syrian refugees in Erbil, Baghdad, Basra and Najaf, in collaboration with USAID and DRC, empowering the neediest recipients to gain certification and help them find jobs.

MSELECT has also offered professional training in Leadership & Management, Human Resources Management, Sales and Marketing, and Finance & Accounting to the management and staff of international NGOs in the region -- all of which courses are accredited through the World Bank/IFC or USAID, and delivered by certified trainers. And through a new partnership with Certiport, we are now able to offer the international certification for Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS).

In addition, we have recently added courses specifically targeted to the humanitarian aid community, such as:

  • Community & Stakeholder Engagement

  • Donor Development

  • Fundraising Fundamentals

  • Gender Based Violence (GBV)

  • Human Rights Awareness & Advocacy

  • Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Skills

  • Peace Building Skills

  • Principles of Protection for Women & Children

  • Project Assessment

  • Promoting Hygiene and Sanitation

  • Proposal Writing

  • Report Writing

Other services we offer NGOs include recruitment, retreat facilitation, payroll and HR consulting.

As part of MSELECT's CSR policy, we provide significantly reduced rates for non-profit organizations working in the region. If you are interested in learning more about MSELECT’s capacity-building services for NGOs, please contact training@mselect.iq or call (0)66 261 4455 and ask for our Training Department.