KSC President
Sara Rashid has been President of Kurdistan Save the Children (KSC) since September 2023. She oversees the work of the humanitarian organization, ensuring protection, health and education to children caught in the midst of both new and protracted crises across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
Sara joined KSC in 2014 as a senior officer responsible for the planning, implementation and review of the organization’s emergency response for IDPs and refugees, and partnerships with local and international actors.
She co-led the child protection cluster for coordinating the refugee and IDP response, with a focus on child labor and child marriage. She led the child labor taskforce which initiated the creation of a legitimized child protection monitoring committee which is still in operation today.
Over the last year, she has overseen the expansion of the scope of KSC’s activities to include a nation-wide “No to Drugs, Yes to Life” campaign, and to lobby the government for a more holistic approach to the war on drug trafficking. She advocates for rehabilitation rather than incarceration.
Sara has also led the drive to provide out-of-country medical care for children in need of specialized treatment otherwise unavailable in Iraq. Since 2005, 7569 children have received congenital surgeries (heart, cleft lip and palate, scoliosis) made available in local hospitals by international teams or abroad. Over the past decade, she been working with her colleagues to complete the only children’s heart hospital in the country, bringing international expertise so that children are not sent abroad for surgery.
Sara was appointed the country champion for cancer in 2019, receiving specialized training by the Union for International Cancer control on leadership and advocacy to develop a national cancer control plan.
Her efforts have crossed borders as she was a leading board member in the local emergency aid campaign delivery for earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria.
She has also contributed to research on global health diplomacy in Iraq for “Medicine, Conflict and Survival Journal” (March 2014). You can read it here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13623699.2014.890827
Sara holds a Master’s Degree from University College London after researching mortality estimates in the 2003 Iraq war and their implications on policy, and an undergraduate degree from Kings College in London.
Sara Rashid has over 15 years of experience in global health and post-conflict development. She is passionate about human rights and building a better future for children.
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