Amman, Jordan - August 24, 2009 — Our dear friend and colleague, Awni Quandour, passed away today at the hospital in Amman, Jordan. He was 56 years of age. He was diagnosed with lung cancer last fall which subsequently spread throughout his body. He received excellent medical care from the King Hussein Cancer Center in Amman that is connected to the Mayo Clinic.

Awni was a great man who contributed greatly to the strength of IRD programs and to the expansion of our programs in Iraq, Jordan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Awni developed many community-based economic development projects for the Noor Hussein Foundation in Jordan and was well respected by Queen Noor. She spoke highly of Awni during the IRD 10th Anniversary Celebration last March on Capitol Hill where she was a speaker. His in-depth knowledge of Iraq began when he worked there in the 1990s with Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

Awni’s first position with IRD was as the Community Outreach Director of the Iraq Community Action Program (ICAP). He later became the ICAP Deputy Chief of Party (COP) and then COP.  We met at the USAID organizing meeting in Amman where IRD volunteered and was approved by USAID to concentrate on the Baghdad Governate. Awni and I traveled across the desert in a fast, unarmed convoy to set up the initial IRD ICAP program in Baghdad in June 2003. We went out into the neighborhoods, visited families in their homes, visited mosques, and universities. We lived at the Palestine Hotel and went to dinner along the Tigris. We were the only non-Iraqis.

Awni hired and trained the initial staff, many of whom are still with us today: Iqbal Atiya Al-Jiboury, Barzan Khalil, Adnan Aziz, Alaa Khaleel, Nubar Jirair Kerestedjian, Naji Abram Ishaaq, Hussan Shammarie, Mohammad Odeh, and Haider Zubaidi.  Awni laid the foundation for the IRD community development programs in Iraq and became ICAP Chief of Party. He helped us win the Community Stabilization Program (CSP) in May 2006 and became the CSP Chief of Party.  Later he took over the largest component of CSP and concentrated on being the CSP Senior Program Operations Director for Baghdad. After serving five years intensively in Iraq, he returned to Amman as Country Director in Jordan and helped our programs grow there.

Awni was also instrumental in helping IRD set up the community outreach component of the Afghanistan Strategic Provincial Roads (SPR) program when we started in November 2007.  In June of 2008 Awni became IRD Country Representative in Pakistan and set up the IRD office in Islamabad. He left Pakistan in September 2008 after being diagnosed with lung cancer.  He  checked out of the Islamabad Marriott hotel to return to Jordan two days before the hotel was bombed. 

Awni was a major source of insight and information to many key decision makers.  He was well-respected by USAID Mission Chiefs and staff, Ambassadors, military commanders, Iraqi government officials and ministers, as well as municipality and local community leaders in the districts and neighborhoods of Baghdad.

He served as an advisor to me on numerous other programs and participated in many IRD Leadership Conferences. No challenge was too great for Awni. He was a key component of the IRD approach to implementing concrete economic, infrastructure and social programs in the unstable counter insurgency environment. As a result, he has made a major contribution to the peace, stability and future of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Requests for Awni’s professional services were made by IRD program staff as recently as last week.
Awni was a proud man. He loved his family, especially his wife Fairous who supported him throughout. His daughter Zain works as a program assistant in IRD Jordan as does his niece Farah, also as a program assistant on another program in Jordan.  Awni’s family is Circassian. They are Arabic speaking and have lived in Jordan for over 100 years but are originally from the north Caucasus region. This is a very distinct and prominent ethnic group in Jordan and Awni was very proud of their history.

Many colleagues have told me that Awni gave IRD a lot of credibility in that region of the world.  His relationships with local communities were key to helping make the Iraq programs work.  Local staff looked up to Awni as an elder statesman.  He was ready to go back to Iraq, saying that when he regained his strength, he would return to that country.

I would like to share a recent email account from an IRD colleague detailing his exit from Iraq in June and how Awni’s influence saved the day:

After nearly seven weeks in Baghdad and being very ready to go home, neither sandstorms nor faulty documentation would have been welcome delays.  I checked at RJ at the Baghdad International Airport this morning.  Everything went fine until passport control where it appeared my visa was either incomplete or incorrect.  Two officers were working in the booth and passing my passport back and forth without any ability to solve the problem.  The line behind me was getting crowded and these officers called their supervisor.  I stepped out of line and followed him to his office. 

“Do you have a CAC card?” he asked.  “No,” I replied.  “Do you have a MNFI card?”   “No,” I answered.  I quickly reached into my wallet, pulled out my IRD identification card, and passed it to him.  He barely glanced at it and passed it right back to me.

“Going to Amman,” he asked.  

“Yes.”  

In one quick motion he wrote something on the visa, stamped my passport, and said, “Tell Mr. Awni that Captain Zain sends his regards.”

Let us all remember fondly the tremendous work that Awni accomplished and how he touched our lives. We are certainly better off because we knew Awni. Our loss is huge but the contribution we received from him was even larger.