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🗒️ witness to the world’s most dangerous conflicts

Arwa Damon’s life is inextricably tied to some of the most dangerous, pivotal moments in history. She was one of the first journalists on the scene just a few days after the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other US nationals. Damon and her cameraman took fire while reporting on the 2016 battle for Mosul between Iraqi forces and ISIS militants. 

Today, Damon is CNN’s senior international correspondent based in Istanbul. She says the delicate humanity that she has witnessed, borne out of tragedy, has shaped her as a person and a journalist.

That’s also what inspired her to found a charity that has completed treatment for more than 300 children scarred by war both physically and mentally. INARA is currently providing physical and mental care for another 200 children from war zones who otherwise may never have gotten help. More than 200 others are on the waiting list for help.

Damon takes a selfie with Furat, 5, one of the children helped by her charity, INARA. 

Damon spoke to us about her fascinating career and what inspires her. Here’s an edited portion of our conversation:

Q: You had a unique start to your career at CNN. Is it true that selling port-a-potties helped you get hired? 

Damon: Yes, actually. At the time that 9/11happened, I was working in New York for a Turkish textile company, which is a fancy way of saying I sold bathrobes and towels. That company happened to be next to a production house called Camera Planet that was gearing up to send a team into Iraq, pre-war, and so I took an internship with them and through that managed to build up contacts in Baghdad. 

That’s how I initially ended up in Iraq before the war. I had already sent my resume to CNN a couple of times (as well as) the other networks – and was kind of told, “Go get your experience somewhere and then come back to us.” When my freelance work with another TV network ended, I decided to take a short-term job with a Lebanese company that was trying to sell products to the US military – those products ranged from flak jackets, helmets, to the all essential port-a-potty. 

I literally used this job to get back into Iraq to bluntly knock on CNN’s door and ask the Baghdad bureau chief if he could meet with me. And Kevin Flower said, “What the hell are you doing here?” And I said, “I’m selling toilet stuff down the road. Do you want to have coffee?” And the rest is history.

Q:  You are fluent in four languages, including Arabic — which has been key to your reporting in the Middle East. But I heard you were reluctant to learn it as a child?

Damon: I’m Syrian American and I grew up completely bilingual … and then as I got older, I was obviously going to school in English, so my mother would give my sister and me Arabic lessons at home after school. That was how we got our allowance. As I got older, it became harder and harder to get me to sit down for this.    
 
So my mother is phenomenal in that she gave me that gift, the gift of Arabic, and I can’t imagine it was easy for her. You don’t understand the value of language when you’re that young. For me, all I understood was my friends are playing outside and I have to do extra studies.  

Q: What have you witnessed that has had the most impact on you?

Damon: I think the biggest moments of my career are when I’ve seen humanity in the most unexpected places —when people are surrounded by such evil and violence, and yet they’ve still held on to their humanity. Those are the moments that keep me going back.

In 2016, (cameraman) Brice Laine and I were embedded with the Iraqi special forces in Mosul. The unit we’re with gets ambushed by ISIS and we end up spending more than 24 hours under siege. All these vehicles have been hit, there’s wounded Iraqi soldiers everywhere, our vehicle’s been hit, Brice has got blood trickling down his face  – we just go pouring into this guy’s house – it’s really his courtyard, which is quite small. His wife and daughters and family are all hiding in this corner of the room. 

Damon visits Mattar, her “Iraqi mom,” whose family sheltered Damon and her cameraman during the battle of Mosul in 2016.

It’s chaos, it’s madness, the other side of his wall becomes the front line of this battle  – and in the middle of all of this, he brings everybody tea and fried eggs, because that was all he had to offer – but he had to offer something because we are guests in his home. 
 
And I keep thinking about that, and if that happened anywhere else in the world, if someone – who would react like that? Who thinks, “I’m going to treat these people as guests,” versus, “There’s a war happening outside, my family’s petrified, we might not survive this”?  

Q: How does it feel to know that the audience isn’t always interested in what’s going on in these regions, where you are often risking your life to report?

Damon: I will not let apathy demoralize me into silence – and when the dust does settle on these various conflicts, the victors will not be allowed to rewrite history. We are documenting history, and that history needs to be documented whether it gets a lot of likes or runs or re-shares.

Q: What inspired you to launch a charity to help children?

Damon: When you’re out in the field, you’re constantly coming across these kids who need medical help. And sometimes you can do a report on them and they’ll get help, but more often than not, you can’t.

The whole idea for INARA came about when I was in a bit of a dark place toward what was happening in Syria, with the sense of the journalism must somehow be failing – and I was thinking, how can I do more? And then I was remembering Youssif (a severely burned Iraqi boy whose story generated worldwide attention and donations in 2007) and all the other children I’ve met in war zones, and that’s when I realized that there has to be a way to bring together the people who want to help, the children who need help and the institutions that can help.

Damon with Youssif in 2017. Today, Youssif is married, has a child and is in college.

INARA’s plan is to reach more children in other war-affected areas, but also to work on a blueprint program where we’re building up local medical and mental health capacity in those countries so we don’t have to fly the kids out of these areas into a neighboring country for treatment.

Q: What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a war correspondent?

Damon: I would say for anyone who wants to do what I and my colleagues do, my best piece of advice would be to recognize that every story you report on will take a part of you. Something of you will stay behind, and you need to be OK with that.

If you’re inspired to help, click this link and INARA will double your donation for the December holidays.

💳   CNN insider rec of the week

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✍️  talk to us

Who would you like to see spotlighted next? Send your thoughts to insidecnn@cnn.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

– Written and edited by Beryl Adcock, Tricia Escobedo, Melissa Mahtani and Jessica Sooknanan

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