Greek Australian nurse and Pride of Australia nominee Helen Zahos has once again left the comfort of her Gold Coast home to lend a helping hand to those in need.

The tireless health professional has just arrived in Iraq where she will be based until 15 May as a volunteer to help set up a field clinic.

“There [are] 100 people that are internally displaced here,” she told Neos Kosmos upon arrival.

“We are 20 kilometres from the fighting zone, and technically in ISIS territory but very much on the outskirts. This is where the camps are located. More people are expected to arrive, so I am helping set up a hospital in a new camp.”

As she waits for the camp hospital to be filled with equipment and patients she spends her day in another camp, treating the sick and wounded.

“The stories are incredible,” she stresses. “Some of these children saw their own parents have their heads cut off in front of them. Others have burns, others the usual injuries one would expect in a war zone . . . the conditions are bad and it is difficult to get medicine here.”

Zahos with a local fighter.

Zahos also volunteered in Greece when the Syrian crisis broke out working both on the island of Lesvos, where up to 5000 refugees were arriving a day, and at the border of Greece and Yugoslavia. She says that the mood in Iraq is very different to that of the camps in Greece.

“These people are not refugees. They are in their own country. I believe they hope to one day rebuild it.
“I saw the destruction of a nearby village by the US air strikes and as a result we do not walk off the path onto the grass as there are still active landmines in the area. The mentality of the people here does not compare.
“I will have more to report on the situation in the days to follow. On another note,” she laughs without losing her spirit, “I found a Greek restaurant in just five minutes of being here. Even in Iraq; Greeks are everywhere!”

Zahos has also volunteered with St John Ambulance in the Northern Territory, to treat victims of the Bali bombings and she travelled to the Philippines three years ago to help locals deal with the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. Before volunteering in Greece she had also joined a group that tended to the survivors of the devastating Nepal earthquake. She has also worked on Christmas Island and Nauru.