Sara Bruun Iversen is a Mission Security Officer from Denmark and contributes to a safe environment for her colleagues. She has a military and police background with work experience abroad.

Briefly describe your career and tell us why you applied for a position with EUAM Iraq.

I have a background from the Danish Army where I worked as a professional soldier for 7 years including one tour to Afghanistan. I was supposed to go back in 2013, but when that was cancelled due to the development in the country. I started to look outside the army for other career options. I joined the Danish Police in 2016 and after completing my education I worked two years in Greenland as a police officer. Working in different environments and with different cultures is my key motivation for applying for a CSDP mission. Since the middle eastern countries are so different from my environment and culture back home the EUAM Iraq was on the top of my list.

Tell us about your daily work.

I work in the Security and Duty of Care Department, and we are responsible for ensuring the safety and well-being of the Mission members. I am involved in security risk assessments, security planning, security training and implementation of mitigation measures. We cooperate both with local authorities and international partners to maintain a secure environment in the mission.

How do you find working with colleagues from many different backgrounds?

I love it! It enriches me personally and professionally to see things from a different perspective. It is very inspiring to see how people with diverse backgrounds and cultures handle tasks and it gives me the opportunity to learn new ways to solve problems and challenges. In addition, it also allows me to learn more about other cultures, what essentially helps me to interact better with others.

What has been the most rewarding or memorable experience for you on the Mission so far?

I am still new to the Mission, so everything has been quite memorable so far. I guess I still have a lot of unforgettable experiences to come. But the most rewarding experience is probably the social activities. My colleagues are welcoming and helpful, and our Welfare Committee does a lot of work to create social activities where we can meet on a more informal level. This atmosphere has made it easy for me to get in touch with others and socialise.

If you could live anywhere, where would you choose?

If I had to choose where to live for the rest of my life, it would be Denmark. I enjoy that it is a small country and that no matter where you live you are no more than 52 km from the ocean. What I do miss in Denmark is a proper winter – and on that note I would love to try to live for a period in the northern part of Scandinavia – Sweden, Norway, Finland. I would start my own business with dog sledding trips and just enjoy life. As the Greenlandic-Danish polar explorer, Knud Rasmussen, said: “Give me winter – give me dogs – and you can keep the rest”.

How do you relax?

Sport is for me the most important thing to relax my mind. My job is very administrative, and when the working day is over, I need to tire my body before my mind can relax. After that I enjoy reading a book, watching a good movie, hanging out with colleagues or talking over the phone with my family and friends back home.