Iraqi Ophans

Friday, January 25, 2008
4.5 millions Orphans in Iraq, a tragic situation
Baghdad,Voices of Iraq – (VOI). New reports of Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs released in 16 January, 2008 with new disaster numbers of children situation in Iraq. This report was declare that in Iraq now 4.5 millions Iraqi orphans with 500 000 living in streets without any home or family care about thier, as well as there are only 459 orphans in governmental houses of orphans.

The dramatic facts in this report also, there are 800 Iraqi orphans in American Iraqi prisons until January 2008 (700 orphans in Iraqi prisons and 100 another orphans in American prisons.

In a Baghdadi popular market, Mustafa Fadhil, a ten year old child, sits waiting to carry the items purchased by individuals who are out doing their shopping, for some trivial income that he needs to help his family following his father’s death who was a victim of the violence in Iraq.
From time to time, Mustafa imagines himself back again in classroom; a dream that disappears when a customer, looking for a carrier, calls him “I left school and started working when my father was killed in a mortar attack that targeted our house around two years ago, and I have been responsible for my family since then,” Mustafa said to Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).
In an attempt to depend on himself in order for himself and his family to survive under such severe circumstances, Mustafa limits his plans to the requirements of daily life. “I stopped thinking about my future, and what I would be when I get older.”

There are many children like Mustafa, orphans and street-kids that live a current tragic reality in Iraq, with an unknown future awaiting them, especially when considering that there are no pre-existing legislations or decrees that protect them and their rights.

The statistics of the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and Development Coordination show that there are 4.5 million orphans in Iraq, 500 thousand of them living in the streets.
At one of the intersections of Al-Karada, a Shiite neighborhood in downtown Baghdad – the capital of Iraq, Nassir Saadon, a 14 years old teenager, sells candy. “I live in a tragic situation and poverty, because my parents were divorced around two years ago,” adding, “I chose to sell candy because it is a job that doesn’t require a large amount of money, but the income is hardly enough to feed me. I feel that my future is unknown; if I even have a future.”

The Islamic Foundation of Woman and Child, a non-governmental organization, believes that with the current tragic circumstances of children in Iraq, a generation will grow up cultivated in an atmosphere of rebellious violence. Amal Kashefal-Ghetaa, the president of that foundation, explained that “Due to the current situation, a massive change took place in the lives of children that forced many of them to leave their schools and friends to go to work; a matter that affects them mentally.”

The Iraqi government, according to Kashefal-Ghetaa, “is not sponsoring those children, despite the fact that the social component representing them is getting wider, because of the violence in Iraq;” demanding the legislation of laws that sponsor these children.

The Iraqi Parliamentary Committee of Woman and Child have a pessimistic vision regarding the future of children in Iraq. Naddera Aif, a parliamentary member of this committee and affiliated with the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) told VOI “I have a pessimistic vision regarding the future of families in Iraq, due to the current violence, displacement, poverty, and family fragmentation. There are 4.5 million orphans, in addition to 800 children in prisons, 700 of them in the Iraqi detentions, and the rest in American custody, all accused of terror or issuing false statements.”

According to Aif, the Parliamentary Committee of Woman and Child recently suggested a number of laws in that regard, such as the laws of Orphans Fund, The Childhood Fund, and the Organization of Childhood Sponsorship, “These laws represent a temporary solution that will be discussed by the Iraqi parliament in this year,” Aif said without further details.

The Orphanages Department at the Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs considers that childhood in Iraq suffers the loss of rights comparing with their counterparts in the neighboring countries. “Kids in Iraq are deprived of health care in schools, playing with their friends, and the right to self-expression,” Abeer Al-Chalabi, the manager of that department said to VOI, adding that many children in Iraq are subjected to sexual harassment, some of them are conducting hard jobs unsuitable to their ages, and others use begging to earn their living.

In Iraq, as al-Chalabi confirmed, there are 18 orphanages, 4 in Baghdad, and the rest are distributed throughout other provinces. The total number of orphans in all these orphanages is 459.

The sociologist, Atheer Kareem, told VOI that the negative situation that children in Iraq are experiencing will increase their suffering, unless the government in Iraq responds by issuing legislations that sponsors them and protects their rights. “Violence and bloodshed will have negative mental effects on kids, and their personality, and it would be difficult for a generation to grow up in a healthy manner without the required environments.”
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Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Want to Help Iraqis?
Hello everyone.
I apologize for my extended absence, life kept me busy for the last few months.

People always ask me how can they help Iraqis?

In many ways, if your government is involved in this war, you can do a lot of work to put pressure on it to withdraw their troops or cut their support, and you can do so either by demanding your representitives in the government, individualy and by organizing moves and gathering as much people as possible to do that. A great and essential thing to be done is to work on public awareness, by learning about the situation in Iraq and teaching your local community, organizing speaking events, hosting patriot Iraqis or people sincerely involved in the Iraqi issue, people that have been to Iraq or at least the ME and can give you a sense of the situation. You can organize many of these speaking events in your local community, university, church etc.

ON the other hand!

Mom has been working volunteerly for years now to improve the living conditions of Iraqis in Iraq and Iraqi refugees in Jordan. If you want to learn more about the projects she is doing then please read the post she has on her blog, she talks about the micro projects she funds that helps Iraqi families make a living, since Iraqis in Jordan are not allowed to work unless they have legal residency, and it's next to impossible to have one, most Iraqi families have no source of income, and are in real need for any kind of help, the Jordanian and Iraqi governments have ignored them, and international community abandoned them, UNHCR and other NGOs are doing very, very small work when compared to the numbers of refugees and the size of their needs. If you are willing to help, please read mom's post:


About CRP , why ?


http://www.collateralrepairproject.org/

peace upon you.....Since the beginning of the war against Iraq 2003, I was in Baghdad with my family,Before the war, I was just a mother of three boys, and Civil Engineer, working as executive manager of our firm in Baghdad.Main things in my life , was my family and my carrier.After the invasion, my life was changed, as what happened to many people inside Iraq or outside.The destruction of the country, violence with bloodshed, continued to be a daily ritual in our days.Since that time I started to work with Iraqi women NGOs in Baghdad, my aim was to help poor families, especially who lost their providers, by funding micro projectfor each family, to keep them survived and independent.

But the Iraqi women I was working with them that time, refused my vision, they were from business women, who were seeking for projects to fund their own projects.After I have left Iraq due to bad security conditions, and kidnapping of my son Khalid, the family decided to leave and settle in Jordan in 2005,We kept working to send medical supplies and water units to Iraqi hospitals, then I started to visit poor Iraqi families here, my network started to be bigger and bigger by the passing of time.

First, I tried to visit rich Iraqi families asking them to help their poor brothers and sisters, but they refused, I was very sad and disappointed, but by the passing of time, I decided to give micro loans to fund micro projects, the money was either from donation of friends, or from my pocket, its OK, I just want to see the change of the life of these families, on the ground.I was happy to see a family like Abo Abbas, I helped them with 320$ to buy special gas oven for Iraqi round bread, the man worked together with his wife and kids to mix flour with water, cut the pieces, spread it on wooden plates, then put it in the hot oven, when its ready , I saw their kids used their bike to deliver the bread for Iraqi restaurant around,…

After one month, the family moved to another house, I visited them , it is much better than the old one, the furniture was repaired, they looked in better conditions, I felt happy for them..This small loan changed their life to the better,..When I used to email my new friend Sasha, we talked about these stories, I sent her many stories about poor Iraqi families here with their photos, we talked many times and discussed many ideas about how can we help them?We agreed that micro loans is a kind of tiring operation, we need some one who will follow them to get the money back, If we can fund each poor family with small budget like 200$ , less or more, it will be easier for all the parts, the donor, the family, and for our teams.We decided then to announce about CRP, and put stories with photos , about these poor families here, who has no legal residency and no right to work , so how can they keep themselves survived?Should we ask them to go back home in Iraq to face death?What is the solution?

I think CRP (http://www.collateralrepairproject.org/)now is working to help these Iraqi families who are refugees , with no right to work, with no legal residency,..May be we can help them in a way or another , to keep them survived, until we all can go back home , one day…Then, about our proposals for projects inside Iraq, its either for IDP who are suffering from the lack of basic needs, or for poor Iraqi families inside many provinces who are abandoned from the government due to corruption controlling the country in this dark era..Hope the positive change will happen in Iraq, one day, and Iraqis will go back home to rebuild their country by their own hands,Amen..


Faiza Alaraji
Iraqi mother,
Civil Engineer
Blogger.



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Occupation's Toll: 5 Million Iraqi Children Orphaned
It is said that Iraq is the world's best-known conflict but the least well-known humanitarian crisis.
December 18, 2007

5 Million Iraqi Orphans, Anti-corruption Board Reveals
Voices of Iraq

Iraq's anti-corruption board revealed on Saturday that there were five million Iraqi orphans as reported by official government statistics, urging the government, parliament, and NGOs to be in constant contact with Iraq's parentless children.

"The government should set up an institutional or legislative program to help the Iraqi orphans. Iraqi is an oil-rich country and it is not acceptable that its orphans remain groaning in this tragedy," the anti-corruption board chief, Moussa Faraj, said during a conference in Baghdad dedicated to orphans in Iraq.