[Peace-discuss] Fwd: IRAQ: AFSC Baghdad Update and US Tour

Fri Feb 20 14:10:54 CST 2004

>Subject: IRAQ: AFSC Baghdad Update and US Tour
>Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 14:47:00 -0500
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>Thread-Topic: IRAQ: AFSC Baghdad Update and US Tour
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>From: "Peter Lems" <PLems at afsc.org>
>To: "AskAboutIraq" <AskAboutIraq at afsc.org>
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>Whether you are a Middle East expert or simply appalled by the militancy 
>and aggressiveness of the new United States policy of pre-emptive war, the 
>Eyewitness to Occupation speaking tour is an event you need to see.
>
>Featuring AFSC Iraq staff you will learn what the present realities are in 
>Baghdad, and what Iraqis themselves are calling for. The first step in 
>changing US policy towards Iraq is learning the facts this is a wonderful 
>opportunity. Rick and Mary have witnessed nights of terror and days of 
>profound sorrow, hope, and anger. They have seen inspiring grassroots 
>efforts to rebuild an Iraq struggling to come to terms with its past and 
>the present reality of occupation. Please forward this link of public 
>venues to all friends, family, or colleagues you know in any of tour 
>sites. 
><http://www.afsc.org/human-face/tour.htm>http://www.afsc.org/human-face/tour.htm
>
>Peter
>
><http://www.afsc.org/human-face/corres_journal/entries/20040216.htm>http://www.afsc.org/human-face/corres_journal/entries/20040216.htm 
>
>
>Suffer the Children (16 February 2004)
>
>The house we visited was small and run-down. The kerosene space heaters 
>carried from room to room barely touched the chill of mid-winter Baghdad. 
>Upstairs, two rooms served as both bedrooms and playrooms for the 
>children: girls in one, boys in the other. Thin blankets on the floor had 
>to substitute for beds and sitting mats for the eleven children who 
>presently live here.
>
>Despite the sparse, bleak conditions, everything is relative in Baghdad. 
>If you've had to make your home in the streets or a corner of a bombed-out 
>building or a tent in the middle of a rubble-strewn former military base 
>then four walls, a roof, and a real floor can mean a major improvement.
>
>This is only one of the homes for street children that have sprung up 
>around Baghdad in the past several months. Street children is a broad 
>term. It encompasses orphans who fled the state-run orphanages where (in 
>some cases) they were abused and tortured. It also includes children who 
>have taken to the streets because of family situations and economics.
>
>More Iraqis fall into poverty
>UNICEF reported before the last war that more than 50 percent of Iraqi 
>families were living below the poverty level, and that children were 
>increasingly being forced to work to help support families. This trend 
>continues, as each day we see more children on the streets working as 
>peddlers or beggars. The number of people with no homes, forced to live as 
>squatters in abandoned, burnt-out, and bombed-out buildings is more than 
>70,000 in Baghdad alone.
>
>With an estimated 50-to-70 percent of the workforce unemployed and many 
>others underemployed, the number of urban poor is immense. This includes 
>many families who have maintained a roof of some sort over their heads, 
>but just barely.
>
>Children's pictures speak loudly
>The first time we visited this small home, I sat on a blanket on the floor 
>surrounded by children. Breaking through the language barrier and the 
>shyness of strangers, each child, age four to twelve, told me what their 
>favorite animal was. Through giggles and hoots of laughter, we imitated 
>the sounds of the animals as we repeated their names in English and 
>Arabic. Promising to see them soon, we left the children some construction 
>paper and pencils. A week later, when we returned, they presented us with 
>their pictures.
>
>Children's art often reflects how they see and feel about the world around 
>them better than words. Again, the children and I sat on the floor and 
>discussed the pictures they had drawn for me. The pictures of women in 
>beautiful dresses were typical for girls of this age. But Rawa and 
>Mariam's women had tears in their eyes and running down their cheeks. 
>Their mother had been blinded by the regime's warfare attacks in Kurdistan.
>
>Several of the children drew houses, date palm trees, mosques, and a river 
>with boats and fisherman, accurately reflecting the landscape of Baghdad. 
>But Karrar and Zahra's pictures had tents instead of houses, reflecting 
>the landscape of their lives. They had been living in tents at one of the 
>homeless camps, on the grounds of a previous military base.
>
>The most jarring picture showed two tanks, one Iraqi and one American, 
>shooting at each other in the midst of the houses and trees and river and 
>mosque. Haider, the ten-year-old artist, had been found on the streets 
>yelling at the American troops.
>
>A bleak future appears inevitable
>The eleven children at this home are off the streets for now. The lease at 
>this house is temporary and the people who run the house are volunteers, 
>working without pay and providing money for operations out of their own 
>pockets. Like many Iraqis, they grapple with the many problems facing this 
>beleaguered country with no resources and few systems to help. 
>Wars&sanctions&dictatorship&and, now, occupation have degraded the 
>children's lives and their futures.
>
>It is said that if you want to know the health of a society, look at the 
>lives of the most vulnerable. Children under age fifteen comprise more 
>than half of Iraq 's population of 24 million people. These are the most 
>vulnerable. They are also Iraq 's future.
>
>AFSC gave a measure of relief to the children of this home by providing 
>clothes, shoes, kerosene heaters, fuel, mattresses, and beds. A small 
>amount of food was also provided.
>
>- <file://../../m_trotochaud_bio.htm>Mary Trotochaud
>
>Peter Lems
>American Friends Service Committee
>1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia PA 19102
>Tel: 215/241-7170  /  Fax:215/241-7177
><http://www.afsc.org/conscience/Default.shtm>http://www.afsc.org/conscience/Default.shtm 
>

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