Trapped In A Climate Of Fear
Over the last few days we’ve been focussing particularly on desperate situation that Iraki Civilians find themselves in and some of the attempts to help them:
The activities of the Iraki Red Crescent and The ICRC in Irak on the 11th
Um Thalit described her experiences as a new widow with small children dependent on charity and we posted about a refugee family in Spain on the 12th.
Yesterday we posted two articles about the dreadful pain and mental anguish of Irakis – those within the country and refugees.
Today I want to focus on those in the refugee camps outside of Irak and yes to beg:
markfromireland
Trapped in a climate of fear
“If God not help us we would all be dead now.”
That’s the conclusion reached by Salah a twelve year old child who fled Irak with his family after multiple attempts at kidnapping, murder, and ethnic cleansing. He’s describing why his family fled in a video made by World Vision.
The video in which Salah reaches this conclusion is one of a series of four in which Iraki refugee children now living in Jordan and being helped by World Vision describe some of their experiences. They describe simply and briefly the horrors to which their families were subjected and which caused them to flee:
The children in order of their ages are:
- Fawaz aged 9 (2 minutes 43 seconds).
- Qazim aged 13 (2 minutes 28 seconds).
- Farah aged 10 (2 minutes 36 seconds).
- Salah aged 12 (2 minutes 59 seconds).
The videos are short and can both watched online and downloaded from here. It says a lot about the plight in which Irak’s children find themselves that these four children, 2 Sabeans a Sunni Muslim and a Shi’ite Muslim respectively have had to be filmed in silhouette and that their names have had to be changed to protect their identities.
The videos are part of the World Vision’s efforts to highlight the plight of IRaki refugees – especially children and is being released for the International Conference on Addressing the Humanitarian Needs of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons inside Iraq and in Neighbouring Countries taking place in Geneva on 17 and 18 April 2007.
The report ‘Trapped! Unlocking the future of Iraqi refugee children’ is the result of interviews with more than 100 families in Amman, Jordan and highlights what it rightly calls “a devastated and scattered generation trapped with little hope for the future. Some extracts:
“I was scared because I thought any minute he would catch me and cut my head off. I ran a lot but the man was a good runner”
12- year-old Salah, recalling a kidnap attempt.
Source: TRAPPED! WV report (PDF) Page 5
It is hard to find a family among Iraqi refugees where a child has not been exposed to violence. Many have witnessed gruesome events: murders, bomb blasts, break-ins, and beatings. Children who are victims of kidnapping bear a particularly heavy psychological burden. [Emphasis added - markfromireland]
For many Iraqi refugees, the climate of fear has continued after fleeing Iraq. They fear for the future of their children. They fear being forced to return to the violence. Others fear those who murdered family members or kidnapped children in Iraq will find them in Jordan.
Children absorb this climate of fear. They fear they will be separated from their families; that tomorrow their parents will be sent back to
Iraq. They worry that they too will be forced to return. Many of the children interviewed by World Vision suffered from bed-wetting, sleeplessness, regular nightmares and even panic attacks. Others expressed constant loneliness despite their crowded living conditions.
Source: TRAPPED! WV report (PDF) Page 5
Children’s health at risk
“Just take my children and leave me here in Jordan. Please, I want them to have a future”
Miriam, an Iraqi widow, pleading for a future for her four children.
Many Iraqi refugee families simply cannot afford basic foods to keep their children healthy. Daily essentials are being priced out of reach of refugees. Milk is now so expensive that many families resort to watered-down yoghurt to feed their children. Meat and fruits are becoming luxury items, once considered staples. The results of poor diets are revealed in the clinics serving Iraqi refugees in Jordan.
Children exhibit symptoms of diabetes, anaemia, and recurrent influenza due to poor diets. Most refugees are unable to access long-term medical assistance. What services are available are stretched to capacity. Crucial medical procedures and surgery are simply not available to most.
Source: TRAPPED! WV report (PDF) Page 6
The report concludes:
Trapped! Unlocking the future of iraqi refugee children
These exiles are among the most drastically war-affected populations worldwide. The people fleeing Iraq have experienced a uniquely brutal level of mental and physical violence, and now find themselves in limbo.
Children are among the most vulnerable and defenceless of all, and desperately need the basic assistance the international community can provide.
A snapshot of the experiences of these refugee children is sobering: 20 years of sanctions and war – wholesale devastation of society and country – epic ongoing violence involving daily kidnappings and ransoms, home invasions and beatings, suicide bombings and murder. This pattern is repeated daily, and has forced the largest exile of people in the region in half a century.
As the violence and flight continues, it is the poorest and youngest who will suffer the most. In the name of these Iraqi refugee children and their families, we ask that the following measures be immediately taken to provide crucial support:
Provide Iraqi children with desperatelyneeded education solutions:
- Immediately fund education solutions for Iraqi refugee children across the region and ease the burden of host countries.
- Ask host countries to permit the implementation of informal and formal educational solutions for Iraqi children, accommodating reasonable and responsible alternatives provided
by the NGO community.- Ensure offi cial recognition of past schooling, allowing for grade advancement.
Provide Iraqi children with proper health care, for both their physical, psychological, and emotional needs:
- Fund clinics addressing the special health needs of children while easing the burden of host countries.
- Explore measures for mental health care targeting the special needs of children, some of whom have suffered extraordinary levels of mental and physical violence unusual for such a young population.
Provide a “way out” for vulnerable Iraqi children and their families:
- Establish reasonable “certification” procedures for this population in exile – including the children – by providing a form of recognised status and expedited processing.
- Provide expanded admissions to other countries, particularly for families with children. Presently, they are trapped – they cannot go back to Iraq and they cannot move forward.
Source: “Trapped! Unlocking The Future Of Iraqi Refugee Children” Page 7
Please just spend a little more than 10 minutes watching the videos – and a few minutes more to read the report and open your heart:
International Committee Of The Red Cross:
Donation Page. on that page for donating to the ICRC there’s an option for specifying that your donation to go to the Iraki Red Crescent.
The first field is a dropdown list in which you can select the programme to which you want to donate – pick Irak and the money goes to that fund directly instead of to the general red cross international funds.
Caritas
The Catholic charity also do superb work inside and outside Irak:
International Catholic Migration Commission
Citibank USA
153 East 53rd Street, 16th floor
New York, NY 10043
Account # 10100491, ABA # 21000089, Swift Code CITIUS33
To ensure that the money reaches the Iraqi program, write “Iraq-icmc” on your check.
Muslim Aid, do good work as do war child, and last but definitely not least
World Vision
World Vision do very good work in the refugee camps:
None of these bodies are sectarian all do much needed work frequently at considerable risk to themselves. If you can help please do.
markfromireland
Information on the Sabian minority (Fawaz and Qasim):
Sabians (Wikipedia)
Mandaeism (Wikipedia)
The Sabean-Mandeans, one of the oldest groups in Iraq, have continued to receive threats that they must convert to Islam or be killed. The community has been dwindling fast; only a few thousand of them are said to remain and live in isolation and fear. On a number of occasions, HRO met with members of the Sabean-Mandean community that, like other minority groups, is subjected to religious persecution and forceful displacement. The Sabean-Mandean community decreased from 13,500 persons in 2001 to roughly 4,000 persons in 2006 in Iraq. (Emphasis added markfromireland)
Consider it done!
[...] Gorilla's Guides This is the site that started the current push to raise funds and awareness. [...]
[...] out the following links that Gordo has provided to see where you can help. Mark of Gorillas Guides provides links to other personal accounts and to facts and figures that describe the unfolding humanitarian crisis [...]