A Family in Baghdad

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007

Peace be upon you…
Through my work and visits to the Iraqi families here in Jordan for some months, I found that a lot of them live here without a legal residency permit, without the right to work, the right of free education for their children, or someone to cover the cost of their medical treatment if they suffer an accidental or chronic health condition…
I tried to visit rich Iraqi families; merchants, contractors, Sheiks, or parliament members, I tried to push them to donate something to such poor families, but they turned their heads away with disturbed moods, or either they changed the subject. I always tell them- let us make a donation box from the rich to the poor, don't we all love Iraq? Let us express our love by helping each other; a $100 from me, a $100 from you, a $100 from this and that, and we can come up with $1000 a month from 10 families, a fine figure, with which we can cover the needs of 10 poor Iraqi families, or more, or less, which means we can reduce the feelings of estrangement, loss, and sadness for each other…
But no one responded…
One day, someone called me from Baghdad to ask for help for an Iraqi girl called "Zemen"; she is sixteen years old, she was at school when a mortar shell fell in the school yard, a shrapnel piece hit her in the back of the neck, causing a paralysis of both hands and legs…
We joined efforts and bought a wheel chair for her, then I started the journey of looking for a way to treat the girl inside or outside of Iraq…
I cannot recall how many times I called Baghdad and talked to her father and mother, to tell them where to go to get a medical report of her case, to send it to me by e-mail, so I could show it to a doctor in Jordan, and get his opinion if there is any hope in treating her case? About a month and a half of efforts went on, until I met a doctor here from the Al-Adamiyah hospital who helped me, spoke with another doctor from the same hospital and gave them the girl's name, so we called her to go with her father for examination. And finally the doctor sent a hand-written report, describing the girl's case as he saw it…
I typed the report and took it to an Iraqi doctor in a private hospital here in Amman, I told him: tell me how to help the girl; do we bring her to Jordan for treatment, or do we keep her in Baghdad?
He read the report calmly and said: the hope, in this girl's case, is to strengthen her muscles and make her rely on her self to move the wheel-chair into the toilet or to take a bath, we do not hope to see her walking on her feet…
- well, ok., we agree, do we bring her here?
- He said: I wouldn't advice you; here, there is a state hospital for physical therapy, but the equipments in it are half there is at the Ibn Al-Qaf hospital in Baghdad, treat her there, let her stay in hospital for months, they will give her a long treatment program, and she will get well, by the will of God…
- I said: she is poor, the doctors and nurses won't take care of her, for they all seek money now; humanity is no longer in the hearts…
- He said: so, you assign a budget for her; some $1000 or a little more, out of the donations, and follow up her case, this is better than bringing her out of Iraq; for then you'll pay $500 for each passport, $500 for the car that would bring them from Baghdad, or some $1200 of plane tickets for her and her father, and then, she might be allowed to enter Jordan or they might refuse, so, why take the chances with all this? Send her a $1000, and let her go to Dr. "……." At Beirut Sq. in Baghdad; he will examine her case and refer her to hospital, and there she will find good care, as long as she has that much money to pay tips to the nurses or buy better food than the hospital's…
Well; I liked the idea, so I called her parents and told them, gave them some money to help…
A few days later, I received a donation from a friend in America, which he said was devoted to treat the girl "Zemen". I told him I would give her only a $1000 of the money, and can use the rest of it here in Amman to help poor Iraqi families. He sent me an e-mail saying- do what you see fit, I trust you, just notify me how you spent the rest of the money…
Ok., that's a deal…
I sent $500 to Zemen's parents; they took her to a good specialist, who directed her to the x-ray lab, where he discovered more shrapnel pieces in her neck that should be removed by another operation and to correct the position of the vertebra, then perhaps her condition would become better, the paralysis would be gone and she won't need the physical therapy…
By God I felt happy, this was good news…
Today they called and said- the date of the operation became near, and I promised them I will send another $500 soon so they could pay the doctor and the hospital…
I kept thinking how to use the rest of the money to help people?
I don't know where I got the idea to give loans without interest to some of the families I visited…
I found that a $100 or $200 might save a family from doom and loss, a family of five children plus the mother and father, for instance…
Now, after two weeks of intensive visits to the houses, I completed giving loans to five Iraqi families, something I consider as a first experience in my life…
The loans varied between buying an oven for baking bread to sell to the neighbors or to the Iraqi restaurants here, or to buy a sewing machine for a lady who can use it to sew for the neighbors or to nearby shops, bringing a small income to the family that can provide for their basic necessities. Or to buy a skin-cleaning set for a lady who works in a beauty salon, who wants to become a partner instead of a worker in the shop, threatened to lose her job any minute…
To another lady I gave a capital to manufacture straw baskets, very beautiful, and she also wants to make pickles to sell to neighbors…
The ladies I gave the loans to are either widows, or their husbands are around but are not allowed legally to work, and who are afraid to work illegally as they would then be liable to be deported from the country, according to the law here…
How can a family of six or seven people live, if the mother and father aren't allowed to work? How will they earn their daily bread?
These small loans brought happiness into their hearts, and sunshine into their homes. They might be temporary solutions until the fire in Iraq dies down, and we go back home one day….
I wrote a small agreement with each lady, like a small contract, in which she takes upon herself to pay back the price of the item I bought for her after two or three months, by small installments alternating between 10 to 20 Jordanian Dinaars a month, without any interest. This is called in Islam: the fair loan.
I ask God to grant me success in this- small project, so I can, through it, help the largest number of families in need… and they all know that when they pay back the loan, it will go to other families… I called my friends to buy the products of straw or embroidery the women made, and we actually sold some pieces, making us all happy.
This is better than knocking on the doors of the stupid, hard-hearted rich, who turn away their faces when we ask them to help a poor family.
I am so happy with this project, I have a feeling it will grow day by day, that I will visit more Iraqi families here to see how they are going, and to think of other small projects to help them… the money I have comes from private donations from friends in America, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. God bless them for helping their brothers and sisters in humanity.
The sum of the loans for five families cost about $950 only. We also collected donations from my small family and other friends, and sent 21 thermoses of 40 liters capacity each, to fifty displaced families living in skeleton houses on the outskirts of Baghdad, after they were driven away by sectarian militias… I sent the money to Baghdad to a friend I trust, he bought everything, and sent back the receipts and photos.
The weather is very hot in Baghdad now, and a drink of cold water is a blessing to poor and displaced families, as there is no electricity available. The water could be provided by tankers, and ice could be bought from factories that have generators to produce it. These thermoses are used to keep cold water so the young and the old could drink from it…
We also collected donations and sent them to Baghdad to buy two sewing machines that can be operated by hands and by feet, to send them to that same fifty families' camp, as there are four professional seamstresses among them. We also bought them 300 meters of summer cloth to make some summer nightdresses to boys and girls under 12 years of age. These cost $600, and everything is documented by receipts and photos.
I mean- these projects didn't cost large sums of money, but reduced a lot of the suffering of poor, displaced Iraqi families that endure poverty and negligence, in these tough conditions that befell Iraq… and to bring joy into their hearts with small projects, is to tell them- we are with you, we remember you while you suffer the ordeal.
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Then I visited some Iraqi families whose children are being treated here from Cancer… I mean; every family is living a catastrophic condition that cannot be described, so that I found the afore mentioned poor people live in an indescribable paradise, for they are healthy… I found the others afflicted with legendary expenses; most of their children passed the critical stage, the tumors were removed and their conditions stabilized, but they need radio-chemotherapy, one year long for each case. And this treatment costs $1000-$3000 a month. Meaning- each family needs an average of $15,000- $40,000 a year…
The families say- in that Cancer hospital there are families from Yemen, Libya, and Qatar treating their children, and all their expenses are covered by their respective embassies, even down to the transportation and taxi fees are paid by the embassy, so why has the Iraqi embassy abandoned us, and we come from a country that floats on top of lakes of oil?
And where are our food monthly rations? Doesn't the Iraqi Trading Ministry import food rations for the citizens? Where are the rations of the families that emigrated from Iraq to neighboring countries? Where are the rations of the families that were displaced from their houses to other provinces in the west, south, or north of Iraq? Why do they live without their food monthly rations?
I don't know who has the answers to these questions.
The Iraqi government lives in another world, of tittle-tattle, armed and non-armed conflicts, and empty talk; who cares about the suffering of the afflicted Iraqis, as if they are orphans, without a father to protect them, or a mother to care for them.
So, for how long will this extraordinary situation go on, this suffering, and who will put an end to it?
Shall we blame the international organizations because they abandoned the Iraqis?
Shall we blame the American government because it destroyed Iraq and scattered the Iraqis?
Shall we blame the Iraqi government because it stole Iraq's money and didn't provide security, settlement or happiness to the Iraqi families inside Iraq and outside?
I don't know who to blame…
But I personally do not clear any of these parties from blame about what happened to the Iraqis; the calamities, the disasters…
And they will carry that responsibility until the day of judgment…
Where will they go, from facing God?