Silent Victims of the Iraq War

In honoring World Refugee Day today, we should comprehend the impact that conflict has on the most innocent and vulnerable members of society. Five years after the U.S. invaded Iraq, more than 800,000 children have been forced to flee their homes to escape the violence. According to a report released Tuesday, most are unable to go to school and 60% do not have access to clean drinking water. More than half of the displaced children suffer from malnutrition. The mortality rate of children under 5 years old is three times higher in Iraq than in Syria or Jordan. Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflicts said that displaced children, “lack access to the most basic services and manifest a wide range of psychological symptoms from the violence in their everyday lives.” Violence and conflict have defined the lives of an entire generation of Iraqi children.

What is being done to help displaced children?

The United Nations Children’s Fund, better known as UNICEF, created a new emergency response mechanism called "IMPACT: Iraq" which will begin in July. It will deliver healthcare, clean water, sanitation, and emergency education resources to 360,000 children and their families. Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said that IMACT: Iraq will, “ allow us to have better access…to address the needs of education, health water and sanitation.” The biggest hurdle to IMPACT: Iraq will be safe access for humanitarian workers to reach the families in need. There are many other obstacles, but Kaag remains optimistic. “We see a new momentum to meet the needs on the ground through stronger partnerships. Results…indicate we can deliver even under very difficult conditions.” Through efforts like this, the needs of millions of Iraqis can be addressed.

On this day reserved by the United Nations to remember refugees worldwide, please take the time to think about the lives of the millions of people who were forced to flee their homes because of violence.

Please take the first step in addressing the humanitarian crisis in Iraq by signing the EPIC Humanitarian Pledge. For more information about the Humanitarian Pledge, refugee crisis in Iraq, and World Refugee Day 2008, please read the entry below.

Solid Figures on Jordan

Earlier this year, Jordan commissioned the Fafo Institute to help determine the population of Iraqi refugees in the Hashemite kingdom. Rumors hit Washington this summer that the numbers they were coming up with were far lower than those Jordan had long quoted. Now the report is finally out and the numbers are indeed lower, but not drastically so.

Fafo and the Jordan Ministry of Statistics say there were "between 450,000-500,000 Iraqi residents in Jordan as of May 2007", whereas Jordan had previously maintained that there were about 750,000 Iraqis.

Whether the number is 450,000 or 750,000, it's staggering. With Jordan's estimated population of just under 6 million, it means that either 1 in 9 people in Jordan is a refugee from Iraq or 1 in 14. Either way, it represents a huge burden on Jordan's infrastructure and economy. Imagine comparable numbers here in the U.S. of between 23 to 38 million refugees!

In short, Jordan needs the help of the international community to meet the needs of so many refugees. Food and water security, job opportunities, and access to health care are severely lacking and must be addressed now. Women, children and the elderly are particularly at risk because in many cases their fathers and brothers were killed in Iraq, forcing their families to flee in the first place. Women and young girls are often forced into survival sex and prostitution to support their families. See a new report from the Women's Commission on the state of health care for Iraqi women in Jordan here.

NPR Morning Edition reports on the plight of Iraqi School Kids in Syria

Among broadcast media, National Public Radio is the leader in its coverage of Iraqi refugees. This morning, NPR foreign correspondent Deborah Amos filed a powerful report on Iraqi school kids in Syria. I highly recommend listening to Deb’s report if you’re looking to better understand the plight of Iraqi refugees.

Here’s a short description: Morning Edition, October 16, 2007 · Syria has become a safe haven for 2 million Iraqi refugees, most of them children. Education is important to Iraqis, but their parents can't afford school in Syria, meaning a generation of Iraqi kids may go uneducated. Listen to Deb’s powerful report here.

Be sure to listen for her short interview with Rami, one of the Iraqi children she talks with. It will break your heart. She also talks with Syrian kids like Fadi Sargere who tries to help his Iraqi friends forget the war they fled. Deb's report begins a series of reports on NPR's Morning Edition about displaced Iraqis.

In coming days, I’ll be writing more about what’s needed (and past needed) from the international community, U.S. administration, and Congress to respond to the needs of millions of displaced Iraqis and the overwhelmed governments that are hosting them.

Don't Forget About the Children

Yesterday in The Washington Post, a story on the psychological impact on children in the war offered some startling evidence. With over two million child refugees, the intensity of their experiences and trauma is far-reaching.

It's all too easy to forget about the children in this war when talking about stress disorders, internally and externally displaced persons, and other devastating consequences lost in this consistent sea of violence. It's all too easy to to forget that, while incredibly harrowing for the average citizen in Iraq, it's ten times worse for a child. Lacking in many of the psychological coping mechanisms possessed by their elders, and gained only through years and life experience, many children simply do not know how to react to the violent images they see day in and day out.

"In a World Health Organization survey of 600 children ages 3 to 10 in Baghdad last year, 47 percent said they had been exposed to a major traumatic event over the past two years." Abdul Muhsin, a psychiatrist in Baghdad, is concerned that over this time, the number of cases of psychological problems exhibited in children has, and will continue to increase exponentially. He is taken aback, rightly so, when he sees children playing with toy guns and emulating rocket propelled grenade attacks on cars passing by - he is worried that this generation will be more violent than that of Saddam Hussein's.

Given the increased consistency of violence in Iraq, it seems as though children are both consumed by fear, and are finding solace from that fear in replicating the life they see on the streets - markedly disastrous alternative outlets for their psychological ailments. Due to the "stigma attached to such ailments," children are simply not being treated - "As many as 80 percent." Meanwhile, for the lucky children who still have their parents to look after them, their mother and father simply call in for advice, hardly the most effective method of treatment.

Many childhoods will be summed up with gunfire, fear, and damaging psychological trauma. This is a situation that needs to be addressed immediately. Children are extremely vulnerable in this conflict and these events are being ingrained in their memory as we speak. To have hope in the situation is to have hope in the future generations that rebuilding the country will fall on. Right now those future generations are being done incalculable damage. For the future of Iraq, and for the well being of countless children, we need a solution now.

UNICEF is calling for 20 million in aid to help accomplish their goals in Iraq. Only 11 percent has been received to date. This is unacceptable; the U.S. should be taking a much greater role in helping to alleviate one of the worst refugee crises in history.

YOU can still take action on behalf of Iraq's refugees. We continue to hand-deliver your letters to Members of Congress, and are keeping our action center open until the U.S. government passes serious, comprehensive legislation to assist not only children, but all those displaced by violence in Iraq.

The Joy and Sorrow of Becoming a Baghdad Parent

There are so many emotions that run through a father's mind when preparing for the birth of his first child: excitement, pride, happiness, anticipation, and sometimes fear. Saleem Amer experienced this roller coaster of emotions in the days leading up to the birth of his first son, but in a way that most people could never imagine. Amer, a member of NPR's Iraqi staff, tells his story of getting ready to be a father in a time of war and the obsticles that he and his family faced.

Saleem began by looking for a doctor for his wife, but this was not an easy task since there are only two respectable maternity wards in Baghdad. The first doctor that he was recommended to had been killed a month earlier, the second had fled the country, and the third was Sunni and would not accept Saleem and his wife because they are Shia. When he finally found a doctor, he had to make a decision on the clinic where his wife would deliver the baby. He decided on the riskier option of taking her to the Sunni clinic because it was closer to their house and her doctor was practicing there.

A nurse at the clinic asked Saleem who would be accompanying his wife during the delivery, since the clinic didn't have enough staff to help during the birth. Saleem informed her that he and his brother, along with his mother and mother-in-law would all be there during the delivery. The nurse warned Saleem that it would be extremely dangerous for he and his brother to stay because Sunni militias came in at night and kidnapped Shia men. Saleem didn't know what he was going to do; should he stay for the birth of his son and risk being killed, or leave his wife and his new baby?

The day his wife went into labor, they brought clean water, antibiotics and painkillers, flashlights, blankets, and a small electric heater to the clinic. The clinic turned off its generator at midnight and did not have any clean water. Overcoming all of these complications, his wife delivered a healthy, ten pound baby boy with black hair and blue eyes named Yousef. Saleem explained that he wanted to leave before dusk, but changed his mind and decided to take the risk when he saw his wife and son being wheeled into the room. They bribed the nurse to erase their names off the registry and in case anyone came during the night, he and his brother would cover themselves with blankets and hide. The morning finally came and everyone was safe and asleep. Saleem explained that, "The most fearful night of my life was over; the night my son was born."

So many emotions ran through Saleem Amer when he was finally able to have a moment of peace and look at his son:

Why did I bring a baby into such a violent war? Could I ensure that my son would have a peaceful life; not a rich or unique life, just a peaceful life?

The waves of happiness of a father looking into his son's eyes were overcome by feelings of uncertainty, fear, and regret.

The humanitarian price of war is often missing in the political, economic, and military dialogue surrounding the conflict. The everyday reality of innocent Iraqis is very similar to that of Saleem and his family. The hope for peace and security is like a distant dream to many, and is often overshadowed by fear, violence, and uncertainty. Saleem explains that, "A day in Iraq at war is like a year in peacetime." Go here to hear all the details in Saleem's own words.

Childhood as a War Casualty

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has recently featured some highly disturbing stories detailing the impact of the war on Iraqi children. The photo on the left is from one of these articles, which discusses Doctors Without Borders operations in Jordan through the story of Shams, an infant who at six month of age was blinded by a car bomb blast near her family's home in Baghdad. Her mother died in the explosion.

Fast forward a year, and Shams and her father are now in a Jordanian hospital awaiting treatment from a plastic surgeon from Doctors Without Borders. While the surgery aims to lessen Shams' physical disfigurement caused by the car bomb, there is no possibility of restoring her vision. Her optic nerves have been destroyed to the point where she can no longer even perceive lightness or darkness.

This article, from last November, describes conditions in Iraq--lack of sanitation, good quality food, medicines, doctors, clean water, and not to mention the violence--that have put the country's children in a very precarious state. Unfortunately, since November, things have not improved and increasing levels of violence and dwindling funding are forcing the few remaining NGOs that administer aid to Iraqi children to leave the country. Under extreme physical, psychological and developmental stress, Iraqi children turn to drug use and prostitution, according to another article on the UN site:

"Sami Rubaie, 12, lives on the streets of Baghdad. He said he ran away from home because he could not stand the beatings he got from his father for not bringing home enough money from begging all day. He soon turned to glue sniffing. To support his habit, he recently joined a gang and now men have sex with him in exchange for glue and money.

“'I cry every time a man has sex with me and they usually hit me because I am crying. After I do it, my boss gives me a good quantity of glue and around US $3 dollars for food. I know what I’m doing is wrong but it’s better than living with daily beatings from my father for not bringing him enough money,' Sami said."

The Guardian has an article in which some experts speculate on the long-term psychological impact that the violence will have on Iraq's children:

"Lynne Jones, a child psychiatrist with the International Medical Corps who studied children under war in Bosnia, said: 'Children are often incredibly resilient. In a number of studies, trauma in children in war zones has tailed off quite rapidly once the violence dies down.' Their continued wellbeing depends on the kind of environment in which they live after that, and the values of their families or parents, she said.

... Dr Hassan told the Guardian of his fears for Iraq's current young generation. 'Do not make the mistake of blaming the occupation and the recent war for all of this,' he said. "For more than three decades, young Iraqis have been forced to learn how to kill. We must now learn instead about dialogue and compromise. Otherwise, we will continue to produce psychopathic personalities for whom violence is simply a means of negotiating daily life.'"

Such reports starkly emphasize the need to increase humanitarian aid in Iraq. In doing so, we can start to alleviate the suffering of child victims by increasing the resources and services available to them. With an increase in funding for organizations like the UNHCR and the IOM, US legislators will not end all the horrors in Iraq, but they can do something to help the most innocent victims of this war.