“More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate.” In Baghdad, the Iraqi Children Foundation run three mobile schools called the Hope Buses. These deliver tutoring, healthcare and social support to orphans, street kids and displaced children living in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Building the safety net. Child protection in a time of conflict

This year marks twenty years since the 2003 US/UK invasion of Iraq. Launched on the basis that Saddam Hussain's government possessed 'weapons of mass destruction', which could hit neighbouring countries in '45 minutes', the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq started a chain reaction of events, which can still be felt to this day.

The following is taken from the 2013 article Iraq Ten Years On: What You Don’t Hear! by Hussein Al-alak which was published by the Palestine Chronicle and the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram. According to the Iraqi Children Foundation, more than 800,000 children were orphaned as result of the Iraq war.

“Throughout the US/UK occupation, the Association of Psychologists of Iraq repeatedly warned about the damage being caused to Iraq’s children, with “learning impediments” having been brought on by the fear of guns, bullets, death and a general “fear of the occupation”.

The Integrated Regional Information Networks also reported how violence and a lack of resources have undermined the education sector in Iraq. “No student will graduate with sufficient competence to perform his or her job, and pupils will end the year with less than 60 percent of the knowledge that was supposed to have been imparted to them”.

According to one primary school teacher in Baghdad’s Mansour district, teachers have become unable to complete a year’s curriculum because of violence, low attendance as a result of fear and a general lack of teaching materials provided by the authorities.”

IRAQ 20: WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

Just one year after the publication of Hussein Al-alak’s article, in 2014 Iraq witnessed the invasion of Mosul and other parts of the country by the group known as IS, which displaced more than 1.3 million. 

Organisations like the AMAR Foundation have a longstanding commitment to education and in 2016, AMAR’s School for Orphans was built in Basra. The school has modern facilities and provides a broad curriculum, so children get the best start in life.

In Baghdad, the Iraqi Children Foundation also run three mobile schools called the Hope Buses. These deliver tutoring, healthcare and social support to orphans, street kids and displaced children living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods across Baghdad.

PTSD is caused by highly stressful, frightening or distressing events. Escaping Darkness is a specialist Mental Health service that was established by the AMAR Foundation, to support Yazidi women and girls overcome the trauma of kidnap, abuse and modern day slavery at the hands of IS.

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If you think women and girls being bombed is compatible with your feminist beliefs, you are wrong.

If you think women and girls being acceptable collateral damage to the things men have done is compatible with your feminist beliefs, you are wrong.

If you think retaliating by harming women and girls of one group for the harm done to women and girls of another group is compatible with your feminist beliefs, you are wrong.

If you think women and girls dying may be necessary to "liberate" the people, you are wrong.

Displaced Iraqi Children by Wasfi Akab Via Flickr: If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. Albert Einstein

I agree w the general sentiment of this post but um. I don't think OP of that Tik Tok was talking about actual intrusive thoughts

A displaced Iraqi woman holds her cat, Lulu, while waiting for transport in the Iraqi Kurdish checkpoint village of Shaqouli after she fled her home with her children on November 10, 2016.

this isn’t just me plugging something that is so very catered to me and my interests but tony kushner wrote this mini play very shortly after the iraq invasion called only we who guard the mystery shall be unhappy (which of course is from the brothers karamazov) and it’s equally funny and uncomfortable and heartbreaking and furious. anyway highly recommend especially since it’s been 20 years to the day since the invasion of iraq.

Madeleine Albright: killing half a million Iraqi children was worth it!

“Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people.” In Baghdad, the Iraqi Children Foundation run three mobile schools called the Hope Buses. These deliver tutoring, healthcare and social support to orphans, street kids and displaced children living in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

New school development to enhance education in Iraq

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), an estimated 750 million adults lack basic reading and writing skills. Of the adults estimated to be illiterate, an estimated 496 million of these are women.

There are now more illiterate people in the world, than there are people in the European Union, which has an estimated 747 million inhabitants. There are also more illiterate women in the world, than there are people living in the USA.

Education is a powerful tool that can help to alleviate poverty, promote gender equality and avoid early marriages. When girls have access to quality education, they are more likely to grow up to be healthy, productive citizens who can contribute to their families, their communities and their countries.

The Iraq Health Access Organization in cooperation with the Iraqi Children Foundation, are currently in the process of rehabilitating the Shahda Bint Al-Abri high school for girls. Upon completion, this will see a new space for afterschool courses in computing, English and much more.

In Baghdad, the Iraqi Children Foundation also run three mobile schools called the Hope Buses. These deliver tutoring, health care and social support to orphans, street kids and displaced children living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods across Baghdad.  

BRIAN HAW WEEK

On this day, eleven years ago, Brian Haw passed away.

Who was Brian Haw?

You’ve probably never heard of him, and you probably never will. As though he had never existed.

From June, 2001 until his cancer no longer permitted, in 2011, Brian spent 10 years at Parliament Square campaigning against sanctions against Iraq. Nearly 2 million children died. 

This week, I hope you’ll join me in recalling what little we know about  Brian Haw, whom the media studiously ignored, surely the greatest man of this century.

Kindly leave your comments and questions below. 

18 June 2022

how is isis different from hamas?

Gonna make it easy and comprehensible:

ISIS or DA'ISH is a transnational terror organization consisting of Iraqi Baathists, former Syrian rebels or moderates, recruited fighters from all over the world, former US captives in Iraq, and oppressed and disenfranchised Sunnis. Wahhabi in nature, ISIS subscribes to the literalist tradition of Islam, based on a strict adherence to Tawhid (Islamic monotheism), rejecting the concept of intercession and saint venerations, seeing them as an act of idolatry. Their religious verdicts are based on the literal interpretation of the Qur'an and Sunnah, rejecting metaphorical exegesis. They aim to establish a global caliphate, seeking to eliminate anyone who opposses it regardless of religious or ideological differences. They see their cause as a hastening of various Islamic end time prophecies in their interpretation of Islamic eschatology. Like many Salafis, they reject Taqlid, which is to conform to one of the four schools of thought in Sunni Islam. On top of that, they reject religious innovations (Bid'ah), which is the idea that anything introduced to the religion without any religious basis is heresy. Whether it be practical or theological, they deem any Muslim who engage in Bid'ah to be an apostate or heretic. They are notorious for their intolerance of non-Muslims and application of Takfirism (excommunication) on Muslims, whether Sunni or Shi'a. Christians had to pay the Jizya (poll tax) in their territories, while in other cases, they were murdered, expelled and had their churches destroyed or converted. They have no tolerance for Shi'a Muslims and will kill them on the spot (see: Speicher Massacre), and have often targeted them with IEDs or suicide bombers. Non-Muslims, like the Ezidis or Ahlul Haqq, were often subjected to execution whereas their women and children were either married away, converted or used as sex slaves. DAESH is not interested in national liberation, seeing it as a blasphemous innovation. DAESH does not consider Hamas to be Muslims due to struggle for national liberation which is supported by Iran and various Shi'i proxies.

Hamas is a political and military resistance group that consists of Palestinians. After the failures of the Oslo accord, Hamas broke away from PLO and formed their own political party. They either subscribe to the Shafi'i school of thought or some form of Ikhwani Salafism (Salafism as envisioned by the Muslim Brotherhood). They're a semi-governmental power in Gaza and are responsible for upholding the social and civil institutions, such as hospitals, schools and etc. Hamas' specific aim is localized and seeks to destroy the Zionist entity in order to form a one-state solution under an Islamic emirate or Islamic democracy. Their only enemy is Israel and any of its allies. As of the Hamas charter of 2017, they do not have an intolerance for non-Muslims or people of different religious and ideological comportments, as seen by them holding ties with both Shi'a and Socialist militias, such as Hezbollah and the PFLP/DFLP. Hamas is concerned with the national liberation of Palestine and the Palestinians. Being an entirely localized resistance group, they do not engage in global jihadism like ISIS nor do they carry out attacks internationally.

Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel

By Orit Bashkin (2017, Standford University Press)

Between 1949 and 1951, 123,000 Iraqi Jews immigrated to the newly established Israeli state. Lacking the resources to absorb them all, the Israeli government resettled them in maabarot, or transit camps, relegating them to poverty. In the tents and shacks of the camps, their living conditions were squalid and unsanitary. Basic necessities like water were in short supply, when they were available at all. Rather than returning to a homeland as native sons, Iraqi Jews were newcomers in a foreign place. Impossible Exodus tells the story of these Iraqi Jews' first decades in Israel. Faced with ill treatment and discrimination from state officials, Iraqi Jews resisted: they joined Israeli political parties, demonstrated in the streets, and fought for the education of their children, leading a civil rights struggle whose legacy continues to influence contemporary debates in Israel. Orit Bashkin sheds light on their everyday lives and their determination in a new country, uncovering their long, painful transformation from Iraqi to Israeli. In doing so, she shares the resilience and humanity of a community whose story has yet to be told.

Displaced Iraqi Children by Wasfi Akab Via Flickr: Use your voice for kindness, your ears for compassion, your hands for charity, your mind for truth, and your heart for love. Anonymous

I’m just gonna say it, while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rightfully being condemned, is barbaric & beyond stupid, and left them with heavy sanctions- The US deserves that exact same treatment and should have been the most sanctioned country in the world after they invaded Iraq 20 years ago

1 million Iraqis dead- family, friends, children, and community gone, a whole region of the world destabilized, infrastructure destroyed, abuse of women and children, and extensive torture & torture networks and black sites that defy humanity. All from an *illegal* war, and it’s even worse when you look at all the other places we invaded- and the US received *zero* consequences for what it’s done. It’s only fair, right?