Wednesday, 23 May 2007
Situation grim for Iraq's children declares UN
The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA: "GENEVA - Iraqi children are caught in a rapidly worsening tragedy as violence tightens its grip on their homeland, the U.N. Children's Fund said today. "
Tuesday, 1 May 2007
Beanie Babies project cheers children in Iraq
As if in a replacement for their lost families and friends Beanie Babies are being given to wounded children at the hospital at Balad Air Base Iraq. U.S. troops also hand them out to Iraqi children that they come across.
A retired American teacher who organises the donations, Sydney R. Snyder, 64, said to The Republican: "It brings some comfort to children caught in a situation not of their own making, people have been very generous. It makes no difference where they are on the spectrum about the war. It is for the kids and for the troops."
Snyder said enabling the troops to give to the children also helps with the military personnel's morale.
Beanie Babies project cheers children in Iraq
A retired American teacher who organises the donations, Sydney R. Snyder, 64, said to The Republican: "It brings some comfort to children caught in a situation not of their own making, people have been very generous. It makes no difference where they are on the spectrum about the war. It is for the kids and for the troops."
Snyder said enabling the troops to give to the children also helps with the military personnel's morale.
Beanie Babies project cheers children in Iraq
Thursday, 26 April 2007
Iraq vaccination campaign tackles measles
Iraq's children are being helped this week as plans are revealed that the MMR vaccination is going to be given to 3.9 million children, in an attempt to close an immunity gap.
Being a child in Iraq you live a life that could be ended any minute from a roadside bomb or gunmen running into your school. Despite this ongoing violence and threat, the government and international aid agencies started a major immunisation drive on Sunday to avert an outbreak of measles.
Claire Hajaj, UNICEF’s chief of communications at its Iraq Support Centre in Amman (ISCA), said to Middle East Online: "One million children have no immunity to measles - more than enough to spark a dangerous outbreak in which many children could die or be left with lasting disabilities."
The US $10 million, two-week campaign is being led by the Iraqi Ministry of Health with support from UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and from the European Commission. It hopes to reach 3.9 million Iraqi children aged between one and five with the combined MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine.
Previously, vaccinators have been unable to reach all children in Iraq because of insecurity, particularly in restive areas. This time, vaccinators are employing different strategies to reach children.
Muhammad Obaidi, media officer for the secretary of health in Anbar province, said he was concerned for the safety of vaccinators in dangerous areas.
“We have been trying to speak with the representatives of all the fighting groups in these hot spot areas - as well as the military and the local population - to guarantee that vaccinators can reach children safely. But nowadays we should be careful all the time and not trust anybody as we never know with whom we are dealing,” Obaidi said.
Vaccinators said they were scared of encountering violence in the course of the immunisation campaign but that their overwhelming sense of humanitarian duty to save Iraqi children kept them optimistic.
Middle East Online
Being a child in Iraq you live a life that could be ended any minute from a roadside bomb or gunmen running into your school. Despite this ongoing violence and threat, the government and international aid agencies started a major immunisation drive on Sunday to avert an outbreak of measles.
Claire Hajaj, UNICEF’s chief of communications at its Iraq Support Centre in Amman (ISCA), said to Middle East Online: "One million children have no immunity to measles - more than enough to spark a dangerous outbreak in which many children could die or be left with lasting disabilities."
The US $10 million, two-week campaign is being led by the Iraqi Ministry of Health with support from UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and from the European Commission. It hopes to reach 3.9 million Iraqi children aged between one and five with the combined MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine.
Previously, vaccinators have been unable to reach all children in Iraq because of insecurity, particularly in restive areas. This time, vaccinators are employing different strategies to reach children.
Muhammad Obaidi, media officer for the secretary of health in Anbar province, said he was concerned for the safety of vaccinators in dangerous areas.
“We have been trying to speak with the representatives of all the fighting groups in these hot spot areas - as well as the military and the local population - to guarantee that vaccinators can reach children safely. But nowadays we should be careful all the time and not trust anybody as we never know with whom we are dealing,” Obaidi said.
Vaccinators said they were scared of encountering violence in the course of the immunisation campaign but that their overwhelming sense of humanitarian duty to save Iraqi children kept them optimistic.
Middle East Online
Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Humanitarian Crisis Looms in Iraq: Amnesty International
Amnesty International yesterday warned that the Middle East is on the verge of a new humanitarian crisis unless the European Union, US and other states take urgent and concrete measures to assist the more than three million people forcibly displaced by the conflict in Iraq.
Amnesty International is calling on the US, EU and other states to establish generous resettlement programmes in order to assist Iraqi refugees, especially the most vulnerable and at risk, to start new lives well away from the conflict zone, and to afford all refugees and rejected asylum seekers effective protection.
They explain: "The vast majority of Iraqi families in Jordan are unable to send their children to school because they cannot afford private education. They are also unable to send their children to public schools because they do not have valid residency permits. As a result, a whole generation of Iraqis is being denied a fundamental human right, the right to education."
Read more:
Humanitarian Crisis Looms in Iraq: Amnesty International
Amnesty International is calling on the US, EU and other states to establish generous resettlement programmes in order to assist Iraqi refugees, especially the most vulnerable and at risk, to start new lives well away from the conflict zone, and to afford all refugees and rejected asylum seekers effective protection.
They explain: "The vast majority of Iraqi families in Jordan are unable to send their children to school because they cannot afford private education. They are also unable to send their children to public schools because they do not have valid residency permits. As a result, a whole generation of Iraqis is being denied a fundamental human right, the right to education."
Read more:
Humanitarian Crisis Looms in Iraq: Amnesty International
Thursday, 12 April 2007
Children of U.S occupation
An article on the Press TV website tells of research findings into the welfare of Iraqi children and asks:
"What has Bush brought for the children of Iraq? Four years of occupation in Iraq has not only crippled the country but also set the scene for what we can see today of innocent children scavenging in garbage dumps to find something with what they could pass the day."
"What has Bush brought for the children of Iraq? Four years of occupation in Iraq has not only crippled the country but also set the scene for what we can see today of innocent children scavenging in garbage dumps to find something with what they could pass the day."
Al-Qaeda Paying US Dollars for Child Recruits in Baghdad
"Today, I help some men who say they are from al-Qaeda group. They fight people who are occupying Iraq and they said that if I do my work well, God will protect me and make me be a healthy boy," Barak, a 13 year old Iraqi child said, adding that fighters promised him that he would soon join his mother in heaven.
Read more:
BBSNews - Al-Qaeda Paying US Dollars for Child Recruits in Baghdad
Read more:
BBSNews - Al-Qaeda Paying US Dollars for Child Recruits in Baghdad
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