Plight of Iraqi Refugees Worsens
Mary Madsen and Sasha Crow, 04.03.2009 16:04
Collateral Repair Project founder, Sasha Crow, is in Amman, Jordan working with Iraqi refugees who have been forced to flee the violence of their country. Her blog describes her visits to families struggling with worsening poverty and hunger, unable to return to their country because of continued likelihood of death, kidnapping and homelessness.
Collateral Repair Project is based in Medford, Oregon.
Food Delivery
Food Rations
Loading Food Boxes
Nouriya
In these days leading to the observance of the invasion of Iraq, it is important to remember the nearly 5 million who have been forced from their homes and nation because of the war. For refugees, the war is not over. Their hardships increase daily with no visible hope for a future for themselves or their children. They live in limbo, effectively stateless, with feelings, all to true, that the world has forgotten them. UNHCR recently stopped providing Iraqi refugees with food rations. The small increase now allotted in lieu of food rations is insufficient to make up the difference. Moreover, because of the global downturn in the economy, donations and funding to humanitarian organizations, including CRP are suffering. Donations to our project have dropped dramatically and Collateral Repair Project has had to regretfully all but suspend our Micro-Project program and focus instead on emergency food assistance . But still, every day, our team leader, Maha, receives calls from Iraqis pleading for a Micro-Project and recently, due to an amazing Valentine's Day fund raising event by CodePink NYC, we were able to fund one micro-project in February, which you can read about in Sasha's blog 
http://www.collateralrepairproject.blogspot.com
Until funding improves, each day, with our limited funding, Sasha and team leader Maha manage to deliver food boxes of staples and sometimes fresh meat to refugee families, listening and recording their stories of almost unbearable hardships. Sasha reports back on their visits on her blog at http://www.collateralrepairproject.blogspot.com Below is Sasha’s report from just one day out of the many that Maha and Sasha have traversed the city delivering vital food assistance.
Friday, February 20, 2009
"Before the war,..I never needed anyone's help - now I am begging for it" Feb 18 09
We intended to visit Nouryia in her home to take food assistance to her but instead we met with her in the home of her friend, Fatem. Fatem has taken Nouryia in to care for her for a while because she cannot care for herself. Nouryia has diabetes and suffers from severe back pain. She lays on a mat in the living room, unable to get up to visit with us. Whenever she shifts position on the mat, her face screws up in a grimace of pain.
Her medications cost 90JD per month. An aid organization had been paying for them but, because they have a 1000JD cap for each family and Nouryia has met it, they no longer pay. As a woman alone, she receives only 60JD per month cash assistance. Her rent is 50JD including utilities. How can she pay for medication when she cannot even afford to buy food?
Nouryia had been given a sewing machine Micro-Project last year and, when she is not in as much pain, she makes a little money from sewing for neighbors - sometimes as much as 30-40JD per month. When she can't work, she must rely on the kindness of others. It is impossible for her to go out to seek assistance when she is confined by pain though. She tells us that no one has helped her but Maha - that the Red Crescent will not help her because she is a single woman alone.
Nouryia left Baghdad in 2005 when she and her husband were threatened. They were told to leave their home or be killed. She is now divorced. Her relatives are all still in Iraq and do not have the means to help her financially.
She tells us, "Before the war we were happy and secure. I never needed anyone's help. Now I have some degree of security but I am begging for help. I am sick; my health is gone"
Fatem brings us cups of thick Arab coffee. She instructs us to turn our cups over onto the saucers when we finish our coffee and she will read the patterns made by the grounds. Her uncle taught her this skill when she was 14.
Fatem is married and has 8 children. But she has not seen them for years. She recalls years of domestic battering from her husband and tells us that large areas of her scalp have no hair from when he yanked it roughly while abusing her. She wanted a divorce but he refused. She finally could no longer take his beatings and fled from Iraq in 2001. Her husband would not allow her to bring her children. She told me, "I took two blankets with me and the pillow you are sitting against" She also brought her gold jewelry and sold it in order to open a small sewing shop in Amman.
Her shop provided her enough of an income to get by on. "I bought these carpets, this furniture"
But five years ago her shop was destroyed by an arsen fire. A note was attached to the door stated: "You Shi'ite! You infidel!"
"I watched my shop burning and was reminded of how he (her husband) beat me every day.
Now it is society that is beating me up"
Now she keeps in touch with her adult children by telephone and by sharing photos. Her husband has suffered a stroke. She tells us, "I told the children to take care of him - he is their father."
e-mail:: mrymads@charter.net
Homepage:: collateralrepairproject.blogspot.com
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