Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) said, “He is not one of us who has no compassion for the child and no respect for the old.” (Reported by Al-Tirmidhi) Also, the Prophet (pbuh) said, “None of you is truly a believer until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.” (Reported by Muslim) After a couple of weeks I came across both of those hadith while reading and began to seriously consider what I as a Muslimah, mother and teacher could do to help the children of Iraq - my young brothers and sisters. My overwhelming feeling was that I wanted to console the Iraqi children as I would have done for my own children. As the war continued, I also found I was becoming almost paralyzed with worry over their plight. But struggling with my emotions was not enough. I decided to find out what the experts had to say about the needs of children who are in the midst of war.

I went to the UNICEF web site and found a report published in 1996 called “The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children.” This groundbreaking report was written by Graca Machel. Mrs. Machel was Mozambique’s first post independence Minister of Education. The report is quite lengthy; however, the main recommendations include preventive measures to avoid war in the first place as well as the necessity to monitor and report violations of children’s rights and gender-based violence. The emphasis of the report focuses on dealing with the physical health, psychological wellbeing and education of children who live in areas of armed conflict. Mrs. Machel says in her report, “These [recommendations] should be the pillars of all humanitarian assistance for children in emergencies. Psychological wellbeing can best be ensured through community rather than institutional approaches. Education lies at the center of a viable community, so maintenance of schooling during emergencies is an indispensable imperative.”

Iraqi society as a whole is highly educated and, in spite of 12 years of economic sanctions and 3 wars, has maintained a sophisticated education system. Therefore, maintaining schools during this time of crisis is a vital element of the psychological wellbeing of Iraqi children. I came to the conclusion that helping the people of Iraq to open and maintain their school would be absolutely critical for those children. The first person I contacted was Kathy Kelly, one of the coordinators of “Voices in the Wilderness.” “Voices in the Wilderness” is essentially a US/UK campaign to end the economic sanctions against Iraq and to oppose war. Kathy has regularly traveled to Iraq for the past 8 years and was a witness to the bombing of Baghdad last March. She told me about a project called “Childhood Voices.”

“Childhood Voices” is an Iraqi NGO that was started by a group of Iraqi teachers and citizens. The main objective of this NGO is to provide (free of charge) art education and more importantly art therapy for war-traumatized children living in Baghdad. Their first project is a school called Seasons Art School and it is a place where children may go after regular school to learn visual arts, music, theater and computers. Emad Hadi, the Project Coordinator and Theater Arts Director, explained to me that the children attending Seasons Art School are from diverse backgrounds. The age range of the children is 5-17 and the student body consists of “street children” as well as children from poor working-class and middle-class families. Seasons Art School also serves children with cognitive, physical and emotional disabilities. The school was designed to accommodate 80 children, but because of the great need for such a program is now serving 180 children.

The school opened in September 2003 and so far is going well. However, the United Nations and UNICEF have pulled out of Iraq for the time being, and this development has hurt the growth potential of the school. The children would - of course - though like to see their school evolve and grow. According to Mr. Hadi, the children feel empowered by their experiences at Seasons Art School, especially since the opinions, feelings and thoughts of the children are valued and respected by the whole staff at the school. Empowerment is vital to a child’s psychological wellbeing especially in such chaotic times. The teachers use a team-based cooperative approach at the school. The school also employs two child psychologists who help evaluate the particular needs of each child. They believe that by tapping into their creative potential, the children can also develop self-confidence and the value of working with others who are different from them. More importantly, the children are also learning creative ways of dealing with stressful situations.

Seasons Art School is an integral part of creating a healthy viable community in Baghdad for children experiencing the trauma of war.

There are many charitable organizations that have been working in Iraq to relieve the suffering of the Iraqi people. One of the most notable is Life for Relief and Development. Life’s main priority is to provide care for women and children worldwide. Life has been very active in Iraq. Dr. Ghanim Al Jumaily, the Chief Executive Officer of Life, explained to me that the issue of helping Iraqi youth is the most important one right now. Establishing security in Iraq is critical as well, especially for children. Life’s approach is to work directly with the leadership of each community and to provide support for the community to accomplish whatever task at hand. For example, after the initial phase of the war in Iraq, it was discovered that all data related to all of the schools in Iraq was lost and/or destroyed. Life helped to set up teams to do the tedious work of assessing 1,500 schools. The goal was to create a sample by gathering data from these schools such as their location and the number of students in attendance. Life also sent teams throughout Iraq to meet with the Directors of Education in each province in order to get more general data about the schools. All of the information collected was then handed over to UNICEF.

Dr. Al Jumaily also explained that school rehabilitation has been a substantial problem because 1% of the schools in Iraq were completely damaged and 20% need major construction because of extensive structural damage. The rest of the schools are usable but need minor repair. Another major problem has been the use of schoolyards as ammunition depots. Children have been seen playing with live ammunition. People in the local communities themselves have been working to remove ammunition from the schoolyards and many accidents have occurred.

During the early phase of the war, orphanages were essentially abandoned and the children had no one to care for them. Life for Relief and Development is working with the Ministry of Social Affairs to place orphan children with relatives. Life is also working to provide them financial assistance and help meet their needs for clothing, education, etc. It additionally provides continuous monitoring of their situation. Life has opened two health clinics to provide medical care for children, their mothers and pregnant as well as nursing women. One clinic is located in Basra and one in Baghdad. Moreover, life provides wheelchairs to physically disabled children.

Life for Relief and Development has consultative status with the United Nations; however, its approach to helping Iraqi children is completely community-based. It continually provides a vast array of opportunities to help the children of Iraq. It specifically offers “adopt a school,” “adopt a playground” and orphan sponsorship programs. For more information, you may contact Life at www.lifeusa.org

The Seasons Art School and Life for Relief and Development are two examples of effective community based approaches to helping Iraqi children by creating a sense of psychological and physical wellbeing. Allah (swt) has given our ummah many opportunities to show compassion for our needy young brothers and sisters. I am certain there are many other charitable organizations and projects that are available for Muslims to support. Our Muslim children are the future of our ummah. We have a responsibility to desire for all Muslim children what we desire for ourselves and for our own children.

It is critical that we explain the plight of Muslim children living in areas of armed conflict to our own children so that they may develop empathy for them. Perhaps your child could set aside a portion of his/her allowance each week to send as charity for other Muslim children, and of course we should also encourage our own children to make duaa (prayers) for their needy young brothers and sisters.

Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) said, “Show mercy to people on earth so that He who is in heaven will have mercy on you.” (Al Tirmidhi) There are too many of our young brothers and sisters experiencing armed conflict first hand. These include Iraqi, Palestinian, Sudanese, Somali, Chechen, Kashmiri and Afghani children. We can help them with our duaa. We can help them with our earnings by donating to charities and projects. Finally, we can help them with our words by reminding each other of their plight.

Aisha Robertson is a teacher and freelance writer based in Wisconsin, USA. Holding a BSc in Education from the University of Wisconsin, Aisha has worked as a teacher since 1991.

Sources:

• www.medact.org

• www.unicef.org/graca

• www.vitw.org