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Inside This Issue
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MRDS Online Newsletter:
First Quarter 2004
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Iraq: a Long, Long Journey Home
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South of Kirkuk, wildflowers dot the grassy
meadows. To both east and west, snow-capped mountains dominate
the horizon. Flocks graze here and there. One year after Saddam
Hussein's regime fell, these are not the only scenes that call
to mind the Sound of Music. Both military and police make their
presence felt at checkpoints along the roads, and open wounds
are as common as scars. Saddam pursued a policy of "Arabization"
in this oil-rich region of Iraq. He forced the ethnic Kurdish
and Turkomen residents off the land and replaced them with
Arabs. Since Saddam lost control, those internal refugees have
been returning by the tens of thousands. In the city of Kirkuk,
many finds their homes still standing. They also find Arabs who
consider them their own. The authorities are sorting out the
claims, but that process will go on for a long while yet.
Meanwhile, people live where they can: dwellings made of mud or
plastic, schools, the soccer stadium. |
About 70,000 refugees have been counted at 60
sites in the area. The numbers continue to swell, though, as
more return. What water and sanitation facilities that exist are
overwhelmed. At the stadium, a stench hangs in the air as
children play between little streams of free-flowing sewage.
Some families have tried to create privacy underneath the
grandstands by hanging plastic sheets or erecting mud walls.
In the villages, many refugees have returned to
find their homes leveled. A few find one wall still standing,
others a pile of rubble. In the village of B'dowa south of
Kirkuk, which Saddam had sealed off as he drove off the entire
Kurdish population and replaced them with Arabs, people gather
straw and make mud bricks to build new houses. They have no
sewage system and the water they drink makes them sick,
especially the children. Snow was still falling in March.
Millennium workers distributed kerosene heaters, blankets and
23,000 pounds of food at four sites, including B'dowa and the
stadium. In March, a team of American doctors and nurses treated
700 people in four days, dispensing medicine they had brought
with them. Many infants and young children needed care for
illnesses related to poor water and food sanitation. A dental
team was scheduled to arrive in April.
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We're Tired of Running
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Villagers who have returned to their home region are
working to overcome serious water and sanitation difficulties.
Donate to Iraq Relief
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For a child who has never known anything else, a
refugee's life is simply life. Many children born in Iraq since
the first Gulf War in 1991 have never known anything else. When
Saddam Hussein forced the ethnic minorities out of their home
region of Kirkuk, most fled into the Kurdish area farther north.
Many families have relocated several times over the span of a
few years, either because they could no longer sustain
themselves where they were or to flee some new threat from
Saddam's regime. "We're tired of war," people say. "We're tired
of running. We're just tired from this life." Life on the run is
the norm for the children. Cold, hunger and fear are all they
have known. With Saddam's regime taken down, families have
streamed back into the region they know as home, even if the
concept of home is rather abstract for many too young to think
in abstractions. Their parents are making mud bricks and
building again, however, trying to reassemble a life. They still
have little, but hope and help are two things they had in no
measure at all one year ago. |
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One Small Loan,
Nine Families
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In Tajikistan, Rahmatullo Mirzoev borrowed $600 from MRDS and
began buying household goods in a distant city. He retails them
through eight salesmen, six of whom sell in remote villages.
With the proceeds, he supports his 10 children and has
constructed a large greenhouse and planted lemon trees. He has
also repaired his house and bought clothing for his children.
His salesmen are supporting their families as well.
The small enterprise development program of MRDS-Tajikistan has
been operating for five years and has made 521 loans, generating
many stories such as this one. In 2003, 338 full-time and 129
part-time jobs were created in the program, and nine new
businesses were started from profit made from funded businesses.
The goal of the program is to create sustainable small
businesses that help the poor bring in regular income.
Tajikistan is the poorest of the former Soviet republics; 67
percent of the population live below the $2-a-day poverty line,
according to a World Bank study.
Support the
Tajikistan Development Program
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Rahmatullo Mirzoev 's business supports his
family
of 10 children and eight other families as well.
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President's Letter:
Behind the Headlines, Real People
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The news has a way of coming to life when one
wades into the middle of it. For security reasons, we must not
disclose the name or city, but a relief worker newly arrived in
Iraq writes: "I really feel like one of my responsibilities here
is to give the war and the other tragedies a human face and to
help you see that it's not about news reports and numbers. There
are real people living here whose lives have been shredded to
pieces by Saddam, by the war, by crazy terrorists. "When car
bombs explode people die, and they are people with wives and
children and mothers and brothers. It affects whole communities.
I don't want you to become callous to what you see in the news
headlines daily. I am living what used to be only a news
headline to me. Now I realize it's all real and its all
affecting very real people. "Living here has only made me more
bewildered at the depths of the evil in men. The soldiers,
relief workers, journalists who are dying are real people, and
they have come here to make a difference." |
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