Want to Help Iraqis?
Hello everyone.
I apologize for my extended absence, life kept me busy for the last few months.
People always ask me how can they help Iraqis?
In many ways, if your government is involved in this war, you can do a lot of work to put pressure on it to withdraw their troops or cut their support, and you can do so either by demanding your representitives in the government, individualy and by organizing moves and gathering as much people as possible to do that. A great and essential thing to be done is to work on public awareness, by learning about the situation in Iraq and teaching your local community, organizing speaking events, hosting patriot Iraqis or people sincerely involved in the Iraqi issue, people that have been to Iraq or at least the ME and can give you a sense of the situation. You can organize many of these speaking events in your local community, university, church etc.
ON the other hand!
Mom has been working volunteerly for years now to improve the living conditions of Iraqis in Iraq and Iraqi refugees in Jordan. If you want to learn more about the projects she is doing then please read the post she has on her blog, she talks about the micro projects she funds that helps Iraqi families make a living, since Iraqis in Jordan are not allowed to work unless they have legal residency, and it's next to impossible to have one, most Iraqi families have no source of income, and are in real need for any kind of help, the Jordanian and Iraqi governments have ignored them, and international community abandoned them, UNHCR and other NGOs are doing very, very small work when compared to the numbers of refugees and the size of their needs. If you are willing to help, please read mom's post:
http://www.collateralrepairproject.org/
peace upon you.....Since the beginning of the war against Iraq 2003, I was in Baghdad with my family,Before the war, I was just a mother of three boys, and Civil Engineer, working as executive manager of our firm in Baghdad.Main things in my life , was my family and my carrier.After the invasion, my life was changed, as what happened to many people inside Iraq or outside.The destruction of the country, violence with bloodshed, continued to be a daily ritual in our days.Since that time I started to work with Iraqi women NGOs in Baghdad, my aim was to help poor families, especially who lost their providers, by funding micro projectfor each family, to keep them survived and independent.
But the Iraqi women I was working with them that time, refused my vision, they were from business women, who were seeking for projects to fund their own projects.After I have left Iraq due to bad security conditions, and kidnapping of my son Khalid, the family decided to leave and settle in Jordan in 2005,We kept working to send medical supplies and water units to Iraqi hospitals, then I started to visit poor Iraqi families here, my network started to be bigger and bigger by the passing of time.
First, I tried to visit rich Iraqi families asking them to help their poor brothers and sisters, but they refused, I was very sad and disappointed, but by the passing of time, I decided to give micro loans to fund micro projects, the money was either from donation of friends, or from my pocket, its OK, I just want to see the change of the life of these families, on the ground.I was happy to see a family like Abo Abbas, I helped them with 320$ to buy special gas oven for Iraqi round bread, the man worked together with his wife and kids to mix flour with water, cut the pieces, spread it on wooden plates, then put it in the hot oven, when its ready , I saw their kids used their bike to deliver the bread for Iraqi restaurant around,…
After one month, the family moved to another house, I visited them , it is much better than the old one, the furniture was repaired, they looked in better conditions, I felt happy for them..This small loan changed their life to the better,..When I used to email my new friend Sasha, we talked about these stories, I sent her many stories about poor Iraqi families here with their photos, we talked many times and discussed many ideas about how can we help them?We agreed that micro loans is a kind of tiring operation, we need some one who will follow them to get the money back, If we can fund each poor family with small budget like 200$ , less or more, it will be easier for all the parts, the donor, the family, and for our teams.We decided then to announce about CRP, and put stories with photos , about these poor families here, who has no legal residency and no right to work , so how can they keep themselves survived?Should we ask them to go back home in Iraq to face death?What is the solution?
I think CRP (www.collateralrepairproject.org)now is working to help these Iraqi families who are refugees , with no right to work, with no legal residency,..May be we can help them in a way or another , to keep them survived, until we all can go back home , one day…Then, about our proposals for projects inside Iraq, its either for IDP who are suffering from the lack of basic needs, or for poor Iraqi families inside many provinces who are abandoned from the government due to corruption controlling the country in this dark era..Hope the positive change will happen in Iraq, one day, and Iraqis will go back home to rebuild their country by their own hands,Amen..
Faiza Alaraji
Iraqi mother,
Civil Engineer
Blogger.
I apologize for my extended absence, life kept me busy for the last few months.
People always ask me how can they help Iraqis?
In many ways, if your government is involved in this war, you can do a lot of work to put pressure on it to withdraw their troops or cut their support, and you can do so either by demanding your representitives in the government, individualy and by organizing moves and gathering as much people as possible to do that. A great and essential thing to be done is to work on public awareness, by learning about the situation in Iraq and teaching your local community, organizing speaking events, hosting patriot Iraqis or people sincerely involved in the Iraqi issue, people that have been to Iraq or at least the ME and can give you a sense of the situation. You can organize many of these speaking events in your local community, university, church etc.
ON the other hand!
Mom has been working volunteerly for years now to improve the living conditions of Iraqis in Iraq and Iraqi refugees in Jordan. If you want to learn more about the projects she is doing then please read the post she has on her blog, she talks about the micro projects she funds that helps Iraqi families make a living, since Iraqis in Jordan are not allowed to work unless they have legal residency, and it's next to impossible to have one, most Iraqi families have no source of income, and are in real need for any kind of help, the Jordanian and Iraqi governments have ignored them, and international community abandoned them, UNHCR and other NGOs are doing very, very small work when compared to the numbers of refugees and the size of their needs. If you are willing to help, please read mom's post:
About CRP , why ?
http://www.collateralrepairproject.org/
peace upon you.....Since the beginning of the war against Iraq 2003, I was in Baghdad with my family,Before the war, I was just a mother of three boys, and Civil Engineer, working as executive manager of our firm in Baghdad.Main things in my life , was my family and my carrier.After the invasion, my life was changed, as what happened to many people inside Iraq or outside.The destruction of the country, violence with bloodshed, continued to be a daily ritual in our days.Since that time I started to work with Iraqi women NGOs in Baghdad, my aim was to help poor families, especially who lost their providers, by funding micro projectfor each family, to keep them survived and independent.
But the Iraqi women I was working with them that time, refused my vision, they were from business women, who were seeking for projects to fund their own projects.After I have left Iraq due to bad security conditions, and kidnapping of my son Khalid, the family decided to leave and settle in Jordan in 2005,We kept working to send medical supplies and water units to Iraqi hospitals, then I started to visit poor Iraqi families here, my network started to be bigger and bigger by the passing of time.
First, I tried to visit rich Iraqi families asking them to help their poor brothers and sisters, but they refused, I was very sad and disappointed, but by the passing of time, I decided to give micro loans to fund micro projects, the money was either from donation of friends, or from my pocket, its OK, I just want to see the change of the life of these families, on the ground.I was happy to see a family like Abo Abbas, I helped them with 320$ to buy special gas oven for Iraqi round bread, the man worked together with his wife and kids to mix flour with water, cut the pieces, spread it on wooden plates, then put it in the hot oven, when its ready , I saw their kids used their bike to deliver the bread for Iraqi restaurant around,…
After one month, the family moved to another house, I visited them , it is much better than the old one, the furniture was repaired, they looked in better conditions, I felt happy for them..This small loan changed their life to the better,..When I used to email my new friend Sasha, we talked about these stories, I sent her many stories about poor Iraqi families here with their photos, we talked many times and discussed many ideas about how can we help them?We agreed that micro loans is a kind of tiring operation, we need some one who will follow them to get the money back, If we can fund each poor family with small budget like 200$ , less or more, it will be easier for all the parts, the donor, the family, and for our teams.We decided then to announce about CRP, and put stories with photos , about these poor families here, who has no legal residency and no right to work , so how can they keep themselves survived?Should we ask them to go back home in Iraq to face death?What is the solution?
I think CRP (www.collateralrepairproject.org)now is working to help these Iraqi families who are refugees , with no right to work, with no legal residency,..May be we can help them in a way or another , to keep them survived, until we all can go back home , one day…Then, about our proposals for projects inside Iraq, its either for IDP who are suffering from the lack of basic needs, or for poor Iraqi families inside many provinces who are abandoned from the government due to corruption controlling the country in this dark era..Hope the positive change will happen in Iraq, one day, and Iraqis will go back home to rebuild their country by their own hands,Amen..
Faiza Alaraji
Iraqi mother,
Civil Engineer
Blogger.
posted by Khalid at 4:31 PM
36 Comments:
Hi Khalid,
Funny. I just have to ask. Who did you contact in your government during the Iraq/Iran war, or the invasion of Kuwait? Where did you march, what anti-war movements did you join? People want to know.
Or is it only the people in the west that should protest their governments. Should I quote your brother on what he thought of people that protested their governments?
Dear Madtom, could you dig a whole and disappear while someone is trying to do something constructive around?:)
i guess not.
to answer your question, i wasnt born when the iraq/iran war started. and i was 9 when the kuwait war started, and i was living in Jordan too.
And Saddam was a dictator that killed anyone that opposed him so people didnt oppose him and didnt march or demonstrate, whats your excuse?
could we not talk about this, and coul you help with our campaign, please?
Your asking me for help on for a campaign I know nothing about, and you don't want me to ask any questions either? Life in Iraq has colored you Khalid.
"And Saddam was a dictator that killed anyone that opposed him so people didnt oppose him and didnt march or demonstrate, whats your excuse?'
And? What should be done, Your asking us to stop our efforts to get the dictators and tyrants. If Iraqis ever do gain the right to demonstrate, are they going to demonstrate the US or their own dictators?
Or maybe we should do as you say and just forget the people of the ME, just leave them to their little existence kneeling before their little tyrants, praying that no one notice them today, so they can live to kneel again tomorrow.
Well if that is what you want me to cooperate with Khalid, you can count me out. I will continue to advocate modernity and liberty for all, Arab, Iraqi Kurd, Persian, Christian Jew Muslim, or atheist, makes no difference to me. To me they are all the same, and deserving of a decent life, and a fair chance in this world.
I will of course post your link, that was a given before you asked.
"" Your asking me for help on for a campaign I know nothing about, and you don't want me to ask any questions either? Life in Iraq has colored you Khalid. ""
for god's sake madtom, i am talking about the campaign provided to help Iraqi refugees, and you are asking questions about Iran war, how is that related?
**rolling eyes big time at all the rest of your comment**
i really am not interested of going through this, AGAIN, WITH YOU, ONCE MORE, and this post is about the campaign, as i said, thank you for postig the link and lets stick to the positive things we can do please, thank you:)
and what do you mean " Your asking me for help on for a campaign I know nothing about" ??
did you even read the post?! read the post and you will everythign about it!
:)
and i am here to asnwer any questions you might have, anytime.
please pay no attention to "Madtom"; it seems he's just a jerk who wants attention of the wrong kind. My best wishes to you and your project.
After I have left Iraq due to bad security conditions, and kidnapping of my son Khalid, the family decided to leave and settle in Jordan in 2005
Were you kidnapped Khalid?
Thank you very much Jonathan for your support, he isnt a real jerk, but he always gets distracted and distracts people of the main topic.
thanks again for your comment:)
cmar ii,
read my post about it
http://secretsinbaghdad.blogspot.com/2005/07/i-found-myself.html
" i am talking about the campaign provided to help Iraqi refugees,"
Oh ok, I was responding to your plea for westerners to protest our evil governments. The funny part is that, the long tern cure for the Iraqi refugee problem are more or less the same as Iraqis political problems. The solutions are related.
You could put a bandaid on the problem, but to solve the crisis you have to make the hard choices.
It seems to me that taking your approach, of just surrendering the region to tyrants will only make the refugee problem worst and give people no hope at all of ever seeing the end..
Cuba is not at war with the US, there are no US troops occuping la Habana, yet over two million Cuban refugees live outside their country. I wonder what Iraq and Cuba could possibly have in common?
madtom,
i am going to ask you to respect the idea of sticking to the subject of post.
and i am going to ask yout o stop making silly statements like "It seems to me that taking your approach, of just surrendering the region to tyrants " i want to surrender the region to tyrants? you silly imperialist wanna be.
its very simple, you do these two things or i will ask you kindly to stop anoying me and go seek attention somewhere else.
" I wonder what Iraq and Cuba could possibly have in common? "
that both wouldnt bow for the great empire?
look, i am not opening space for discussion about this here, and since i know you, for about 4 years now, and know that its nearly as useful to reply to your comments and correct your misconceptions adn false accusations, as it is to just ignore them, because you never show signs of achieving the process called "learning" or even "importing info from a page into brain" these skills that you havent mastered, result in you saying silly things on my blog, most of the time out of context, and often outside the subject of the post, me correcting them to you, and you repeating them again over and over.
your comments serve only in causing distraction,and making other people call you a jerk while i defend you, and i am not going to tolerate that anymore, delete button will be active, you have been officialy warned.
"and i am not going to tolerate that anymore, delete button will be active, you have been officialy warned."
OK I'll leave you to your cheering squad.
"Lets here it for Khalid. Hip hip Hooray!"
THANK YOU! DEAR GOD!!
if i knew that could work, i would have tried it eyars ago.
(though Khalid does lose points for not sending promised post cards...but then helping starving families is more important....)
seb
:)
:P
Khalid ,this is my first time visiting your blog,I just came to tell you I apologize for what happened to my Iraqi brothers and sister in Jordan,I am truly sorry and and Iam ashamed to call my self Jordanian ,when Iraq is liberated I like to come to your country and ask for the Iraqi citizenship.
haha :D
Iraq will sure love to have you there, once liberated, with the help of hands like yours! :)
Thank you very much for your comment, i hope to see you around more often!
haha seb, i know what you mean :P
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
tom, your comment have been deleted, you can either wait for a post in that subject or email me.
thank you.
That's all right Khalid, I think your reaction tells me all I needed to know.
exactly: that you cant discuss subjects and topics out of the post's! which i clearly explained above directed to you persoally, without any obvious indications that you did actually process that info from the page to to your system.
nevertheless, i actually think its an important topic that you started this time, and i mgiht actually write a post about it soon:)
Khalid I did not introduce any new topics.
Your "liberation" seeking Jordanian friend introduced the new topic, and then you responded.
In actuality buy responding as you did, you in fact opened the new topic for discussion in this post.
But I know, Jordanians get special dispensation.
You will learn equal rights one day, we hope. But maybe "some people" are right, and it's just too much to ask from "you people". Myself not being as of yet convinced some people are right.
***rollliinggg eyeess***
the guy is here for the first time, and was commenting for the first time here, on a long debate we participated in on another blog, hat shoudl i tell him? he decently posted one comment and thats it, thats a nother concept you must try familiarizing yourself with maybe :D
:)
tom, please, hold your horses, wait until i write that post about the meanign of liberation and we will discuss it:) now coudl we stop talking about that you shouldnt be talking here off topic? because that itself it talking off topic, 20 comments now and hardly any is about the original subject, please, please i beg you, stop it! or i might be too sensitive and delete them all :O
Hah! Khalid, you have the patience of a saint! I would have hit the delete button a long time ago. Anyway, I have been reading your mom's blog about these projects and I think it's a very clever and useful way of providing constructive aid to people who will make the best use of it. A small investment for potentially big payoffs, what's not to like? Isn't a healthy, productive, self-sustaining family a great boon to all society?
Nice to have you back! I would have been worried about you but I figured if there were anything wrong someone else in your family would have mentioned it.
I leave you a video on non violence. I hop you enjoy.
Big Hug, Roberto
Contact: crisol1950@gmail.com
http://video.google.fr/videoplay?docid=6753184449967918648&hl=fr+
Khalid,
Ecstatic to see you posting again,and to hear of your mother's project. I wrote you an email as well. Thanks for passing the word on. I will too Insha'Allah at the MSA at my school. With Ramadan coming up,now's a goodtime to remember charity. As we should always.
Peace,
aisha
Hi Khalid,
I've followed your and your brothers blogs for ages, almost like watching you guys grow up, albeit often in very challenging circumstances to say the least. I have been a Riverbend fan as well and of course most of this Iraqi blog reading of mine started with Salam Pax.
Anyway, just so you know others are helping, I have made 4 micro loans to Iraqi's so far via Kiva.org and their affiliate on the ground over there. Perhaps you might suggest to your Mom that she consider affiliating herself with Kiva. If it works out, you will find more funding than you can imagine. Most loan requests are funded within a couple days at the most.
Best Wishes and stay safe,
Bobby
"Kiva.org "
Are you kidding, that's capitalism, and an American imperialist/Zionist plot to destroy Islam.
Melissa, No, Assha: Thank you very much for your comments.
Bobby: :)
we grew so old now Bobby, havent we? i was telling someone yesterday that i feel that we all grew up 50 years in the last 5 years.
Thank you so much for the Kiva suggestion, can you tell me how to get to be on their website? i tried a while ago and now again, i dont know if its the fact that i just woke up, or is it the truth that there isnt anything on the website explaining how to ask for a donation? all the activities i seem to find are ones for donating money?
how do we get to put the photoes and stories of the people that need help among the ones that are on the website?
Any help would be much appreciated:)
Tom: Not done digging that hole yet? need a hand?:) or maybe need a head? :D
Hi Khalid,
From the Kiva Contact Page:
Microfinance Institutions:
If you would like your organization to be considered for partnership with Kiva, please send the following information to partnerships@kiva.org
Name and address of organization
Country of operation
Number of years conducting micro-lending
Average loan size
Current number of clients
Kiva was featured on the "Oprah" show here in the U.S. today and the response crashed their servers for a short time. The eagerness of many citizens here and around the world to help is really amazing. I hope you guys can work out a relationship with them. I know they screen their affiliates fairly closely but the aim is to assist as much as possible thus requiring due diligence on their part regarding their field partners.
Knowing a bit about the story you guys have, I think you should be a great candidate. Just tell them your story and hopefully soon I will have some of your clients on my lender's page.
Again,
Best Wishes and Stay Safe,
Bobby
Hi Again Khalid,
I checked again just to be sure and there is currently only one field partner in Iraq associated with Kiva. It's an organization in Kirkuk. Here is the link to their page on Kiva.
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=about&action=aboutPartner&id=50
Hopefully this helps. As previously noted, I am confident if you guys can establish yourselfs with Kiva you will be able to help hundreds and thousands of people there.
Best Regards,
Bobby
Wonderful, thank you very very much! thanks a million for your help and care interest to help, thank a lot really, i will dig it up:)
**some people need to learn from Bobby** :D
"thank you very very much! "
We will see.. I have a suggestion for you, you could introduce your own employees to the program. A few of them could take advantage of the micro loan program and start their own part time water filter system company.
But there is a down side for you. Once established they may no longer be willing to work for a $2.00 a month salary
I remember making a similar suggestion about 4 years ago on one of my favorite Iraqi blogs only to be shot down by the locals. Maybe this time it will be different.
You see Madtom, you only think that you are funny, but what's really funny is that you are banned from writing comments on this blog from now on, you were just beging for it, and now you got it, congratiolations.
Dear Khalid,
Madtom does not understand the history of the region. Most importantly, he seems to know nothing of the role England and America have played in bringing Saddam Hussein to power and keeping him in power for over 20 years. He seems to know nothing of the millitary tactics England used to control Mideastern governments to get cheap oil prior to and following World War I. He knows nothing of the high infant mortality rates among Arabs under British military rule. The suffering caused by repeated military coups that resulted from that domination is beyond his immagination. He also seems to have missed out on the footage of the young Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein.
In Jan. 1991, when the international coalition chased Saddam's army out of Kuwait, Amnesty International's quarterly news publication showed a picture of Kurds fleeing Saddam's army in the 1970's. AI had been begging the international community to boycott Saddam's government since the 1970's, but AI had been ignored. In fact the American ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, had basically told Saddam that if he invaded Kuwait the U.S. would not object. To quote an American naval officer, "They baited him". The invasion of Kuwait gave America an excuse for taking control of Iraqi land, known as the "no-fly zone".
We Americans have more than 200 years of elected government. There are real economic advantages to that -- military advantages too. Unfortunately, it doesn't necessarily improve our moral values.
I believe America's behavior in the Middle East will go down in history as one of our long-time continuing disasters, along with Vietnam, slavery, and the near anihilation of Native American cultures.
I admire your mother. She is a very strong lady.
Best wishes, Sharon
mad tom is just a little brat who understands the pimple on his butt and prefers it that way.
ON A MUCH BRIGHTER NOTE.......
I heard that israel is now demanding that U.S. aid be in euros, not dollars. Does anyone know if that's true? How exactly can we find out? Does anyone have web links?
:-)
Dear Khalid.
I don't intend to protest any government as long as they intend to stay in your country. It's good for you, that at least some armed forces in your country are not muslims.
I don't really trust that muslim regimes can develop to real democracys on their own. On the opposite, they seem to have tendency to fall to more or less bad governments where dictators rule.
I thought that you were a women? Are you really that short-minded that you belive that your human rights will be respected if westerners leave your country? Are you sure, that some stupid islamic group doesn't set Iran like government in your country and enforce Sharia laws? Guess how much you and your co-sisters miss your life under "occupancy" then...
You had your job in Husseins Iraq because Mr. Hussein was not pro-religious bullshit after all. He may not have been the greateast human rights activist but he was not worst because he thought women and men are equal. You would have your life back unless your country were filled with stupid gunmen who try to use the situation to settle a bad government beyond your imagination. You really want to support them???
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