The widows and orphans need food, clothing, and bedding.

They need to know that someone, somewhere, cares about them.

LFT Supporters, it costs GBP 0.50 (USD 1.00) per day to sponsor an Orphan

No exact statistics exist about the number of widows in Iraq, but it must be one of the highest in the world. For almost three decades, Iraq has been suffering under a brutal dictatorship. In addition, the country has gone through three wars and 10 years of international sanctions. As a result, fathers died in Saddam's prisons, on the war front and from diseases that could not be treated properly due to the deterioration of the health system. It is estimated that out of a population of 27 million, more than a million persons were killed during the wars and about half a million perished due to persecution under Saddam, most of them young and middle-aged men. Presently, people are dying in large numbers every day from diseases caused by the pollution of wide parts of Iraq with depleted uranium that was used in weapons in both the 1991 and the 2003 wars.

Al Kut was one of the marginalized cities in Iraq during the Baathest regime. In the war with Iran, it was a front line city and took heavy casualties.  In general the percentage of needy people in Al Kut is even higher than in many other Iraqi cities, and especially the number of widows is very high. According to an official source, out of a population of less than one million, over 10,000 persons are widows. Of these, 6,000 receive very limited assistance from social services. The other 4,000 widows are not registered with social services for two reasons: Either they have no one to guide them through the extensive paperwork or they do not have the necessary documents to complete their files. For instance many of the people who disappeared in Saddam's prisons or were killed in summary executions have no death certificates. Therefore, their families can not apply for government support. These families are dependent on donations from NGOs for survival.

The stories of these widows are harrowing:  the greatest authors would be challenged to put the suffering of these widows and their families adequately into words.  

Case Study 1:  Sumayah Jamil Eidan

Sumayah would rise early each morning to wake up her husband to go to work and her two sons to attend school.  Her husband worked long hours for a meagre salary, but with great care, they managed to survive.  That was until the day her husband was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was killed during a terrorist bombing. 

Sumayah became a widow with no man to protect her.  Her two sons had to leave school.  Ahmed, who had hoped to become an engineer, now spends his days scrounging garbage dumps for empty cans, which he sells as scrap metal.  Ehsan, who had wanted to study law, left school to work in local market selling plastic bags.

Case Study 2:  Nahida Abdul-Hussain Khaleef

Nahida used to live in a simple house in the Taji region of Baghdad with her husband and 7 children.  Her husband worked in construction.  He and other employees were kidnapped; a month later, their bodies were found, with clear signs of torture.  When the terrorist group then began to intimidate Nahida and her children, they fled to Kut although they have no family or friends there.  They live in a shelter with a roof made from reeds and palm branches. The reeds cause Nahida to have asthma attacks, but she has barely enough money for food, let alone for medicine.  The only child old enough to contribute a bit to expenses is her 16-year old son.

Case Study 3:  Lamya Shati Saafi

The widow Lamya Shati Saafi and her four children live in a mud house in a village near Kut.  They were poor and her husband, who was jobless, decided to go to Baghdad hoping to find work there.  On the highway, the car he was travelling in was stopped by a terrorist group and everyone was ordered out of the vehicle.  Lamya's husband was murdered in the most brutal manner.  The oldest son, aged 19, managed to keep the family together for another 18 months, until terrorists came and murdered him, too.  Next, the husband of Lamya's

 oldest daughter was murdered.  The daughter moved back to the mother's mud house:  they are known as the family of the Older Widow and the Younger Widow.

Case Study 4:  Haleema Hussain Alwan

When Haleema was young, during the Baathist years, her family was deported to Iran.  She remained, with no other family member, in Iraq.  A man married her, although his family disowned him for doing so.  After the fall of Saddam, Haleema's husband joined the National Guard.  Not long after that, he was captured and terribly tortured by a terrorist militia group.  He was dumped at the door of his house, and died shortly afterwards in hospital.  Then, the terrorist group began harassing Haleema, to force her and her children to abandon the house they were living in.  A compassionate person helped her and her children to move to Kut, and rented one room for them to live in.

When a representative of IRAC visited her, he was shocked to see not a single household item in the room.  Haleema's small children had to sit and sleep on the bare floor. There was not even one plate or bowl for them to eat from.  IRAC immediately purchased some dishes and a cooking pot, bedding and a kerosene heater have for this family.

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This is how uncounted numbers of widows and their orphans live.  As more come to the city of Kut, the need for assistance for them is greater.

IRAC is working now in Kut, and is anxious to expand its work as soon as possible, to the thousands of desperately needy widows and their orphaned children. 

The widows and orphans need food, clothing, and bedding. They need income so that their children can attend school, rather than scrounging for plastic bags or working at decade menial jobs that barely pay for bread.

They need to know that someone, somewhere, cares about them.

READ MORE

It's a good idea to have a look at the pictures uploaded on LFT web site of the 300 orphans sponsored in Karbala. The program is going to be expanded to cover 350 orphans this month in sha'a Allah. 

I urge you brothers/sisters to spend few minutes looking at these pictures. I would like to get your attention to the following points:

1// Look at these people's miserable faces.

2// Look at their shabby clothes.

3// Look at their children happy faces after they got the instalment. The happiness they try to hide because they are not use to it.

4// Imagine you are the person adopted this cutie girl/boy. For the few dollars you sent how much Thawab and Ehsan you are getting.  

NB Trust has full names and address of the beneficiaries

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• The Trust has entered into an agreement with Comfort Aid International in Texas to enable United States of America Citizens to donate to the Trust via a local Charity at ZERO% admin cost. Please contact us for further information. We sincerely thank Comfort Aid International. info@comfortaid.org

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• The Lady Fatemah Trust has been granted Ijaaza by Ayatollah al-Uzma Seyed Ali Seestani to collect Khums money. Please remember we operate on the basis of zero% administration costs, so every penny you give goes directly to those in need. Click to view Ijaza

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Please remember that completing a Gift Aid form substantially boosts your donation by 28% if you are a UK taxpayer.

Thank you, as always for all your generosity and support without which our work would not be possible.

Yours sincerely,

Amirali G. Karim

Chairman of the Board of Trustees

info@ladyfatemahtrust.org

http://www.ladyfatemahtrust.org/

Tel: +44 (0) 7798 76 10 20 

Tel +44 (0) 1494 762 063, Email info@ladyfatemahtrust.org, Fax +44 (0) 1494 762 286,
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