ACT International launches appeal to support Iraqi people displaced by conflict

By George Arende, ACT International

AMMAN, JORDAN, July 27, 2007—The global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, launched a $ 873,259 (US) appeal on July 27, 2007, for Iraqi refugees in neighbouring states Jordan and Syria, as well as for people displaced internally within Iraq.

Syria and Jordan are struggling to host some 2.2 million Iraqis who have fled their country over the last four years. The mass exodus and internal displacement of people have been brought on by escalating sectarian conflict combined with the presence of foreign troops. Earlier this month the news agency Reuters quoted a United Nations refugee agency spokesperson as saying that massive displacement of Iraqis, internally and externally, continues unabated, causing a great deal of suffering and uncertainty. Estimates put the number of people fleeing the violence at 2,000 daily.

Wafa Goussous, who is based in Jordan and works for local ACT member Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), explains that Iraqis arriving in Jordan now are not allowed to work. “It means that the majority of the Iraqi refugees depend on support from aid agencies and relatives living abroad.”

The situation in Syria, where more than 1.5 million Iraqi refugees have sought shelter, isn’t much different either. Samer Lahham, who heads up the Damascus MECC office says, “Many families have been affected by the war in Iraq. It is important that we show solidarity with the people in addressing the situation in Syria.”

Along with MECC, other ACT members responding in the region are International Christian Orthodox Charities (IOCC) and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA).

IOCC’s regional director explains the difficult situation Iraqis find themselves in, not only as refugees in neighbouring countries, but equally so, if they remain in Iraq. “Families inside Iraq do not have anything to live on. They are stuck in Iraq, (often) with no relatives abroad to help and support them,” he says.

Fear of the future

Ahmed Kadhim* is an engineer who lives with his family in Baghdad. He says that living in the city is being steeped in violence, mayhem and constant grief.

“Life is dangerous for everyone, regardless of who you are,” he says, his face lined with sorrow and anxiety. “People are poor. Money is difficult to come by, and everything is expensive—oil for instance, which is hard to find and then not always affordable.”

He says that everyday when his daughter goes to college, “I fear for her life. Maybe something bad will happen to her.” Ahmed and his family (who was interviewed for the article in June this year), is concerned with what they say is a new wave of violence in Iraq. Shortly after granting the interview, Ahmed and his family return home to Iraq, his parting words that he is not feeling well and “psychologically in grief.”

Fuheis, a suburb in the western part of the city of Amman, is occupied by some sixty percent of the Iraqi refugees living in Jordan. Many apartments are now home to more than one family. Brenita* and her sister Berita, who fled Iraq with their children, is one such family who has been taken in by others.

Brenita and her four children say they left, because the situation proved to be too harsh to bear. “I lived in an area in Baghdad, but there were no jobs, we got death threats, my children were not safe … and they did not have a future.”

Children and women are particularly vulnerable in situations of conflict. Brenita’s story echoes that of many others—being forced to leave their life behind as they sought refuge in a foreign country, the sole support for the family. Her sister Berita is also the sole parent of her three children. Both the sisters’ husbands left years ago, in an attempt to seek asylum in Europe. To their knowledge, neither husband managed to reach their intended destinations. Brenita last heard from her husband six years ago; Benita, from her husband—13 years ago.

But in spite of the hardships they have encountered over the years, the anxiety that comes with income that barely covers the necessities and the over-riding concern of not being able to send their children to school, both agree that they prefer this. “Life is hard in Jordan, but we prefer living here than to being dead in Iraq.”

ACT members’ commitment and response

IOCC has been providing support to Iraqis since 2003. Its regional director, George Antoon explains that if people manage to flee the violence in Iraq, they can find themselves caught in a bureaucratic nightmare, where governments place restrictive conditions on both local and foreign NGOs’ assistance. In Jordan for instance, Iraqi refugees are referred to as ‘visitors’, an action that can hamper and derail the support they receive. IOCC has now approached the Red Crescent to look at jointly implementing programs as a safeguard against these restrictive measures.

In Iraq, NCA has been supporting communities for a decade now—in Baghdad, as well as in the south in Basra. The ACT member’s support focuses on providing access to safe water through water and sanitation programs, and the rehabilitation of water treatment plants and booster stations. In addition, NCA also supports several hospitals by providing water purification units, as well as five youth centres—one in northern Iraq, one in the south and the remaining ones in Baghdad—in cooperation with the Iraqi Ministry of Sports and Youth.

NCA’s acting representative in the region, Heidi Thorstensen, who works from Jordan, explains that the agency’s youth centres mainly provide a “safe haven” for children, allowing them to attend school. “We have activities for both boys and girls, regardless of their faith background … Muslims and Christians attend school together. The centres are seen as a source of hope for unity in a country.”

Along with these programs, NCA has also renovated schools and gardens in four villages in the deeply impoverished and neglected Marsh Arab areas, as well as supporting workshops aimed at empowering women in the areas of human rights and advocacy. These workshops have benefited some 180 women so far.

In Jordan, MECC, in partnership with US-based ACT member Church World Service (CWS), is distributing children clothes, toys, blankets and educational items to Iraqi refugees in Jordan. The council’s aim is to provide emergency relief to some 400 Iraqi refugees. In Iraq, MECC still supports an art school and continues to work with the support of New-Zealand ACT member Christian World Service, to distribute paediatric medicines.  Last year, MECC implemented a cash grant program, supporting 485 families in Iraq in total with these small grants.

The ACT appeal: Assistance to refugees and internally displaced persons in Iraq, Jordan and Syria (MEIQ71), will run for ten months.

*All names of people interviewed were changed for reasons of personal security 

George Arende is the communications coordinator for the Kenyan Evangelical Lutheran Church and was seconded to ACT International as a field communications officer.

 ACT communications contributed to the feature article.