Fatah has a habit of holding onto his left leg

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/RMOI-6Y4MJL?OpenDocument

Iraq: Children living without limbs lack support

.....


"First of all, these children who lost their limbs need urgent psychological help. They consider themselves useless," Ala'a al-Sahaddi, vice-president of the Association of Iraqi Psychologists, said.

"Psychological programmes are indispensable. We have tried to help some children but we cannot afford a long-term project as we don't have a budget for that and we urge the Ministry of Health to open their eyes to so serious a problem," al-Sahaddi added.

Without money and support, the increasing numbers of disabled children in Iraq often live confined to their homes by their parents.

"We are a poor family. My husband is unemployed and I never worked in my life. We need money for the treatment of my child because the public health system is very bad," said Saluwa Waleed, 38, whose son nine-year-old son Sarmad lost his right arm in crossfire between insurgents and US-led forces in Fallujah two years ago.

"We cannot afford to get him transport to go to school and one of the teachers told us that it is better to keep him at home because after he lost his arm he cannot write well and with the other one he is slow, so will just delay the progress of other students," Saluwa added.

"Sarmad cries every day, asking me to bring back his arm or buy a new one. He cannot accept the idea of losing what he had. He was going to be a good painter. He loves to paint figures but now he cannot even hold a pen," she said.

[seemslikeadream]

1. "Believe me, we thought a magic thing would happen"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A809-2004Nov20_2.html

"Things have been worse for me since the war," said Kasim Said, a day laborer who was at Baghdad's main children's hospital to visit his ailing year-old son, Abdullah. The child, lying on a pillow with a Winnie the Pooh washcloth to keep the flies off his head, weighs just 11 pounds.

"During the previous regime, I used to work on the government projects. Now there are no projects," his father said.

When he finds work, he added, he can bring home $10 to $14 a day. If his wife is fortunate enough to find a can of Isomil, the nutritional supplement that doctors recommend, she pays $7 for it.

"But the lady in the next bed said she just paid $10," said Suad Ahmed, who sat cross-legged on a bed in the same ward, trying to console her skeletal 4-month-old granddaughter, Hiba, who suffers from chronic diarrhea.