IRAQ: Visit to the Qalawa IDP camp
August 8th, 2008
in:
CPTnet
8 July 2008
IRAQ: Visit to the Qalawa IDP camp
by Chichun Yuan
The young boy stared at people with big eyes while his mother was begging money from foreign strangers for his medication. Slowly, he raised his hand and injected some medicine into the other hand. No words came out from his bloodless lips. He closed his eyes to rest, or maybe to refuse to read my face. Was he trying to say, "Do not pretend that you don't know my misery of displacement; do not ask me to tell you that I really need money, not for greed, but for a chance to grow up."
CPT Iraq has visited internally displaced people (IDPs) at the Qalawa camp in Suleimaniya (set up in 2006) several times. They have fled from insecure cities in southern Iraq. Recently, the authorities decided to move the camp outside the city.
On 2 July, CPTers visited one family with a sick boy in this camp. The mother said they had inexplicably stopped receiving humanitarian aid for four months. Humanitarian groups told CPT they had stooped the aid because they saw families selling humanitarian materials for money. Some other local groups said the control men had over their families made developing any project for women and children difficult. The government said they could not give the people living in Qalawa camp sanitary facilities because the camp is on private land.
But the authorities promised better tents and toilets if the people of Qalawa move outside city. The non-governmental groups promised to start projects for women and children in the new place. They are optimistic that the IDPs will live better, and that begging and prostitution will end, but they insist that those ideal changes and services cannot happen now, not while the people are located in Qalawa.
The new camp is not built yet. Qalawa residents have heard about the move but still live in uncertainty. Are they as optimistic about their future as the outsiders? The sick boy's body and eyes seem to say something different to the people who hold the resources, " Look at me right now. I might not have time to receive your mercy in the future."
On 9 July, CPT accompanied two men and three women to visit the Directorate of Health in Suleimaniya. Because the men and women met Dr. M separately, he heard the women's voices. The following Saturday, Dr. F, the head of Qalawa public clinic, visited the camp and told people that they could receive free and accessible medical service in his public clinic.
8 July 2008
IRAQ: Visit to the Qalawa IDP camp
by Chichun Yuan
The young boy stared at people with big eyes while his mother was begging money from foreign strangers for his medication. Slowly, he raised his hand and injected some medicine into the other hand. No words came out from his bloodless lips. He closed his eyes to rest, or maybe to refuse to read my face. Was he trying to say, "Do not pretend that you don't know my misery of displacement; do not ask me to tell you that I really need money, not for greed, but for a chance to grow up."
CPT Iraq has visited internally displaced people (IDPs) at the Qalawa camp in Suleimaniya (set up in 2006) several times. They have fled from insecure cities in southern Iraq. Recently, the authorities decided to move the camp outside the city.
On 2 July, CPTers visited one family with a sick boy in this camp. The mother said they had inexplicably stopped receiving humanitarian aid for four months. Humanitarian groups told CPT they had stooped the aid because they saw families selling humanitarian materials for money. Some other local groups said the control men had over their families made developing any project for women and children difficult. The government said they could not give the people living in Qalawa camp sanitary facilities because the camp is on private land.
But the authorities promised better tents and toilets if the people of Qalawa move outside city. The non-governmental groups promised to start projects for women and children in the new place. They are optimistic that the IDPs will live better, and that begging and prostitution will end, but they insist that those ideal changes and services cannot happen now, not while the people are located in Qalawa.
The new camp is not built yet. Qalawa residents have heard about the move but still live in uncertainty. Are they as optimistic about their future as the outsiders? The sick boy's body and eyes seem to say something different to the people who hold the resources, " Look at me right now. I might not have time to receive your mercy in the future."
On 9 July, CPT accompanied two men and three women to visit the Directorate of Health in Suleimaniya. Because the men and women met Dr. M separately, he heard the women's voices. The following Saturday, Dr. F, the head of Qalawa public clinic, visited the camp and told people that they could receive free and accessible medical service in his public clinic.