Why Iraq?

Traveling to Iraq: Dec. 2001 Delegation

What about a humanitarian crisis?

Why should we care? The role of the US.

What can I do? What can we do?

War and eleven years of economic trade sanctions on Iraq have had horrendous consequences for the children of Iraq. UNICEF reports in 2001:

• 30% of Iraqi children suffer from chronic malnutrition, twice the portion of 1990.
• An Iraqi child has on average 14.4 cases of diarrhea per year from drinking impure water.
• One in eight Iraqi children dies before the age of five, twice the rate of 1990.

"Failure to thrive" is the medical term for children whose bodies don't put on weight—like this child who weighs six pounds at one year of age. Malnutrition affects 55 percent of Iraqi children; prior to the imposition of sanctions, childhood obesity was the number one health concern for Iraqi parents. Photo by David Radcliff

A December 2001 Church of the Brethren delegation saw the effects of the sanctions firsthand and heard many messages like this one from Metropolitan Seleba of the Syrian Orthodox Church: "The spirit of the people is strong, but the suffering is great. Take this message to your people-we consider the Christians in America to be our brothers and sisters in Christ. They will be affected by what you say."