Americans Not Giving Much to Help Iraqi Children
Tue April 29, 2003 05:47 PM ET
By Alan Elsner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An appeal launched on April 11 by the relief group Save the Children/USA to raise $3 million to help Iraqi children has so far collected only $100,000, the organization's director said on Tuesday.
Charles MacCormack, president and CEO of Save the Children/USA, said he thought many Americans might be under the impression their government and military were taking care of humanitarian needs in Iraq and therefore did not need to contribute.
"We are only up to $100,000 of the $3 million at this point. People have been focused on the war itself and the security situation rather than the humanitarian situation. But Americans should know their support is desperately wanted," MacCormack told Reuters.
Save the Children/USA set up the "Iraq Children in Crisis Fund" to allow contributors to earmark donations for shelter, fuel, medicine, food and water for Iraqi families, especially children.
The organization is now in several cities in southern Iraq, including Basra, Najaf and Kerbala, and has found a high incidence of diarrhea among children and a growing shortage of food.
"There are significant health problems and hospitals have either been looted or have used up their supplies of drugs. People are running out both of food and of fuel to cook it," MacCormack said.
"Practically every single hospital and clinic our people have visited has been pilfered bare," he said.
The organization is hoping to resume distribution of food under the U.N. oil-for-food organization that was administered by the Iraqi government before the war. Around 60 percent of the population is dependent on humanitarian food handouts, partly because of international sanctions on Iraq imposed after it invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Another problem is large amounts of unexploded ordnance that are injuring children. The Iraqi military stored weapons and ammunition in civilian buildings, including homes and schools. MacCormack said Save the Children workers had seen a number of children injured by such weapons in Iraqi hospitals.
Even before the war, large numbers of Iraqi children were in poor health. A U.N. report found the average Iraqi child had 10 to 20 cases of diarrhea each year, mainly from drinking contaminated water. MacCormack said he believed hundreds of thousands had died since 1990.
In a recent study, Yale University economist William Nordhaus said Iraq had experienced "one of the most catastrophic economic declines in modern history" under President Saddam Hussein, with living standards falling by 90 percent.
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