During the waning days of the fight for Baghdad in April 2003, a coalition armament struck the Naeem home, located in the Mada'en district in northern Baghdad. The aerial shell exploded, razing the family's home and killing Marwa's mother.
Marwa, the eldest of three siblings, sustained significant injuries. She was admitted to the emergency room at a local hospital and was treated for severe wounds to her face and extremities. During her hospitalization, her thumb was amputated. A portion of her face above the lip, including her nose, was severely mangled. She was 11 years old at the time of the bombing.
The family was unable to afford the costs of sophisticated medical surgery to repair the noticeable damage to her face. Humanitarian organizations stepped in to help Marwa and her family. International Relief and Development (IRD) first found Marwa while working to provide her unemployed father with a grocery store, as part of their income generation program under the Marla Ruzicka Iraqi War Victims Fund. One of IRD's staff members contacted CIVIC (Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict) and asked for help in coordinating efforts to have her taken out of Iraq for medical attention.
The Department of Plastic Surgery at the UCLA Medical Center generously agreed to cover the costs of reconstructive surgery to restore Marwa's face. They will assume all fees associated with her care. The Palestinian Children's Relief Fund, along with its network of volunteers, and the International Office on Migration (IOM), stepped in to assist with Marwa's travel to and stay in the United States.
Marwa had the last of her surgeries in May 2006 it was a complete success. Shortly after that in late June 2006 she returned to her family home in Baghdad to be with her father.
Near the bustling city of Kathmandu, Nepal is a beautiful hillside village. Sadly, it was marred by war when the farmer Kancha Dangul was shot and taken away from his family forever. One night two years ago Kancha was tasked with slaughtering a sacrificial buffalo a bit away from his village, but it was past the 6 o’Äôclock curfew set by the government. He was shot by the Army just outside the village gate, leaving his 86-year old mother and four children behind to care for. His mother still weeps at the loss with her hands in prayer. Kancha's daughter tries her best to cope, but has become very quiet, and her brother who used to be a straight-A student is now close to flunking out of school. Those are the ripples created by war, when innocent civilians are caught in the middle.
UPDATE: In August of 2008, we received tragic news of Rakan's death after a bomb exploded at his family's home in Mosul. He was 14 years-old. CIVIC is truly saddened and we offer our condolences to his grieving family.
On Jan. 18, 2005, as dusk fell in Tal Afar, a scruffy city in northwest Iraq, Rakan Hassan was riding in the family car, heading home after visiting his uncle. His father, Hussein Hassan, a clerk in the local electricity office, was driving faster than usual, trying to beat the curfew, because, after nightfall, in a town crawling with insurgents and US troops, anything could happen.
From the back seat, where he was crammed in with three of his sisters, his little brother, and a cousin, Rakan saw the dark figures up ahead, waving.
"Look!" Rakan shouted, pointing. But it was too late. A patrol of US soldiers, jumpy after recent attacks, thought the worst and opened fire. Rakan says it sounded like pops. The windshield splintered, and something punched him in the stomach. In an instant Hussein and his wife, Kamila, were dead in the front seat, their blood splattering the children in the back.
We traveled south Lebanon to visit with survivors of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. The first small town one we came to was Qana. Lebanese Christians believe this is where Jesus performed his first miracle, turning water to wine.
Qana also has a long, sad history of conflict. Perhaps most notably in 1996, when an Israeli missile attack hit a UN tent where the townspeople had fled for safety. Israel claimed a rocket launcher had been located nearby making the tent a viable target, but more than 100 civilians died that day.
In the 2006 war, Qana was peppered with clusters throughout the town and surrounding hills. This is the story of one small survivor.
Photo: CIVIC’Äôs Sarah and Marla B filming a neighborhood damaged by the 2006 war in Lebanon, still in a state of disrepair as of 2008.
Photos: Rakan just minutes after he was shot; Rakan at the hospital in Boston. Courtesy of Chris Hondros.
Photo: Mother Dangul, CIVIC.
Photos: Top, Marwa before surgery, courtesy of Chris Hondros. Bottom, Marla B (right) with Marwa shortly before she returned home.
