To combine with NCCI charter, NGOs members have to pay the fees 3 months in advance. Those that have not paid yet are kindly requested to pay contacting Giovanna: [email protected] EDITORIAL Issue 86 – October 18th, 2007 ------------------------------------------- The unassuming humanitarian actors Admittedly, genuine NGOs working in Iraq are not visible. They are not present in the Media. You almost cannot hear a sound from them. They are not communicating with the outside world. They are not advertising. Admittedly this is a double edged sword. Because it allows other groups to claim, for their own profit, they are NGOs or humanitarian actors, when they are not. In GHT I addition, it allows other organisations to take credit for NGO’s activities and programmes. L However, NGOs cannot communicate, mainly for the protection of the beneficiaries of their programmes, and the security of their staff. NGOs are H indeed, with the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, amongst the few genuine humanitarian actors with a physical presence among vulnerable populations G across Iraq. I Media often report Iraqi deaths. However, there are also hundreds of Iraqis injured by violence every month. Hospitals are saturated with patients, under- H staffed, and subjected to violence. It is NGOs that provide hospitals with supplies. Y It is NGOs that take care of handicapped Iraqis. It is NGOs that cure crippled Iraqis. It is NGOs that rehabilitate them. L K There are also thousands of Iraqi orphans. It is NGOs that meet their basic needs to survive. It is NGOs that support them psychologically. It is NGOs that take care E about working children providing solutions to families that allow children to E return to school. It is NGOs that work with the most vulnerable of them, the streetchildren. It is NGOs that support them on daily basis. It is NGOs that run programs to reintegrate them into their families. It is NGOs that run youth and children centres. It is NGOs that provide psycho-social support to children. W I It is NGOs that go where the most vulnerable Iraqis are. It is NGOs that listen to displaced people. It is NGOs that talk to them. It is NGOs that know the misery of their daily life and their needs. It is NGOs that are part of the first responses provided by Iraqi solidarity mechanisms. It is NGOs that provide vulnerable Iraqis with food, non-food items, water, health care and legal support. It is NGOs that protect Iraqis. It is NGOs that lobby for human rights and women’s rights. It NCC is NGOs that denounce abuses. In the current context of mistrust, fear and daily risks, it is NGOs that meet with people where they live. It is NGOs that offer space to Iraqis to express themselves and converse. It is NGOs that activate reconciliation processes at the grassroots level. It is NGOs that, through linkages and the promotion of dialogue are building a true social fabric that will be the base of the future restoration of Iraq. When it is needed or becomes possible, it is NGOs that develop income generation projects with communities. All in all, it is NGOs that take the risks. More precisely, it is the NGOs’ staff, the real aid workers, who put their lives in danger to support the most vulnerable Iraqis. It is NGOs that respond to the needs of vulnerable Iraqis, regardless of their ‘colour’ or their background. It is NGOs that, on daily basis, are creative enough to find solutions to their beneficiaries’ problems. It is NGOs that find ways to access the most vulnerable populations in Iraq. It is NGOs that give them the possibility to have access to the aid they need. Above all, it is NGOs that with affected Iraqis on daily basis. Wherever they are. Whoever they are. Whatever their basic needs are. It is also NGOs that are requested to be the most accountable to their beneficiaries; and they are. It is NGOs that are requested to be more fiscally responsible than most before the donor community; and they are. It is NGOs that are expected to be the most transparent type of organisation; and they are. It is NGOs that require themselves to be the most independent, the most impartial, the most irreproachable. So they tend to be. On the other hand, it is not NGOs that are responsible for the war and the violence. It is not NGOs that contract killers. It is not NGOs that increase the corruption. It is not NGOs that are responsible for the 4 years of failures in the so-called “Iraq reconstruction”. It is not NGOs that use propaganda or marketing. Despite such a context, it is NGOs that constantly open new spaces to respond to the needs of the vulnerable. It is NGOs that, silently, created and maintain the small humanitarian space where genuine humanitarian actors are active today. What would the situation on the ground for Iraqis be without these genuine and courageous humanitarian actors? What would the living conditions of the most vulnerable Iraqis be without the work of NGOs and the Red Cross / Red Crescent movement, throughout the past four years? What would the scale of the humanitarian crisis be if the entire international community had adapted to the changed context in Iraq and responded concretely to Iraqi needs as quickly as NGOs did? If the support needed by Iraqis, and requested by NGOs, had been responded on time? NGOs cannot prevent the whole humanitarian crisis in Iraq. NGOs cannot save Iraq. But, NGOs mitigate the impact of the humanitarian crisis on Iraqis; NGOs alleviate the suffering of Iraqis. Please do not forget and do not neglect NGOs. Please do not abuse these vital humanitarian actors. --------------------------------------- Salaam, NCCI Team NCCI Weekly Highlight 2 Issue 86 – 10/18/2007 ____________________________________ Humanitarian Updates From NCCI, NGOs’ reports from the field and UN agencies Advocacy - The Real Iraq We Knew Source: Washington Post Document: Opinion By 12 former Army captains Date: October 16, 2007 Access: Open As Army captains who served in Baghdad and beyond, we've seen the corruption and the sectarian division. We understand what it's like to be stretched too thin. And we know when it's time to get out. What does Iraq look like on the ground? It's certainly far from being a modern, self-sustaining country. Many roads, bridges, schools and hospitals are in deplorable condition. Fewer people have access to drinking water or sewage systems than before the war. And Baghdad is averaging less than eight hours of electricity a day. Iraq's institutional infrastructure, too, is sorely wanting. Even if the Iraqis wanted to work together and accept the national identity foisted upon them in 1920s, the ministries do not have enough trained administrators or technicians to coordinate themselves. - Iraq's Brutally Wounded Source: Alternet Document: Photo Essay Date: October 18, 2007 Access: Open As Americans scramble for funding to try to help the many wounded veterans returning from war, many more thousands in Iraq have suffered equally horrific injuries, yet have virtually no way of receiving care. This is a slideshow of images from "Iraq, brutally wounded," followed by an interview with the photographer, Farah Nosh - UN calls for inquiry into deadly US strike in Iraq Source: Alertnet Document: Article Date: October 12, 2007 Access: Open The United Nations mission in Iraq urged U.S. forces on Friday to pursue a "vigorous" probe into an air strike that killed 15 women and children and said its findings must be made public so that lessons can be learned. - The Iraqi Genocide Source: Vdare Document: Opinion by Paul Craig Roberts Date: October 16, 2007 Access: Open Why has not the Turkish parliament given tit for tat and passed a resolution condemning the Iraqi Genocide? As a result of Bush’s invasion of Iraq, more than one million Iraqis have died, and several millions are displaced persons. The Iraqi death toll and the millions of uprooted Iraqis match the Armenian deaths and deportations. If one is a genocide, so is the other. It is true that most of the Iraqi deaths have resulted from Iraqis killing one another. But it was Bush’s destruction of the secular Iraqi state that unleashed the sectarian strife. - Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq Source: Democracy Now ! Document: Interview of Dahr Jamail Date: October 15, 2007 Access: Open As the UN calls for a vigorous investigation into a U.S. air raid that killed at least 15 women and children in Iraq, we speak to Dahr Jamail about his new book, the 2004 attack on Fallujah, the U.S. use of white phosphorous weapons, the role of Iran in Iraq and more NCCI Weekly Highlight 3 Issue 86 – 10/18/2007 Operational Humanitarian Space - Interagency Protection Strategy: Lessons Learned - Draft Source: UNHCR Document: Article Date: October 18, 2007 Access: Members Minutes of the Interagency Protection Strategy meeting on lessons learned held in Amman on October 16th. Blurring the Lines through Propaganda - PRTs Magazine Source: USAID Document: Article Date: October 15, 2007 Access: Open The last propaganda tool to promote PRTs. All Iraqi provinces are served by Provincial Reconstruction Teams, which now number 25. Each team is a hybrid civilian-military force working to establish provincial governments and teach their leaders ways to govern transparently and effectively, promote economic development and respond to the basic needs of their constituents. There are 10 full-size PRTs, five smaller teams and 10 teams embedded within military brigades. Humanitarian Needs and Assistance - Hundreds forced to scavenge for food in garbage bins Source: IRIN Document: Article Date: October 17, 2007 Access: Open Mayada Zuhair, a WRA spokeswoman, said the survey showed an increase of 25 percent, since the previous survey in December 2005, in the number of mothers who fed their children either by scavenging in people’s rubbish bins or by becoming sex workers.