Shoes for Al Huda's Children
October 30, 2003
On each of our visits to Al Huda—a sprawling squatter community of nearly 3,000 in Baghdad that has sprung up since the war—the children have been our constant companions. They walk with us, practice their few words of English, and then share their lives in Arabic, refusing to believe that we do not understand their language.
Despite their wondrous joy and enthusiasm, these children inhabit a pretty bleak world. Their new “neighborhood” is a bombed, looted, and burned out complex that once housed the training and social club for Officers of the Security Forces. Sewage, rubble, glass, and metal scraps are everywhere. The children run and play amid this debris. One of the first things you notice is how many are without shoes.
Shoes and school take priority
 |
| Photo: McDowell/Trotochaud The barefoot children of Al Huda |
When the residents of this new squatter community of urban poor were consulted about appropriate uses for AFSC emergency funds, they repeatedly asked for shoes for the children. School opens next week and the children need shoes to attend. The winter rainy season is also around the corner. [The children will enroll in the neighborhood school run by the Iraqi Ministry of Education. While other nongovernmental organizations and the Coalition Provisional Authority are distributing school kits to many children, shoes are not part of the kits.]
On Thursday, October 9, we accompanied our implementing partners, Iraqi Women’s Association–Women’s Freedom Organization, as they distributed 400 pairs of shoes to the children of Al Huda.
 |
Photo: McDowell/Trotochaud
Sign of AFSC's Iraqi partner organization, which arranged the shoe distribution |
The late afternoon sun was hot and the flies were numerous as we arrived at the camp. Several of the children whom we knew from past visits came to greet us. Taking our hands, they led us to an open area inside the camp where some folding chairs had been set up for our comfort.
The children could barely contain themselves as the boxes of shoes were loaded off of the pickup. They ran between us and the truck, chattering about “shoes and school,” “school and shoes”. As the camp organizers and our Iraqi NGO partners went about the business of setting up an orderly and equitable distribution, the residents of Al Huda, gathered.
Fears that someone will be left out
 |
Fathers awaiting shoe distribution
Photo: McDowell/Trotochaud |
The children ran from group to group, as the men and women of Al Huda sat on the ground and chatted. But the youngsters always came back to the distribution table, saying: “Shoes for school, shoes for school!”
The children who knew us brought their friends over and introduced them, asking that they be added to the list for shoes. They asked us to write their names down and give them to the organizers, to make sure these youngsters also got a pair of shoes. No amount of reassurances would convince them that everyone would receive a new pair of shoes.
Finally, the distribution started and, one by one, the parents were called up and signed for one pair of shoes for each school-aged child. The parents carefully carried the shoes back to their “homes,” to be put away for the first day of school.
The most basic needs require attention
In addition to the shoes, the residents of this community identified 50 families who are living with no means (i.e. no official rations). Cook stoves were distributed to these families, along with a small amount of money to buy fresh food and fuel. An additional 200 children in this growing community have been identified as needing shoes.
Layla Mohammed, with the Iraqi Women’s Association–Women’s Freedom Organization, is organizing another shoe distribution. AFSC continues to work with, and support, the efforts of this emerging Iraqi NGO.
 |
 |
 |
Al Huda children get new shoes
Photos: McDowell/Trotochaud> |
 |
| Mothers with children awaiting shoes |
|
Father and son take shoes to their large family |
—Mary Trotochaud
^ Top of page |
Email this page)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)