The girls – Farah, Julie, Mallory, and Hannah – of Troop 46707 in Fairfield, OH, heard of the plight of the Iraqi street children and orphans through a friend and decided to raise funds for these children through their Girl Scout cookie sales.

[T]heir generosity is enough to feed almost 7 street children for a month.

“What these young Girl Scouts did to extend a loving hand of help to hurting children thousands of miles away is very impressive,” said Jonathan Webb, Chairman of SICF and Iraq war veteran.  “It costs about $30 a month to feed a child at the Center, so their generosity is enough to feed almost 7 street children for a month.   As an American and a father myself, I am very proud of their generous spirit.”

The Baghdad Street Children Center is funded by SICF and provides food, tutoring, play and recreation, and other social services to 50 children.  For more information, visit www.sicfiraq.org.

With generous financial backing from Triple Canopy, Inc., the Sponsor Iraqi Children Foundation, LitWorld, and The Children’s Village have partnered to create a special story book using friendly animals to help Iraqi orphans build resilience in the face of years of violence, grief, and trauma. 

The storybook includes a discussion guide for adult caregivers to help vulnerable orphaned children apply the 7 strengths to their young lives.   The book will be distributed in Iraq by local leaders who participate in Community Care Worker (CCW) training designed by The Children’s Village and SICF. 

“We are extremely grateful for the advice provided by Iraqi colleagues, funding from Triple Canopy, management by LitWorld Founder Pam Allyn, and professional expertise provided by the Director of Training at The Children’s Village Beth Enser,” said SICF President Quqa.  “We have high hopes for this tool as a way of communicating with Iraqi orphans that is sensitive to their age, cultural experiences, and the trauma they have suffered.  We hope it lightens the load they carry so they can forge a new, positive path in life.” 

In his article “A Surge of Love for Iraqi Orphans,” Webb warns that failure to address this urgent crisis carries great risks. Not only are orphaned children vulnerable to recruitment by extremists or terrorists, they are also easy prey for criminals and human traffickers.

“America has sacrificed too much blood and treasure to ignore the consequences of not addressing this crisis,” Webb wrote. He called on Americans to step forward to help Iraqi community leaders and NGOs who want to care for their orphans but lack adequate expertise and resources.

Jonathan Webb currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sponsor Iraqi Children Foundation. To read his full oped,visit: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2017152293_guest04webb.html

“SICF is delighted to have played a part in helping to reopen this vitally important resource for street children in Baghdad,” said SICF President Maxwell Quqa. “The Center is operated by a local Iraqi human rights organization that understands the serious risks facing street children.”

Many orphans beg on the streets or sell water to help poor widowed mothers or siblings. They are very vulnerable to arrest for begging as well as to recruitment or abuse by criminals, extremists and human traffickers.

Prior to closing last summer, the Baghdad Center provided street children with healthy meals as well as tutoring in math, reading, writing, and science. The children were introduced to computers and had an opportunity to participate in art, music and theater. Center staff helped to get children who were dropouts to reenroll in school.  Given that approximately 1 in 6 Iraqi children under the age of 18 is an orphan, safe havens like the Baghdad Center for Street Children provide a vitally needed service.

“Iraq’s orphan crisis, which involves an estimated 2.5 million children, is one of the most critical issues facing the future of Iraq,” Quqa said. “Providing hand-up assistance to help the Iraqi people deal with this crisis is not only the right humanitarian response, but it is also the right thing to do for Iraq’s future stability and that of the Middle East region.”

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** Photos of the Baghdad Center for Street Children’s reopening celebration are available by contacting cindy@sicfiraq.org or (703) 635-7990.

The mission of the Sponsor Iraqi Children Foundation is to assist the families and communities of Iraq by mobilizing a life-changing “Surge of Love” for millions of children orphaned by violence in Iraq. SICF is committed to doing this under the leadership of the Iraqi people by: 1) serving as a catalyst to mobilize US and international partners; 2) investing in training and capacity building of Iraq’s non-governmental and community organizations; and, 3) emphasizing direct assistance for hand up, not hand out, projects. For more information, please visit www.sifciraq.org.

“If only countries would put down the guns and pick up a pencil we all would be better off. Starting with the children is the perfect way to begin.”  Ms. Carol Van Sleet, Surge of Love Flight Donor

• Life for Relief and Development (LIFE)
• LitWorld
• Loving Hugs, Inc.
• URS Corporation
• Faith Presbyterian Church (PCA)
• Fogleman, Viera & Associates (Ameriprise Financial) and friends
• Iraqi Orphan Initiative (IOI)
• Ayad Mirjan
• Bonnie Alkhafaji
• Mr. and Mrs. Zeid Rihani
• William A. Noellert, Ph.D. & Marilyn J. Seiber, Ph.D., NY Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington DC
• Andrew & Andrea Loftus, Mike & Cheryl Allen (Fairfax Community Church)
• 242 FCC Small Group
• Raymond Patten
• Ana Thompson and Kim Evans

SICF has enjoyed a special partnership with LitWorld, a US-based nonprofit organization dedicated to using the power of a story to build literacy skills and resilience among the world’s children. Along with The Children’s Village of New York, SICF and LitWorld launched an initiative to create a very special storybook for Iraqi orphans and other vulnerable children using friendly animals to highlight and reinforce 7 key strengths, including hope and belonging. The new story book is a key tool in the “Community Care Worker” (CCW) project that will train adult caregivers in creative ways to help orphans heal from their trauma and bereavement.

While data on the topic of education of orphaned girls in Iraq is not readily available, a small UNICEF study issued in 2010 raises concerns about girls’ education in war weary Iraq. Obstacles to girls attending school range from early marriage and poverty, to worries about safety from conflict and crime, to fear of teachers who beat and insult them. Other key findings from the data gathered for the study include:

• Dropout rates for girls are very high. Girls’ enrollment declines sharply with each successive grade. Between 1st and 6th grade, approximately 60 percent of girls drop out and by the 3rd intermediate class, approximately 80% have dropped out.
• Many young Iraqi girls want to be educated. Of Iraqi girls surveyed for the study, most understood the value of education and wished to be successful, educated women, or at least be able to read and write.

SICF supports the goal for every orphaned girl to learn to read and write, and to receive an education, and encourages Iraqis, Americans, and international organizations to do all they can to support this goal.

Many Iraqi NGO’s are led by very committed community leaders with a powerful vision: to help the extremely vulnerable orphans and widows in their communities. However, their ability to deliver concrete, life-changing results for orphans and widows depends on their organizational strengths, leadership, and capacities. These Iraqi NGOs must be able to develop strategic plans, manage projects effectively, recruit staff and volunteers, raise resources, engage in effective advocacy, and develop accountability tools to monitor and measure results. These organizational abilities are not easy to build in the US. They are even more difficult to build in a country like Iraq that has suffered decades of war, sectarian violence, economic sanctions, and repression under Sadam Hussein.

Iraq has an estimated 2.5 million orphans today. One of the most effective ways to help these children is through community based NGOs that work with orphans, widows, and extended families that care for them. SICF believes that building the capacity of these indigenous Iraqi organizations is one of the best ways to provide lasting, effective help for orphans.

The capacity building training will be followed later by a creative new training initiative to develop “Community Care Workers” (CCWs). This initiative has been developed by SICF and the award-winning Children’s Village of New York. Candidates to be CCWs will be drawn from Iraqi NGOs and equipped to understand a broad range of child development concepts. They will also be trained in simple but powerful tools to address trauma, PTSD, and bereavement among orphans of various ages, and instead build resilience and a sense of hope among these vulnerable children.

SICF President Maxwell Quqa said: “Failure to address these deep emotional and psychological needs among orphans leaves them vulnerable to recruitment by criminals and terrorists. We simply cannot let that happen.”

SICF’s mission is to come alongside the families and communities of Iraq in providing compassionate care for needy orphans. We are committed to doing this under the leadership of the Iraqi people.

As we look back on 2010, SICF is pleased to report to our friends, supporters, and stakeholders, what was accomplished in our mission to help the extremely vulnerable orphans of Iraq with the resources entrusted to us.

As we close only our second year as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity, we are so grateful for early supporters who have helped us build momentum in our “Surge of Love” for these precious children. We have big dreams for 2011 and hope that the initiatives we have taken to address trauma and basic humanitarian needs among these children will flourish!

• 310 warm winter jackets were purchased in Iraq and distributed to orphans in January
• 9 destitute homes with orphans got battery operated fans in July during extreme heat and electricity outages
• $3,000 of food and supplies were provided for several months to needy orphans living in the “City Dump”
• A widow with orphaned children, living at the City Dump, received a sewing machine from SICF which enabled her to move from dependency on SICF help to self sufficiency.
• 3 small $700 grants were awarded to trusted Iraqi organizations to care for orphans
• 2,600 pounds of school supplies, backpacks, toys and other items were collected to be delivered soon to Iraqi orphans
• 2 teams from SICF and the award-winning Children’s Village (CV) of New York met with Iraqi experts in Baghdad to lay the foundation for a new “Community Care Worker” training initiative to equip Iraqi NGOs in addressing trauma and PTSD in orphans
• 29 Iraqi NGOs – with more than 30,000 orphans registered to them – submitted profiles to SICF to help us identify community organizations that we can work with in training and humanitarian projects
• “7 strengths” – such as belonging, hope, compassion, etc. – are the themes of a new children’s story book to build resilience in orphans.  The story, using friendly animals, has been developed under the auspices of LitWorld and written by Charles Alexander London, former director of curriculum for War Kids Relief and renown author of such books as One Day The Soldiers Came: Voices of Children in War, and the Accidental Adventures series for young readers.
• 25 framed works of art drawn by Iraqi orphans and children were featured at a benefit auction at the Iraqi Cultural Center in Washington, DC.  Iraqi Ambassador Sumaida’ie spoke and Iraqi television journalists broadcast news of the event.

For more information, contact:  Cindy Fogleman, cindy@sicfiraq.org or (703) 963-3832.

SICF earmarked $2,400 raised at a recent fundraiser to buy the coats for the orphans during the cool winter months of the desert region. SICF then partnered with six non-governmental organizations in Iraq to distribute the clothing.

People think of Iraq as hot and sandy. But they are surprised to hear that temperatures drop significantly during the short winter season, particularly in the evenings. Something as simple as a warm jacket can make all the difference,” said SICF president Maxwell Quqa. “This project is just one of the ways in which we can show these children love and compassion.”

The majority of the funds dedicated to this project were raised at a fundraiser hosted by the generous owner of Burke Cigar.