Military: Where are PCs bought for Iraqi kids?
By Rebecca Santana - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Aug 27, 2010 16:38:53 EDT
BAGHDAD — The U.S. military is demanding to know what happened to $1.9 million worth of computers purchased by American taxpayers and intended for Iraqi schoolchildren that have instead been auctioned off by Iraqi officials for less than $50,000, the military said Friday.
The U.S. press release was a rare public admission by the military of the loss of American taxpayer money in Iraq and an equally rare criticism of Iraqi officials with whom the Americans are trying to partner as the military hands over more and more responsibility and withdraws troops from the country.
A shipment of computers intended for schoolchildren in the central Babil province was found to have been auctioned on Aug. 16 for $45,700 — before the computers could be sent to the province, the U.S. military said.
The computers were auctioned off by a senior Iraqi official at the southern port of Umm Qasr, the statement said.
“United States Division-South Commander Maj. Gen. Vincent Brooks called for an immediate investigation into the actions of the Umm Qasr official to determine why computers destined for children to facilitate their education were approved for auction,” it read.
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Where are PCs bought for Iraqi kids
Showing posts with label Iraqi children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iraqi children. Show all posts
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Monday, August 25, 2008
The impact of war on Iraqi children
The Impact of War
Treating Iraqi Children For PTSD
by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro
Listen Now [5 min 24 sec] add to playlist
Morning Edition, August 25, 2008 · According to the Web site Iraq Body Count, at least 658 children were killed in Iraq in 2007, and the violence has touched the lives of many others. Iraq children have been the victims of kidnapping, torture and rape.
The problem has become so acute that a new clinic for children suffering post-traumatic stress disorder will be opening this month in Baghdad. It will be the first of its kind in Iraq.
Dhiya Moussa, 11, is a stocky child with shaggy brown hair. He cautiously answers questions from Dr. Haider Maliki, and confesses he still can't fall asleep at night.
"I am afraid of darkness," Moussa says. "After I was released, I was afraid to stay alone in the dark. I don't know why. When I enter into a dark room I get frightened, I immediately switch on the light and run away."
As he is talking, Moussa keeps looking to his father for reassurance.
Pharmacist Moussa Hussein Hassan says his son was kidnapped in 2004, but he still crawls into bed every night with him and his wife.
"My son was held for seven days before they released him," Hassan says. "They locked him in a shed all by himself with rats in the darkness. Before he was kidnapped, he was never afraid. But after that he became terrified of the dark. He goes to bed very late at night and he can only sleep after exhausting himself. He insists on burying his head under my arm to feel safe when he sleeps."
Moussa also developed memory loss and initially wouldn't mingle with other children. Things got so bad that his father brought him to Dr. Maliki.
Maliki, a psychiatrist, has treated hundreds of children at the Central Pediatric Teaching Hospital in Baghdad where he works. Their stories he says are heartbreaking.
"Of course, we have many children," Maliki says. "I have a female, she [is] 13-years-old. She exposed to kidnapped. They raped her and made sexual intercourse with her for about 4 days daily."
The result is that many develop post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.
click above for more
Treating Iraqi Children For PTSD
by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro
Listen Now [5 min 24 sec] add to playlist
Morning Edition, August 25, 2008 · According to the Web site Iraq Body Count, at least 658 children were killed in Iraq in 2007, and the violence has touched the lives of many others. Iraq children have been the victims of kidnapping, torture and rape.
The problem has become so acute that a new clinic for children suffering post-traumatic stress disorder will be opening this month in Baghdad. It will be the first of its kind in Iraq.
Dhiya Moussa, 11, is a stocky child with shaggy brown hair. He cautiously answers questions from Dr. Haider Maliki, and confesses he still can't fall asleep at night.
"I am afraid of darkness," Moussa says. "After I was released, I was afraid to stay alone in the dark. I don't know why. When I enter into a dark room I get frightened, I immediately switch on the light and run away."
As he is talking, Moussa keeps looking to his father for reassurance.
Pharmacist Moussa Hussein Hassan says his son was kidnapped in 2004, but he still crawls into bed every night with him and his wife.
"My son was held for seven days before they released him," Hassan says. "They locked him in a shed all by himself with rats in the darkness. Before he was kidnapped, he was never afraid. But after that he became terrified of the dark. He goes to bed very late at night and he can only sleep after exhausting himself. He insists on burying his head under my arm to feel safe when he sleeps."
Moussa also developed memory loss and initially wouldn't mingle with other children. Things got so bad that his father brought him to Dr. Maliki.
Maliki, a psychiatrist, has treated hundreds of children at the Central Pediatric Teaching Hospital in Baghdad where he works. Their stories he says are heartbreaking.
"Of course, we have many children," Maliki says. "I have a female, she [is] 13-years-old. She exposed to kidnapped. They raped her and made sexual intercourse with her for about 4 days daily."
The result is that many develop post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.
click above for more
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Arkansas Army National Guards tend to kids burns in Iraq
Soldiers treat Iraqi kids with severe burns
By Rick Fahr - Log Cabin Democrat via Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Jul 5, 2008 15:12:02 EDT
SCANIA, Iraq — YaYa sits quietly on the table. A flowered plastic band holds back her black hair, revealing a smile that only a child’s heart musters. YaYa’s sparkle grows for a moment as a soldier walks toward her, but then she notices the tweezers and the scrub brush.
Remembering, she turns grim. The next half-hour will bring excruciating pain. There will be candy and perhaps a toy later, but the pain comes first.
Sgt. 1st Class Stanley Krupsky smiles as he reaches out to welcome YaYa back. The girl’s hand finds his shoulder. She is ready.
YaYa cries as the soldier peels and scrubs away the dead skin. She muffles her screams, and Krupsky has to gather his composure more than once. He hates to hurt the girl, but he has no choice.
“I know it hurts, but it’s got to be done,” he said.
Krupsky, a convoy escort team commander for Charlie Troop, 1st Squadron, 151st Cavalry Regiment, 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Arkansas Army National Guard, is helping YaYa recover from burns suffered in a fire more than a month ago. Two of her family members died from their wounds, and two others travel with their grandmother three days a week to Scania, to a free burn clinic where soldiers from Charlie Troop and other units volunteer.
Most of the patients are children who have suffered horrific burns, their arms and legs blistered and raw. YaYa’s burned skin is bright pink now, a good sign. She’s healing.
Krupsky and the troops in his team rearrange their mission schedules, sacrificing what little off time they might otherwise have between missions, to spend a few hours at the clinic. They do what they can to help the children and leave them with a smile — candy and toys the soldiers buy at the post exchanges or receive in the mail from home.
“We just do what we can to help,” said Krupsky, from Oregon.
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By Rick Fahr - Log Cabin Democrat via Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Jul 5, 2008 15:12:02 EDT
SCANIA, Iraq — YaYa sits quietly on the table. A flowered plastic band holds back her black hair, revealing a smile that only a child’s heart musters. YaYa’s sparkle grows for a moment as a soldier walks toward her, but then she notices the tweezers and the scrub brush.
Remembering, she turns grim. The next half-hour will bring excruciating pain. There will be candy and perhaps a toy later, but the pain comes first.
Sgt. 1st Class Stanley Krupsky smiles as he reaches out to welcome YaYa back. The girl’s hand finds his shoulder. She is ready.
YaYa cries as the soldier peels and scrubs away the dead skin. She muffles her screams, and Krupsky has to gather his composure more than once. He hates to hurt the girl, but he has no choice.
“I know it hurts, but it’s got to be done,” he said.
Krupsky, a convoy escort team commander for Charlie Troop, 1st Squadron, 151st Cavalry Regiment, 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Arkansas Army National Guard, is helping YaYa recover from burns suffered in a fire more than a month ago. Two of her family members died from their wounds, and two others travel with their grandmother three days a week to Scania, to a free burn clinic where soldiers from Charlie Troop and other units volunteer.
Most of the patients are children who have suffered horrific burns, their arms and legs blistered and raw. YaYa’s burned skin is bright pink now, a good sign. She’s healing.
Krupsky and the troops in his team rearrange their mission schedules, sacrificing what little off time they might otherwise have between missions, to spend a few hours at the clinic. They do what they can to help the children and leave them with a smile — candy and toys the soldiers buy at the post exchanges or receive in the mail from home.
“We just do what we can to help,” said Krupsky, from Oregon.
click post title for more
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