HELP WOMEN AND CHILDREN REFUGEES.. HELP
IRAQI WAR ORPHANS..
The request is familiar to American ears: "Bring them home."
But in Iraq, where I've just met with American and Iraqi leaders, the phrase
carries a different meaning. It does not refer to the departure of U.S. troops,
but to the return of the millions of innocent Iraqis who have been driven out of
their homes and, in many cases, out of the country.
In the six months since my previous visit to Iraq with the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, this humanitarian crisis has not improved.
We still don't know exactly how many Iraqis have fled their homes, where they've
all gone, or how they're managing to survive. Here is what we do know: More than
2 million people are refugees inside their own country -- without homes, jobs
and, to a terrible degree, without medicine, food or clean water. Acts of unspeakable violence have driven them into a vast
and very dangerous no-man's land. Many of the survivors huddle in mosques, in
abandoned buildings with no electricity, in tents or in one-room huts made of
straw and mud. Fifty-eight percent of these internally displaced people are
younger than 12 years old.
An additional 2.5 million Iraqis have sought refuge outside Iraq, mainly in
Syria and Jordan. But those host countries have reached their limits.
Overwhelmed by the refugees they already have, these countries have essentially
closed their borders until the international community provides support.
A MESSAGE FROM ANGELINA.
I'm not a security expert, but it doesn't take one to see that Syria and Jordan
are carrying an unsustainable burden. They have been excellent hosts, but we
can't expect them to care for millions of poor Iraqis indefinitely and without
assistance from the U.S. or others. One-sixth of Jordan's population today is
Iraqi refugees. The large burden is already causing tension internally.
Iraq-Children of Abu Ghraib - tortured & used as hostages
This is how Bush gave freedom and Democracy to Iraqi Girls
.... 6 year old Iraqi girls forced into prostitution by Bushs WAR ..
STOP ISRAEL/PALESTINIAN APARTHEID!!!!
A TRUE STORY FROM A WONDERFUL PERSON FROM PALESTINE........
.
PEACE.&.JUSTICE
Please let me introduce myself:
my name is Shadia, my family was from Palestine and i am a muslima. I was born
September 15th 1982 in lebanon just outside the Palestinian refugee camps of
Sabra-Shatila where my family was living, my mom had just left Sabra 2 day's
before the Israeli millitary surrounded the two camps and unleashed a gang of
killers to slaughter the poor and defensless Palestine refugees that lived there
and in the three day Israeli campaign that started september 15th to the 18th
1982 between four to five thousand helpless and defensless people were murderd
in the most sadistic way known to man my entire family included," Anything and
anyone that they could kill they did just that-, my mom had just left Sabra to
give birth to me in a nearby town that had a hospital, had it not been time for
me to be born me and mom would have been gone and forgotten like the tens of
thousands of murders Israel has gotten away with throughout it's 60 year history
of war crimes, and after all these years i have never celebrated my birthday,
Israel has left me with no family to celebrate any occasion with.
Please America don't blindly support Israel,
Shadia
According to the Geneva Conventions, the International Court of Justice in The
Hague, and numerous United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. There is an old
wisdom that the fastest way to make a dog stop chasing cars is to let him catch
one! Much of the last 60 years of violence and deception could have been avoided
had the US stood back and let Israel get their nose bloodied the first time they
marched into someone else's lands. The crippling economic blockade of the Gaza
Strip colors all aspects of life there. According to the Hamas-run Palestinian
Health Ministry, 70 percent of Gaza's 1.5 million residents suffer from anemia,
including 44 percent of pregnant women.
Malnutrition among Palestinian children has also increased over the past 11
months, affecting more than 10 percent of Gaza's children under the age of 18,
according to the Gaza City-based Ard al-Insan health organization.
The Israeli politicians who created the siege of Gaza knew that this would be
one of the outcomes; they must be very proud of themselves right now.
Help Afghan Women and Girls!
Facts
50% of the Afghan
population is less than 18 years of age with almost no education
One out of four Afghan children dies before the age of five
Over 400,000 children are maimed, because of land mines
Over one million Afghan children are suffering from post-traumatic
stress syndrome.
Afghanistan In-Depth
Grinding poverty and the escalating war is driving an increasing
number of Afghan families to sell their daughters into forced
marriages.
Girls as young as six are being married into a life of slavery and
rape, often by multiple members of their new relatives. Banned from
seeing their own parents or siblings, they are also prohibited from
going to school. With little recognition of the illegality of the
situation or any effective recourse, many of the victims are driven to
self-immolation – burning themselves to death – or severe self-harm.
…The statistics in the report from Womankind, Afghan Women and Girls
Seven Years On, make shocking reading. Violent attacks against
females, usually domestic, are at epidemic proportions with 87 per
cent of females complaining of such abuse – half of it sexual. More
than 60 per cent of marriages are forced.
Despite a new law banning the practice, 57 per cent of brides are
under the age of 16. The illiteracy rate among women is 88 per cent
with just 5 per cent of girls attending secondary school.
Maternal mortality rates – one in nine women dies in childbirth – are
the highest in the world alongside Sierra Leone. And 30 years of
conflict have left more than one million widows with no enforceable
rights, left to beg on the streets alongside an increasing number of
orphans.
Help Pass the Historic International Violence Against Women
Act (I-VAWA)
Violence against women and girls represents a global health,
economic development, and human rights problem of epidemic
proportions and cuts across all countries, social groups,
ethnicities, religions, and socioeconomic classes. Now, for the
first time, the United States has an historic opportunity to raise
this issue in its diplomatic work and have an impact on the
suffering of millions of women and girls.
After decades of silence and inaction, finally, there is one
bill that will bolster US efforts to end violence against women
across the world – the International Violence against Women Act
(I-VAWA, S.2279 in Senate). It is critical that this important
human rights legislation receive broad bipartisan support. So at
this time we are asking you to contact your Republican Senators in
the following states and encourage them to become official I-VAWA
co-sponsors.
If you are in the following states, call your Republican
Senator and ask him or her to cosponsor the I-VAWA, S.2279
You can get through to your Senator by contacting the
Senate Switchboard at 202/224-3121 and asking to be
connected directly with the Senate office you request.
TALKING POINTS FOR YOUR CALL
The International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) would
coordinate and improve U.S. government efforts to stop the
global crisis of violence against women and girls, if it becomes
law.
Violence against women destabilizes countries and impedes
economic progress and stability.
Violence against women is a tremendous human rights problem
around the world. It includes rape, domestic violence, acid
burning, dowry deaths, “honor killings,” human trafficking,
female genital cutting and more. Experts estimate that up to one
in three women will be beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise
abused in their lifetimes, with rates reaching 70 percent in
some countries.
I-VAWA is designed to give victims of violence more
assistance, hold perpetrators accountable, and support new
efforts to change social norms that support or condone violence.
The legislation would create a five-year strategy and
funding to support the rule of law and prevent and respond to
violence against women in 10-20 poor to middle income countries.
It will expand the U.S. Government’s ability to address
gender-based violence issues with foreign governments as part of
its diplomatic relations.
I-VAWA integrates efforts to end violence against women and
girls into existing, appropriate U.S. foreign assistance
programs with a special emphasis on supporting the overseas
women’s groups that work each day to stop violence.
I-VAWA enables the U.S. Government to develop a faster and
more effective response to violence against women in armed
conflicts and humanitarian emergencies.
Passing I-AWA is essential if the U.S. is to take a more
coordinated and effective stand against violence that harms so
many women and girls worldwide and will help support economic
progress and stability in 10-20 poor and middle income
countries.
***
For more information on this and other actions in AIUSA's SVAW
campaign, visit
amnestyusa.org/women
Past "Campaign to Stop Violence Against Women" Columns:
Amnesty
International USA is the US section of AI - the
international worldwide human rights organization with 1.8 million
members in 100 countries. AIUSA has over 350,000 members organized
into professional networks, and student and community chapters.
You can find out which of our administrative regions you live in
and contact our offices if you wish to join a local chapter visit
www.amnestyusa.org. You
can join the SVAW campaign, get our monthly women’s human rights
online bulletin and join the Women's Human Rights Action Network
by visiting
www.amnestyusa.org/women. We look forward to working with you.
World Hope
International (WHI)
Anti-Trafficking Program
Faith
Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking (FAAST)
WHI works
to end human trafficking through prevention activities and
protection of survivors. WHI provides aftercare and referrals
for survivors of trafficking, educates and trains community
groups and service providers on trafficking, builds coalitions
to promote awareness and provide services to survivors, and
works to strengthen legal systems through anti-trafficking
education for lawyers and law enforcement.
FAAST is a
group of faith-based community-oriented, non-profit
organizations committed to eliminating human trafficking.
Current projects include:
• Today’s
Christian Woman Cause of the Year
Today's Christian Woman
magazine is teaming with FAAST to promote awareness about sex
trafficking and mobilize the Christian community to action.
• Hands
That Heal: International Curriculum to Train
Caregivers of Trafficking Survivors
Hands That Heal is
a comprehensive Christian curriculum to train global
caregivers who are frontline providers of aftercare for women,
children, and men that have been trafficked into the
commercial sex industry. Hands that Heal is also a tool to
inform and inspire churches, communities, organizations, and
individuals around the world to engage in the battle against
the injustice of human trafficking and to help equip them to
provide transformational care to survivors.
It is written that the 'root of all evil' is the love of money.. and
this is true.. however, there is also another.. and it is the
forcing of girls into sex and incest through manipulation, fear
and emotional & mental bondage..
"If a child hasn't been given spiritual
values within the family setting, they have no familiarity with
the values that are necessary for the peaceful functioning of
society." Eunice Baumann-Nelson, Ph.D,
