April 24, 2008 issue 25 Loquitur special edition

In her shoes: from Iraq to America

CHRISTINE GRAF ASST MANAGING EDITOR ACG724@CABRINI EDU

“I am an Iraqi citizen and I had to leave my country because of the war,” Dina Habeb, now a student at Villanova University, said.

The war in Iraq started in 2003 when Habeb was a 15-year-old high school student in Baghdad.

“We were just kids. We went to school and hung out with our friends afterwards. Life was carefree before the war, just like kids here in America.”

When it became clear that this war with America was going to begin Habeb described how people started to leave Baghdad because it was a main target. That is when she realized what the war was already beginning to create.

“We (her friends) started writing little notes to each other telling each other we loved them, because we never knew if we would see each other again.”

Habeb recalls when she first encountered how real this war was, as bombs were dropped on buildings close to her house.

“I remember looking out the window and seeing the light from the fire. The whole house would shake and the phone would keep ringing because our relatives from other areas were calling to see if we were O.K. or not.”

That was only the beginning of the violence Habeb would witness as she spent the next three and a half years in constant fear living in Baghdad.

Habeb’s most prized possession was her education. For as long as she could remember she wanted to be a doctor and attend medical school. Upon high school graduation she received her wish and was one of the 250 students

accepted into the school of her dreams.

“When I was finally accepted into my school I thought I was in heaven. I couldn’t wish for anything better. I had my family, my great friends, and the school I always dreamed of going to. The war didn’t matter because if I died, I finally had my perfect life.”

Habeb lived her “perfect life” for a year as a university student, but each day was lived in “constant fear, with no sense of safety or security at all. It was just a matter of time before getting hurt.”

One thing Habeb came to accept was that she was most definitely not invincible and although nothing had happened to her yet, she was not out of reach of the violence that she saw and heard about all too often.

Even a simple decision to go to school that day was a life-or-death gamble you had to be willing to take, Habeb explained.

Going to school meant there was a possibility of getting killed, but there was also a possibility of nothing happening, and then she would be missing an important class.

“You would see people at school hanging out and laughing in the cafeteria, knowing that any second a bomb could be dropped over their heads. That is what happened in other colleges. Students were just hanging out and then they were dead,” Habeb said.

Habeb recalls a girl she drove to school with, who was waiting outside to go to school just like Habeb did everyday. But as this girl was waiting, someone kidnapped her and nobody even noticed. It wasn’t until later that night when she did not return home that her parents realized she was missing. It was two days later when they got a call from the kidnappers asking for money. They hurt her physically and raped her.

“After that she was a completely different person. She didn’t even seem to be there. She was like a ghost,” Habeb said.

“When I heard this happened I thought of her as no different than me, and that it could have been me. It was scary but I kept going to school because I couldn’t just sit home and wait forever for things to get better.”

“Each day was worse than the day before,” Habeb explained. Her college was next to the main hospital in Baghdad where all the dead and injured bodies were taken. There wasn’t a day when she did not witness the effects of the war, as dead bodies and grieving family members were in viewing distance.

“I saw bodies not even in coffins but in boxes, in best cases with blankets over them and their head or feet showing,” Habeb said.

“You could never say, oh, that would never happen to me because they were just normal people, like me.”

Finally enough was enough and the violence became too extreme for Habeb to be risking her life to further her education. Her parents decided it was time to leave the country and luckily they found a college in the United States that would accept her, and by chance Habeb got a visa to America after the second try.

The United States is Habeb’s only option if she wants to finish her education because the principal countries Iraqis are fleeing to are not allowing Iraqi students to go to school. Most of the 2 million Iraqis who have escaped have fled to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Only several thousand have been lucky enough to get American visas.

For example, “My family would never think about moving to Jordan because I wouldn’t be able go to school, my brothers wouldn’t be able to go to school, my parents wouldn’t be able to get a job, and after six months we would be considered illegal residents, so what is the point of going and sitting there,” Habeb said.

“Iraqis are waiting for some kind of miracle to happen for another country to welcome them, because they can’t go back and they can’t stay in Jordan permanently.”

Today, Habeb is safe in America but still has obstacles she has to overcome. First is the fact she was unable to receive her transcripts because no one could know she was going to America. Second, she is unsure if she can even stay in the United States.

The situation in Iraq is uncertain and a lifethreatening one for many students like Habeb.

“It is important to know there is a civil war, but it is not the civilians that are doing it. We are caught in the middle and have to suffer,” Habeb said.

“If you live it for one day and have to deal with it for just one day, you wouldn’t wish it on your worst enemy, for the worst person you know. You wouldn’t want them to go through that.”

Dina Habeb stands in front of her native flag of Iraq.

YOU SPEAK, WE LISTEN CABRINI COLLEGE Radnor, Pa Vol XLIX, Issue 24

Iraqis desperately seek safety from violence

BRITTANY MITCHELL GUEST WRITER BVM723@CABRINI EDU

Imagine if every single person in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Virginia had to pack up and leave home. Half would be able to flee to Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Peru and live in slums there. The other half would have to find some other place in the United States to live or settle in an abandoned house.

That is what life is like for the 5 million Iraqis--out of 28 million citizens there, almost one sixth of the country--who are refugees to other countries or displaced in Iraq.

“They are fleeing from creditable threats to their own safety and their family’s safety,” Jake Kurtzer, Refugee International advocate, said. Nearly 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed.

“What we’re beginning to see is that Iraqis will sell everything they own,” Arlene Flaherty, Catholic Relief Services representative, said, “everything, to buy a plane ticket to be a tourist in Lebanon, then live there illegally.”

Middle-class Iraqis try to flee the country to Syria and Jordan, principally. But conditions in these countries are poor. Take Syria for instance. It is a country slightly larger than the American state of North Dakota and populated by roughly 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in addition to their 19 million citizens.

Syria’s surrounding countries, Jordan and Lebanon, are holding about the same amount of refugees despite being much smaller countries. Both Jordan and Lebanon combined are still smaller than the American state of Louisiana but have accepted over a million Iraqis.

“They’re living in great poverty, basically in slums,” Laura Sheahan, Catholic Relief Services representative, said. “You go into their apartments and there’s just a few mattresses on the floor

and maybe a small little table or a box they use to put things on.”

When an Iraqi chooses to remain in their country, they are constantly targeted by kidnappers and militias, held captive, tortured and sometimes killed. “Everyone’s being threatened for various different reasons but it’s individual to each particular person,” Kurtzer said.

The remaining refugees remain scattered globally. Most leave with absolutely nothing and arrive to their destination with nothing to gain. “A lot of them are really in a holding pattern,” Sheahan said, “just hoping that they can be resettled to other countries like Canada or Australia.

They’re hoping to move but there are so few slots available in those countries that it is likely that a lot of those Iraqi refugees will just be hanging around with no money, no options and a really bleak future ahead of them.” So the bottom line is that they prefer to flee to safer, more developed regions but the reality of the situation is that they can’t afford to do so.

Organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, Refugee International and UN High Commission for Refugees are aiding the Iraqi refugee situation.

There are a variety of ways for students to get involved but the most impacting action right now is to lobby to congress, pressuring to follow through on the U.S. promised resettlement of 12,000 Iraqi refugees. To date, the United States has taken in 2,527 and the fiscal year ends in October 2008. Cabrini students have participated in a letter-writing campaign to senators.

“They are so desperate for you to help,” Flaherty said.

Left:An Iraqi refugee living in Beirut smiles at her baby daughter, whose name means “Flower” in Arabic. Her father was murdered in Iraq for his political beliefs, and she herself has been threatened in Iraq and in Lebanon because she is his daughter. A Shia woman, she normally veils only her hair. Here she has veiled her face for fear of being identified by her father’s enemies.

Speaker pleas for international support

in Lebanon, according to Chahda. While they are out of Iraq and the immediate danger, the situation in Lebanon is harsh.

The situation of Iraq refugees has reached crisis proportions and is affecting the countries neighboring Iraq, according to the director of a refugee center in Lebanon. The situation was made clearer on Monday, April 7, when Najla Chahda, director of the Migrant and Refugee Center for Caritas-Lebanon, spoke to students and faculty. Caritas International is a Catholic relief organization.

Lebanon is one of the countries Iraqis flee to. It is a small country on the Mediterranean Sea that shares borders with Israel and Syria. Lebanon has been dealing with Palestinian refugees for years. There was a surge of Iraqi refugees in 1990 after the Gulf War and again in 2003 after Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Iraqi refugees face many problems

Because Lebanon has not signed the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Lebanon does not recognize the Iraqis as refugees, but as illegals.

Their illegal status creates many problems for Iraqis seeking safety in Lebanon, Chahda said. Due to their illegal status, they cannot receive health care, obtain jobs, or go to school. Iraqis enter Lebanon by paying smugglers and traffickers large amounts of money to get across the borders into Lebanon, Chahda said.

While Lebanon does not formally recognize these refugees, officials there have taken steps to try to aid them. Three-month visas can be obtained from the Lebanese embassy in Iraq. For these three months, the Iraqi is legal in Lebanon and can work. The

problem with these visas is that the Iraqis are overstaying their three-month time and then becoming illegal. Only 35 percent of Iraqi refugees enter the country legally by way of these visas and become illegal, and 65 percent enter the country illegally, Chahda said.

If Iraqis are caught, they can be put in jail. The charge for being caught as an illegal immigrant is one month in jail, a fine and deportation. However, there is a problem with this, Chahda said.

“Because the authorities cannot deport any person who refuses to leave the country by force, that means they are all staying in prison,” Chahda said.

The goal of Caritas-Lebanon is to help the Iraqi refugees with medical care, humanitarian assistance, education, vocational training and additional services. Outpatient services such as doctor visits and medication are provided, as well as inpatient care.

Food coupons are provided so

families buy food, diapers, powdered milk for infants and children, and bedding. Humanitarian assistance is determined on a case-by-case basis. Caritas also helps get children into school. If the families cannot afford the tuition and fees, Caritas will help, Chahda said.

Caritas is working for is the formalization of the legal status of Iraqi refugees.

“Even if we are a small country, we think that we should have solidarity with Iraq. We should find solutions for them. We can’t just keep them always arrested and living in fear of being arrested,” Chahda said.

“Alone, we cannot do all those things. We need the support of the international community. We need your support,” Chahda said.

SAM RANDOL STAFF WRITER SRR722@CABRINI EDU

Three Iraqi men that have been displaced due to the war.

ARLENE FLAHERTY, CRS/SUBMITTED PHOTO Due to the war and violence in Iraq, entire families have been displaced and have to flee their homes, sometimes with no warning.

With the will to live, families leave everything behind in order to survive.

ARLENE FLAHERTY, CRS/SUBMITTED PHOTO

ARLENE FLAHERTY, CRS/SUBMITTED PHOTO

Side-By-Side Side-By-Side with Africa Africa

JILLIAN SMITH PERSPECTIVES EDITOR JKS724@CABRINI EDU

Within the first 24 hours of his first visit to Africa, Ryan Keith, president and founder of Forgotten Voices International, had already made a promise to a grandmother that he would not forget her story. He promised he would not forget how he witnessed her daughter die from AIDS or forget about her two young grandchildren that were now orphaned by the deadly disease.

“That’s when I knew this would be more than a trip to Africa,” Keith said. “This would be something that would change the direction of my life.”

After that first trip, Keith decided something had to be done to help these two children, along with other children who are orphaned by AIDS. He got the idea to start working with local people and local projects and from there started Forgotten Voices International based out of Mechanicsburg, Pa, in 2004.

Now the organization assists on 135 church-run orphan projects in Zimbabwe and Zambia and helps over 2,200 children.

“I saw the best return of investment from [local churches] because they knew all the kids, knew their history and saw opportunity to work with them. No one works with [local churches], particularly in Zimbabwe,” Keith said.

For being a local-run organization helping fight AIDS overseas, Forgotten Voices International has been doing remarkably well. In general, 93 cents of every dollar raised goes directly to orphan care. The national industry average of orphan-care projects is only 68 cents on the dollar.

“We work directly with local people. So that enables more of our money to go to kids.”

From that 93 percent of the money, 28 percent goes towards school fees and sending the children back to school. 25 percent is for home-based care for the children or their caretakers. 25 percent goes towards education programs for adults, children and care givers. The remaining amount goes

towards sustainable projects such as funding farms and funding skills clinics. These projects help caretakers and children learn a trade so that they can start a business and support themselves.

“It takes the whole idea of us saving Africa and puts it on its head and says local people are saving Africa and it’s our job, through religion and responsibility, to help them do that,” Keith said.

The toughest challenge, according to Keith, is to get people in the United States to give money and get involved. The United States portrays Africa “as too overwhelming, too daunting, and that nothing can be done.”

“That is surprisingly one of the toughest things to help people understand that every statistic that they hear about Africa has a story and every story is connected through a story of hope and a future and promise. Every kid will eventually be a mom and a dad and that’s probably the most surprising thing that’s been very difficult for the typical person to grasp.”

So, what can an average United States college student do? “The most important thing that people like you and your peers can do is to learn and stay in school and learn as much as you can because the challenge of AIDS and orphan care is complicated and it involves real solutions and not just people who want to help. We need to know what we’re doing and know what we’re talking about.”

Keith never did break that promise with that grandmother either. He has kept an eye on the two children, Peterson, who is now 11 years old, and Prudence, the little girl. Prudence has since died from being born infected with HIV/AIDS. Now, every time Keith visits Africa he makes sure to see Peterson, play soccer with him and just talk.

“When I wake up in the morning and I’m having a bad day or we have problems or donors aren’t cooperating or something’s going wrong, there is nothing going on in my life that compares to Peterson. And if he can get up and put a smile on, go to work and go to school, I can do the same. I should do the same. I must do the same.”

SUBMITTED PHOTO/RYAN KEITH,FORGOTTEN VOICES

Ryan Keith poses with children in Africa.

Prudence, born with HIV/AIDS, was paralyzed since birth and relied on her brother to carry her everywhere. She has since died from HIV/AIDS.

Peterson, now 11 years old, looks forward to Keith’s phone calls and visits to Africa.

Keith has helped over 2,200 children orphaned by AIDS. To learn more, visit ForgottenVoices.org

RYAN KEITH,FORGOTTEN VOICES/SUBMITTED PHOTO

RYAN KEITH,FORGOTTEN VOICES/SUBMITTED PHOTO

RYAN KEITH,FORGOTTEN VOICES/SUBMITTED PHOTO

Many

AIDS bill nears vote

MEGAN PELLEGRINO COPY/WEB EDITOR MRP727@CABRINI EDU

The U.S. Senate is currently going through the legislative process for renewal on the U.S. global AIDS bill. On April 2, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to reauthorize PEPFAR. The House raised the 30 billion dollar proposal to 50 billion dollars.

President Bush has led the effort to combat HIV/AIDS.

“America is leading the fight against disease. Our emergency plan for AIDS relief is treating 1.4 million people. We can bring healing and hope to many more. So I ask you to maintain the principles that have changed behavior and made this program a success and I call on you to double our initial commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS by approving an additional 30 billion dollars over the next five years,” President Bush stated in The State of the Union Address delivered on Jan. 28.

PEPFAR is the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, implemented by Bush in 2003.

PEPFAR is the largest commitment by any nation dedicated to a single disease.

“The President’s plan to double the PEPFAR fund for addressing the AIDS pandemic is laudable but you could add 100 percent more of that and really make a difference,” Ken Hackett, President of Catholic Relief Services, said during a sit down interview.

PEPFAR supports 114 countries around the world with 15 focus countries including Kenya, Zambia and Uganda, which receive two-thirds of funding.

“The PEPFAR fund is not just for antiretroviral medicine, it is also for education...for awareness, creation and prevention. People in Africa, people in my country, have unanimously said PEPFAR is a wonderful move, this is a great move, it is in the right direction in terms of trying to fight HIV in the developing world,” Thomas Awiapo, a Catholic Relief Services staff member, said in an

Control AIDS, save a continent

KARA SCHNEIDER GUEST WRITER KAS728@CABRINI EDU

How do you save a continent that’s being decimated by a potent and commanding disease called AIDS? There are many community-based organizations along with worldwide programs are attempting to control and prevent the spread of AIDS. These organizations reach out to individuals in the United States and elsewhere to assist. Global organizations hold promise to bringing worldwide attention to this devastating disease. The HIV/ AIDS pandemic has affected over 60 million people in the world; 20 million people died of AIDS overall and in Africa it is the No. 1 cause of death.

Catholic Relief Services, with its main headquarters in Baltimore, Md., is an international organization that works with partners in 100 countries throughout the world and strives to create an impact worldwide that will bring about new hope in the battles of hunger, war and disease along with other global struggles. CRS began its first HIV/AIDS program in Thailand in 1986. As of today, CRS currently runs AIDS programs in 52 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief

Services, said in an interview that when he was transferred to Kenya in 1992 he was astonished by the heartbreaking and appalling effects of AIDS upon the African citizens that had worsened since the 1980s, the last time he had lived there. As Hackett asked about old friends he learned that many had died at a very young age. He began to ponder and questioned why they had died- “and it all turned out to be from AIDS.” He concluded that “Catholic Relief Services has to do something.”

The United States has also recognized that to reduce poverty, the spread of HIV/AIDS has to be lessened or even eradicated. President Bush has developed an emergency plan for AIDS relief known as PEPFAR, President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, which is the biggest initiative by any one country dedicated to HIV/AIDS.

“The things that we take for granted here in the United States, like access to these antiretroviral drugs, are not available in Africa. And until the AIDS relief and the president’s initiative and other HIV/ AIDS relief efforts began to take hold this disease was a death sentence for people,”

Joan Neal, executive vice president for U.S. Operations at CRS, said.

Another major organization, The Global Fund, has committed itself to

coordinating and providing 1.8 million people with antiretroviral treatment.. The Global Fund has distributed over $10.1 billion to over 136 countries in the world. This unique program will reach 62 million people in hopes that they will receive voluntary counseling and testing services for HIV prevention.

Every individual can make a difference.

A local example of a single person finding a way to make change is Ryan Keith of Mechanicsburg, Pa., the founder and president of Forgotten Voices International. This organization relieves and assists the HIV/AIDS pandemic by funding local churches and community programs to help better serve nations in need.

“The biggest thing to do to help our organization and organizations like ours is tell our story. Our story is a story about local people helping people in their community,” Keith said.

The Red Campaign, with their slogan, “Think Red. Think Stop. Think Now!” is a business model that gives the money that they raise to Sub-Saharan Africa for anti-retroviral drugs by selling (RED) products. By buying (RED) products, you can help one more person in Africa live the life that they deserve to live, just like everybody else in the world.

exclusive conference call.

Although differences between the House version and the Senate version will have to be resolved, both versions support an unprecedented $50 billion to be spent over five years.

On April 11, four Senators put PEPFAR on hold, meaning that PEPFAR cannot continue through legislation until all senators agree to pass the bill. Sen. Tom Colburn of Oklahoma initiated the hold believing that the $50 billion increase is too large.

Colburn states he will keep his hold on PEPFAR until the amount is dropped to the initial proposal. Sen. Jim DeMint from South Carolina agrees with Colburn’s letter and quoted in remarks, “ I think it’s the height of irresponsibility in the middle of a war and surging debts for us to be dramatically increasing the cost and the scope of the program.”

“If PEPFAR ended and we do not get renewal funding, then that would imply we will have left them midway. Now that we have engage them in PEPFAR, the renewal would imply taking them through to maturity and there will be a tangible benefit,” Kenyan Clinical Officer Robert Makunu said in a Loquitur interview.

AIDS is the fourth leading cause of death around the world and has killed at least 20 million. Sixty million are infected with HIV/AIDS. Fourteen million are orphans worldwide.

As of March 31, 2007, AIDS relief from the United States supported lifesaving antiretroviral treatment for more than 1 million men, women and children suffering with HIV/AIDS worldwide.

“I can say that it has brought along a lot of joy and happiness into the lives of people. It has prolonged the lives of some people who have otherwise been dead. How can I not say that the PEPFAR program is not a wonderful program? This is a great program and I wish for this program to continue for the years to come,” Awiapo said.

A boy visits his mother’s grave with a volunteer.

RYAN KEITH,FORGOTTEN VOICES/SUBMITTED PHOTO

children in Africa are orphaned by AIDS and left in the care of their guardians. Guardians rely on AIDS relief provided by PEPFAR to aid the needs of vulnerable children. PEPFAR not only provides antiretroviral medication but also supports education and nourishment.

In Africa, families are large because many children are orphaned at a young age. In many cases the grandmother becomes the primary caretaker of the children. PEPFAR is important to these families to give the need they could not otherwise receive.

RYAN KEITH,FORGOTTEN VOICES/SUBMITTED PHOTO

RYAN KEITH,FORGOTTEN VOICES/SUBMITTED PHOTO

RYAN KEITH,/SUBMITTED PHOTO