No gas, no money, and a harsh winter on the way

Saturday, November 22, 2014

More than 600,000 displaced Iraqis are in desperate need of winter assistance as temperatures continue to drop, and the mountainous region of Kurdish-controlled Iraq receives its first snows. 

Walking across the cold, cracked pavement of a former vegetable market, 15-year-old Salma carries a young boy, his short legs clinging tight around her.  She passes a stack of firewood and plastic combustibles that she will use later to build a small fire with which to cook dinner. 

On her hip is Khatoon, 2, the youngest of Salma’s five siblings, all of who have fallen under her care since gunmen killed their father in August. Distressed by the traumatic events surrounding their escape and the death of her husband, Salma’s mother, Hadia, has not spoken in three months. The family says she also suffers with symptoms of depression. 

With no parental leadership, Salma is now the main caregiver in her family. 

Like many of the 1.9 million people who are displaced in Iraq, she wishes they could return home, but the current conflict prevents them from doing so. For now, her priority must be to keep the family warm and fed.

“We have no heaters. We have no gas. We have no money. If you are poor, you have nothing,” says Salma, 15.  

“We have no heaters. We have no gas. We have no money. If you are poor, you have nothing,” she explains, wise beyond her teen years.  “If it wasn’t cold, it would be fine, but it’s been so cold,” she says.

Salma’s cousin, Khaled, 29, says that many families, unable to weather the cold, have left this informal camp. Their tarps were too weak to handle the winds and unseasonal heavy rains so they moved on, he says.

“It was too cold, too wet for them. They decided to look for a place that was better with more protection.”  He scans the tents around him and sighs.  “Maybe they could find a place that was even a little better. I don’t know.”

Khaled was a day labourer before clashes invaded his family’s town, forcing them to flee. “I’ve always been a worker. For as long as I can remember, I was working,” he says.  But, with the flood of displaced families into Dohuk, there is little opportunity to earn a living wage.  “Too many of us are looking for work,” he says. “In three months, I have worked only two days.”

His family, like many others, carries the burden of financial pressures, whether in providing warm shelter or clothing to the extended family, or medicine for his wife who suffers with rheumatism and other illnesses. Her medication alone costs 30,000 Iraqi dinars, (the equivalent of $25.80 (USD)) each month. 

“We borrow money to go to the doctor. But, our costs are 100,000 Iraqi dinar ($85 (USD)) every month. We must borrow every dinar,” he says. “We have nothing.” 

Child forced to work for family’s livelihood

For Salma’s family, the only wage earner is her brother, 10-year-old Edo, whose serious countenance belongs more to a man than a boy.

He earns only a pittance, usually between 2,000 and 5,000 dinars a day, (between $1.72 and $4.30 (USD)). “I work hard, but they pay me very little,” Edo says. “We carry the fruit and vegetables, potatoes. We bag them and carry them for customers.”

“I work hard, but they pay me very little,” Edo says. “We carry the fruit and vegetables, potatoes. We bag them and carry them for customers.”

Each day after work Edo brings the money to his sister, Salma, who decides how they will spend it. Sometimes it is only enough for sunflower seeds or chips. Other days they can buy vegetables. 

Back home, Edo’s days were spent learning.  “I never worked at home. I was in grade six. I went to school. I wanted to be a doctor,” he says.

But war forces children to grow up quickly. Edo is no longer in school. Now, he worries about earning enough money for food, perhaps a new tarp, or propane gas—anything to help his family through the winter.

“I still want to be a doctor, one day,” he says.  “I want to help people in bad situations, like this.  I want to help humanity.  If they feel ill, I’ll make them feel better.”

World Vision is providing winterization kits to Salma and Khaled’s families, in addition to at least another 2,000 households in Dohuk, Kurdistan Region of Iraq.  You can help support our work here.