...   One concrete proposal would be to request donations for Iraqi families from friends and groups like yourselves.  The money could be put in separate envelopes, perhaps with a message from the sender, and given directly to the person or family in need.  It could be for a month's rent, or for a quantity of insulin.

 55 E. 3rd St., New York, N.Y. 10003
  Tuesday, July 24, 2007

  Dear Friends,

  In a poem entitled "Nadia's Family," a gifted friend, David Smith-Ferri wrote this past June:
  ".Instead of bringing bread and bricks,
  They brought broken windows and barbed wire
  and bullets
  and bombs.
  And we have seen how bombs
  give birth to bombs.

  Instead of building bridges
  they built barriers
  and sent our sons and fathers burrowing into darkness.

  Instead of water and electricity,
  they brought words.
  We cannot feed our children words.."

  Just the other day I asked an Iraqi woman friend of ours who lives in Amman, Jordan, how Iraqis perceive foreigners like me who visit their homes.  This dear woman has not only translated for Kathy Kelly and myself in Amman on numerous occasions, but has become our guide and confidant.  She has taken us into the homes of Iraqi families who otherwise would have remained hidden to us.  Some of their stories you have heard through our writings.

  Though her reply did not surprise me, it has given me pause.  "Honestly" she said, "when you come into their homes they have some hope, but then you walk away.  Nothing in their lives changes.  Nothing."

  Recently I received word from two Iraqi doctor friends of ours in Baghdad that they hope to be in Amman in early September for about 8 days to take part in a conference.  They are among the "remnant" of doctors who have remained in Iraq "for the sake of the children."  Most of their colleagues have fled the country or been kidnapped or assassinated.  One of them wrote to me about two weeks ago:  "in spite of all unbelievable obstacles, in spite of working with broken hearts and blocked minds, in spite of working realizing that there is no light at the end except in believing that some help will be provided by GOD to the innocent people still facing a tragic destiny..in spite of all this, I am trying every now and then to take pictures to give hope to ourselves and the others that some day we will see these pictures and say,  'Those were bad days, but now they are better.'"

  It is with the hope of seeing these courageous friends in Amman, if only for a few days, that I would like to return to Amman in early September for another 3-month period.  It is a lot to ask of my community, as I have been away for so many months in the last year.  But I feel constrained to go, to go on behalf of all of us.  

  One of my sister-in-laws is Bolivian.  For years I did not understand that she would not travel from the states to visit her family in Bolivia without having at least $1,000. in hand to take with her.  "Your family wants to see YOU!" I would tell her.  It was only after I myself had lived for some years in Bolivia that I came to understand her.  In the almost ten years that I was there, I never announced the fact that I was a nurse.  The needs were so great that I feared that I would have a hundred people a day lined up outside of my room.

  Kathy Kelly is currently in Amman, and my thoughts go to a recent account of a visit she made to a family.  Her account is a graphic example of how we in the U.S. have reduced a once proud and dignified people to such a beggarly status.  The family she describes is now divided, the father having left (perhaps to Syria to seek work?}after receiving the distressing news of the death of his brother in Iraq-his body having been chopped to pieces!  The family is trying to live on 60JD a month (about $100.) which barely covers rent.  They can't afford medicine for two of the daughters who are diabetic.  "We live" says the mother, "in a kind of slavery."  A friend of ours was with Kathy at the time of the visit and mentioned that perhaps he might be able to arrange assistance.  He assured her that it would be as an act of friendship, and not charity.  The mother replied flinging her hands upward in exasperation "Of course it's not charity!  You already have our oil!  You are perhaps living very well with our oil, so this is not a charity."

  Voices is not a relief organization, and we have always tried to be clear with our Iraqi friends that as volunteers we have to raise our own money to in order to travel.  It is all too painfully clear that the problems besetting Iraq and Iraqis have to be addressed at a structural level, and that what we can do to address concrete needs is at best a bandage approach.   Nevertheless, I feel that I can no longer just walk away from our brothers and sisters in such desperate situations.

  One concrete proposal would be to request donations for Iraqi families from friends and groups like yourselves.  The money could be put in separate envelopes, perhaps with a message from the sender, and given directly to the person or family in need.  It could be for a month's rent, or for a quantity of insulin.  I would just be the messenger extending the hand as it were, from you to them.  It seems like such a small thing, but it is the small things that give each of us hope.

  A suggestion I made some months back for friends in the states to seek scholarships for Iraqis at your local schools and colleges, and then assist the person to get the student visa as well as sponsor them and offer hospitality, has not gotten very far.  But we shall continue to pursue this possibility as well.

  I am always reluctant to ask for financial support, but it is through your generosity and prayers that I /we continue to be able to travel to the Middle East and to witness the reality people are experiencing there.  I am not unaware of how privileged I am and continue to be.  Once again I turn to you for help.  If you are able to send on something before I leave on Sept. 4th, and earmark it either for Cathy, or for Iraqi families, I would be most grateful.  I will do my best to let you know how the money for families is dispersed.

  For now I greet you most warmly,
    Cathy Breen
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