Clavichordist for Peace

This June, during Boston's Early Music Festival, clavichordist Judith Conrad from Fall River performed at the Paulist Center opposite the Boston Common. Wearing a shirt with the words, "Clavichordist for Peace," she informed her audience before each concert that their donations would be given to the Iraq Family Relief Fund. Her series of performances raised several hundred dollars for the families.

Judith has been a steadfast supporter of the Fund for several years. In addition to fundraising through her music, she has arranged for me to come to Fall River and talk about the situation in Iraq with local activists and other concerned citizens. She belongs to the Greater Fall River Committee for Peace and Justice.

After this year's Early Music Festival, Judith sent me a translated poem by the Polish writer Wislawa Szymborska, who won the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Her photo appears on this post. 

Family Update

I've just completed the latest newsletter for the Iraq Family Relief Fund and will be mailing out hard copies to donors. The electronic version will be available on this blog in another day or two. The big story, as far as the families go, is Amal Maseer's re-settlement in New Paltz, New York where she and her 3 children are now living. The children are slowly adjusting to their new life. Abeer, 17, Amal's oldest, attended her junior prom this month. She went with her girlfriends and, I have no doubt, looked absolutely lovely. Abeer's brothers, Anoush and Omer, are doing exceptionally well in school, according to their mom. Both boys are now taking hip hop dance lessons in addition to enjoying other extracurricular activities.

In March when my wife and I drove to New Paltz to visit the family, I gave the boys a used Apple laptop. It's a very old model with no Internet access and less than one gigabyte of memory. But its word processing software still gets the job done. The boys use this computer for some of their homework assignments even while they enjoy poking fun at its relative antiquity. Amal told me that the first night they had the computer they took turns making up jokes about the laptop's age. Anoush told his brother it was so old it once belonged to Cleopatra. Omer said the screen would show them what the Hanging Gardens of Babylon actually looked like. And so on. Several months have gone by since our visit and they're still making up jokes like these.

At least Omer and his family are not dodging bullets in Baghdad or reeling from car bomb explosions. Sadly, this past Wednesday a car bomb went off in a poor, Shia neighborhood in the capital. It happened around 7 in the evening while people were shopping or sitting in restaurants. The death toll now stands at 41 with over 76 people wounded.

As far as I know, nobody in our Baghdad families was hurt. I won't know for sure until one of them calls me. These days I can't phone any of them since their land lines are usually out of service. They have to borrow a mobile phone in order to get in touch with me. I did receive one phone message today. It was from Siham, a mother with 4 sons. She told me she is very sick and hopes I can send her enough to buy some groceries for her family.

The Iraqi government continues to provide food rations. The food rationing system was begun under Saddam's regime when U.S. and UK-enforced sanctions were devastating the economy. The rations were never adequate but they did prevent starvation. Today, despite the lifting of sanctions, many families still depend on government-supplied rations. Our families in Baghdad tell me that rations are much less than they used to be and only include a portion of the items that once were part of the monthly food basket. Because of this shortfall, families have to shop in the local markets where food prices are much higher than they were before the invasion.

Siham's family does not have a reliable source of income to cover the cost of food. Her husband is too sick to work. One of her two older sons has a job but his wages are very low. In order to put food on the table for her family, Siham regularly runs up a tab at the stores where she shops. The Family Relief Fund is critical to helping this family keep its grocery debt under control by providing a monthly food subsidy.

Iraqi Family En Route to U.S.

This morning at 2 a.m. Amal and her three young children departed from Queen Alia Airport in Amman, Jordan. They will stop off  in Paris and then fly to Newark, New Jersey. The family's sponsors will meet them at the airport in Newark and then drive them to a town in upstate New York where they will begin a new life.

Amal and her children fled Baghdad in 2005 after militias threatened her with death. Getting in to Jordan proved to be almost as difficult as getting out of Baghdad. With so many Iraqis seeking asylum in neighboring countries because of increasing violence in their homeland,  Jordan began sealing its border with Iraq. To enter Amman, Amal had to take her children first to Syria and then, with the help of a Jordanian national, into Jordan. Thankfully, she and her family escaped the fate of countless other Iraqi families that fell victim to criminal gangs, sectarian militias, extremist thugs, and the violence of U.S. occupying forces. 

The Iraq Family Relief Fund covered the family's basic expenses throughout their time in Amman. After three long and difficult years trying to survive as displaced Iraqis, the family was finally granted refugee status and allowed to re-settle in the U.S. 

I spoke with Amal last night as she was getting her children ready for the journey. She shared with me her many misgivings about coming to the U.S. One of her greatest fears is that she will be unable to provide a decent life for her children and will be forced to go elsewhere. She is aware of the hard times people are facing here and worries that, as a foreigner, she won't find suitable work. 

But having known Amal for over ten years and seen how resourceful and resilient she is, I am hopeful that with the support of her American friends, she will find a way to get by. Among her many gifts is an irrepressible creativity. As an artist, she has turned out hundreds of canvases depicting an idealized view of Baghdad, the city where she was born and raised. 

Over the years, I have tried to sell Amal's art work as a way for her to earn money for her family. Once she is settled in her new home, I have no doubt she will start painting again and perhaps showing her work in local galleries.  

[Original painting by Amal; oil on canvas]

Storytelling Fundraiser a Big Success!

Pathways to Peace: A Storytelling Journey, which took place on Saturday evening, February 7 at the Cambridge Friends Meeting (Quaker) in Cambridge, MA, succeeded in raising over 500 dollars in donations. This money will go toward paying for rent, clean water, and food for families assisted by the Iraq Family Relief Fund. Three widely known professional storytellers joined George Capaccio (who is also a storyteller) in a program of stories celebrating the quest for peace and the value of empathy. Performing with George were Norah Dooley, Diane Edgecomb, and Elisa Pearmain.