A human voice - Voice 1 - Saman Al Zahawi Education for Iraqi Children A Human Voice - Saman al Zahawi Education for Iraqi Children Saman is an Iraqi expat armed with the passion of helping young Iraqi to go back to school. He recognized that education is the best he could give to the Iraqi children today . Education will help the children to build their lives and the lives of their families and which will help to bring a better future to them and to the country. He started the journey on Apr 2012 after his trip to Iraq with his daughter Rawan. Saman talks about his journey of discovery and the time when he felt that he needed to act and his future goal. How did all started, where is the idea came from ? what motivate you to take the actions ? It all started in April 2012 when I took Rawan (my daughter , she was 16 at the time) with me to a visit to Baghdad, a trip that she’s always dreamed of. I don’t need to explain how overwhelming that trip was for the two of us. This whole project started on our visit to a cemetery outside Baghdad with the harsh and unsafe conditions of being there, two kids appeared with their old bikes and their job was to clean graves against minimal pay. Those two kids were at the age of 10 or so and other than tipping them, I’ve tried to find a way whether there was a bank or a money exchange that I can use to start sending them money on monthly bases to hopefully get them back to school. There was none , which is unfortunately common in rural neighborhoods. We were both leaving Iraq the next day and we found no possible way to help those kids. The discussions between Rawan and I continued of how to help such kids till I’ve asked someone in Baghdad who I know and trust to go the following weekend and seek the family of those two kids which he did. He called me the following weekend and here I am, speaking to the kids and their simple father. The shock of my life was when I’ve asked the father that I want to start sending money on monthly bases to get those two kids back to school and his reply was, please send money to one of them as the second doesn’t want to go to school. That whole approach impressed me and made me realize that there are still honest and good people in all the hardships around our old Iraq. Anyways, I’ve started sending this kid through the person we know and trust (Malik) $100/month and that kid went back to school. I’ve had one condition to send this $100 and that is to receive any school report/exam paper to prove that the kid was going to school on monthly bases and it worked. Thanks to many of the friends who are now participating in sending similar amounts to help other kids to get them back to school and we stand at 36 kids now. What is your target? My target is to increase the number of children to 100 this year What is your biggest challenge in increasing the awareness of people to your project? And what is the message you want to deliver? My biggest challenge, it to get more people to realize how people of need struggle to live their lives in Iraq and how children are robbed from their basic needs. My message is what I do is not about donation it is about building the life of young people who have lost their chance in education and progress. Have you done any other volunteer work or participate in any projects? I’ve also done physical volunteer works in Kenya and Zimbabwe in orphanages as well as teaching in a free English school in Cambodia. On the other hand and thanks to a friend of mine who works with Etihad airways, we collected used clothes here in the UAE and had them all shipped through Etihad Airways that did not charge us for that and we distributed all those in Basrah on the Eid occasion. I’m also helping a non-profit/non-registered organization in Basrah that’s doing a great job aiming to stop sectarian violence in Iraq through gathering and sending funds on monthly bases and at times, getting them costumes out of Dubai for plays that they arrange for in Iraq for that same purpose. We’ve also gathered funds to support an orphanage in Baghdad by collecting money and make direct purchases to their needs and we were able to collect somewhere around $8K. Thanks to all who supported that campaign. Do you have anything else to add? My ultimate goal is to gather donations to build a self-sustained business for those kids to run and rely on their efforts to support themselves and to include more kids. This can be a bakery or any small business to run while continuing their studies. I sincerely want to thank all the participants who have made this see light when I thought like many others that it’s so unrealistic to help in the current conditions within Iraq.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 09:57:21 +0000
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