January 24th - The Drain
Modified: 01:02:56 PM
The death of a baby at the Al-Sha'ala camp where we went the other day, and more about the plans to help the people living there to build a drain and a school for themselves.
There was a tent up as we drove back into the camp at Al-Sha’ala: long and semi-cylindrical, open both ends, with people inside drinking tea, eating together on the ground or sitting against the walls drinking chai. It’s a traditional Shia mourning tent for two month old Mariam. “She died of the cold,” Abu Ahmed said simply.
It’s been raining the last two days and the place is a quagmire of mud and shit, sluiced through the camp from the lakes it normally festers in. Barefoot and barely shod children waded through it with us, following Abu Ahmed to the spot where the pipes will go. They’ve managed to buy three six metre lengths of pipe, and need another three which, at 30,000 Iraqi Dinar each, makes 90 thousand for the second 18-metre line.
The first will go from the puddle where the waste water currently collects, the second from the shacks at the end of the camp, under the wall which marks the edge of the camp. It’s not the full link up to the sewage system but it’s the best available. The main expense is the machine to dig the ditches, at 250,000 Dinar a day for two days, because the ground is concrete and they can’t realistically dig it with shovels.
So the total cost for 120 families to build basic sanitation for themselves is $460 at today’s exchange rate, or about 300 pounds (for some reason there’s no pound sign on this keyboard). We told Abu Ahmed we couldn’t promise anything but we’d do our best to get them the money. He said even the government hadn’t bothered asking after them. If you can help us with it, please e mail and I’ll send you the bank account details and a huge cyber hug.
It’s not directly challenging the occupation. On the face of it, it’s nothing more than charity, although by giving them the money we’re empowering them to change their own environment and it’s impossible to stand in that place, among the animal sheds they call home, and not help in any way possible, knowing that a drain will save some of their lives; knowing it, because there can be no doubt about it, on a day like today when the sewage is flowing freely past the funeral tent for the tiny girl
We talked a bit more about the school with Abu Ahmed as well. There’s a farm building on the site with no roof, where several families are living, which would form one wall of the school house, so they’d save money by only having to build three walls. It’ll be for girls and boys from 6-10 years and the Workers’ Party will give them furniture if they can get a building sorted.
These are reconstruction projects from the people, without Bechtel, Halliburton and USAID, in solidarity with people who want health and education for their children and themselves. So in an indirect way, it is a challenge to the occupation and who knows what seeds we plant?
It’s been raining the last two days and the place is a quagmire of mud and shit, sluiced through the camp from the lakes it normally festers in. Barefoot and barely shod children waded through it with us, following Abu Ahmed to the spot where the pipes will go. They’ve managed to buy three six metre lengths of pipe, and need another three which, at 30,000 Iraqi Dinar each, makes 90 thousand for the second 18-metre line.
The first will go from the puddle where the waste water currently collects, the second from the shacks at the end of the camp, under the wall which marks the edge of the camp. It’s not the full link up to the sewage system but it’s the best available. The main expense is the machine to dig the ditches, at 250,000 Dinar a day for two days, because the ground is concrete and they can’t realistically dig it with shovels.
So the total cost for 120 families to build basic sanitation for themselves is $460 at today’s exchange rate, or about 300 pounds (for some reason there’s no pound sign on this keyboard). We told Abu Ahmed we couldn’t promise anything but we’d do our best to get them the money. He said even the government hadn’t bothered asking after them. If you can help us with it, please e mail and I’ll send you the bank account details and a huge cyber hug.
It’s not directly challenging the occupation. On the face of it, it’s nothing more than charity, although by giving them the money we’re empowering them to change their own environment and it’s impossible to stand in that place, among the animal sheds they call home, and not help in any way possible, knowing that a drain will save some of their lives; knowing it, because there can be no doubt about it, on a day like today when the sewage is flowing freely past the funeral tent for the tiny girl
We talked a bit more about the school with Abu Ahmed as well. There’s a farm building on the site with no roof, where several families are living, which would form one wall of the school house, so they’d save money by only having to build three walls. It’ll be for girls and boys from 6-10 years and the Workers’ Party will give them furniture if they can get a building sorted.
These are reconstruction projects from the people, without Bechtel, Halliburton and USAID, in solidarity with people who want health and education for their children and themselves. So in an indirect way, it is a challenge to the occupation and who knows what seeds we plant?