Street Lawyers, Doctors, Hope Buses for Iraqi Kids

Put on your capes!  Your donations are flying half way around the world to rescue vulnerable Iraqi boys and girls who are being trafficked and even sold.  Who's on the case? A terrific team of 3 Iraqi staff attorneys (male and female) and 2 social workers, led by the Managing Lawyer shown above with ICF Chairman, Mo Khudairi. 

Known as the "Baghdad Street Lawyers," the team handles a wide ranging portfolio of legal cases ranging from more routine issues - such as getting orphans and displaced children the legal documents they need to enroll in school - to helping police get kids who are begging off the streets and out of danger.  They also help authorities investigate serious cases of trafficking, and then defend those children as victims of criminal activity and help them get post-trafficking care.  

With so many orphans and children displaced by recent conflict, the risks are high.  But with your support, these are the kinds of cases they take on:

• Police arrested a woman begging on the streets with a 3-year old girl - Noor*  She said Noor was her daughter but had lost the girl's legal documents.  When the Baghdad Street Lawyers offered to help her recover them so she could get government support rather than begging, the woman refused.  That seemed odd, so the lawyers investigated and discovered that the woman was not related to the little girl.  The woman was charged with kidnapping and confessed that Noor had been sold to her by kidnappers.  Little Noor was given safe custody until police could locate her family. 

• Rumors were circulating that a local massage business was exploiting juvenile girls for prostitution, so a social worker with the Baghdad Street Lawyers started monitoring the place. On his first visit, he found no girls but on a later visit, he discovered 4 girls (ages 16-17) working in prostitution.  They notified authorities at the Directorate for Combating Human Trafficking who raided the center, arrested the staff, and permanently closed the business.  The Street Lawyers learned the girls' parents had actually sold them to the massage business which forced them into prostitution so they sued both the parents and the owner.  They then got approval for the girls to go live at a shelter for the homeless.  

• Hasan,* a teenage orphan, was looking for work to support his widowed mother.  A man offered him a job but when he went to work, he learned the man wanted to buy his kidney instead.  Hasan refused but the man persisted, tempting him with clothes and alcohol.  One evening, after succumbing to the man's offers, Hasan was arrested for underage drinking.  Again, the man offered to bail Hasan out in exchange for his kidney but Hasan refused.  In retaliation, the man filed charges against Hasan, accusing him of fraud and stealing.  The Street Lawyers were called in and helped investigate with recorded phone calls and video.  When the facts were exposed,  Hasan was released and the man charged with the crime of trafficking in human organs.

• Zainab* (16) was arrested for prostitution but when the Street Lawyers took her case, they learned she and other girls had been lured to Baghdad with promises of jobs in a beauty salon. When they arrived, they were instead locked in an apartment and exploited for prostitution.  The Street Lawyers defended the girls in court under Iraq's Anti-Trafficking Law, securing their release as victims of a crime.  Because of the risk of honor killings if they went home, the judge sent the girls to a government homeless shelter.  

• Ali* and Ahmed*, 6 and 7 year old orphaned boys, were living with a poor uncle after their parents died. Another relative asked the uncle if Ali and Ahmed could come live with him, promising to take good care of them.  Unfortunately, the relative trafficked the boys by forcing them to work by begging on the streets.  Police picked up the boys for begging and the Street Lawyers and social workers took the case, got the boys released, and returned them to the poor uncle who cares for them and keeps them off the streets. 

If you ever wonder if you are making a difference, think of these kids and the path they were on.  Unpack your cape and stay the course.  They need you!  And so do we. 

All in,
Cindy

PS  The names (*) above are not their real names for their privacy and protection.  We are not allowed to show the children who are subject to court cases so pictures in this report are used to illustrate the street kids, orphans, and displaced children who are so at risk of trafficking.