Islamic Relief - Emergencies And Appeals

Iraq Crisis

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Background

Children 'Starving' in Iraq
09 May 2005

400,000 children are malnourished

Silent Cost

Since the US-led invasion malnutrition rates in children under five have almost doubled from around 4% to almost 8%. This translates to around 400,000 affected children in this age group alone.

Jean Ziegler, a UN hunger specialist, presented these findings at the annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. He blamed the worsening situation in Iraq on the war.

Dirty Water

Malnutrition is not simply about children going hungry. It has multiple causes, including a lack of food, and a lack of clean water and sanitation.

Contaminated water can cause severe diarrhoea, which results in dehydration, low appetite, and a loss of nutrients, contributing to malnutrition. Malnourished children are then more susceptible to further infections from dirty water.

Essential Electricity

Iraq’s water and sewer systems have effectively collapsed. Untreated sewage drains into the rivers, further contaminating the water.

With unreliable electricity supplies, families cannot boil their drinking water to make it safe. In poorer areas, where people rely on kerosene stoves, the high prices and crippling unemployment contribute to worsening health.

The nutrition survey shows that acute malnutrition is worst in the impoverished south of Iraq.

malnutrition is worst in the impoverished south of Iraq

Permanent Damage

Muscular wasting and general swelling are symptoms of acute malnutrition, indicating that children are at risk of death.

Over the long term, malnutrition can result in crippled growth and weakened immunity. Children who survive are often left physically and mentally impaired for life.

Obesity to Starvation

Iraq generally had good nutrition rates in the 1970s and ‘80s, to the extent that obesity was the main nutrition issue facing Iraqi children.

However, from 1990 when the U.N. imposed trade sanctions, malnutrition rates shot up over six years, to a peak of 11 percent. With the U.N. Oil-for-Food program they gradually dropped to 4 percent in 2002. But the invasion in March 2003 reversed this trend.

Iraq's child malnutrition rate is now much higher than in Uganda or Haiti.

Aid Agencies

The instability throughout Iraq continues to make daily survival a struggle. The violence has also driven away many international aid agencies.

Islamic Relief is one of the few remaining agencies, still working to help the children and vulnerable people of Iraq.