Street children

This is a shot in the dark, but maybe someone reading this might be inspired to act: the street children in Baghdad need homes and families and as far as I can tell no one is helping them. This is a society with incredibly strong family bonds in which people look after there own; ironically, it seems therefore that there is little provision for those without the protection of a family. For a host of reasons (staff fleeing to safety, squaters occupying buildings...) the war emptied many of the orphanages leaving the children wandering the increasingly dangerous streets.

Most of the street children I talk to have horrible scars from the war, or more usually from street violence. At the moment the temperature isn't a problem for rough sleepers, but I don't know how they manage to eat. Most importantly they're lacking love and education. Many seem to cluster around the hotels hoping for gifts from foreigners. As a result the security guards treat them as a nusiance and I've heard reports of them being viciously beaten and bundled into the boot of cars.

Eventually I hope an Iraqi government will provide for these children but, for the moment and probably the next few years, everyone seems to be too busy to bother about these kids. If I had the time, skills and resources, I'd love to try and do something for them, but I think this is a task for someone else - maybe you??