In
March 2015, JEN started supplying water using a truck to internally displaced
persons (IDPs) in the Sinjar Mountains in the Nineveh Province, northwestern
Iraq.
JEN’s water-supply truck
on a path in the Sinjar Mountains
In August 2014,an radical
armed group took hold of Sinjar city and surrounding villages. The Yazidis, the
old inhabitants of the region, were persecuted by the members of the armed
group, being killed and sold because they believed in a different religion.
Having nowhere to evacuate to, the Yazidis barely fled
to near the top of the Sinjar Mountains, which were surrounded by the armed
group, and took refuge on top of the rough and blowy mountains, suffering from
fear, hunger and thirst.
Still, there were newborns among them. Revîn is one of them. She
was born soon after her family evacuated to the Sinjar Mountains. She is now
four years old. “Revîn” means to “escape” in
Kurdish. Many girls born that year were given this name.
Revîn with a JEN staff
member
Revîn, unlike most other girls of her age, openly told us about
herself. “I’m looking forward to going to school in two years’ time,” she said.
“I have many dreams for the future. One of them is to become a doctor. So I’ll
study hard and do well at school.”
JEN’s June 2018 interview survey on the water
supply activity and the evacuees’ livelihood situations
revealed that most of the people currently living in the Sinjar Mountains were
originally from villages near Sinjar city. In the survey, most of them have
said that even today, after their home villages have been liberated from the
armed group, houses and basic infrastructure have been severely damaged, the
ethnic balance in the nearby villages has been
changed, and the mopping-up operation for the survivors of the armed group is
still going on, and therefore returning home is risky and not feasible.
An evacuee being interviewed in a tent
JEN staff checking a water-storage tank installed in each settlement
Well Repairing in Khrab Al-Ashiq Village in Zummar District
Khrab Al-Ashiq Village is located in the north-west region of Iraq, in the Zummar District of Nineveh Prefecture. It is located approximately 100 km northwest of Mosul, and is home to about 800 families.
Khrab Al-Ashiq Village
After August of 2014, many of the residents were forced to evacuate the area due to the invasion of armed forces, but after that died down in March of 2015, the repatriation movement began, and currently, almost all of the residents have moved back to the original village.
Post-repatriation restoration has been a lengthy process. In 2017, after requests from the local government, JEN conducted analysis of the area. Results showed that the three wells located in the village were unusable, and as a result, the residents had no other choice but to collect rain water or purchase expensive store-bought water to get by.
Destroyed Well
JEN performed repairs for two of the three wells in order to meet the needs of the local community. The pumps and pipes were exchanged and while creating a clean water accessible state for the community, reservoir tanks, maintenance facilities, and chlorine disinfection systems were implemented as well. The construction efforts ended in June of 2018 and the project was passed on to the local government.
A repaired well, maintenance facility, and reservoir tank
Mayor of Zummar, community leaders, and JEN staff members
At our Duhok
office in the Kurdish Autonomous Region, northern Iraq, staff training sessions
are heldperiodically. These are important occasions where colleagues thatusually
work separately can get together and review their own work from a
wider and different perspective.
In the session
held on May 20, lectures were given entitled “Compliance by NGOs” and “Core
Humanitarian Standard (CHS).” The participants also worked in groups to discuss
concrete examples.
An international
staff member giving a lecture
Learning is
serious but fun
Discussing in
groups
Staff members
that usually work together can work together in these sessions
On May 9, JEN distributed hygiene kits to the residents of
Mamilian camp.
Young residents of the camp did a splendid job as hygiene
promotors as they prepared the hygiene kits for distribution.
Joined by JEN’s local staff members normally working in other
regions, we distributed daily necessities such as
soaps and detergents to 340 families.
The weather was mostly sunny with patchy clouds as the
distribution was carried out, but soon after it was over we experienced
some hail, to everyone’s surprise.
5th Nov 2017: After returning the IDPs of Bashiqa sub-district to their home places, the voluntary group of CHP made cleaning campaign in sector B where IDPs occupied. They could collect about one truck of two tons of their remnants especially in empty tents. CHP members are eager to make these area clean and tidy, so these area is ready to face any kind of emergency case that related to displacement at the time that clashes are still ongoing in some area of Iraq.
27th Nov 2017: CHP had cleaning campaign for Open Channel area, that channel is specified for flowing gray water of the tents and it should not be blocked at all. During the camping CHP asked the surrounded households to coordinate with them by keeping that channel empty of garbage so the gray water could flow, and to get rid of bad smells and diseases that may cause by garbage
17th Dec 2017: CHP had cleaning campaign in the main streets of Mamliyan Camp to make the view of camp tidy and clean, at the same time, CHP delivers their message that related to encouraging camp residence to keep camp clean, as well as to throw their garbage into communal and private bins that provided by JEN.
16th April 2018: In cooperation with Camp management of Mamliyan camp, CHP participated in the public cleaning day in Duhok province. The campaign was unique because of the huge number of participations that reached to 120 participants to clean the occupied area of the camp. On the same manner, CHP was grateful to JEN who supported the campaign by providing gloves and garbage bags to all participants. As well as, CHP expressed their appreciation to Camp management for their efforts by involving all NGOs in the camp, students of Mamliyan School, and the security agency in the camp.
In 2003, JEN started its support activities based in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. In the same year, we began providing educational support. After 2009, we expanded our activity areas to Kirkuk in the north and Anbar in the east, restoring 251 schools in the six provinces.
After the Iraq War, people were living in fear of terrorism and conflict every day as political instability persisted. Children were particularly vulnerable, so JEN restored destroyed schools to secure safe places for the children and encouraged them to return to school. Our restoration of 251 schools allowed 131,621 children to attend school again, which also contributed to improving the capacity of teachers and the Ministry of Education in Iraq. Parents have been able to restore hygienic and safe livelihoods for their households.
In March 2018, JEN ended this 15 year project. We would like to thank you for your warm support for this project.
After 2014, JEN also established its activity base in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region in the north. We have been carrying out emergency support activities such as supplying water, restoring water supply facilities and schools, distributing goods, and operating a refugee camp for people who have fled from armed groups. In the future, we will be based in Duhok and continue to support people who have returned to areas liberated from armed groups in the northern Nineveh Province where damage was most severe.
In Iraq, many people are still unable to recover from the conflict. We would like to thank you for your continued support.
Over the past winter, many internally displaced people have returned to their home villages and towns in Ninewa governorate. Life in the areas that used to be controlled by ISIS is now starting anew and returnees need support to re-establish their livelihoods.
JEN is providing support by distributing kerosene for households and schools in Sanuni, Ninewa governorate.
JEN receives letter of appreciation from the Ministry of Education in Iraq
In March 2018, JEN received a letter of appreciation from the Ministry of Education in Iraq for our school restoration and hygiene education activities that we have been carrying out in Iraq for many years.
JEN has been engaged in repairing school buildings in Iraq since 2004. We have so far restored about 250 schools to contribute to the education of children in Iraq. JEN is engaged in a strong cooperative relationship with the Ministry of Education, and continually works with the Ministry in selecting schools to be restored and providing them with follow-up maintenance.
Once again, a series of earthquakes hit the Iranian-Iraqi border, which has reached more than five degrees on the Rikhter scale, and it has been felt by most of the population of Kirkuk and Iraq in general. The US Geological Survey said five earthquakes happend near the border town of Mandali, Near Mehran in western Iran ..
Praise be to Allah, the earthquake was not strong and did not cause great damages, and for information un earthquake hit this area in November last year and its strength was 7.2 degrees and has killed hundreds of people in these areas, the population of Iraq in general they were not familiar with earthquakes before and this little time they were hit by many earthquakes , making them very fearful, especially as earthquakes are unexpected. God saves everyone from all bad things.
The central Iraqi city of Mosul was liberated from the armed group in July 2017.
Mosul originally had 2 million people. It is the second largest city in Iraq. After the release, refugees started to return. The population was 400,000 in August 2017 but it is now 800,000 as of November.
The homes of the refugees were destroyed. There is a shortage of water and electricity. In addition to public services like schools and hospitals, infrastructure like electricity and transport networks, improvement of security, and economic activities has to be reestablished.
Although the displaced are returning home, there are still many people who are living in refugee camps. It was also reported that almost 700 families went back to the camp from west Mosul because their homes were destroyed. The water infrastructure in Mosul city was destroyed in the battle, and water purchase has been economically straining for the refugees.
In this situation, JEN provided emergency water supply by trucks for 3.5 months since October. At its peak, water was supplied to 114,000 people out of the total population of 800,000 people.
The water authority of Mosul is also making an effort to reestablish the water supply network. Access to water is gradually being restored. Water supply by JEN supports the reestablishment of the refugees’ lives.
【Water supply truck going around to distribute water】
【Destroyed bridge in Mosul (photo by Ahmed Al-Hayali)】
【Destroyed bridge and streets in Mosul (photo by Ahmed Al-Hayali)】
In the latter half of 2014, JEN started its support activities on Mount Sinjar, which is near the border of Syria.
There were many refugees who had fled Sinjar City, which is located on the southern side of the mountain, and we have always provided them with water and daily commodities.
Right after the city was set free from the armed forces in 2015, there were only a few people staying in Sinjar City, but now many people have returned
JEN is now restoring the water facilities and schools in the city for the returned children to be able to resume their studies at ease.
This picture shows the restoration of a school (in Sinjar City). They are painting walls and restoring doors and windows. ↓
A well in Sanuny. They are restoring the well facilities and the intermediate water tank. This picture shows the restoration of the roof of the operation room.
A well in Sinjar. The water tank is under restoration.
This picture shows the fundamental part of the well. They are restoring the water tank.
This semester, JEN is carrying out restoration activity in three schools in Kirkuk, Iraq. In one of these schools, early this month, we carried out hygiene promotion activity in order to support the students’ healthy life.
JEN staff and the Ministry of Education jointly provided training to educate both the students and the teachers, who will be instructing students from now on.
【A look of training for teachers】
The training was about tooth brushing and hand washing, and we had great time with the students. After the training, we handed out certificate of completion to teachers who participated. From now on, they will teach the children how to keep hygiene environment for healthy life.
【Teaching students tooth brushing and hand washing】
In Iraq, a comprehensive education was first started after the nation was put under the rule of the United States in 2003. Accordingly, the Ministry of Education in Iraq conducted a survey, which has revealed the following facts:
* One-third of elementary schools in the country have no water supply facilities. Among them, those in the provinces of Thi Qar, Salah al-Din and Diyala are most heavily damaged.
* Over 700 elementary schools across the country have been damaged by past bombings. In particular, in the capital Baghdad more than 300 schools, accounting for one-third of the total, have been damaged from fire and over 3,000 schools destroyed.
* Elementary schools in the province of Basra are filled with students well exceeding their capacities.
* In most elementary schools there is a shortage of facilities other than ordinary classrooms such as laboratories and libraries. In addition, their education is partly dependent on private institutions due to delays in curriculum implementation as well as lack of training and availability of teachers.
Now it has been 14 years since the change of government after the Iraq War, and the nation’s education system is further deteriorating due to various reasons. The government is conducting investigations to improve this situation, and they are also required to formulate long-term plans and create and implement solutions to the problems.
JEN will continue to provide assistance in education development in Iraq.
It has been three years since JEN started working in Kurdistan with IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) and implementing different projects in areas affected by armed group. JEN now is doing projects in Mamilian IDPs Camp in Akre city, Sinjar district, Zummar sub district and Mosul city. Where the most vulnerable are. Since it opened, JEN has been in charge of WASH services in Mamilian IDPs Camp. In the beginning, there were around 2,500 families living in the camp which were from different back ground. Since the armed group was defeated and the southern side of Sinjar city became safe in the past few months, some of those that heard through the local media that their home village is liberated returned home or to go to other camps. . Yet, some of them will still continue living in the camp. JEN will continue to support them by providing the best WASH services that we can. Our mission here is to help people be aware of the risk of diarrhea and the importance of hand washing and personal hygiene in maintaining health.
【 Families leaving Mamilian IDPs Camp】
<Liberation of Mosul> After Mosul was liberated, JEN started to provide water trucking in west Mosul. Every day JEN delivers almost 800,000 litters of safe water to almost 80,000 people.
【JEN water trucking in West Mosul】
<Sinjar City, Sinjar Mountain and Sanuni Sub district> In late 2014, JEN was one of the first international NGO to support IDPs on Sinjar Mountain and the few people remaining in Sinjar City after the liberation. The area became safer day by day and the number of returnees are increasing in Sinjar City. JEN supported their return by rehabilitating one of the main water facilities; and are happy to see that families are coming back and reconstructing their broken houses. Next, JEN will work on school rehabilitation in Sinjar city so that the newly returned children have a school to study.
Water trucking is on going on Sinjar Mountain, JEN delivers water for displaced families there every day.
【Sinjar Mountain, A Water Tank, rehabilitated by JEN】
<Zummar Sub district> In Zummar, 95% of families have already returned to their villages. The fighting there was brief but there was still a lot of damage to infrastructure, houses, water sources and pipes and the schools. People need these things to get their lives restarted and JEN delivers water by trucking in six villages of this area. The water source was destroyed by armed group and will take time to be repaired. The Local people are still waiting for the rehabilitation of the infrastructure. JEN will continue water trucking until mid of December and also working with water directorate to find other sustainable solutions for those villages.
【Frequent monitoring of rehabilitated water trucking】
JEN is carrying out its activities in and around the capital Baghdad, which is under the jurisdiction of the Iraqi central government, and in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region in northern Iraq. In both areas, we provide assistance to those who have fled from attacks by armed groups and citizens living in the communities that accommodate them.
▼ For more information on our activities in Iraq, click here.
Currently, tensions are increasing between the Iraqi central government and the Kurdish autonomous government. While minor conflicts are repeated between them after the Kurdish autonomous government carried out a referendum seeking independence, people from Kirkuk, whose number is said to be as many as 100,000, have started to temporarily evacuate for their safety in October. Refugees from Kirkuk are arriving at the camp in northern Iraq where JEN has been working since 2015. It has been nearly a month since restrictions on foreigners, including Japanese nationals, traveling to the Kurdish autonomous state has been imposed.
...Areas where JEN has worked so far ...Kurdistan Autonomous Region Area: 43.74 km2 approx. (about 1.2 times the area of Japan); Population: 36.42 million; Languages: Arabic, Kurdish, and others; Major industry: petroleum (From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website)
▼ For more information on the characteristics of the Kirkuk region, click here.
▼ For more information on our education assistance activities in Kirkuk, click here.
▼ For more information on our activities for IDPs and the refugee camp, click here.
Currently, the border between Turkey and the northern Kurdish autonomous region is closed. We also cannot travel on land in Iraq for security reasons. The staff members dispatched from Japan have currently evacuated from Duhok, and are working remotely from neighboring Jordan. Giving the highest priority to their security, our local staff members in Iraq are smoothly carrying out their normal assistance activities.
JEN will continue to provide necessary assistance to Iraq although its security situation is constantly changing and becoming more complex. We would most appreciate your support for our emergency assistance activities in Iraq.
In Iraq, school education began in 1921, and in the early 1970s education in public schools became free, allowing every child to receive school education.
The Constitution established in 1970 stipulates that primary education is compulsory and all education, including university, is free, guaranteeing the right to receive education for everyone.
In addition, a comprehensive campaign to improve literacy rate across the nation was initiated in 1978 for people between the ages of 15 and 45. As a result, the illiteracy rate has dropped from 48% in 1978 to 9.19% in 1987.
According to a UNESCO report, Iraq’s education system had been the best among the neighboring countries until 1991, when the Gulf War broke out. However, the education system deteriorated after the Second Gulf War and the economic sanctions that lasted for 13 years became a burden, which not only worsened the quality of education, but also gradually lowered the literacy rate. School dropouts also increased due to the worsened economic condition of the people.
Water supply activity has started for returnees from October 1st in Ninewa, West Mosul. Ninewa was liberated from the armed group.
[The townscape inWest Mosul]
Mosul had been controlled by armed group for 3 years
After October 2016, Iraqi government began operation for liberation and finally Mosul was liberated from armed group on July 2017. Now, returnees are rushing for Mosul in large numbers.
People who tried to return to the west side of Mosul, the destroyed bridge, buildings... JEN’s international staff filmed the miserable situation of the city. JEN will start emergency support activity on the west side of Mosul.
Thank you very much for your great support.
【JEN is now asking for donations. Click here to donate】
The photo shows the entrance of a village in the Nineveh Plain near Mosul.
In this village, Sunnis and Shiites live together. They are both Muslims, but their beliefs and doctrines differ from each other.
When the armed groups invaded the village in 2014, one of the two sects fled, while the other remained. The sect who remained in the village thought that the armed groups shared the same beliefs with them, but, in fact, the armed groups had pretended to have the same faith as them.
After the village was liberated from the armed groups by the Iraqi army, JEN initiated several projects in cooperation with UNICEF. One of them is hygiene promotion where the village volunteers convey what they have learned to the other villagers.
The JEN staff and the hygiene promotion volunteers were often faced with difficulties in having members of both sects participate in the activities.
When the activities first started, people from both sects said that there was nothing wrong between them and they were living peacefully together, and indeed it seemed so. After being liberated from the armed groups, the leaders of the village were very pleased that the village had regained peace and the people were now free to start a new life.
However, as the project got on its way and the volunteers and villagers began to trust our staff, the volunteers revealed the prejudices in the village.
Although the people of the two sects were neighbors, they did not visit each other’s homes when they participated in hygiene promotion and other activities.
Those in the minority sect in the village believed that people from the majority sect had assisted the armed groups because when the armed groups invaded the village they did not flee.
The minority sect has formed a militia and has put the village under its control. For this reason, people from the majority sect do not have the power to urge those in the minority sect to participate in activities such as hygiene promotion sessions.
Under these circumstances, JEN, as a humanitarian organization, decided to provide children from both sects with an opportunity to spend time together in the village so as not to worsen prejudices between the two sects.
Our staff planned a hygiene promotion event for saving water on August 28. On the day of the event, more than 125 children gathered on the beautiful open lawns.
Children from both sects enjoyed games and other activities and received sweets and gifts prepared by JEN and UNICEF. After the event, the children held each other’s hands as they went home.
On the next day, we were so glad to see the children coming back together to the open lawns, expecting to join the same event again. Unlike their parents, they have no negative feelings towards each other, nor do they care about what their parents say or think at home.
The children gave us hope that someday people from both sects would overcome each other’s differences and live amicably together.
[Hygiene promotion volunteers carrying out an event]
The most popular sport here in Kirkuk, that is also “Soccer”! The youth in Kirkuk is recently enthusiastic in the game between Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain Super Cup “The Classic”.
The Classic is very popular in Kirkuk. A lot of young people get together in cafés and watch the game passionately.
Many people gathered to see the soccer game in the club in Kirkuk the other day as well. The game was held at Barcelona soccer stadium “Camp Nou” this day. Real Madrid won the game 3 to 1.
Although C. Ronaldo had to exit in the middle of the game this time, we’re looking forward to seeing the winner of Spain Super Cup at the return match today at the soccer stadium of Real Madrid, Santiago Bernabeu.
【JEN is now asking for donations. Click here to donate】
Since 2014 when an armed opposition group took control of the second largest city in Iraq, Mosul, millions of residents have been forced to evacuate to a safer place in the country.
In October 2016 the Iraqi government moved into action to liberate Mosul. In July 2017 Mosul was, at last, liberated from the armed opposition group.
What’s important now?
Reconstruction covers many things. It not only refers to the restoration of the infrastructure which was totally destroyed but also includes encouraging displaced residents to return to Mosul.
Reconstruction requires a certain amount of money. Even though Mosul has received support from the international community it is far from sufficient.
A reconciliation needs to be reached between the so-called general Iraqi society and Mosul residents in order to ensure fairness to all.
【In Mosul】
Terrorism by the armed opposition group not only resulted in many deaths and physical destruction but the group also tried to destroy the ‘culture’ of Mosul.
The ‘culture’, ‘society’, ‘politics’ and ‘religious sense’ developed by the armed opposition over the years was carefully designed by its leaders to spread the group’s ideas throughout society. It had the desired effect, influencing the people.
Now a way to reverse these effects is needed.
To do this, Iraq will need to implement reconstruction projects in cooperation with NGOs, Muslim clerics, intellectuals, thinkers and all other influential figures in the Iraqi society.
We should also not forget about the young people.
【Mosul residents】
Experts in Iraq will need to enlist the cooperation of experts from other countries in order to conduct psychological and social rehabilitation programs for the young people in Mosul.
Thikra J Elias
Baghdad, Iraq
【JEN is now asking for donations. Click here to donate】
People’s lives in the city of Sinjar and its surroundings are like hell.
JEN was one of the first organizations that began supporting the people of Sinjar after the city was liberated from armed groups. .
When I first visited Sinjar as a staff member of JEN, the people were totally dispirited. Most of the houses and government buildings had been destroyed. To take the first step forward, we began the essential work of repairing wells in the city so that people could have access to drinking water. .
Life in the Sinjar Mountains is more difficult than in the city. JEN has repeatedly investigated what is essential for the people living there and is providing public water storage tanks which are filled up daily from tanker trucks. .
[Water supply tanker trucks JEN has rented; JEN distributes drinking water to people taking refuge in the mountains]
.
.
[A well being repaired in Sinjar City; installation of a water storage tank and generator]
.
.
[Bashiqa and Bahzani]
Bashiqa and Bahzani Villages, located in eastern Mosul, had been under the armed group’s control for two years. .
JEN provides assistance to people who are returning to their villages. Although the houses were safe, the rubble caused by the battle was piled up all over the roads so JEN carried out a road and household waste clean-up operation. . Our activities are much appreciated by the villagers, and the number of returnees is increasing every week. . JEN’s staff engineers discussing well administration huts, water storage tanks and water supply networks with the director of the Bashiqa Waterworks Bureau and a Nineveh waterworks engineer. .
[The director of the Bashiqa Waterworks Bureau and the Nineveh waterworks engineer have expressed appreciation to JEN]
.
[A repaired well near the village of Bashiqa]
.
Rebar Ali Mella
JEN Iraq
. 【JEN is now asking for donations. Click here to donate】
Truffle is a type of mushroom (fungus) that does not contain chlorophyll and is non-photosynthetic. It absorbs nutrition from the remains of dead animals and plants in the soil.
In Kirkuk and its surrounding area, you can see truffles around the beginning of April. The price is about 35,000 dinar (28USD) for 1kg.
The main producing area of truffles is the place once controlled by an armed group.
People of Kirkuk worry about contamination because of the chemical used in weapons, since the armed group used chemical weapons in the outskirts of Kirkuk where the truffles grow.
Nevertheless, the truffle is so delicious that people think they like to eat regardless of the risk.
【Truffles piled in a bucket】
【JEN is now asking for donations. Click here to donate】
Launch of a registration System for internally displaced persons
[Use of the new registration system to distribute hygiene supplies]
JEN has launched a new registration system to help with the correct distribution of hygiene supplies. It allows easier and more accurate distribution than before and without using paper documents.
The system requires a smart phone and an app containing the data of all households in the camp.
When visiting families in the camp staff can check family details including the supplies the family are eligible to receive along with whether they have received these supplies or not.
So the system ensures the correct supply and avoids duplicating the supply of goods.
The system was developed by the Kurdistan Regional Government and another non-profit organisation.
All internally-displaced persons living in the camp and around Dahuk have been registered on the system.
Soon, the system is going to be used in all distribution operations in the Kurdistan Region.
Ezzat Ahmed Bapeer,
JEN Field Staff
【JEN is now asking for donations. Click here to donate】
JEN has begun to distribute water hygiene related supplies.
[The staff are preparing the set up of the supplies]
[People receiving the supplies and bringing them back home].
Refugees began to return to the area in January 2017, but during the combat,
the wells were severely damaged. Restoring the water supply has been a challenge, so providing water for daily use has been difficult.
Therefore, JEN has repaired wells in the area, distributed water and sanitary goods as well as providing hygiene education in collaboration with UNICEF.
[People checking registration to ensure distribution is correct and not duplicated]
【JEN is now asking for donations. Click here to donate】
Schools across Al-Fallujah were heavily damaged in combat activities last November, but the decision was made to have students return.
[Destroyed school facilities]
The government of Al Anbar disclosed that 60% of the school facilities in Al-Fallujah had been damaged. The scale of damage differs by school, some were totally destroyed.
Moreover, due to the increased number of students in recent years, the schools are not big enough. Some of the schools divide the students into groups and provide classes in morning and afternoon shifts, and others are forced to use their school yards as classrooms.
At one school, 80 children were crammed into one room. In such a crowded classroom, infectious diseases can spread very rapidly.
The education bureau of Al Anbar Governorate requested to the ministry of education and other government agencies that the schools be repaired and rebuilt, however so far the response has been inadequate.
For example, some schools just received materials to enable them to build only simple temporary classrooms.
【JEN is now asking for donations. Click here to donate】
As you may know, JEN has provided support in Iraq since 2003. During the past three years in Iraqi Kurdistan, JEN has supported internally displaced people (IDP) from Mosul to lighten the burden imposed on their life.
We visited an IDP camp in Salah Al-Din Governorate to check on their needs. Then we distributed cold protection supplies such as mattresses and blankets.
[A substantial amount of relief supplies were delivered]
We completed family member lists, prepared forms for supply distribution management, and distributed aid supplies to 1,800 families in the camp.
[JEN’s staff checking the numbers of family members on the member list]
IDPs and management people at the camp showed gratitude for JEN’s supply support. They told us that many people including children had to sleep on the ground because there hadn’t been mattresses before JEN’s visit.
[Mattresses were distributed to everyone]
Many children lost their parents and became orphans, or disabled because of war. Widows have to take care of their children alone now. Support is never enough even for the minimal living needs. These people are forced to live a rugged life.
[Children look happy to receive relief supplies]
Even though the reality is incredibly tough, we feel happy when people thank JEN for our support and for a helping hand being outstretched to those who need it. This reminds us of what human love is.
[Reliable local staff members of JEN]
Bassim Yousif
JEN Baghdad, Iraq
【JEN is now asking for donations. Click here to donate】
Aid in the form of 42,420 bottles of 500mL water was provided to returnees who previously resided in the area, JEN assisted, once occupied by armed groups.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Emergency Assistance To Those Who Escaped ‘Mosul Liberation Campaign’
Due to the liberation operation that began on October 17th 2017, many of those who lived in the suburban city of Mosul, as well as those from its prefectural border have been forced to leave their homes.
They have been evacuated to a temporary building at the camp. At the camp, there is no organized system like the one at prepared camps that are designed to receive and protect people.
JEN has distributed blankets, mattresses, and plastic sheets to the emergency camp residents of about 1800 households.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Emergency Support Provided in the Emergency Camp For Those Who fled from Mosul Liberation Operation
At the “Emergency Camp, a total of 1,800 families (about 10,000 people) are temporary taking shelter in buildings under construction. These people are from both evacuated areas near Mosul. These evacuees were affected by the operation to liberate Mosul which began on October 17, 2016.
Since October assistance has been provided by many international organizations. However, there is still a lack of facilities because numbers of people flowing into the camp are continuously rising. Further, the minimum temperature on site goes down to around zero degrees every day since this January. Emergency support for the winter season is necessary until the spring comes.
We call the buildings in which the evacuees are living an “Emergency Camp” because this area is not recognized either as a refugee Camp or an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp, but was spontaneously established because of its urgent need.
This camp is not yet operated in a well-organized way like other established refugee camps, which receive fixed numbers of people based on capacity after being readied. This camp has buildings under construction and public facilities like schools. The camp JEN is working with is still under construction. Windows and doors have not been fully completed.
In this emergency camp, JEN is going to provide plastic sheets for people in order to keep the rain and wind out, so that they can live safely. We will also deliver blankets and mattresses.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
It snowed yesterday in Kirkuk. It had continued from morning to afternoon, covering the whole city of Kirkuk with snow. The snow lasted for 3 hours but the temperature dropped to zero degree and it was very cold. In There has not been any snowing since 2008 in Kirkuk.
Most of the refugees are living in the camp, shivering without any way to ward off the cold. We hope every refugee could go back home soon. May the people of the world hold out their hand to them, and also Iraq.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
It is well known that the various infectious diseases spread fast among students in schools, especially when the school environment is one lacking in knowledge of public health, individual health, and clean living.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the mumps are going around in elementary schools in Salahuddin Province. Mumps are easily communicable among children and most of the students become infected.
JEN is implementing a project to raise awareness of health and a hygienic environment by providing training to teachers and textbooks for students. Mumps is the topic included both in the training and the textbook.
[Hygiene training for teachers]
[Hygiene textbook for students]
I hope our new project will help more school students learn about the importance of hygiene.
[Assessment conducted in white tents where IDPs live in Sinjar mountain]
JEN believes that preparation for the coming winter is essential as the season makes IDPs' (internally displaced persons) already hard life even harder. One way to protect them from the harsh weather is distribution of winterization items. In order to meet the needs of IDPs as much as possible, JEN has started assessing every camp and area of Sinjar mountain.
From the 7th to the 10th of November last year, 30 assessment staff and JEN staff conducted interview to Yazidi people in the mountain as a part of needs assessment. The staff visited houses and camps to hear the voices of IDPs. Vouchers to receive winterization items were distributed thereafter.
[JEN staff conducting an interview]
Every interviewee was very supportive and cooperative, providing all the necessary information and documents needed when staff explained the reason and purpose of the interview at the door. In fact, most people offered tea and fruit for the staff, which shows the good relationship between JEN and IDPs. People show their appreciation for consistent and continuous support since 2014.
[Bananas offered by an IDP and JEN staff explaining about distribution voucher and how to keep it safe]
All the necessary information was collected, thanks to the 2,300 households in the mountain. We found out that almost every household was in immediate need of heaters/kerosene. Clothes/blankets were also common needs. Based on the assessment,
JEN has decided its action and started monthly distribution of kerosene pots and kerosene from November. We will continue our support so that IDPs will be able to survive the cold winter and welcome spring in a few months.
[30 assessment staff]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
One of the key activities JEN is carrying
out in Iraq is the hygiene education for teachers and students. JEN is aiming
at raising their awareness towards hygiene, health, and the environment, in
addition to improving their families’ hygienic habits through proper education.
[The
hygiene education posters displayed in a school]
With the cooperation of the Ministry of
Education, JEN has put together hygiene leaflets for elementary and junior high
school students. In
addition, the posters to be displayed in schools have been prepared, and a
special training curriculum for elementary and junior high school teachers has
been introduced.
The
leaflets and posters have already been printed and distributed to the teachers.
It is expected that these materials will help improve the hygienic environment
of the schools in conjunction with the cleaning equipment that has already been
distributed to each school.
[The
hygiene education leaflet distributed to each school]
[The
leaflet for teachers]
[A hygiene education session for school
personnel]
Since it is recognized that hygiene
education is vital for keeping the children in good health, JEN has been giving
lessons to elementary school students on brushing their teeth and washing their
hands.
[A
hand-washing lesson]
[A
tooth-brushing lesson]
The representatives of the Ministry of
Education, school governors, teachers, and students have expressed their
gratitude to JEN for promoting hygiene education.
A school official thanked JEN by giving a cake on which “JEN” was written as a present. That official has told us that he expects
JEN’s activities will be conducted in as many schools as possible in all
regions of Iraq.
[The
cake givenby the school as a present]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
At the beginning of 2016, the Ministry of
Education of Iraq called on both the Department of Environmental Education and the
Department of School Health to conduct a campaign for cleaning up schools with
local governments. Letters of invitation to participate on this project were extended
to related NGOs, and the campaign was entitled “Our School, Our Home”.
The Ministry of Education and schools have been paying special attention to
school hygienic environment and acknowledge its importance. One of the aims of
this project was to create a learning environment safe and healthy to students
and teachers.
JEN offered cleaning equipments and materials to schools and contributed much
to the success of this campaign.
[Campaign banner by JEN and the Ministry of
Education]
[JEN staff explaining the importance of
hygienic environment]
Before the start of the campaign, we
cleaned up the schools all day long together with officers from the Ministry of
Education. We have received compliments from many organizations for our active
participation and project implementation.
[Students cleaning the school garden]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
JEN is providing water sanitation for those living in refugee camps in Iraq. This has created a safe environment in all household toilets, showers, and kitchen facilities.
Recently, many families have left the camps and new families have taken their place. When residents leave the camp, JEN goes with the camp manager to the place they used to lived, and recovers what can be reused so that the newly incoming family is able to settle quickly.
Among this recovery, the most important is the collecting of doors, so that when doors break, they can be replaced immediately. Last week, when we visited a vacant home, we encountered residents removing a door.
[A man removing a door from an unused bathroom.]
The man told us that the door of his tent was broken and would not close, and so he needed a new door. Not only is not having a door unsafe, but as we enter the winter months the night temperature has decreases and in this region there is a heavy rainfall in the winter.
[The newly installed door on the man’s tent]
At first we were surprised by the removal of the door without notice, but we were glad to help those who needed doors. Some of the refugees in the camp had spent over two years in the same tent, because these tents are designed for temporary use of 9~12 months, they are wearing out. In particular, damage to doors prevents them from closing properly.
Additionally, most of the tents have worn out through two years of use, and thus experience rain leaks. In such an aggravation of living conditions, the people must protect themselves inside the tent from the rain and cold air as winter approaches. Through support activities, JEN hopes to provide a more safe and comfortable environment for the refugees.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
The new school term in Iraq began on 29 September 2016. The Minister for the Ministry of Education rang the opening bell at an elementary school in Baghdad.
The education system in Baghdad in the 1970’s and 1980’s was at the highest level in the region, and the literacy rate was maintained at a high level. The then government’s campaign to improve the literacy rate contributed to this situation. However, since 1991, the education system has failed as a result of the outbreak of the Iraq War and economic restrictions in Baghdad.
Since 2003, many schools in Iraq have required repairs to and restoration of their sanitary equipment. Many schools also face additional problems such as the lack of laboratories, libraries, and basic infrastructure like electricity and running water. The failing education system and deficient school facilities have been, and remain, an obstacle preventing children from attending and studying at school. Furthermore, economic difficulty in Iraq has forced children to seek income through labor, thereby also contributing to the decline in literacy.
[School toilets and a water storage tank that JEN restored]
I genuinely hope that the education system in Iraq will be improved and the day when schools are full of life with children’s voices will come again.
By Thikra J Elias
[Not only children but JEN’s staff also have meetings with school officials at the beginning of the new term]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
I want to share our health education project this time.
The department of education requested us to support the redesigning of their current poster about “Let’s think about hygiene together!”. The poster will be distributed to assigned schools.
【JEN staff are discussing about the poster】
Each school sets up a Committee on Environment to review hygiene environment in schools at the beginning of each term. The committee is important to improve hygienic environment not only for schools but also for JEN.
The chairman of the Committee on Environment said, “With this poster, we want to increase awareness of problems about health and environment among children first. We also expect that children talk about the problems once they go home, and their parents and adult family members share the story to their neighbors. Finally, we want to improve overall regional health condition.”
For this second poster, JEN created a message as follows: “Your health is our goal”. Through this poster, we want people to be interested in hygienic management including food, as well as to raise awareness of hygienic environment around schools and their health in general. I hope that this project will improve hygienic environment for students in these schools.
By Thinkra J Elias
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
What kind of things you are using to keep hygienic environment? For example, brooms, dustpans, garbage cans, food containers, buckets and so on. They are necessary to keep clean environment.
The people residing in camp are using limited belongings to keep cleanliness. In order to live more hygienic environment, JEN voucher to buy cleaning tools and kitchen stuff. At first, people receive the voucher at the entrance of shop, and then go to select the necessary thins checking by their eyes in the temporarily established “shop”.
[Registration and receiving voucher point]
The “customers” are guided by community hygiene promoter (CHP) and select products thoughtfully. After selecting products as same amount equal sum of voucher, it is time for payment.
[A customer and CHP guiding the “shop”]
Finally, they stand in a checkout line and receive the selected products.
[Stand the checkout line]
Internal displaced persons living in camp are forced not to buy even essential commodities. It has been while, did everyone buy essentials?
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Hi there... My Name is Karwan AbdulKareem Akrawi, I am from Akre in Northern Iraq. Currently I am Computer Science Student at University of Kurdistan-Hawler. Since a long time, I was feeling responsibility and big desire to serve and support people and community even by simple things available especially refugees and displaced people who suffer from the most basic necessities of life as humanitarian service. In our educational system, we have summer break for more than three months. At that time, I was thinking to do something that can help refugees. In my city, there are two main camps for refugees.
At the summer of 2016, I have decided to work for serving refugees and I went to one Camp to find out a non-governmental organization in order to work through in favor of refugees. At that time, I found an NGO office known Japan Emergency NGO (JEN) and I met Mrs. Anne Rapin. I requested to work even as a volunteer. After a while, she called me to start working with them and that was a moment of happiness for me. After several days, I started working with JEN and they assigned many tasks to me which collecting information, opening English course for refugees and hygiene kits distribution.
The first task was an assessment for collecting information of all refugees who living at the Camp through visiting every single family at the camp. This task was hard because the whole work is under the sunlight and sometimes the temperature reaches to 50 °C. Although it is difficult to work under high temperature, I could recognize how hard they living and that gave me a fact of how they suffer and living. As well as, I found many people there whom have no food, no job, no money and they are depending only on NGOs aids, as well as, they are really in trouble which representing by financial challenges .
The positive point of JEN is that they employed those people to work for JEN projects and that’s helped them to earn money and improve their lives.
[During the work]
The impressive thing that I found is that the people challenging the harsh circumstances and they try to live their normal life by simple things especially the children whom trying to re-life their dreams. At the end, I learned how to fight for life and I earned wonderful colleagues within JEN. As well as, I wish a quick back for those families to their homes in order to re-start with bright future.
[Kids playing football]
[An innocent child]
[A disabled child playing football]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
JEN aims for the world in which people are able to stand on their own feet and have power to face/manage/solve their own problems. Implementing a project is one method, but another way is by building the capacity of local staff so that they will hopefully become active leaders for the betterment of their own country.
Over 1 year and 8 months since JEN opened an office in Kurdistan Region of Iraq, we have seen positive changes and growth in local staff. One example is a change of attitude of national staff towards beneficiaries. When JEN was distributing Hygiene kits for people in IDP camp, one of the local staff asked if he could give out an extra kit because he felt “sorry” for certain families due to their personal situations. However, doing so out of pity would have not only degraded dignity of those families but also lost fairness and equality of JEN’s support. When it happened, JEN’s international staff (=non-local staff) explained and thought with national staff why it was not appropriate to do so. Now the staff understands the nature of JEN’s work (which is to “support” people with dignity and not to “save” people with pity), and able to make decisions in professional manner rather than in emotional manner without guidance.
This is just one of the small examples of positive growth of local staff, but when those small changes cumulate, it becomes a power to create big change, for the world in which JEN is no longer needed.
Madoka Matsumoto
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
It is a commercial area located east side of Tigris River in Baghdad. Many Jewish and Christians resided there in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The Jewish were deported after the country governance shifted from monarchy to a republic. In the 1940’s, the area had developed as a high-class residential area in Baghdad. In the early to mid-20th century, many mosques and churches were constructed as citizen wished to foster further regional development. The community development ran smoothly, and many shopping malls and markets were constructed alongside the main street. The area is always crowded with people.
On July 2, 2016, around 1 a.m. midnight, the place was crowded with many shoppers who were to celebrate the Eid holiday making the end of Ramadan in a few days. They avoided a blistering daytime heat of over 45 Celsius and went out once cooler at night.
The moment came when people were enjoying cooling down and shopping. The blast came suddenly from a truck, and the buildings were engulfed in flames in a minute wiping out people, buildings and everything. Lives of children, women, elderly and even pre-born child were lost without mercy. Between 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. before sunrise, everything was burned to ashes. The scene was a catastrophic disaster. In sunlight, the place seemed totally different from the previous day.
People in Iraq were shocked, appalled, mourned, and frightened by this incident. Who could imagine that a bomb blast from only one truck would destroy everything? What the explosive was all about had been analyzed by professionals and witnesses of this disaster. What is known for sure is that those lost will never come back. 500 deaths and 300 injured, and many of the people remain unidentified. Excited children with their parents to buy a new clothes for Eid Holiday, young people celebrating their graduation with their family and friends, and many people happened to be there, were all victims. How can we keep ourselves together? People are filled with sorrow and anger.
When will the world direct their attention to this tragedy in Iraq?
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Sports festival for IDPs, refugees and host community
Aiming at increasing intercommunication and mutual understanding, sports festival for youth living in refugees/IDPs camps and in host community in Duhok was held in the beginning of June 2016.
Participants competed in athletic sports such as sprints, relay race, high jump etc. and also performed their traditional dances.
Many people from local community and NGO working in camps visited this festival and cheered for participants
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Now here in Kurdistan, it is in the midst of Ramadan. During daytime when Muslim people fast, the temperature hovers around 40 degrees Celsius.
When windows are opened, heated air is going through. Electricity is frequently cut so that generator has supplied electricity more than a half of the day. Air conditioner cannot be used when generator is operated. This huge water cooler, which can be powered by generator, is a must-have item in Kurdistan.
This water cooler provides cold air by vaporization heat. It seems like better for health than air conditioner but it is not cool enough compared to air conditioner.
The problem is night. Water cooler is not installed in bedrooms and the second floor where bedrooms are located is hotter than the first floor due to the heat from the roof. The amazing solution local staff suggested are; put soaked mattress on the roof and sleep there, or take cold shower with your clothes on and sleep. One of colleagues sleeps by wrapping herself up in soaked sheet.
This heat continues for a while, but Ramadan ends around on 4th July. One of staff met a cute sheep on the street.
When staff left the shop, it has been already killed for dinner…
For Eid holiday after Ramadan, the preparation of celebration has been ongoing here.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Restoration of schools in the surrounding area of Baghdad
JEN has been conducting assistance activities in Iraq since 2003.
After the collapse of the Hussein administration, education environment is constantly worsening. In light of this situation, JEN is restoring school buildings and sanitary facilities in order to support children, who are often socially vulnerable.
The pictures show the completion of restoration efforts at an elementary school in Baghdad. JEN restored water sanitation facilities that were destroyed due to mal-maintenance and conflicts. This school plans to conduct sanitary education targeting students and teachers in the future.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Iraq celebrated World Health Day, an event held in the country every year.
JEN was invited to this year’s event and distributed posters and brochures with pictures of JEN’s contribution to Iraq society as well as hygiene materials provided to schools.
Mr.Afmad, the representative of sports activities, made the opening remark. There were a lot of questions about JEN’s activity during the Q＆A session.
The Ministry of Education in Baghdad performed a drama and read a poem to raise awareness of maintaining a hygienic environment, staying healthy and protecting the environment.
JEN received acknowledgement and praise from participants and a letter of appreciation from Ministry of Education.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
JEN staff facilitating discussion with CHP (community hygiene promoter) group. The next date for hygiene kits distribution as well as issues that might arise in summer time were discussed.
CHP is a group of camp residents who volunteer for maintenance of hygienic environment of the camp.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
In the Kurdish autonomous region in the northern part of Iraq, where our JEN staff is working, you can often see the national flag of Kurdistan.
Red expresses blood of people who fought for their national freedom and lost their lives, white expresses peace and equality, and green expresses the nature around their region, while the sun sending out 21 rays of light brightly in the center of the flag means a light of life. (The number 21 is said to have an important meaning for the Yazidis among Kurdish people).
It is said that the Kurdish people is the largest ethnic group with no land of their own in present time. There are 30 million Kurds worldwide, of which a large proportion lives in the border area of Iraq, Turkey and Syria, and also in Azerbaijan etc. (It is said that there is a Kurdish community in Warabi city of Saitama prefecture).
National flags can be seen everywhere, such as in the streets, on the sides of city hall, on car bumpers, or on the surface of mountains. You realize how strong the pride of the Kurdish people is when you see all these flags.
< Over the streets>
<On the sides of the city hall and slopes of the mountain>
Well, the 20th～23rd of this March was Nowruz, which are the most important national holidays of the year to Kurdish people. New Year in Iranian calendar is generally known as the coming of spring, but Kurdish Nowruz is celebrated for the liberation from Assyrian domination, which lasted long in ancient times=the coming spring to the nation. During the Nowruz week, most of the stores are closed and families go on picnic or set off fireworks. On the Nowruz holidays, it is said that there is a tradition of making a flame, which is a symbol of freedom, and then to jump over it. However, this tradition could not be seen near JEN’s office.
Japan has some holidays of the state (such as National Foundation day, Showa Day, Constitution Day), but doesn’t have a day which praises its own people. Maybe this shows the difference between two countries: Japan, an almost racially homogenous island nation, and Iraq, a multiracial nation connected with other countries by land.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Mothers give their children unconditional love and are sometimes willing to make sacrifices for them. Many religions have respected and praised such mothers.
Mother’s day is a celebration to show love and gratitude to mothers. It is said that Mother’s day was established as an opportunity for children to remember their mothers and show care for them at least once a year.
The way we celebrate Mother’s day and the history of the day differ from country to country. Here in Iraq, where we are welcoming spring now, 21st March is Mother’s day. On this day, both children and adults thank their own mothers and give presents to them. People have a little celebration basked in love. Mother’s day is a day we reconfirm our love and respect for our mothers.
My country has been in a difficult situation for many years and mothers have put up with that situation. There are mothers who have lost some children and mothers who have lost their husbands. Those mothers have had to play two roles; “mother” and “father”, and have faced a difficult situation. In addition, we should not forget that many mothers have taken care of orphans as well.
Baghdad office Thikra J Elias
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Hygiene promoters in the local community are trained to do door-to-door visits
The picture shows the promoters practicing on one another. In March, they will do real-door-to-door visits, where they will promote good hygiene practices and ask residents to refrain from dumping waste in the common drainage.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Distribution of winterization items in Sinjar Mountains
On December 2015 and January 2016, JEN conducted distribution of winterization items in Sinjar Mountains where JEN works.
The neighbourhood of it was surrounded by an armed group between August 2014 and December 2014. During the last five months, many people from the neighbourhood evacuated to the mountainous camp. After one year of the liberation, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are still facing hard living conditions especially during freezing cold winter.
JEN planned to conduct a distribution of winterization kit to support them. Also, we organized a focal group discussion with the community to clarify their situation and needs, and also, household assessment to create database of household numbers. As a result, JEN provided items to reinforce tents, blankets, winter clothes and carpets.
The first distribution was blankets and children’s clothes. There were many people in the distribution, and so it made slightly difficult to do the well-ordered distribution. This is because such occasion did not take place for long time in the community. Our operation became more organized and completed smoothly after the first distribution.
JEN is willing to support the people, however, the distribution is very small part of the solution for their entire problem.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Christmas and New Year’s Celebration in Iraq this year was very different from previous years for various reasons.
Christmas and the Prophet’s Birthday, which are important festivals for Christians and Muslims respectively, coincided in 2015.
In addition, a town was released from the armed group, it had one after another. The town got in a more festive mood than ever before.
Big Christmas trees were decorated in many areas of the capital, Bagdad; such as the tallest Christmas tree in the Middle East, which measured over 25 meters.
In other towns, for example, Najaf was the same festive mood. Najaf is a place where many strict Muslim lives.
For Iraqi people, the Year-End Celebration is a time to the rest to heal daily fatigue. It is also a time to meet family who live separately, exchange presents and foster affection and tolerant feelings.
We hope 2016 will be a year filled with peace, love and kindness.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Did you know that the 19th of November was World Toilet Day established by the UN in 2013?
At the refugee camp that JEN is operating, we are thinking of holding an event associated with World Toilet Day. We are going to discuss this plan with the community hygiene promoters (CHP).
A CHP group said, ’We will teach how to use a toilet properly and cleanly’.
Another group proposed, ‘Then we will show the importance of washing hands after using the toilet, through posters and demonstration’.
Another group commented, ‘We think it is important to keep hands clean by clipping nails’.
Like this, we advanced the preparation of the program for children in school. Upon speaking with the principle, we decided to hold the event on 8th December.
And on the event day, each CHP group visited the classrooms to give lectures.
Some teachers joined the CHPs. First, they told the students not to litter the classrooms,
next, took several students at one time to the bathroom and showed them how to use a toilet,
then, demonstrated how to wash hands in the classrooms and let the students try it.
At the end, they checked each student’s hands
and the event concluded with teaching the students how to clip nails and the importance of keeping hands clean.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Another disaster has hit the people of Iraq. While the state situation is far from stabilized and life quality is still insufficient, cholera – a disease that disappeared from Iraq a long time ago – has now re-emerged.
According to the Iraqi Ministry of Health, over 300 infected individuals and 5 deaths have been reported. However, the actual situation seems to be far worse than this. The number of infected people is believed to be larger.
The cholera epidemic was mainly caused by ingestion of water that is not suitable for drinking. This was caused by other implications with the public water supply. Another reason is that people were dumping garbage on the streets and in the residential quarters, because they could not find a place to bury them.
Cholera is a contagious disease that can cause death within hours if it is not treated. However, 80% of those infected can be saved if they are given oral rehydration salt (ORA), as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
We can stop the spread of the epidemic by coordinating efforts to improve hygienic conditions, especially by providing clean drinking water and foods not contaminated by germs. A hygiene awareness campaign to change people’s mindset towards hygiene is also necessary.
JEN is making a booklet about cholera and sending it to elementary and junior high school students, as well as providing training for teachers and students to raise awareness about personal hygiene.
[Booklets distributed by JEN]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
In August 2015, JEN conducted well rehabilitation in newly liberated area in Iraqi Kurdistan. As natural water source in many parts of Kurdistan is limited, residents depend on deep wells to provide water that they need for everyday use. However, many of the wells have been damaged making it more difficult for IDPs to return to their villages.
Currently, there are around 35 wells in the villages JEN has considered, but out of them, only 11 wells are functional. These wells are connected to a main water reservoir for the village, which can be 20 to 30 meters high, so when there are not enough functional wells, they cannot produce enough water pressure to fill the reservoirs. If the reservoirs cannot be filled, water cannot be delivered through the water network. Out of the six villages JEN considered, we decided to work on two wells that provide water to a village that has around 500 returnees.
[Water reservoir for the village]
[Damaged well]
Reasons that the wells are not working vary from a well to another. Some wells have a burnt motor from overuse, some have damaged pumps, others just have damaged cables or switch boxes to turn the well on. Therefore, JEN field staff and engineer visited the wells with a group of electricians and technicians to first assess the damage, and then to repair the wells with necessary equipment. This time, all parts, including the motor, pump, cables and the switchbox were replaced for the first well and just the pump was replaced for the other well.
[Workers replacing the pump]
The wells are now functional and are able to provide water into the village’s water reservoir and to the village itself. JEN plans to continue the well rehabilitation work, in coordination with the Ninewa governorate water department to prepare necessary water infrastructure for when people begin to return to their villages.
[Water came out of the well!]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
One of the major challenges for close 1000 IDPs families living in Sinjar Mountain is access to proper WASH facilities that is culturally appropriate. As their lives in the mountain are temporary, their WASH facilities also tend to be temporary - with their latrines consisting of a hole in the ground over a shallowly dug-up septic hole, surrounded four sides by cloth for privacy.
[Typical toilet situation in Sinjar Mountain]
Such latrine can pose serious health risks, especially during the winter with high precipitation, as the septic tanks can easily overflow and spread to the living areas. As cholera has been reported in various parts of Iraq, proper sanitation is one of the priority issues.
This situation is especially grave for facilities set up for vulnerable people, such as the three health posts and the child friendly space in the mountain, as children and those who are seeking medical attention are more susceptible to diseases that can be spread through improper sanitation.
In order to respond to the need for better sanitation, JEN decided to install pre-constructed latrines and shower stalls in those four facilities, which included the digging of larger septic tanks with more capacity. The work included close coordination with the Ninewa Department of Healt and another organization that are in charge of the health posts and the child-friendly space, as well as volunteer workers in the mountain who dug the septic tanks.
[Latrines being delivered to the mountain]
With the new latrines, up to 120 patients and 250 children per day can have access to proper and well protected latrines during their visits to those facilities.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Introducing a member of the Community Hygiene Promoter
He is Mr. Tarjadin, 22 years old, living in the camp where JEN is working. He is an IDP from Sinjar area in Kurdistan.
[Mr. Tarjadin]
Mr. Tarjadin incurred a disability in his leg due to medical malpractice when he was a child and has been using a cane ever since. In spite of his disability, he actively conducts tent-to-tent visits for hygiene promotion, participates in cleaning day in the camp and attends meetings for Community Hygiene Promotion.
The camp is not an easy place for people with disabilities to live because of its hills and the graveled roads. In addition, the camp is fairly large and it does not provide convenient transportation.
JEN staff asked him the reason he is so active and the reason why he wanted to be a Community Hygiene Promoter. He answered “I wanted to give advice to people and support people. There was no volunteer group in my hometown, but this kind of volunteerism is necessary to protect health of people who are living in the camp. In addition, I like this volunteer work.”
JEN staff asked another question: did you feel any change after conducting tent-to-tent hygiene promotion, to which he answered, “I think before tent-to-tent visit, people used water for cleaning tents and washing cars even though water scarcity was reported in some areas. In addition, I saw a lot of children walking outside without shoes. After hygiene promotion, I feel those behaviors have been reduced.”
Community Hygiene Promoters consist of around 50 male and female volunteers. JEN will continue to facilitate such behavior in spreading proper hygiene practice in the camp.
[Cleaning Day in the camp]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
In the random aggregates of the Iraqi refugees and the refugees camps of Al Anbar , Diyala and Kirkuk , the epidemic diseases diffused because of the hard hot weather in summer and cold weather in winter , expired medicine and drinking a direct water from the lake. There are no regular visiting from the hygienic teams to the refugees camps or to the random aggregates. In the summer there are different types of diseases like the diarrhea, lice, and pectoral diseases.
It is difficult to treat these diseases because of the shortage in the availability of medicine and limited visits of hygienic teams from ministry of health. On other hand they undergo from the afflicting of the snake & scorpion in the camps.
Most of Iraqi refugees have a poor status and don’t have the ability of private treatment for the diseases, more than half million babies and children from the Iraqi refugees need the hygienic caring.
“random aggregates”:IDPs become groups settled in any place wherever there is space
[Refugees in camps]
[Refugees in random aggregates]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Three weeks ago, people held demonstrations at several places in Iraqi. They have several applications; safety, ministrations (such as public electricity and water) and unemployment rate etc.
People only can use electricity for 1 hour in every 5 hours under this hot weather (50 degree centigrade) and have to buy drinking water from the tankers by 20 liters containers. There are no jobs for people even if they finished their universities or colleges, and more difficult to get a job for people who didn’t finish their education. The unemployment rate is more than 40% in Iraq. We will keep posting local news.
We will keep posting local news.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Water consumption has increased day by day in July with the rise in the temperature. Because of that, water scarcity was reported by some residents in some specific areas in the camp. Though the sufficient quantity of water to cover the camp population is being discharged from the well, water is not enough in some areas. The main reason was too much water consumption by residents in the camp. Water discharged from the wells is saved in the reservoirs, which is located 2 meters high from the ground (Photo1), and then water is distributed to each household using water pressure. When residents use water continuously, water cannot be discharged quickly enough to be saved in the reservoir. As a result, enough water cannot reach some households in some areas due to insufficient water pressure.
JEN’s engineer, camp management and well keepers discussed several times and tried some means to resolve this matter. Finally, we reached one solution to open only one valve out of 4 valves to restrict the water way and increase the water pressure in a particular area. However, this method would cut off water supply in other areas for a certain period of time. In order to alleviate this restriction, JEN decided to distribute household water tank so that residents can save water in the water tank during the time they receive water. Once the water supply is cut off, they can use water from the water tank.
JEN also aims to increase awareness on water saving, as water consumption can be tracked by saving water in the water tank and using water from water tank by residents themselves. JEN will continue to improve the living environment of IDP camp together with camp management and residents (IDPs).
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Today we will update you about the activities at the elementary school in Kirkuk.
In order to educate and promote hygienic practice, JEN is working in hygiene promotion activity by conducting a training seminar to school staff. We are carrying out these activities also along with parents group such as PTAs.
One of the PTA’s objectives is to improve community around the school, to give hope to the people, nurture love to their mother country by providing basic education and keep encouraging the development of health and hygiene.
This school has set up several committees. Medical service committee is one of those committees that provide medical services and promotion for hygienic behaviors. The committee is working together with medical teams along with physicians for provision of medical services. Also they are providing information about health issues to the parents.
JEN has worked with the PTA and conducted a meeting in order to encourage PTA activities toward improvement of their attitude in terms with health and hygiene. Hygiene education can be more effective if parents are supportive in addition to teachers instructing the children.
JEN will continue to work for hygiene promotion in order to improve attitudes and behavior with hygiene among children and parents in Iraq.
[Pictures on below. Scenes from PTA meeting at Al-Fadhail elementary school]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
July is Ramadan month in Kurdistan this year. Ramadan is a holy month of fasting and prayer in the Islamic religion. During the month, many people who follow the religion refrain frome eating or drinking between sunrise to sunset, which can be as long as 15 hours during the summer. This is extremely difficult especially in Iraqi Kurdistan where the summer temerature can rise over 40 degrees celsius.
In order to avoid the heat, many people rest during the day and become active at night, which can be seen from the empty streets in a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs).
[Empty streets in a camp for IDPs]
Even during Ramadan, however, WASH assistance must continue. With the temperature rise, demand for water has increased significantly in the camp and JEN staff work tirelessly to ensure that water is delivered to each household every day. JEN technician provides WASH maintenance support to around 5 households a day, in addition to handling larger communal WASH maintenance such as repairing sewage pipes. It must be really difficult to work in the sun for long hours without any water, but we admire and appreciate their spirit and dedication to the communities JEN serves.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Among people living in Ramadi, Falluja or Haditha, some people, who are well off enough to rent a house, move to another city where they have lived because of uneasiness about public peace there. Their children also go to school in another city.
On the other hand, a lot of people who are worse off have to live in the refugee camp suffering from severe situation, and children still can’t go to school. The children who stay in the city where they have lived can’t go to school, either. It is because the schools of their own have been now destroyed by bombing or occupied by armed power.
Boys and girls in such districts as Ninawa ,Anbar and Diyala are forced to live a quite severe life because there are ceaseless battles in their administrative districts.
JEN’s members visited a lot of schools which receive children from other administrative districts. In these schools, the conditions of toilets, doors, electrical systems, etc. are terrible and are in need of serious repair. With an aim to improve the present condition for the children to be able to learn in a safe environment, JEN’s members keep on supporting by repairing the school facilities.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
There are some volunteer groups in the IDP camp where JEN is working. JEN call for them and help them to voluntarily work for facilitating hygiene awareness activities.
The 4th time of the meeting with them, intensive discussion of a logo, they will use during their activities, was held by them.
“A tree of the center should be colored in green.” “Let’s draw people on the left side and they are in yellow…no, should be blue!” “It is good the vest’s color is grey.” And so on…as a result of a lot of opinions, it became the logo in the below picture.
In Kurdistan, hot weather continues. During the day, the temperature reaches over 35 degrees with scorching sunlight. People rarely walk outside in the camp after the middle of the day.
Water consumption has increased with the increasing temperature. In the area where the camp locates, the ground water has significantly decreased, which has resulted in that water level of wells in the camp is getting lower. In order to figure out the current situation and consider the possible solution, JEN installed equipment to measure water quantity delivered by wells.
When the supplier of this equipment visited our office, staff in Finance section seemed to know the company president even though it was the first time for her to meet him. I asked her why she knows him. “Everyone knows him because of his honesty” she said.
It is like a Japanese once-upon-a-time story, which warms the cockles of my heart. True to its reputation, this supplier’s performance was quite good and it was nice to work with them.
Coordinating with such local suppliers, JEN continues to work for stable water supply in the camp.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
There are pupils who have been living in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp for 17 months, without facilities of education. Furthermore, in schools in the cities of Iraq there is more number of pupils who are displaced than its local pupils.
For example, at a primary school in Kirkuk, while the 500 local students go to school during the daytime, the 900 pupils of IDP do at night. The situation of the schools in Kirkuk is more or less the same: pupils of IDP go to school at night. The Department of Education has been reporting the shortage of toilets, doors, roofs and electricity.
When JEN did a survey at Samara city, the head of the Department of Education said that “there is an average of over 1.6 times as many pupils of IDP as the local pupils in all the schools in the city. Hence, each school has far more pupils than its capacity, causing the shortage of the things mentioned above.”
We will continue our support such as repairing the facilities of education, which are accepting many pupils of IDP, in order to provide a good learning environment to both local and displaced pupils.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
In the Camp where JEN is in charge of WASH services, JEN distributed soaps and washing powders. Resident was gathered in the distribution place sector by sector. The number of soaps and washing powders according to the number of family members were distributed to the head of household.
It is more than 30 degrees during the day in the camp. Soaps and washing powders are essential in this season when people frequently wash their hands and do the laundry.
In the heat of the sun, distribution in all sectors was completed in three days, being supported by other NGO, camp management, police and so on.
After distribution, one of resident came to us and returned some soaps, saying that he received more than the number of family members. It is not easy to do so, taking into consideration harsh living condition in the camp.
In order to respond to their expectation, JEN will continue to work, straightening ourselves.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Tackling garbage issues in a Camp for internally displaced people
In addition to scabies issue reported in last week’s blog, other hygiene/environmental risks residents in the IDP Camp face includes the overflow of garbage in the camp. Although the camp has a garbage truck that visits the camp every day, due to the size of the camp, the truck can only collect from one sector each day. When the garbage is left outside for days, it causes bad smell and serves as an ideal place for vectors such as flies to grow.
In addition, the lack of household or communal garbage bins in the camp was encouraging many IDPs to throw garbage on the ground. This happens especially among the children, as awareness of hygiene tends to be lower. As an example, many children throw their candy wrappers directly on the ground after eating.
In order to reduce the amount of garbage scattered in the camp, JEN procured and distributed household garbage bins over 10-13 May 2015. The garbage bins with lids would protect garbage from being left outside while waiting for the collection trucks, and reduce the risk of vector breeding.
Additionally, JEN began working with a group of volunteers from the camp to train them as community hygiene promoters. During the first meeting, the volunteers identified garbage problem to be one of the main priorities to work on in the camp. In order to clean up the camp and raise awareness about hygiene risks related to garbage, the volunteers suggested to conduct a monthly cleaning day and household visits to families for awareness sessions. We look forward to a successful campaign with the newly established hygiene promoters!
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
JEN has been working in one of the IDP camps in the Kurdish region, which accommodates approximately 13,000 individuals. In a crowded emergency situation, where people live close to each other, the likelihood of diseases developing and spreading quickly is high. Although each tent is allocated a private toilet facility in the Camp, which allows for greater privacy and better sanitation environment, some people engage in risky hygiene behaviors.
One of the major issues many IDP camps in Kurdistan are facing right now is the outbreak of scabies. Scabies is a contagious skin condition transmitted by small mites, causing rash and intense itchiness. Scabies commonly occur with lack of personal hygiene. Though it can be treated fairly simply with appropriate medicine, the disease can spread very quickly through skin contact with someone who has scabies or even sharing contaminated mattresses and blankets. This makes the whole family vulnerable when one member of the family is infected.
In the Camp, there have been over 150 identified cases of scabies, for people ranging from ages 7 months to 60 years old. In order to quickly minimize the impact and spread of scabies, JEN is working in collaboration with the camp management, UNHCR and other agencies focusing on health, to provide hygiene kits, medicine and clean mattresses and blankets to families that are affected.
In addition, in order to ensure that people can properly protect themselves from scabies and other common diseases, JEN is preparing to launch hygiene promotion activities through volunteer groups in the camp.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Sinjar Mountain is located in the northeast of Iraq in the Ninewa governorate. Since August 2014, the, when city of Sinjar was taken over by the armed group, as many as 50,000 people fled to Sinjar Mountain. Most of them have since been relocated to other parts of Kurdistan, but a little over 1,000 families still remain in the mountain, living in harsh conditions. The majority of IDPs are living in tents and makeshift shelters in spontaneous settlements scattered around the mountain.
During the preliminary assessment conducted in January 2015, JEN staff witnessed the dire needs of the community, especially in areas of shelter, food and water. In particular, the need for water access came out as one of the most urgent priorities, as the location of water wells or water tanks that received daily water delivery was far from many of the informal settlements. In addition, there were many complaints regarding the water quality, as the communal water tank was old and rusty which often contaminated the water.
To alleviate the dire living conditions, JEN has been working to improve the communities’ access to clean water. To that end, in March 2015, JEN installed 12 new communal water tanks near the settlements and has been delivering water through water trucking. Each day, trucks deliver a total of 24,000 liters of water to around 1,200 families.
Water distribution monitoring is also being done by the community representatives to ensure that the allocated amount of water is being delivered to the water tanks every day. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of the community and its representatives and the truck drivers, JEN has been able to confirm that water is being delivered every day and there have been no complaints regarding the water quantity and quality!
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
If we don’t have our mothers, our life would not be fun.
”Mother” is a powerful and honest word which shows gentleness, warmness and love.
In Iraq, Mother Day is in March 21 which is at the start of the sprig. Ali Amin, an Egyptian journalist and writer thought about the idea that we celebrate Mother’s day at first, however, Mother’s day is different from each country.
History and ritual depend on the country but every country is the same as celebrating Mother’s Day to show respect of the important role for their children’s life.
Mothers in Iraq have been suffering from the unceasing wars since 1960’s.
Mothers had to send their son to the war as soldiers and they lost their sons one after another. Were mothers in Iraq born for distress and tears? They have been holding full of sadness of losing their son in anytime in the Iraqi history,
Iraqi people, however, were creating the pleasure and enjoyment to the heart of Mothers by giving the words of thanks or presents.
I wish healing and pleasure will be brought to all of the patient mothers. I will give the word of gratitude to mothers all over the world.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
In March and April, there are many anniversaries in Kurdistan. One of its anniversaries, 16th March, is Halabja chemical attack.
On the day in 1988, over 5,000 people were killed by chemical weapon in Halabja located in South east of Kurdistan.
Since then, even now 15 years after tragedy, people have lined up in the road and taken a moment of silence at 11am on 16th March. During the moment of silence, even cars stop and just sirens wail.
People in Kurdistan know much about atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which is considered as the same tragedy as Halabja. When I lined up, I was asked whether Japanese people take a moment of silence on the day of atomic bombings.
Except for in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and schools, it doesn’t seem that there are many people praying. Around 70 years have passed since the end of war. War or atomic bombings seem like a long time ago for us.
On the other hand, after Halabja chemical attack and even now, people in Kurdistan have been suffering a lot. They would keep praying on the date of Halabja chemical attack which epitomizes the hardship which they have experienced.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Post Distribution Monitoring for the Voucher Distribution Project
As JEN’s winterization item voucher distribution project came to a completion, JEN’s staff conducted a post-distribution monitoring survey targeting 93 families out of the 293 families who received the vouchers. Post-distribution monitoring allows JEN to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the project and sheds light to the impact of the assistance. This was particularly important to JEN, as this voucher distribution was the first time JEN participated in cash assistance projects.
Overall, the reception by the IDPs for the voucher project was very positive. All 293 families who received the vouchers used all of their voucher amount. The most popular items were blankets, kerosene and winter clothes. Some families bought multiple heaters to keep their homes warm. Most of the families went shopping 1-3 days after they received the vouchers from JEN in the middle of February. All 93 families interviewed said that the items selected and the timing for the voucher project was appropriate.
Talking about the items, 89% of the families asked aid that the quality of the items was good, but over 50% of the respondents reported that the price of items were a little too high for the amount of vouchers received.
Finally, 22% reported that the assistance helped them significantly and 77% reported that the assistance helped moderately. As a result of the winterization assistance, 88% of the families were able to stay warmer and 76% of the families reported that their health conditions improved.
From the vendors’ perspectives, they were happy that the voucher assistance projects increased the number of IDPs visiting the store and they would participated.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
A message from a student who participated in the hygiene education program
By January 2015 our program of hygiene promotion and hygienic environment improvement in the elementary and junior high schools in the central and the northern part of Iraq achieved much success. To encourage hygienic improvement for children, the toilets have been repaired in the three schools and the training for hygiene promotion was taken place in the eighteen schools. Those projects made about 10,400 students and teachers possible to learn in the better hygienic environment.
We are currently working for the project in some schools, which have been accepting a huge number of refugees with the escalation of the military conflict since Jun 2014.
We have been conducting an investigation in order to pick up ten particular schools which need an urgent restoration, and been discussing about it with the ministry of education. We are also planning to restore those ten schools and organize hygiene education program with the purpose to maintain students’ health.
The following message is from a student who participated in the hygiene education program. We will continue our activities to encourage hygiene promotion and improve education environment in elementary and junior high schools in Iraq.
【From Ms. A (A junior high school student)】 In Diyala Prefecture, we have been struggling with many problems caused by the war and the unstable situation of the country. The war generated an increase number of widows and orphans and worsened education and hygienic situation. Many students could not graduate from school because of their daily difficulties Despite these serious situation we are really appreciated with the JEN’s activities such as hygiene education and the distribution of hygiene goods, and also the support from Japan.
【at the teacher training】
【at the distribution of hygiene goods】
【at the hygiene education】
【We would like to ask for your assistance in our annual fundraising scheme. DONATE here】
In Kurdistan, currently 24 IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camps have been functioned. It is very difficult to manage and operate such a huge number of camps by government only, so UN agencies as well as NGOs are working together with government.
JEN has just started to work and been in charge of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene related services in one camp in northern part of Kurdistan. In this camp, each tent which is allocated to one family has kitchen and toilet/shower unit. Water supply and sewerage systems are established. But not all facilities are fully equipped as the camp was constructed at a fast pace in order to immediately response the increasing influx of IDPs.
What is missing in water related facilities and equipment was water treatment system. So JEN installed chlorination systems into four wells in the camp in cooperation with Directorate of water.
The staff from Directorate of water is an experienced technician who has installed more or less all chlorination systems in this area. During the installation, tiny accident which water pipe spewed water happened and all of us got soaked. But it is well worth as we could deliver safer water to people in the camp.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Distribution Vouchers of Winterization Items– Monitoring and Follow Up
After 3 weeks of a shopping period, JEN’s voucher distribution project for winterization items has finished. As of 5th March 2015, JEN confirmed that all vouchers distributed to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), they used to purchase winterization goods. To assess the impact on the project, JEN has started conducting a post-distribution monitoring.
From the preliminary feedback, IDPs received the vouchers used the money to purchase heaters, shoes, clothes and blankets to stay warm. When JEN staff visited the unfinished housing they live in for monitoring, we could clearly feel the change in the warmth of the house. They expressed that the items they bought were really helpful that the family was able to stay warm and healthy much more easily.
However, many challenges remain for the IDPs living in unfinished buildings, especially as they continue to face the risk of eviction by the building owner. Processes for transfer to camps take some time and camps are running out of space to accommodate all of the IDPs living in unfinished buildings.
Though the voucher distribution project has been completed, JEN will continue to work in Kurdistan region of Iraq (KRI) to assist and respond to the needs of the IDPs as much as possible.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Distribution of Winterization items vouchers – Shopping phase
JEN distributed the vouchers for IDPs living in Kurdistan region of Iraq. This voucher can be used as a payment for winterization items such as heater, kerosene, blanket etc.
Many people went to shops which vouchers are accepted immediately after receiving vouchers. One week has passed since the voucher distribution, and a half of vouchers has been used. The most popular items among people are Kerosene and Children’s cloth.
For a period of time, it was getting warm in Kurdistan as spring comes. But in recent days it becomes cold at a stretch. We hope that the items purchased by JEN vouchers make people stay comfortably even in unfinished buildings.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Most of refugee children in Iraq do not have schools in 2014, this is because the schools far away from the camps. The other reasons of the schools in the cities centers, which cannot assimilate the large numbers of refugee students, are more than the half of Iraqi refugees in the camps of Kurdistan cities. The Kurdistan government prepares 66 caravans, using it as schools for the refugee students and 46 schools (caravans). Now, it still does not prepare the requirements like desks, blackboards, books, copybooks and teachers.
These caravans do not assimilate 15% from the refugee students in Kurdistan, we ask all of the humanitarian organization and the Iraqi government to prepare the enough schools for them. The fact is they loss two scholastic years and we do not know how many other years they will be loss.
The government requires a manger of the Department of Education (DOE) to install 200 caravans for the classrooms of the refugee students and 20 caravans for the latrines. Now, still only 15 schools (caravans) are prepared at the suburbs. The Iraqi government provided 500 caravans for the other suburbs as 80 caravans for each of the DOE.
Although there is the lack of the school buildings for the refugee students, the international society must be aware of supporting the children with the facilities for the children’s study.
2.1 million people, from the refugees have very hard conditions in the hardiness of the cold weather, more than 100 children and babies dead in this winter.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
As we train teachers and students to raise their hygiene; health and environmental awareness, distribution of hygiene, and cleaning materials for them in schools covered by JEN project.
We have noticed that there are the numbers of displaced students from other governorates. They have been enrolled in these schools. We have made a statistic about their numbers. It has been agreed with the authority on the need to provide them with hygiene like the rest of the students and add other materials to them. Where it was agreed to:
•Provide all school administrations with 24 cans of lice shampoo to treat the injured students;
•Provide each of the pupils displaced with the following materials (bottle of shampoo to wash their hair, bottle of liquid soap to wash their hands as well as large-sized towel).
The materials were purchased and transferred to the place where we arrange materials, according to the share of each school.
We met the school administrations in the presence of environmental education and school health official in the Department of Education (DOE). We talked with them on the need for special attention to the displaced pupils and distribution of materials on them. We asked them to tell us the date of Parents and Teachers Council hold in the second semester of the school year in order for us to attend, and in cooperation with the school administration gives parents of students some guidance pertaining to the public and personal health and pay attention to hygiene. We also delivered the school administrations CD disk containing items of training curriculum to be used to educate students and their parents in different occasions.
Also, subsequently we delivered school administrations the materials allocated to them; we visited the schools and participation with school administrations in distribution of materials to the displaced students and gave them advice concerning cleanliness importance and some guidance that raised their health and environmental awareness.
This initiative has won the thanks and appreciation the DOE officials and the administrations of schools and student in turn; they gave thanks to the Japanese people in general and in particular to JEN.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated.DONATE here】
Distribution of Winterization items vouchers – Preparation phase
JEN is preparing the voucher distribution for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP). This voucher can be used as a payment for winterization items such as heater, kerosene, and blanket so on.
There are three ways to distribute items to people in needs. The first way is that NGO procures items and distribute them directly to people. The second one is that NGO distribute vouchers to people and people buy pre-identified items at pre-appointed shops. The last one is that NGO provide cash to people and people buy what they need at their selecting shops.
The best way to distribute items is up to the situation of area where NGO is working. For example, immediate after natural disaster the distribution of cash or voucher is not realistic because the most of shops and logistics are not working. As for IDP assistance in Kurdistan, taking into consideration that needs among families hugely varies and shops are properly functioning in the area, JEN decided to distribute vouchers.
The most important activities in preparation phase are the assessment/registration of voucher recipients as well as the arrangement with local shops.
For the assessment/registration of voucher recipients, JEN staff visits household by household and collect the information of household such as ID card, the number of family members, and the current situations, by using smartphone applications.
In local shops which agree to participate in our voucher scheme, JEN staff explains shop owners about the administrative procedures and terms and conditions so on, by visiting one by one.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated.DONATE here】
Since new year, several incidents related to Islamic extremist have been broadcasted.
Here it is business as usual. One of staff buys onions on the way back from the field for his mother (According to her, onions in the area is more testy than others). One of staff’s relatives was injured during fighting. One staff is glad to hear the news that gasoline price will decrease. One of staff’s sister’s husbands is still in Mosul. One of staff is weary of his parent’s pressing him for marriage. Staff in Baghdad is working there in fear and dread. And Female staff in Jordan avoids going out during the nights.
This is what one is living in the middle East, nowadays. They are having their ordinary daily life as us who live in Japan, while they are living with extraordinary circumstance where we cannot imagine. Since the end of last year, JEN has been started winterization assistance for IDPs. We are preparing the operation for that IDPs will be able to exchange from vouchers to the materials such as oils, kerosine stove, and carpets etc.. for that IDPs need to survive the cold winter. JEN will steadily keep continue to work for people who are suffering.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated.DONATE here】
Iraqi Ministry of Health carried out a vaccination of children against measles for the period from 21th to 30th on December, 2014. The campaign was targeted the children from the age of 9 months and up to 5 years. The Ministry of Health launched a campaign to sensitize citizens and urge them to vaccination their children. The campaign was included the installation with a large advertisements in major streets in Iraqi cities as well as the announcement of the campaign and its importance in the television channels.
[Advertisement in major streets]
JEN has been conducting hygiene promotion through our projects. JEN has given great importance to raise awareness against this disease through a training curriculum for teachers using training materials.
[Part of the training materials for teachers writing about disease]
Also, JEN has been made the awareness booklet for school children with allocation of a full-page about disease. The booklet is given with the definition of the disease and its danger such as considering transitional viral diseases and infectious. And, it is mentioned that there is high risk especially among schoolchildren or among children in the same family, and if who cannot be treated, they can lead to death.
[Part of the booklet about disease for school children]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Living as internally displaced people - inside camp -
Since June 2014 when many Iraqi people fled to Kurdistan region, it is the first priority for government and humanitarian agencies to provide safe and secured shelters to people. There were a few camps in September 2014, but now 23 camps are operational.
Chamishku IDP camp, located in the north of Duhok governorate was opened in the beginning of November 2014. It has accommodated around 25,000 people and is one of the biggest camps in Duhok governorate.
【Chamishku IDP camp in Duhok】
One tent and one unit for kitchen and sanitary facility is allocated to each family. Government and humanitarian agencies are providing several services to people.
People living in unfinished building could be relocated to camps on a priority basis, but there is not enough capacity in camps to accommodate all people yet.
On the other hand, some choose to stay in unfinished building, instead of moving to camps. Father of five children, living with wife, children and relatives in unfinished building in Duhok, decided to stay there even though they were offered to move to camps. He knew that living condition in the camp is better than there. But he didn’t. This is because he wanted his teenage son to keep attending school. Out of 11 schools in Duhok, No of them has school yet. The minimum necessary service has been provided in the camps. The expand and upgrade of the education service are needed for people who have been displaced for more than 6 months.
Children should be ready for the coming return to their home and for the future of their community.
【IDP Children】
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Living as internally displaced people – outside camp
Iraq Crisis triggered by the fall of Mosul in the beginning of June 2014. Currently around 2 million peoples are displaced across Iraq. Here in Kurdistan region of Iraq is a last resort for many Syrian refugees and displaced Iraqi people because it enjoys relatively stable security situation and it is located close to Syrian as well as Northern Iraq controlled under the armed group. Internally displaced people in Kurdistan reach 1 million now.
Where are people living in Kurdistan? Hotel? Rented apartment? Relatives’ houses? Yes, some of them. But many people were living in unfinished buildings, schools and public buildings when initially they came to Kurdistan. There were nearly 1,000 distinct locations in Kurdistan. Now new camps had been established and many people have moved to the camps, but around 120,000 people are still living in such unsecured places.
【Unfinished building in Duhok where displaced people are living】
These unfinished building with roof could shut out the rain, but temperature inside the building is same as outside. Inside the building, people have pitched a makeshift tent.
【Kitchen floor where cartons are laid down due to the lack of carpet】
The floors are either bare concrete or just ground. The chill is always coming from the ground. No sunshine can reach inside, so rooms are too freezing even during day time. Some family put carpets on the floor. Some are just using cartons.
No shower available. People boils water by wood fire or gas stove and wash body in separated place. As for toilet, some has portable toilet provided by humanitarian agencies. Some are using public toilet near their location. Some just do outside.
People came here over through very hard time. It is not easy at all to live here as well. But they are not crying, but living with much efforts and struggles. They are doing whatever they could to make their life comfortable and same as life which they used to have in their place of origin such as building toilets, making bread oven and so on.
【Bread oven made of mud, called Tannur】
The temperature drops to around zero degree during night. Under the same environment as outside, heating equipment is necessary. Kerosene heater and kerosene are the most needed items for people.
Kurdistan regional government and humanitarian agencies have been distributing the necessity items to people fled with few belongings. In addition, Kurdish families around such unfinished buildings have also helped them a lot. But it is not easy to reach all people in needs as their location are significantly scattered. By receiving Japan Plaform support, JEN will distribute the voucher which can buy winterization items such as kerosene heater, kerosene, carpets etc. according to their individual needs.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
There are still fights against the armed group to liberate occupied lands in Iraq, and the displacement of more than two million people to other areas of Iraq. Most of them fled to the Kurdistan region and others are in provinces of the central and southern Iraq where they live under difficult circumstances, especially now in the winter. IDPs are suffering from the rigors of the cold and heavy rains, the lack of financial resources to sustain their lives, the loss of the opportunity to continue study for thousands of students. The economic conditions have been sharply decreased in Iraq because of the low oil price and its production. And there are kidnappings and extortion practiced by the powerful militias.
In spite of crisis in Iraq, the Iraqi people insist on New Year's Day celebration, where Christmas trees erected in many streets of Kurdistan region and Karrada district in Baghdad. Many shops put Christmas decorations, supplies and clothing belonging to this occasion. The clubs and big hotels compete to announce the concerts that will be held in New Year's Eve, especially in Kurdistan Region which is characterized by stability and security. This indicates that the Iraqi people is alive and loves life and trying to come out of the crises and back to what it was in security ,economic and social stability, rejecting sectarianism and division among the components of society. Add to that, this occasion is one of the opportunities for tolerance and resolve differences.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
The Iraqi refugees undergo very hard condition special in the camps (cold weather , hungering , bath crisis ) .
In Erbil the queue against the bath is too long , some of them have to wait for 10 hours to get shower. High number of refugees use very little baths. 1500 baby and children have died in the camps since June 10th till now. In Khaniqen the refugees ministry install the baths and latrines after one month from the refugees habitation.
In Erbil & Khaniqen camps most of the refugees eat one or two times of meals per day, because of the money shortage. Most of them received only 1 million ID ( 800$) before three months and the kerosene crisis (10 liters /month for the family , cooking and warming) . Many diarrhea and catarrh cases are caused in the camps because of the cold weather, no kerosene and little blankets. The weak treatment and shortage of medicines make several problems like 180 aborting cases in all the camps besides the bad eating and other bad conditions.
In Khaniqen camps, the scorpions and snakes diffuse and afflicting many number of refugees with no coping till now and these blight threat thousands of IDPs in Khaniqen . There are 20 children who run away from the terrorist dead in Al Anbar in the middle of desert because of hunger and parching .
[Water drinking in Khaniqen]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
The Iraqi refugees undergo from several problems without solutions for them from the government or from the human organizations.
The families need to make long distance to buy food and other supplies from the near market. Many families suffer from carrying their needs because they do not have car. On the other hand, the refugees do not have enough money to purchase all their needs.
The refugee families from Al Mousil and Tekrit from June till now received only one million Iraqi dinars ( 825 $) which enough the family for only one month and most of them came carrying only the summer clothes ….they don’t have the cost of the winter clothes.
Now in winter the families don’t have the kerosene or gasoline or electrical energy for heating, they are going for far distance to get the trees twigs and burn it inside the marquee for warming. They using a small kerosene cooker for cooking , because of the twigs burning and kerosene cooker many marquees was firing in the camps such as in Erbil , all of them don’t have a marquees against burn to avoid the burning dangerous .
From December 2013 till now all the camps don’t have a temporary schools , the students in these camps loose two years from them scholastic life. If the students want to go to a nearest schools , the families must have a car and get their children to a nearest village or city but most of them a poor families don’t have cars , and some camp the families cannot going readily outside the camp .
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
【Click here to know more about JEN 20th Anniversary innitiatives】
A large number of Iraqi refugees families are not only in Erbil of Kurdistan region, also other region such as in Khaniqen of Diyala province, and there are the resident in a marquees for the refugees. Those marquees are prepared by Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM). But they have no water proof efficiency, even the refugees resident in Khaniqen is in the rain line (the region has a heavy raining every year).
On October 17th, there had rain and we noted a floating in this area. When the rain water entered these marquees, the refugees pulled their beds out of the marquees and some of them were left in this camp and other still under the rain.
Due to the humid clay land, MoDM cannot bring the logistic service to them like foods, drinking water and other needing … 12 thousands families faces a danger in this camp. Diyala governorate council consider that the location of Khaniqen is a large mistake for the refugees camp, because the large number of scorpions and snakes in this region and the refugees are suffering with several high risks of their lives.
MoDM clear at the middle of November will prepare 20 thousands of a water proof marquees and have a 5 persons capacity , but during this period these refugees are suffering a difficult conditions and this marquees number are not enough for the Iraqi refugees who don’t have a good marquees yet. The basic solution for the refugees is to come back for them houses but the terrorist extend their area more than the first. About half of the Iraqi refugees children are not going to the schools because of the far distance between them camps and the cities and till now the government don’t make an impermanent schools for the camps.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
【Click here to know more about JEN 20th Anniversary innitiative】
From the UNESCO report before 1991, it was considered that the teaching in Iraq was the best in the middle east. The primary schools are consisted all the kids that mean, there are no kids in the age of primary don’t enter the school and the number of illiterates reached to zero.
After the gulf war the teaching continuous in debarking from 1991 till now, the UNESCO report considered the teaching in Iraq now is taken with third position from the bottom in middle east at the teaching field. There are 48 thousands students leaving the schools and departing to the work at different jobs. This number is forming 5% from the total numbers of the kids at the age of schools from the first primary to the 12 secondary.
More than 500 teachers were killing in the last 10 years; this caused falling in the teaching level, falling in the teacher’s ethics.
The falling in teaching aptness is one of the causes to debarking the teaching level. From these reasons above, we see a continuous rising in the ratio of the illiterates in Iraq, at the last competed statistical from the two ministries (education and high education) 74% from the age 15-24 years do not able to read and writing. One of the important reasons is the co acting of the militias and parties on the teaching field and they have low aptness to directed the teaching field … the result from these reasons can be the illiterates continuous to rising.
[High No. in classrooms]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated.DONATE here】
【Click here to know more about JEN 20th Anniversary innitiative】
The United Nations said that more than 1.8 million person leave them cites from the killing of combat and bombarding, 850 thousands from them in Kurdistan governorates.
With the start of the new scholastic year there are many millions of students moving toward their schools. The scholastic year in Kurdistan must starting in 10-09-2014 and in the other governorates in 21-09-2014.
There are a problem in Baghdad and many suburbs around Mousil and around Salah Al Den as thousands families from Al Mousil or Salah Al Den are using the schools as shelter from the hot weather of summer and the high rent of housing. Many students cannot go back to school.
The government does not have any plan to housing them in caps and saving the water and food for them.
The other problem is the students whom leave them cities cannot going to their schools and the government cannot provide places in the schools for the refugees because of the high number of them.
The problem will be more complexity if the government compel the hundreds thousands families to leave the schools without make space for them in camps. There is a statistical from Kurdistan that 280 thousands refugees are housing in 630 schools only in Duhok .Kurdistan government says that there will be new camps in the next months to housing the refugees, but it is a remaining problem of the schools in the suburbs around Diyal , Salah Al Den , Samaraa and Al Mousil .
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
【Click here to know more about JEN 20th Anniversary innitiative】
Most of Baghdad people are living now in an erratic tension because of the suddenly bomb in any location at any time or chimerical checkpoint. The chimerical check points consist of aggressive sectarian that target other religion group (Sunni). Most of Iraqi people in Baghdad have a critical life and have a dangerous life, 25% from Baghdad population or more leave the city after January to Kurdistan (Arbel or Sulaimaniya) or Turkey where it is safer. Many Iraqis are going to the united nation bureaus to get the resettlement in America or other countries.
From other side in July we note several thousand refugees coming from Tallaafar to Baghdad because of Al Mousil occupation by the armed group. Mousil is the second largest city in Iraq and located up-north of Iraq. Large No. of young men are working as soldiers in the governmental army in the war at the west of Baghdad or to the north of Baghdad, and afraid of being killed. The life in small cities around Baghdad, like Abu Gharib at the west of Baghdad or Yousifiya to the south of Baghdad and Tarmiya or Taji to the north of Baghdad, is very bad life; continuous arresting men at a random form.
After December 2013 where the war in Al Falluja & Al Rumadi starting most of the private jobs activity decreasing to 50% and after June when (Al Mousil occupation) the activity decreasing to 15%, most kinds of private jobs were stopped . As a result; the phenomena of kidnapping rich people for ransom has increased since two months.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
【Click here to know more about JEN 20th Anniversary innitiative】
UN uncovered the existence of 36 cases of polio in Syria neighboring to Iraq and two cases in Baghdad of Iraq, and the disease appeared in Iraq again after its disappearance for 14 years.
The United Nations has warned of the danger of the spread of the virus that causes the disease, which hits the nervous system wider in the Middle East. Iraqi Ministry of Health embarked on 10.08.2014 with the support of the World Health Organization and UNICEF with vaccination campaign against polio. This campaign is focus to protect from this disease for more than four million Iraqi children under the age of five in various parts of Iraq.
However, this campaign comes in a very difficult circumstance because Iraq is under armed conflict. The country suffers from displacement of large numbers of children to escape the violence and unrest. The campaign aims to reach children in different parts of Iraq and in conflict areas and displaced families and host alike, where violence has led to increased displacement within the country. According to UNICEF, the number of displaced are more than a million and a half since the beginning of this year and half of them are children. It is necessary of immediate action in order to prevent the spread of polio infection in Iraq.
The Iraqi Health Ministry has been prepared a wide awareness campaign to urge citizens on the need to vaccinate their children included numerous advertisements in public streets in addition of the advertisements broadcast in many TV channels and emphasized that the vaccination of children Not just once, but must be for six consecutive times.
The Iraqi Health Ministry has been prepared a wide awareness campaign to urge citizens on the need to vaccinate their children included numerous advertisements in public streets in addition of the advertisements broadcast in many TV channels and emphasized that the vaccination of children Not just once, but must be for six consecutive times.
Thikra J. Elias
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
【Click here to know more about JEN 20th Anniversary innitiative】
*Note: This article and pictures were written and taken in the first half period of 2014.
A celebration of Baghdad JEN office on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the founding of JEN had been held in the organization's office.
The celebration was attended by a number of officials of the Ministry of Education and directors of the companies accredited by Organization:
The staff of the JEN in Iraq prepared some posters representing the organization's logo. In addition to “Thank you.” As the poster of 20th Anniversary of JEN , the slogan of JEN and MOFA as“From the people of Japan also were displayed.
In addition to a large cake decorated with JEN logo…the representatives of the Ministry of Education Join us cutting it, , in particular, and they wish to JEN all the progress, prosperity and more Liberality to the peoples of the world in general and the Iraqi people in particular.
And we explained a summary about the founding of the organization and the countries in which it operates as well as the organization's activities in Iraq since 2003 until now. All of them have praised the work of the organization and its quality and the positive results achieved by it. Especially in creating a healthy, safe and secure environment in the schools, and pay attention to hygiene and raise health awareness among teachers and students and through them to their families, and also praised at the sincerity and dedication of JEN staff in their follow-up their job as well as to the cooperation and coordination between the organization and representatives of the Ministry of Education.
Finally they asked us to deliver their congratulations to the leadership of the organization in the HQ and their wishes for more success, work and Liberality in Iraq and other countries in the world which suffered and that are still exposed to disasters.
Every year, JEN's okay
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated.
Half of the Children in Iraq haven’t had correct childhood in the period from 1980 and above. In the period of 1980 and below, the children were really felling the affection from fathers and mothers, the children were going to the schools to get the learning from the primary school rising up to complete the university.
From 1980 up to 1991 high ratio from the babies and children losing the affection from them fathers because of the war between Iraq & Iran from 1980 to 1988. The war took place and more than 2 million men killed in this war and about quarter of this number of captives had need to live in Iran for 7 years or more. Accordingly along the childhood period there is no directing from the fathers and there were no fathers affecting, and in this case, mothers must working to get living and the children couldn’t see their mother from the morning to afternoon. High ratio from them didn’t get the required learning from the house and schools, at the result they were as lost generation.
At the period from 1991 to 2003 the Iraqi children have another sad period because of the economic blockade on Iraq. Income only from the house father had been decreased rapidly and couldn’t run the family. Then more than 40% from the children started quitting the schools in early stage schools.
From 2003 till now, there are more than 4 million orphans with no fathers and some of them without mothers. These orphans with no fathers’ affection and most of them work with no learning, and large number of them were as a beggars in the main streets. The Iraqi childhood from affliction to other, they don’t see the childhood like other countries.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated.
Iraq established its education system in 1921, offering both public and private paths. In the early 1970s, education became public and free at all levels, and mandatory at the primary level. Two ministries manage the education system in Iraq: the Ministry of Education [MOE] and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research [MOHSR]. The Ministry of Education is in charge of pre-school, primary, secondary, and vocational education, while the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific.
The golden period of education during 1970-1984, in this period we can make the illiteracy coping, the age of illiteracy from 15-45age, in this period the illiteracy in Iraq became only 10% of people. The government spending in Education reached 20% of Iraq’s total government budget. This means that the average spending per student for education was $620.
However, after the war with Iran in 1980, from 1984-1990, it turned led to a diversion of public resources towards military spending. Naturally, this resulted in a steep decline in overall social spending. With this, the education budget suffered from a deficit, which continued to grow as the years passed. There was also no strategic plan in place to address.
In the period 1991-2003, the educational institutions debilitated in further. Some of the incomes of the weakening budget , about 8% from the government budget , Government Spending per student on education dropped from $620 in the ‘Golden Years’ to $47 , Teacher salaries dropped in real terms, from $500–1000/month to $5/month in 1994-1999.
After 2003 till now the education have a relative recovery. Many schools were rehabilitated by MOE, the international organizations and other sides. Many private universities, colleges, schools, Intermediate schools and secondary schools were established in this period.
Still there are needs to recovery for education in Iraq, JEN will continue to support in this area.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
【Click here to know more about JEN 20th Anniversary innitiative】
There is a big shortage in the buildings numbers against the schools numbers in Iraq’s governorates.
If we take one of the governorate such as Babil province, the schools Number is 1280 schools but the buildings number is 830 , which means that most of the buildings have more than one schools. In the other governorate like Kirkuk many of buildings have three schools and some building have five schools like Al Mujahidin school. Some areas in Kirkuk have only one building for the primary and no buildings for the intermediate and secondary school for girls. Therefore, they use caravans which have very short age comparing with the buildings. These schools use caravans which have a small classroom and are able to contain 50-60 students. There are 469 schools in Iraq like this style.
The capital governorate Baghdad announced that 4000 buildings are needed in Iraq, and the directorate of Baghdad governorate said that 500 caravans will be provided as a temporary solution.
[Intermediate school for girls (using caravan as the classroom)]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
【Click here to know more about JEN 20th Anniversary innitiative】
We can describe the Iraqi refugees from ( Al Anbar , Nainawa , Diyala , Salah Al Din ) as an afflictive state . from Al Anbar about 300 thousand refugees (number at recently) they left them cities to Kurdistan or other cities like Samarraa from January when the war start till now .
In the other three Governorates the war start in June 2014 and when it start about 325 thousand refugees moves from Al Mousil and Tallaafar , from Al Mousil they was going to Kurdistan special Duhok and Arbil and from Tallaafar they was going to Kurdistan & Sinjar which is a poor city and do not care additional people (limited food & electricity) .
The refugees from Salah Al Din about 70% from the people was going to the north of the governorate special Kurdistan, and about 50% from the people of Al Seniya (near Begi) , Also 50% from people of Begi was going to the suburb of the city and other to Kurdistan , About 50% from the cities of Diyala was moving to other cities which have more safety and no war .
The government of Baghdad and the Kurdistan government are trying to support for the refugees, but their funding amount is limited. The refugees are still suffering to secure the foods and the marquees. After 10days-2weeks since the refugees started to move from Nainawa (Al Mousil & Tallaafar), the UNHCR started to prepare to them the marquees and the water tanks in Duhok and Arbil. The UNHCR or other human organization can giving the accessories to the refugees only in the safety places like Kurdistan but they do not come to the Refugees in Diyala or the suburb of Salah Al Din , in this unsafely places the Refugees only wait the accessories from the migratories ministry which not enough for the refugees.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
The security situation in Iraq is rapidly deteriorated since the battle with insurgents and security forces have occurred in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq.
High number of internal displacement people from Mosel to Kurdistan. The reports indicate that up to 500,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Mosel. And, the military process now is in Diala and Anbar whereas JEN work in there for the current project. There are emigrants from Diala, Anbar and Salah Al-Deen. Our current project is still working on especially in Kirkuk operating from JEN Baghdad office.
JEN has been gathering and analyzing information about the situation in Iraq. But, the situation in Baghdad is becoming tense. We confirmed that all JEN staff in Iraq stayed in safely. In a priority the safety of staff, JEN will consider our activities in Iraq.
Booklet of hygiene for primary school students (story)
Things that development any work to reach the goals set for it is innovation in the working style…we have become accustomed always after the end of each project to efficiently evaluate our work and we are planning to the best in the future.
Today we are working in cooperation with the ministerial committee in the Iraqi Ministry of Education for preparing a short story in the form of cartoon about the importance of hygiene for primary school students. The story contains sequence of events through a set of instructions and tips on hygiene in general and raises health and environmental awareness among students and through them to their families.
We adopted a simple style in the conversation as well as the simple drawings and colorful which attracts the attention of the student. And, we have added to it some exercises to help the student to learn the correct instructions and confirmation on it. The booklet is encouraged students to listen to their teacher when they explain about the importance of hygiene.
We have had several meetings to review all aspects of the story to be an interesting guidance material for students. We depended on professional’s painter and designer in their job.
JEN Bagdad office Program Officer Bassim Yousif
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
We who are three employees of JEN in Baghdad office visited Amman JEN office during April for few days.
Our visit program includes several meetings with our officials in Amman to discuss the work of the current project and the preparation and planning for the upcoming projects and the exchange of views about this. As well as our visit program included meeting between every one of us with our counterparts employees in Amman office for the exchange of experiences between us. (The Amman Office is also the base for the activities in Iraq.)
Amman office has prepared us a visit to Syrian refugee camp in Amman (Zatree Camp). We had spent a full day at the camp, and we have seen the activities of JEN and other organizations within the camp. Then we visited the schools inside the camp and meeting with the headmasters of these schools to discuss with them about the problems they face especially in the field of hygiene and maintenance of health facilities. As well as we met some of the families, where the staff of the organization who are in the camp saw us how the meeting with families and guide them to maintain cleanliness and raise their awareness of health to avoid infectious diseases. As well as we visited stations of water storage inside the camp and we saw the processing of families with water.
In fact it was a successful visit to us and greatly benefited, and we have gained additional experience in our work.
Bassim Yousif
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
As far as JEN concerned, the need survey has been certified as a major part of the NGO policy, and is the first step of JEN's projects. Need survey is considered as one of the basic tools of knowledge and is also used in pointing out the weakness of a case study specifically in larger communities, such as schools, health centers ...etc.
Such as schools and health centers rehabilitation, through in the site visits, JEN has taken the responsibility into establishing a database to ensure the health conditions for the all the sites. The survey may have a direct impact on the institutional and personal cleanliness through giving instructions that may help the individuals into keeping their personal health safe through creating better environment.
Taken school students as an example, they suffer a lot, specially the younger ones in crowded schools where there is a leak in providing enough health and educational support. Thus, Need survey helps to find the roots of the problems and the methods of solving these problems. It is the way of that guarantees positive results, for all those whom are involved, specially the beneficiaries (especially the students in this case), the addressing those whom may have been concerned.
JEN follows two sorts of surveys. The first one is Need survey, as previously indicated. The feature of Need survey is done in the phase of pre-rehabilitation through involving beneficiaries in a wide assessment. It happens though asking question to be able to estimate the health environment of the individuals via taking samples of the beneficiaries in order to be able to have a telling picture. The second type is Monitoring survey. The survey is done after the school is rehabilitated. The right training is provided to the teams which conduct the monitoring survey. Therefore, the teams will take care of the real outcome of the project. JEN takes advantage of information from those surveys in order to promote effective projects along with the local needs.
Asmaa Amer (JEN Local Staff as the Hygiene trainer)
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
The approach of parliamentary elections in 04/30/2014 will result the new parliament and the new government, who will govern the country for four years.
In Iraq, Series of elections occurred after 2003, the first was in January 30, 2005. It was the first National Assembly election and Iraqis voted for a 275-member. The second was in October 15, 2005. It was a voting on the new Iraqi draft constitution. And the third was in December 15, 2005 which was to choose a 275-member of Iraqi parliament under the new Iraqi constitution. The latest was in March 7, 2010 for the selection of the current parliament and government. In addition, there were the provincial elections for several times.
Upcoming the election’s day, the streets of the capital Baghdad and the provinces are filled with pictures of candidates for the election. And now, Baghdad city has fully election campaigns.
Recently, the propaganda campaign of the candidates began to win the voice of Iraqi voters. The parties develop the election campaigns with varied form according to the financial possibilities and powerful link.
The most amusing propaganda campaign for this session where the candidates put their propaganda posters on food… also some politicians has to provide free meals to the poor entitled such as "The Gift of Dr. ..." and "The Gift of Mr. ..." etc. The party wins the votes of the hungry and the needy.
And another candidate mentioned in the poster that he candidate to gain a seat in Parliament by order of the Prophet Muhammad, making an appeal to voters.
The propaganda campaign will continue till before the date of elections by one day.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
One of the students in twelfth grade expressed his happiness and the comfort for what we are doing in school. He mentioned that some of the students used the soil area as a latrine because of the bad condition of latrine. He also expressed his will to work with JEN to keep the school clean. The headmaster attended the conversation and encouraged the student to work with his classmate to keep the school clean. I replied to the student that he can work with JEN when he gets some degree to be qualified employee. The headmaster again complemented us and indicated that JEN’s rehabilitation work was remarkable in Diyala with DoE.
Summer season is around the corner in Iraq and classrooms will become very hot. To prepare for battle with the heat, JEN provided fans to the schools. The student also thanked us for the fans in classrooms.
Students’ joyous smile encourages us to keep working for them. JEN will keep working to rehabilitate school equipment including WASH facilities in order for students to spend time safely and comfortably.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Kids’ magazine: Majallate is one of the famous magazines in Iraq. The magazine runs articles of the kid’s culture in Iraq and has ever been issued monthly for 44 years.
A lot of Iraqi families get the magazine as it contains various themes and meaningful stories for children.
After JEN undertaking editing one of the sections of the magazine with cooperation of MOE, the magazines had been distributed to students in the primary schools in the previous JEN projects. They expressed their admiration for it and they understood the importance of hygiene education and preservation of the environment which are contained in the magazine.
Bassim Yousif
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
The world celebrates the International Women's Day annually on 8 March, in solidarity with women for their freedom, equality, peace and social justice.
Celebration of this day dates back over 150 years, in 1857. A group of women workers in the textile factory in the U.S. formed a demonstration to protest against their bad living conditions. Even though the demonstration to demand improvement of working conditions and increase wages was suppressed by police, it bore fruit in the form of the first Women's Guild two years later. The United Nations has adopted this day as a public holiday for women in 1977.
Iraqi women celebrated the day this year as well, even though they are in difficult situations and harsh living conditions. Many events were held such as symposia and conferences to discuss and review the status of Iraqi women under the new circumstances. As one of them, there was a demonstration in Al- Mutanabi Street, which is a famous street in Baghdad. Women stepped out into the demonstration wearing black clothes to mourn and express their rejection to the notorious new Personal Status Law: “Al- Jaafari” approved by the Cabinet recently.
UN mission in Iraq voiced concern to the adoption of this law in Iraq, which is contraries to the freedom of women and strips the dignity of women. Even though Iraqi women are under this difficult situation and have to live their daily lives with patience and perseverance, the steadfast and creative Iraqi women live also with hope for surpassing all odds and defying all obstacles in order to build a better future for herself, her family and her country.
Thikra J. AL-Najar
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
Let us introduce the International Patients Day which was held in Baghdad the other day. The International Patients day began in 13, May 1992 by Pope John Paul II, in order to make this day a special time to pray for patients and share their suffering. The catchword for the twenty-second International Patients day of this year is “faith and love”. Many churches in Iraq are celebrating this day every year, as the day to pray, hold several events to share patients’ pain and support them psychologically and financially.
In Baghdad, the International Patients’ Day was celebrated at Sayedat Al- Najat Church on 8 February, in the presence of many clergies, Patriarch the first Raphael Louis Sako and the papal ambassador in Iraq. People prayed and some events were held by Bethany House.
Bethany house was established in Baghdad's Karrada district in 2000 in order to care the ultra-disabilities patients and the elderlies. Currently, there are about 50 elderly women from different governorates, mostly Christians and some of them Muslims and some of them with special needs. Health care is available to them fully through donations. Mrs. Alhan Smith, the director of the house, and Mrs. Anwar Nazim, assistant to the director, work here as volunteers. They say that man needs a dignified life after the long entire life and they volunteer in the way of God and to do well.
People here live as one family without prejudice. The relationship of humanity is more important than the difference of land of origin or other things. Patriarch the first Raphael Louis Sako has been praised managing this house. He said that the management of Bethany house is an illuminated sign in our current situation and must be supported and encouraged for the reason of nondenominational humanitarian work. At the end of his speech, he appealed to everyone to be a lamp shining in the middle of a long and dark tunnel which our country is in now.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
The bad situation in Iraq especially the instabe security situation impact on the celebration of the new year …. In the past ... most families go to clubs… but these days ... every two families or more gather together in one house to celebrate.
Iraqis celebrate in general and Christians in particular, in putting the Christmas trees in their houses and their shops as well as decorating most of the streets. The habits of Iraqi families are preparing a dining table contain different types of foods and desserts... and they put the Christmas cake in the middle with candles, In addition to wearing a family member as Santa and gives gifts to family members, especially children.
Everyone remembers the happy and sad memories, and the work done by them during the last year and their wishes for the New Year.
This occasion is opportunity for tolerance and love and also an opportunity for reconciling between two disputing parties.
When approaching the time at midnight, the Family members gather to pray and supplication for the safety and healing of the sick and protect their country from the evils… then they share their congratulations.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
As we introduced in our last breaking supporter’s news, JEN started a new project from the end of last year. However, at the beginning of the new year, the security situation of Anbar province, one of our three project sites, had drastically deteriorated.
As the media reported, the Iraq’s security authority attempted to supress the large scale antigovernment demonstrations on December 30. Following that, a group linked with the international terrorist network al-Qaeda linked took control of a portion of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, and Fallujah, a neighboring city, generating disruption. Under such rapidly worsening situation, we decided to temporarily stop our projects in Anbar Province and restricted the scope of operation of our local staffs for their safety
Anbar province, located in the west of Baghdad, is the biggest province in Iraq and most of the population are Sunni Muslims. The province includes national borders with Syria and Saudi Arabia that it is common that the same tribes or relatives of the province are living across the border. Many of the residents are the supporters of Hussein administration and the province was attacked numerous times by the US military in 2003. They have less access to public services and have a higher unemployment rate compared to other provinces. Many citizens are frustrated by the political system, and antigovernment demonstrations have been a regular occurrence. The death toll and number of evacuees from the current conflict is increasing.
This situation is similar to that of central and south Iraq between 2006 and 2008. JEN had its office in Baghdad back then, and explosions from bombs could be heard nearby on the way to the project sites, and cars carrying JEN staff were often stopped by Iraq’s security authority at the check point along highways.
Not all of our project sites are safe, and these are the environments that have the most children in need. Therefore, our local staff are thorough about gathering security information, use mobile phones when security is concerned, and share information with other staffs via text messages or phone. Also, we try to avoid the crowd, such as demonstration gathering or markets, with close communication among other staff. We try to continue our projects with safety as our first priority. JEN’s Iraq office staff wish for stability and peace in Anbar province and hope to restart the educational assistance to their students soon.
Today marks the first day of our new project in Iraq and we are grateful of all the wishes and hopes that we receive from our supporters and also the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan who encouraged us to make this happen. Thank you so very much!
Our new project is called, “Improvement of Hygienic Environment in the Primary and Secondary Schools in Central and Northern Iraq.” As you notice from the name, we will continue and expand what we’ve been doing for the past 10 years in Iraq. For year 2014, we will have students understand the importance of hygiene and have them acquire and practice hygienic behaviors such as washing your hands, gargling and brushing your teeth. We hope that many more students will learn how to protect them from catching diseases and how to improve their health conditions in order to continue studying and learning at schools.
As mentioned before, we have been implementing projects which contribute to the education sector in Iraq from 2003. From 2010, we were able to expand our project sites outside Baghdad and to 4 other governorates. We have rehabilitated school facilities and implemented hygiene education activities in over 200 public schools in these 5 governorates and we are more than happy that we were able to complete these activities. However, the education sector in Iraq needs much more support. And therefore, we decided that we will continue our contribution to see many more children studying in a safer school environment and learning how to be healthy and happy.
[Students receiving Portal Trash Boxes, which JEN developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Iraq]
[Students practicing how to brush their teeth]
In this new project, we will encourage approximately 650 teachers and 8,000 students of 18 schools in Anbar, Diyala and Kirkuk Governorate to join hygiene education classes and activities. In addition, we will rehabilitate water and sanitation facilities in 3 schools because their facilities have been dysfunctional for a long time, and have contributed to an extremely unsafe environment for children. We also have a new activity. We will encourage the Departments of Education in the respective governorate to understand the importance of monitoring and maintenance of school buildings and facilities. We hope that this new activity will initiate an attempt to have all rehabilitated and newly constructed school buildings in Iraq to go through monitoring and maintenance so that they will continue being a safe environment for children as long as possible.
[A dysfunctional toilet facility in A Primary School]
[A broken window at B Secondary School]
Last but not least, we want you to know that all of our past projects and contributions to the education sector in Iraq could not have been done without your support and encouragement. We are more than motivated to provide more children in Iraq with a clean and safe school environment, and also hygiene education. Please stay tuned for updates and positive outcomes!
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
The park in Baghdad where people can relax will be a topic today as to introduce the daily life of people in Iraq.
Al-Zawra Park is a large area located on the centre of Baghdad; the park includes a large green area and comfortable sitting places, restaurants, water fountains, lake, zoo and games city which has several games for children and youth.
Many families and school pupils visit the games city at Al-Zawra every day and people spend a nice time especially in holidays. The price of games is ranged between $1 for kids and $4 for youth. It looks better after installing 15 new moderate games. Main building and services are in progress to be built.
Several take-away restaurants are distributed all over Al-Zawra Park and games city so that people are not urged to leave the Park. Many W.C. units can be seen as well. The services at the Park within acceptable level and needs more interesting, the games city sends invitations to all schools in Baghdad to let them visit the park for playing with discount game prices.
People can relax in the park much more than before even though public security is still unstable.
On the other hand, Al-Zawra Park has no main drainage pipe system, so the Park was filled with water at the last rainfall in Baghdad in November 2013, in spite of existing of large green area and lake. It is required to install drainage sewage pipes at all the Park for rain water. The Park is in need for more maintenance and services in order to serve comfort for the people who visit the park.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
In every work it is necessary to make an assessment to know the results of the work … and this is the case in all the organization projects that have been implemented in Iraq.
JEN’s current project in Iraq worked on rehabilitating facilities and promoting hygiene education at 10 schools in 5 governorates. As we have completed the rehabilitations and hygiene campaigns (hygiene education workshops for teachers, hygiene kit distributions, etc.) for all schools, we proceeded with identifying the change brought by our project by having students and headmasters take questionnaire surveys. This questionnaire, prepared by JEN staff, was completed by headmasters at each school and 10 students from each grade at every school. These same questionnaires surveys were done before the initiation of the project so that we can identify the changes in answers. In this way, we will be able to assess the impact of our project.
[The headmaster responding to the questionnaire survey]
We found out that most of the objectives of this project had been achieved, like our previous projects had. We also were able to receive appreciations from school administrations after each school recognized positive changes in the school environments. These changes included more students having hygienic behaviors and following hygienic practices, and becoming more interested in maintaining their personal hygiene and clean school environments. It is a great pleasure to us to see students write down positive answers on the surveys and to see joy and happiness on their faces while they sing a song to appreciate our works.
[Students answering the questionnaire]
And all teachers and students ask us to pass on their gratitude and appreciation to JEN in particular and the Japanese people in general.
JEN Baghdad Administration Manager Thikra J. Al- Najar
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
All Muslims all over the world tries to do Al-Haj which is an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca (Saudi Arabia) and the largest gathering of Muslims people in the world every year. On this time October 14, 2013 the Muslims were in Mecca doing the final stage of Al-Haj. Al-Haj occurs from the 8 to 12 Thu Al-Haja, the last month of the Islamic calendar of twelve months which is a lunar calendar, eleven days shorter than the Gregorian calendar used in the Western world. Al-Haj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and a religious duty which must be carried out by each Muslim who have the ability and can afford to do so at least once in the lifetime (women or man).
The selection of pilgrims in Iraq were done by nomination (choose by lot) of about 30,000 limited pilgrims every year. This year, Saudi Arabia officially requested all Muslim countries to decrease the number of pilgrims by about 20% due to construction and development in Mecca. So about 6000 Iraqi pilgrims could not do Al-Haj this year.
Al- Haj is a demonstration of the solidarity of the Muslim people, and their submission to God. During the Haj, the man needs to dress ihram which is a garment consist of two white sheets with sandals, the women required to cover here head hair with Hijab and white dress.
The Haj is associated with the life of the Prophet Mohammed from 7th century, but the ritual of pilgrimage to Mecca is considered by Muslims to stretch back thousands of years to the time of Ibrahim.
＜Source: Mawtani＞
About 3 million pilgrims join several processing steps, which simultaneously converge on Mecca for the week of the Haj, and perform a series of rituals simplified as shown hereunder:
1- Each person walks counter-clockwise seven times around the Kaaba, Al-Kaaba building acts as the Muslim direction prayer. 2- Then runs back and forth between the two hills (Al-Safa and Al-Marwah), and drinks from the Zamzam well. 3- After that the pilgrims goes to the Arafat Mountain to stand in vigil, and throws stones in a ritual throwing of stones on the Devil. 4- Final stage is shaving the head of pilgrims, perform a ritual of animal sacrifice, and celebrate the four days of Eid Al-Adha which is a big celebration for Muslims and went back to their home.
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
The new academic year has started on September 24, 2013 for all school stages (Kindergarten, Primary, Intermediate and Secondary schools). Classes at universities, colleges and institutes commenced a couple of weeks later.
Before the start of a new academic year, families prepare their kids with necessary book bags, textbooks, stationary and school uniforms. Families also provide their children with transportations like taxi or bus school. The pupils began attending to their school after a summer holiday of 3 months.
On the first day, the pupils receive books from each school for free of charge, which was distributed on behalf of the Ministry of Education (MoE). MoE also provides and distributes note books to the pupils in primary schools. Other than that, some charity organizations provide and distribute stationery to some schools too.
The pupils taking lessons from the first day of study hours and homework were issued by the teachers. The pupils met each other and they talked about their summer holidays and where they spend during the summer.
All families were afraid about terrorist attacks during when they aren’t around their children. These attacks are increasing and claim hundreds of people’s lives each week. The security situation affects pupils’ presenting daily to their schools and spread fear among them on their faces.
In recent years, some primary schools (for the first stage) have invited parents to meet the teachers in school on events called (acquaintance between teachers and parents). Usually this event is held in the school for parental convenience and presents each other; the parent's tries to assist and encourage the kids for education. This year, as written above, many parents discussed with the teachers on how to deal with the risky security situation.
[Pupils in the classroom]
[Pupils excited about the start of their new year]
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
With the beginning of a new academic year for each and every grade in schools, all the Iraqi families have been preparing their kids necessary items to attend school such as book bags, notebooks, stationary and uniforms. Fathers and Mothers that are living with very limited income have difficulty providing these required school items. As some families have more than 8 sons in schools, this additional cost creates a burden on their balance budget.
The price jump for most school requirements and daily variation of market price also add additional load for the families, especially those with limited incomes. Therefore, families try to buy the cheapest available stationeries and clothes. However, these cheap items tend to be poor in quality. So the big problem for the head of family is providing these required schooling items continuously during the academic year because they tend to wear out easily. Families may have to replace book bags and school uniforms several times in addition to bearing transportation cost and other necessary school related costs. Some mosques and charity organizations assist these families but they are never enough. Many families shop in this street because there are many wholesale stationery merchants, and the prices are more reasonable than other markets. Most Iraqi families shop from Al-Mutanabi Street and Al-Saray Market for stationery and other school requirements. Al-Mutanabi Street was the oldest street in Baghdad and the variety of literatures one can find there is as diverse as the Iraqi population. They include literatures of both Iraq and the Middle East: history, political theory, popular novels, scholarly works, religious tracts, technical books, poetry, and mysteries. What’s more, stationery and blank school notebooks could be purchased on this street, as well as children’s books, comics, and magazines.
[Al-Mutanabi Street]
[Al-Saray Market]
JEN Engineer Hamoody
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
The current project is in the final phase. I would like to share with joy that we are working on the last school, E Girl’s School. Today, I would like to share some comments that we received during our meeting with the Headmaster and some parents.
[Parents in the meeting]
The Headmaster mentioned that he was satisfied with the quality of restoration. Is seems that the cleaning workers are saying that in the past, the latrines were in very poor conditions, but after going through repair, they all look clean and easy to use. They are satisfied that the toilet facilities are more beautiful. Moreover, the Headmaster said, “Educational assistance from JEN allows students to improve their health conditions, and in result, the educational level will improve.”
I fully agree. The health aspect is one of the most important benefits enjoyed by students, and is also the first step towards achieving success. Students are able to concentrate on their studies on the basis of good health.
The parents were also very happy with the improvement in their children’s health and hygiene awareness. One parent said, “The latrines were totally dysfunctional before, and now they are so clean that my child says that she likes the toilet facility at the school better than the one in our home.” Many parents mentioned that they appreciated how JEN provided cleaning materials as well as hygiene kits to the school. It seems that the distributed materials have an important role in raising student’s awareness in cleanness at both the school and home.
I need to say that knowing that the students are practicing hygienic behaviors not only at the school but also in their homes is wonderful.
[In front of clean toilet facilities]
JEN Engineer Bassam
【JEN is now accepting donations. Your help would be very much appreciated. DONATE here】
In our Islamic world, we celebrate the holy month of Ramadan every year through fasting from dawn to sunset, which approximately lasts for 16 hours a day. Fasting is self-taming through patience of not eating and drinking during the 16 hour fasting period, and also feeling for poor people who cannot afford our daily life as we find in Ramadan a month that bring us back to our human sense of helping poor people.
During the last days of the holy month of Ramadan, people start getting ready to receive Eid Al Fitr Al Mubarak ( a feast that starts right after Ramadan and lasts for 3 days). People prepare by shopping new clothes, gifts and ingredients for cakes and sweets that are going to be offered for friends and relatives when they come over to visit during. Eid Al Fitr comes as a time for the Muslim to be happy about what he/she has achieved during the month of Ramadan.
Also children express their happiness of spending their time during Eid wearing their new clothes and going out to amusement parks in cities to celebrate Eid. Eid al Fitr is a 3 day official holiday that allows people to celebrate and visit each other. Attached are the photos taken by me at a small park in my hometown, the city of Ramadi. We can easily find happy and satisfied children having fun in this park which is considered their main outlet for their leisure time. Despite the fact that we live in an insecure environment, we find the love and hope in our children who find happiness in every simple possibility in order not to miss the happiness of Eid.
Ramadan has ended, and we have celebrated Eid al-Fitr, in other words Feast of Breaking the Fast, on August 10th. Though this is a day of celebrating and uniting all the Muslims in the world, there were a range of bombings and shootings mainly in the capital city Baghdad and its outskirts. According to news sources, this year’s Ramadan faced the worst ever violence in the country since 2008, which claimed more than 1000 people’s lives. In the end of July, there were two attacks on prisons in Iraq, which led to around 500 inmates escaping the compounds. Among them were a couple of senior members of Al Qaeda. Indeed this country is struggling to head toward peace.
Did you know that Iraq had, throughout the seventies and early eighties, one of the best education systems in the Middle East? Our education deteriorated ever since the Gulf War erupted, and due to the everlasting economic sanction and the social confusion caused by the Iraq War in 2003, there were few budget and capacity to be allocated to the education sector. Even up until today, the government is facing difficulty to rehabilitate damaged and destroyed school buildings and provide students with appropriate school environments.
Preparing healthy educational spaces for children who are the ones that can create a society where violence no longer lasts is crucial for Iraq’s future development. That is why JEN’s activities on rehabilitating school facilities and promoting hygiene give hope to Iraqis who seek peace. We are working on rehabilitating the 10th and last school for the current project. This school is called A Intermediate School located in the Babil Governorate, which stands south to Baghdad. We have removed old plasters and partitions of the toilets and installed new water pipes and tanks. Since we’ve already provided training on hygiene education towards teachers, we’re very much excited to see students applying what they’ve learned through the hygiene education with their new toilets, sinks, and other water facilities.
“Mahibs” is a heritage and popular game played especially in Ramadan, it is very famous Iraqi game depends on the physiognomy.
The word “Mahibs” means the ring. The game is between two teams (each team consists of more than 20 people and each team has a head), one of these teams hides the ring in the hands of one of her/his team members without the aware of another team, and the head of the second team is searching for ring.
There is only one chance to guess who has the ring. If s/he can point out correctly, the team can get the points that have been agreed in advance. Then regardless of right answer or not, the teams change the position of offense and defense and continue playing. The team who gets many points is a winner. The losing team pays the cost of trays of sweets which are distributed to the teams and spectators. The game is on a League form between regions teams. the winning team in the last days of Ramadan gets the grand prize.
There are professional players in this game. They have considerable experience in reading faces and physiognomy so that they can find a ring holder by looking in their eyes or their confusion. The aim of this game is to strengthen the bonds of friendship and love between the people of the region as well as to meet new friends in other regions.
Thank you for your cooperation in JEN’s assistant program for school renovation and hygiene promotion activities in Iraq. JEN has assisted a significant number of school children in more than 200 schools in several governorates to ensure safety and healthy learning environment.
B intermediate school for girls, where we introduced on 6 June here, is the one of schools which improved its condition dramatically through JEN’s project. During the assessment of the school, I saw the girls were going to their houses to use the latrine and other girls, which their houses were far, going near the school fence with a water bottle .It was really a difficult view when we see the girl seeking for place to use it as latrine. The headmaster explained that the school has been suffering from this situation for a long time and she’d asked the DoE to take action but the waiting list was long and the resources were limited.
[Before rehabilitation]
[After rehabilitation]
Therefore, the headmaster didn’t believe at the beginning that we will rehabilitate the school. She was very grateful when she saw that we fixed the electrical network system and fixing of the latrine, in addition making necessary maintenance to the door and roof.
JEN is one of the most active organizations working in Iraq. The people of Iraq have full confidence in Japan for their reputation of diligence, Japanese car with high reputations, high industrial development…, JEN has been highly appreciated at all governorates where we carried out projects.
JEN rehabilitated a large numbers of schools in all six Directorates in Baghdad as well as at several governorates all over Iraq, and received good feedbacks since we have been implementing school rehabilitation projects for its efficient work compared with other organizations, by the reason of appropriate and continuous supervision on every step of work, and for its high-quality work.
The effect of the project has been seen in students’ behaviors when starting the new academic year. They love their school more, are motivated to keep the facilities clean and are more attentive in their studies according to headmasters of schools.
JEN also conducts hygiene training at school which provides positive impact to increase the students’ hygiene awareness. They learn the first Aid as well as the methods of protecting themselves from infectious disease. Schools also appreciate the cleaning kits and hygiene kits provided by JEN which support students’ hygiene practices and its continuity at school.
After the completion of project, JEN also has an important role in following up the continuation of the improvement of school environments.
JEN implemented rehabilitation work as well as hygiene training and hygiene kits distribution at the Al-Badia school in Baghdad, which we introduced here on the blog on 28 February and 11 April. JEN will continue to provide follow up assistance for the school for sustainable improvement of the school environment in cooperation with the school.
This project is being executed thanks to the support of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, all our members and contributors.
During the past period held the final qualifiers for the World Cup in Brazil 2014 of Asia… Where the second group included (Japan, Australia, Jordan and Iraq), Japan has qualified as the first and Australia the second of this group.
Japan is qualified as a result of good planning for the development of football since the eighties, through their dependence on Youth and preparing them in football schools, as well as gain experience from the most advanced teams, Where we note that Japan is not absent from the last four finals World Cup .
On the other hand we note that Iraq did not play on his land and in front of audience since the eighties as a result of the wars and the deteriorating security situation, as well as the lack of good planning for the development of football by the Iraqi Union of Football … and not to dependence on people with good efficiency in this area, these things and other led to a decline in the level of the Iraqi team and do not qualify for the finals of World Cup, this caused great sadness for the Iraqi people.
We congratulate Japan's qualification with wishes for success in the World Cup.
We hope that the Iraqi officials study the cause of the failure of the Iraqi team and begin to overcome the mistakes.
The WASH facilities in (B intermediate school for girls) were in very bad condition…so no one of the teachers or students could use it… which caused a lot of educational problems. The head master of the school went to DOE many times to ask them to rehabilitation … but no rehabilitation done for many reasons, then it was booked and rehabilitation by JEN with the consent of MOE and DOE, then the school became in a very good condition… that's where the school administration did not expect such a good implementation and devotion to work, as it is shown in the pictures.
[Before]
[After]
Then JEN also conducted teacher trainings and student session for hygiene education, and distributed the cleaning kits to the school in order to increase the student’s hygiene awareness and to keep facilities clean. During the meeting with the school administration we received many words of thanks and appreciation for JEN.
During our visit to the school for video recording of the anthem for Hygiene behaviors, we were surprised when we received the words of gratitude prepared for the day from the the students, which are composed of express their thanks and appreciation to JEN.
Iraq ten years on: Welcome to Baghdad, 'Arab Capital of Culture' 2013
Ten years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Baghdad, the Iraqi capital is designated as "Arab Capital of Culture" for 2013. The Arab Capital of Culture is an initiative taken by the Arab League under the UNESCO Cultural Capitals Program to promote and celebrate Arab culture and encourage cooperation in the Arab region. It's a gallant opportunity to remind the world that there being the different face with a rich culture for Baghdad than car bombs and kidnappings.
However, there are still many problems which confront us. At the Baghdad's National Theatre, like most other public buildings in Baghdad, is surrounded by 10ft high concrete blast walls. And rather than a few ticket collectors manning around the entrance, there are half a dozen soldiers, all on hand because of threats in the past from religious militias, whose general approach is preventing the performing of arts.
In their eyes, even tonight's play, a family-friendly comedy that looks an Iraqi version of Run for Your Wife, counts as unacceptably radical theatre, for the simple reason that it involves men treading the boards alongside women.
"Everyone in this office, without exceptions, has received death threats over the years, but because we are all artists with a message to get out, we have kept going," says the theatre's deputy director, Ismael al-Juboori.
Now, after a long period in the shadows, Iraq's artistic and cultural scene is about to blossom once more. The Capital of Culture project in Bagdad will put on 24 films produced in or around Baghdad, including nine long-story movies, nine short films and six documentaries.
Furthermore, the event includes music and dance performances, photography exhibitions, as well as folk arts and crafts shows.
It is the latest in a series of efforts by Iraq to raise its global reliability after long war and sanctions which led to its international isolation, economically as well as culturally. The city hosted the Arab League summit in 2012, and it is also scheduled to host football’s Gulf Cup in 2015 at Al-Basrah city southern of Iraq.
Governorate or provincial elections of Iraq were held on April 20, 2013, to replace the local councils in the governorates of Iraq that were elected in the Iraqi governorate elections of 2009 .
In addition to 3 governorates forming the Kurdistan Region planning to conduct election separately, governorates of Al- Anbar, Ninewa and Kirkuk postponed the elections until June due to security reason, so that this elections were taken place in 12 of 18 governorates,
The campaign has been started sine more than 45 days, involving 8100 candidates, the participant in the elections from 265 political entities and 50 coalitions, and distributed leaflets at the intersection of streets and crowded places, and paste the logos and images coalitions and personalities, and included a lot of banners electoral phrases refer to the situation changed service and repair the political situation, while candidates appealed in a street speech through tours of neighborhoods.
The Board of Commission appointed teams to monitor the election campaign and its conformity with the controls, and to impose financial penalties on violators. Most Iraqi’s people were exposed to exerting of pressure in their daily life through the election. Most of us suffer from crowded streets as many security checkpoints were placed all over Baghdad governorate, that’s mean when you need to transport about 10 km from place to place in Baghdad you may need more than one and half hour to reach your location. However, a series of deadly coordinate attacks across Iraq on Monday April15, 2013 killed at least 50 people and wounded nearly 300.
In that kind of situation though, voter participation in the election was 50 percent of eligible voters, and officials said including results from a special vote a week earlier for members of the armed forces, total participation would be more than 51 percent. We saw the time changes in the political map of the local governments, most notably the rise of “coalition of law state” lead by Mr.Maliki in seven provinces.
＜Voting for security and military forces has been conducted on April 13, 2013＞
As an invitation of the MOE, we attended the celebration of the General Directorate of Physical Education/ Directorate of Environmental Education and school health for Annual festival on the level of Iraq on the occasion of World Health Day in Al- Najaf governorate from 8-11/4/2013. The theme for World Health Day 2013 is controlling high blood pressure, a condition which affects more than one in three adults worldwide and it is widespread in Iraq for different age groups. According to the announcement of World Health Organization that 50% of deaths caused by high blood pressure and there are four million infected with the disease in Iraq. The organization called Iraqis to improve their diet to prevent and control of high blood pressure, as a means of reducing the number of people affected.
[This photo about healthy food and its influence on human's body]
The General Directorates for Education presented their activities throughout the festival as well as sketches and an exhibition of drawings by students about hygiene and health and preservation of the environment.
[This photo about a play by the students of Baghdad/Risafa 3 DOE … named “The enemy friend”( which means the food salt)]
[This photo about a play by Ninewa DOE named (Charged in our house) “ trial for blood pressure”]
Dr. T praised a role of JEN for raising awareness among pupils about the importance of hygiene and attention to health in his speech at the opening of the festival.
[JEN stuffs with some responsible employees from DOEs of Diala, Kirkuk and Babil of environmental education and health school]
We continue our activities hoping for peace though security situation is not stable.
We still implement rehabilitation work at the Al-Badia school in Baghdad, where we introduced on 28 February here.
The main issue that affects the work at school is the security situation. That’s led to some days we cannot reach the school even the contractor and the materials could not supplied at site in due time because the school was surrounded by a concrete block to prevent from the bomb explosion.
Iraq's deadliest day in last six months came on the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein taken place on March 19, 2013. Up to 60 people have been killed in a series of car and suicide bombings mainly in several areas in and around Iraq's capital, Baghdad.
The country remains volatile, and disputes with the autonomous Kurdistan Region over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk have threatened to derail progress towards political stability.
To implement our work, JEN engineer as well as the contractor received huge help from the headmistress assistant and she appreciated the work and did following up the work to improve the quality.
<Discussing among Headmistress assistant, JEN engineer and the contractor>
JEN also conducts hygiene trainings at school for students after providing training for teachers. Children learn the methods of protecting themselves from infectious disease. They also appreciate the hygiene materials and kits provided by JEN.
<Students at school yard>
This project is being executed thanks to the support of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, all our members and contributors. JEN Engineer Hamoody
The Ministry of Education in Iraq interested in school garden, there is a section in the Department of Environmental Education and School Health in the Ministry of Education called “school garden section”. There are interesting and continuous follow-up by the officials in this section with the school garden, annually competition held between schools to win the most beautiful school garden in Iraq.
During the training for teachers and students which held by JEN within its projects and by interest for the environment … We emphasis is on the importance of planting the school garden and the house interest and maintain with it. The ministry and JEN efforts have resulted by making a lot of teachers and students to planting their school gardens. They are so green.
[A primary school for girls]
[B intermediate school]
[C primary school for girls]
The schools within JEN project, which focused on the school garden is D intermediate school for girls. Their garden will also glow with students!
[Garden of D intermediate school who will glow greenly!]
As you know, the security situation become unstable in Iraq now and there are many continuous demonstrations and protests in 5 governorates where we carried out the projects for more than two months. Due to that, the roads are frequently blocked, especially in Anbar and Diala governorates, but we managed to conduct hygiene promotion in four schools of Diala and Anbar, paying the attention to the security situation.
In the first day, JEN hygiene expert trained the teachers, and trained teachers had a teaching session to students in the second day. In the session, in order to urge students to maintain personal hygiene and cleanliness of their school as well as to take care of the environment and their health, hygiene kits such as soaps and toothbrush etc., guidance booklets and posters, which were prepared by JEN in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, were distributed to students.
[Students seriously listening to the Hygiene session]
Attended training officials from the MOE and DOE of Diala, they expressed their admiration and satisfaction for our works which especially contribute to the improvement of the educational environment, to raising awareness of health and environment.
JEN hygiene expert conducting the teacher training in the presence of officials from the MOE and DOE
This project is being executed thanks to the support of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, all our members and contributors.
The second school has also been started the rehabilitation!
Another rehabilitation construction has been started in the second school following of A secondary school, which we introduced last week. The second school is B primary school for boys in Baghdad.
The old water fountains which conditions are not able to be used will be demolished.
New toilet bowls, water tank, and pipes have arrived. The environment for students will be improved by this rehabilitation work.
JEN continue to implement rehabilitation construction for damaged classrooms and water and hygiene facilities and hygiene promotion at 10 primary and secondary schools in Northern and Central Iraq this term. In this week, the rehabilitation construction has been started at Al-Shurook secondary school in Kirkuk province in the Northern Iraq as the first school out of 10 selected schools for this term project.
At first, we break the existing but not functioning water fountain.
Cements for the construction have been arrived.
We reuse materials which are still useful and clear off the old and damaged things to make latrine and water fountain cleaner and more comfortable for students to use.
After this first step, we will construct the foundation of water fountains, connect the water pipes, and tiling to complete the works.
The weather last couple of weeks was so bad here in Amman, And there were flood in nearly all the streets of amman. And this situation affected the normal life.
And following the flood there was blizzard and snow storm and announced as national holiday.
Baghdad and Amman today (29-30 Jan):
Amman: Rain and snow with fog , which this situation make it difficult for the staff to go back home.
Baghdad: nowadays floods nearly in all streets of Baghdad and other provinces as well.
A new Iraq project supported by MOFA has been started.
A new project (Improvement of Educational Environment and Hygiene Awareness in Primary/Secondary Schools in the Middle and Northern Parts of Iraq (Third Phase)) funded by Japan Ministry of Foreign affairs has started in Dec 2012. This project is as same as the last one, for school rehabilitation and hygiene promotion at 10 schools that spread in 5 governorates; Baghdad, Anbar, Babil, Kirkuk, and Diyala which is estimated to benefit 4500 students and 350 staff, with goals in health promotion via repair of hygiene facilities in the schools and hygiene training for the students, so that they can have a healthy and comfortable environment to continue their education and learn proper hygiene habits to live healthier life. We believe that students will be able to use latrines and wash hands in schools instead of going back to home during school hours, and avoid taking injure from broken windows or damaged electric equipment in the classrooms.
Iraq project of JEN target local primary schools and secondary schools. From the field, the headquarters have received pictures of activities and students. And there are many photos of children with serious face folding their arms.
Actually, this is an attitude to show their politeness in Iraq. Yes, pictures confirmed that everyone were listening the instruction of teachers earnestly.
As last report, the hygiene education sessions are ongoing. JEN request schools to hang the posters to promote hygiene habits to students. JEN also distribute hygiene kits which includes teeth brush, tooth paste, towel, as well as materials JEN developed with Ministry of Education.
With those tools, students practice brushing teeth at the washing stand restored in this project. Students can practice brushing teeth and washing hands with the clean washing stand which now they do not need to struggle to get water from the tab.
Can you brush behind of your teeth well? After students learned the importance of hygiene habits, they will talk about it to their family at home. This is our aim of the project to spread good habits of hygiene to family through school and students and promote them to prepare teeth brush for their kids at home. This is one of our efforts to make the project sustainable that the good hygiene habits will remain after JEN complete the project.
The new school year has been started on October in Iraq, and the second half of the hygiene education session have been kicked off. It is the continuance of the primary session held in April at the schools we implemented rehabilitation. JEN has developed the method and materials of hygiene education how to make them exciting for children together with Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and teachers with developed materials such as teeth-brushing calendar or trash box, which we have introduced in the previous article.
At the schools, JEN also organize PTA associated by parents of students and teachers to spread the hygiene knowledge and habits to families and communities through schools. The member of PTA regularly come to school to monitor if the latrines and water fonts JEN restored are maintained clean. Through this activity, JEN believe that the environment of children’s growth will be looked after by entire community along with schools and teachers.
Teachers of the schools who observed restoration of school facilities and improvement of student habits after hygiene education sessions, and they said that they wish all other schools which are still in the condition they had before will be improved as they could through JEN project. JEN will continue the step-by-step endeavor to improve study environment of school children at all areas of Iraq.
For Children to have Affinity for Hygiene Education ~Through a Song Contest~
"If children were able to learn about hygiene in an easier and more fun way, wouldn’t they learn better and knowledge?”
This revolutionary idea came up from a JEN staff during a meeting about hygiene education workshop with officials of Ministry of Education.
"If the kids could sing about right hygiene habits, they could learn important knowledge in a fun way, and familiarize with these habits." From this idea, Ministry of Education organized contests to compose songs about hygiene habits in five districts that JEN works in.
Since 2003, JEN has been working on hygiene education with Ministry of Education. Local authorities have become more creative by bringing up its own ideas, instead of just waiting for proposals from JEN, which finally created this groundbreaking event. The song contest featured five Directorate of Education from Baghdad, al-'Anbār, Bābil, Diyala and Kirkuk. They competed with the songs they made to promote hygiene practices .
The song made by Diyara District, which had the most easy-to-remember lyrics and melody, won the contest. It The song was even introduced to Directorate of Education and is now used all over Iraq so that every child can become more familiar with hygienic practices.
“Pray for Japan”, the movie about the Great East Japan Earthquake, was shown in Jordan
Under the auspices of Her Highness Princess Reem Ali and the Embassy of Japan in Jordan, the screening of the feature documentary film honoring the heroes of Japan’s tsunami tragedy (Pray for Japan) was held in the Royal Film Commission in Amman-Jordan on August 29th, 2012 in the presence of the film’s director Mr. Stu Levy,
The evening began with a speech by the Japanese ambassador to Jordan highlighting what happened in Japan in March 2011 and how the international community had consolidated around the Japanese people in a show of solidarity,
The film director also gave a speech talking about his experience when the earthquake hit while he was in Tokyo and his experience as volunteer at Ishinomaki city in Miyagi prefecture after the tsunami
The movie itself was not easy to watch, for the amount of the devastation shown in it, and I cried during the story of the boy who lost mother and little brother along with his grandparents in the tsunami .
Watching the Q&A session after the screening, showed that most of the attendees were also moved by what they saw and had favorable impressions of the movie and the fighting spirit of the Japanese people in face of adversity and their questions reflected that and their understanding of the victims’ plight.
At the end of Ramadan and in honor of Eid al-Fitr (Lesser Bairam). Most Iraqi families prepare sweets, and Klaicha (which is preferable) for consumption during Eid. Klaicha is kind of sweetened pastry that can be filled with dates or nuts.
The three days Eid activities begin for the Iraqi family at dawn of the first, through the Eid prayer at sunrise, Iraqi families have become accustomed to begin the first day by conducting an early visit to the cemetery, to put flowers on the graves of family members (This event is limited to adults only). Another important ritual of the Iraqi families, is the gathering of married siblings and their families at the father’s or eldest brother’s house in the first day, to exchange greetings and have lunch together.
The remaining days of the Eid are spent either by family visits with neighbors, relatives and friends. Some of Eid's time spend with kids, visiting games-area and parks available in the city, in Baghdad there’s Al-Zawraa park which includes a large green area, zoo and games for children, the children have fun and enjoy the holiday without feeling deprived.
The Islamic month of Ramadan has begun last Friday, during this month Muslims around the world fast (abstain from eating and drinking) every day from sunup till sundown. It is said that Ramadan days this year are the longest and hottest in 33 years with fasting period averaging 16 hours / day in the Middle East.
As you can imagine the effect on people working outside every day is brutal specially since they can’t drink water during the day.
【People working on rehabilitation work】
But our workers and engineers try to minimize the effects of heat on their work by dunking towels in the water and putting them on their heads, bringing dates and yogurt drink to work so they can break their fast when the time comes and won’t need to hurry home earlier than usual in order to be there before sundown.
【Dates and yogurt drink】
【Typical Iraqi family breaking fast (Iftar) spread】
We received the new teaching means whose design was developed by JEN with collaboration of the Ministry of Education, we intend to distribute them to students during this project, to promote hygiene awareness between students and encourage them to develop hygienic habits: The first is for primary school students has a calendar to remind them to brush their teeth every day, which can be checked by the teacher to encourage them to keep on brushing their teeth,
The second is a box to collect rubbish that the student generate during a lesson duration (pencil shavings, discarded tissue etc…) and encourages them to empty it in the waste basket when the lesson is finished, this is to discourage students from throwing these things on the floor and help them develop the habit of keeping the surroundings clean .
JEN is continuing in her commitment and efforts to encourage hygienic habits among students due to our belief that they are the seeds that can be spread and influence the whole community to lead a better, healthier life.
I was very glad to meet my colleagues from other countries and to exchange thoughts and ideas among staff. We had a three day training program for the development of supervisors, and it was a lovely environment as all of us talked straightforwardly and professionally about our past and current experiences. The meeting place was vary comfortable and my colleagues had a good sense of humor to ease the tension in the room when the atmosphere was very serious. I found that time management is taken very seriously in the Japanese way of living, and this was especially true in the workshop.
It was a good experience for me to talk about my culture to my Japanese colleagues, who were very interested to understand other cultures. I was really happy when they prepared Muslim food for me. The rice was delicious and I was able to improve my ability to eat with chopsticks during my stay.
I really admired Tokyo because it was the cleanest city I have ever been to. Also, the people there are very polite. I found people smiling in every shop I visited and they were trying to help me when they discovered that I cannot speak Japanese. The metro and train systems were perfect and I was able to plan my schedule precisely to the nearest two minutes.
In the last stage of school rehabilitation program
In the current project, which started in November 2011, JEN implements school rehabilitation programs for primary and secondary schools in Central and Northern Iraq through repair of latrines and wash spaces as well as classroom windows and electrical equipment in order to improve the study environment of students.
Through this rehabilitation program, students can stay in the safe classrooms without risk of injury and there woruld be no need to go back home during school hours to go to the toilet. This allows students to concentrate on their study in a more healthy and comfortable environment.
Right now, this project has been completed in 11 out of 19 schools.
A Primary School:- Water fountains: Before:
B Primary School:- Water fountains: At the finishing stages:
The Jordan sand art bottle was listed in the Guinness book of world records!
"Jordan entered the Guinness book of world records for the largest sand-filled bottle, commemorating the 200th anniversary of rediscovering Petra, which is situated 260 km south of Amman.", Jordan tourism board stated. The bottle was 3m high, weighted 60kg and was filled with 270kg of colored sand by 1000 participants.
The board displayed the bottle during its participation in ITB Berlin 2012. Petra, the Pink City, is a historical city carved of pink stone situated to the south of Jordan and was built by the Nabataeans in the 4th century B.C. as their capital.
On July 7th, 2007, Petra was chosen to be one of the seven world’s wonders.
International Cultural Festival in BabilPrefecture was took place!
On May ４, ２０１２, although there were security concern in Iraq, the International Culture Festival was held in Babil Prefecture. Lots of artists from around the world got together.
BabilInternational Culture Festival has been held over nine days on the theme of "global fusion of cultures and civilizations". Seminars to read poet and recital, music, theater, art exhibitions have been performed. On the final day, May １２, classical music by Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, Iraq music and Arab music have been performed.
This festival was scheduled to be held last year in fact. However, it was canceled by Iraqi government because that might lead us to raise the anger of Muslim political party in the Babilprefecture. In this year, we could finally achieve it.
Hygiene promotion workshop has been started since middle of this month. Elementary and secondary school teachers are the ones who attend this workshop at first. JEN makes a lecture about the importance of gargling, washing hands, and other daily practices which can prevent people from infection. JEN also teaches them proper ways to store foods and cook foods in order to avoid food poisoning, because the temperature in Iraq goes up as high as around 50°C in summer.
After teachers had participated this workshop, next they have to give a lesson in hygiene to their students. JEN is also observing this hygiene lesson given by the teachers and check that children could receive correct information about hygiene and contents of the teaching material were properly understood by them.
JEN is now working in 5 prefectures in Iraq on 2 major projects. One is school renovation project for elementary and secondary school and the other is hygiene promotion project.
In the hygiene promotion project, JEN helps people to understand what kind of action should they take in their daily life to prevent infection by emphasizing practices such as washing hands or brushing teeth. The materials used in hygiene promotion are designed by JEN with advice from the Ministry of Education in Iraq.
We have had very careful review of the contents, as well as repeated discussion with the Ministry of Education. At end of this March, we finally got an approval of the ministry to use this for the purpose of hygiene education. Because it is not allowed in Iraq to print educational material without their approval, this meant that we could now send copy to printing at last.
The new hygiene education workshops using this materials will be implemented from the middle of April at many schools.
Arab Summit will be held in Baghdad at the end of March. 22 member countries and regions of the Arab League participate in this conference. In this year's summit, they are going to talk about the unstable conditions in Syria and the democratization movement “Arab Spring”.
There were massive terror attacks across Iraq recently on 20th of this month. In response to this, security check has been extremely strict. In Baghdad, many roads were closed and mobility of people severely restricted. People are saying that all phone lines and also mobile phones might be stopped during the conference period.
We wish every place calmness and peace until the conference ends.
Many think of the Middle East as a land of scorching sun, where summer is the only season in ayear. In fact, winter comes to the Middle East too. This winter was particularly cold. In earlier this month, the cold wave hit the Middle East and snow covered all the region including Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
There was also more than 10cm of snow in here Amman, where JEN office is situated. Because it is very rare here to have so much snow, we saw many children, and even adults, excited to play snow fight or to make a snowman.
They say spring is short, but summer will come very soon.
Renovation of School Latrines and Water Supply Equipment in Progress
JEN is now working on renovation of latrirines and water supply equipments so that children in Iraq can have their school life in better hygienic condition. This is part of our school renovation and hygiene promotion project that had started in last November.
JEN completed renovation of five schools until today.
①A School
A washroom,before renovation
After renovation
②B school
A washroom, before renovation
After renovation
In Iraq,there still are many terrorist attacks and every day news is reported that innocent citizens were killed. JEN will continue the projects with utmost attention to the local security situation.
The soccer qualifying round for Olympic was held in Amman (Japan vs. Syria)
February 5, the London Olympics qualifying match was held in Amman, capital of Jordan. It was the match between Japan national football team U-23 and the representative of Syria.
The game, lots of Japanese who are living in Jordan was rushed to the support. The team Japan, unfortunately, lost 2-1 to Syria because of the second point by Syria just before the end of the game. The sprit of the team Syria by the players was very impressive.
The stadium was mobilized by a lot of security guards concerning about the unstable situation in Syria. However, the game ended safely without any confusion.
This victory of Syria would be good news for Syria in which dark topics have continued for a long time.
JEN office in Jordan has been working to repair schools in Iraq and to promote sanitary business. We are also currently collecting information about the situation in Syria.
At the beginning of last month, JEN staffs took part in the conference held by Iraq Department of Education.
The department is promoting ‘improvement of educational environment’ and ‘health maintenance of children’.
Deputy Minister of Department of Education also participated in the conference and we discussed educational issues in Iraq.
At the awards ceremony for the organization which is aiming at improving the school education, JEN is commended by Department of Education for the school repairing project and the health promoting project, which have been held since 2003.
It is our pleasure that the projects in Iraq are evaluated. We’ll continuously do our best for supporting Iraq.
Mr. Bassim Yaqoub,who is one of the staff working at the office as a program officer in Bagdad, is going to participate in the meeting held in Tokyo from next week.
He plans to go to Japan via Jordan. At the beginning of this week, he had arrived here, Amman.
This is first time for him to visit Japan and take such a long journey with transfer. So he checked carefully how to spend his time at the airport and the way of transfer.
And he visit the countries out of Middle East for the first time, so we are looking forward to hearing his impression of Japan.
We work in Amman and we can rarely meet the staffs in Bagdad because Bagdad is far from here. So we took commemorative pictures!
The news said that U.S. forces except Security Assistance Force in Iraqhad withdrew on 18th December 2011.President Obama declared end of Iraq war which had continued for nine years.
However, has war in Iraq really finished?
I asked to a Iraqi staff ‘How do you think about Obama’s announcement?’ He said ‘Mr. Obama is a president of America, isn’t he? The declaration is not for people in Iraq but for people in citizens. These days, new wars occur in Iraq. The confrontations among religions and politics still exist. We have no idea when we can settle them.’
It is said that the public security and order in Iraq have been getting better. But there are news of terrorism on the TV every day and Iraq citizens are still fighting against the fear.
JEN keep supporting Iraq until people in Iraq can live safely with true peace.
Today, we would like to introduce JEN Baghdad office.
There were 6 staff working at JEN Baghdad office.
JEN was continuing the projects in Iraq corporated by Iraqi staff, although it is difficult for Japanese staff to stay there due to unsafe domestic situation in Iraq.
In the Middle East, football is very popular and one of the national sport. You can see the popularity from matches that the Japanese national soccer team has been playing against the countries in the Olympic preliminaries or World Cup.
In the third qualifying round for the Asia Cup of World Cup, both Jordan and Iraq have fought in the A group (Japan was in C group).
On the11st of this month which was the day of Jordan versus Singapore, when walked out on the streets of Amman, everyone was staring the game everywhere. In the restaurant, we couldn’t even place an order because everyone concentrated on the game… Jordan won 2-0 with Singapore.
In that night, people was jubilant with raising the flag in the city.
Jordan against Iraq was conducted on 15th and Iraq won, however, it was announced that both teams proceed to the final qualifying round for the World Cup.
In the final qualifying round, there is a possibility that both Jordan and Iraq may play against Japan depending on the combination. We can't keep our eyes off from the soccer in the Middle East.
(Photo: Young people who support with face paint of the flag Jordan)
===== Notice ======== Foreign Minister's Commendation was awarded in the FY 2011. We greatly appreciate all of your support on JEN’s activities. For more information, click here
The school repair and hygiene promotion project targeting 19 schools in five prefectures in Iraq began in last December and completed at the end of October. Now, a new project has been launched in November.
JEN will continuously work on the projects to repair water facilities and toilets and the hygiene promotion projects at schools in Iraq.
The new project to repair school and to promote better hygiene will cover 7 prefectures. New prefectures are Sahara Din and Washitto (colored in purple) in addition to the five prefectures (colored in green) in which the project has been launched already, Baghdad, Diarra, Anbar, Kirkuk and Babiru. The director of Baghdad office and the overseas division director who is visiting Jordan are talking about how to proceed the new project.
Iraqi TV Station Reported Severe Reality of School
We got an “urgent” mail from a staff member of Bagdad office last week.
He said that AL-Sharqia TV, an Iraqi TV station, broadcast severe reality of schools in Kirkuk.
What I saw in the video was that a school was surrounded by garbage as if it were a garbage site and that students were studying in a classroom without windows due to lack of budget for purchasing glasses.
Some children cried and said, “I want the school clean.”
JEN is trying to renovate school in five districts. However, we recognized that there are many more schools in need of support.
JEN conducted interviews at a junior high school, which JEN supported renovation. We got voices from the school:
Principal Moqdad Hamdy “I’m really glad that the renovation has finished before the new school year. Under the circumstance of clean classrooms and washrooms, students will be able to concentrate on their study. We learned the importance of cleaning at the hygiene workshop and we will try to keep the school clean.”
Mohamad Fadhel, 14, 2nd grade “I want to be a doctor. After the school became clean, I like school more than before. Now that we can use tap water, we don’t have difficulty with drinking water at school anymore.”
A coordination meeting was held at Amman in early October. NGOs and international organizations which have conducted support activities in Iraq. JEN also joined the meeting.
Topic of the conference is about the laws relating to NGO which has been recently revised. In Iraq, the follow-up is required every time because the NGO law has been changed every few years.
A person from the Iraqi government who is in charge of NGO also explained the new law this time. The meeting is in English, however, sometimes in Arabic when the debate gets heated.
What the person from Iraqi government emphasized was that “civil society” like NGO is new for Iraq, hence we must proceed little by little.
Recovering security in Iraq, in the meeting, we could feel the attitude which aims at building relationship properly between the Iraqi government and NGO.
When it comes to the Middle East, you might think that it is far away from Japan. But in reality, people in Jordan, where JEN office is located, are very friendly. I can feel that they have warm feelings for Japan in my daily life.
For example, at a restaurant or a supermarket, once they know I am Japanese, they talk to me concerning how is Japan doing after the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake in Tohoku, which was largely reported here in Jordan. They also encourage me saying that Japan will surely recover.
The other day, a charity concert was held for supporting Tohoku recovery at Amman, the capital of Jordan. Many people came to the site.
Many people in Jordan in the Middle East, wish Japan’s recovery even though it is far from Japan.
10 years from September 11 attacks: Viewpoints from Iraq
I wondered what Iraqi people thought when the September 11 attacks occurred in 2001 and how they feel now. I asked the Head of Office in Bagdad about it. The following is what he said all about the attacks.
I was shocked at the screen images in news programs on September 11, 2001, because the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex was being attacked. It was one of the most important buildings in the United States, the biggest power in the world,
Iraqi people had never imagined that the terrorist attack would later cause the Iraqi war in our country. We thought the attack had nothing to do with us, because it was the matter between the United States and terrorists.
We didn’t understand the insistence from the United States. The Iraqi government disliked terrorist organizations.
The Iraqi war started in 2003 and the US army and terrorists fought here in Iraq. Many Iraqi citizens saw their country being devastated. Especially Bagdad was ruined.
We insist that the collapsed two buildings may be reconstructed in a year but it would take several years for demolished Iraq, one country to recover.
Now, many conflicts between religions or ethnic groups are occurring in Iraq. If the situation brought by the devastation and poverty lasts long, the country would be apart.
"The world's oldest toilet" The birthplace of the flush toilet was Iraq! ?
JEN is currently working on a project to repair schools and a hygiene promotion project for 21 schools in five prefectures in Iraq. We received photos from Baghdad every week, photos about running water and repaired clean toilets which were dirty or broken before.
As you can see from the photo, toilet being used at an elementary school in Iraq is very similar to the Japanese style toilet. However, the squat direction is reverse to the Japanese one.
Since we’re working on repairing toilets, we found an interesting story about toilet circumstances in Iraq. It is said that there is the world's oldest toilet in Iraq.
The world's oldest toilet was discovered in the ruins of Tell Asmar Eshuan'na (60km northeast of Baghdad, Diarra prefecture) which flourished as the city of Akkad dynasty around 2200 BC.
This toilet about 4000 years ago, toilet seats were piled up as U-shaped with brick. It is said that they have already been able to sit. It is further assumed that pipe work and sewer pipes were sanitary and equipped as modern system. Sewage was surprisingly flush lavatory which flowing into a tributary of the river Tigris. This flush lavatory was said to be used not only in the palace but also in the general home.
From the above, it seems that Iraq is considered the birthplace of flush lavatory.
JEN wants to equip sanitary toilets which will not lose much to the toilet of 4000 years ago.
We would like to introduce Kirkuk, which is one of the places JEN is working.
Kirkuk is located at 230 km to the north of Baghdad, three hours by car. The population is about 600,000. Various ethnic groups, Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen, Assyrian, etc. (Christians) are living. Also, it has been known as the location of the largest oil fields in Iraq. The political struggle is not extinct due to the entanglement of ethnic complexity and oil interests.
Also here in Kirkuk, JEN has conducted projects to repair schools and sanitary workshops for infectious disease prophylaxis which will provide hygienic toilets and water to the children.
Mr. Kokayan Nadun, who is a principal of Ibn Gevaert elementary school which JEN finished the repair, told that “We are very excited that the toilets and water at school have been repaired and now clean. Kirkuk is composed of various ethnic Kurdish, Arab, and Turkmen. And if the support focused on one nation, there is a risk of conflict. Therefore, I appreciate that JEN has supported us regardless of ethnicity. And I’m dearly waiting for the day when our children can study side by side in one classroom”.
In Kirkuk, each ethnic group, Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen, has done the education in their own language (Arabic, Kurdish, Turkmen). That is why children are currently studying divided into ethnic groups.
Kirkuk is referred to as "a microcosm of Iraq" because of the complex ethnic composition and religious circumstances. We just hope that children can study together, regardless of the ethnic groups, in the near future.
Children of Kirkuk: practicing of tooth brushing at school
In the heat of the strong sunlight here in Amman, days with over 30 degree have continued. We received a letter which told us the hotness summer in Iraq from the Office director in Baghdad who had repeatedly said "Amman is cool and easy to spend" during the stay in Amman.
On the way back to Baghdad from Amman, I sat in the car for 10 hours and was looking at the desert which spread out of the window. Except there was a check point of the army sometimes, highway was very open. However, traffic congestion was bad once entered the city of Baghdad. It took two hours to reach the destination.
When arrived at Baghdad, relieve didn’t last long. Intense heat has been hit immediately. Summer in Baghdad is very hot. The temperatures can be close to 50 degrees. In this heat environment, air conditioning is essential. However, we cannot rely on public electricity because the power outage immediately.
For this reasons, most home put a generator at home. However, with only the generator at home, air conditioners do not work. At night, you have to sleep only with window from fan in a sweat.
How Iraq people spend this hottest season? They go to air-conditioned rest area, restaurant and markets to outpace the heat somehow.
At evening, people gather at rest area, a large fan working.
I arrived in Amman, Jordan on July 10. I have joined the Iraq team as an assistant of accounting and general affairs.
Six years have passed since I visited Jordan when I was a student. The large shopping malls and many cars in the city make me surprised at the progress.
I have been still struggling to read Arabic numbers (numbers India), but I will get used to the job here as soon as possible and I really want to work for the business to support Iraq. Thank you.
(Mochida, Assistant of Department of Accounting and General Affairs)
This time, I would like to introduce Anbar, one of the states where our project sites are located.
Anbar, located in western Iraq, is the largest state in the country, covering 32% of the national territory. It shares borders with Jordan, and has cities such as Ramadi, Anah and Fallujah.
The word “anbar” originally meant “warehouse” in Arabic. Around the third century, Christian Arabs who lived in southern Iraq, sometimes called Mutherids, used this area for storing military items and food. Such history gave the state its current name.
For the Sassanid Empire (3rd-7th centuries), Anbar was an important location to prevent attacks from the Roman Empire. The capital of Abbas Caliphate (8th-13th centuries) was actually located in Anbar, until Al-Mansur, the 2nd Caliph, moved it to Baghdad in the mid-8th century. Anbar lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates River, which flows into the Persian Sea.
Countless people went through the state, and in the course of such history, many temples and palaces were built. You can see remnants of the ancient times from the historic ruins.
Few days ago, we visited some schools in Iraq to distribute the sanitation kits. Teachers and students welcome us with banners saying ‘We love Japan, and We share your sorrow’ ‘We support you, as you always support us’ ‘Help our Japanese friend’.
Here are some voices from schools in Iraq. ・ Amany Akram (fourth grade) I like people in Japan. They support our school. I’m really sad to hear the news of earthquake in Japan.
・Salwa Ma’an (fourth grade) Japanese are very good people. I like them very much.
・ Bashar Abdul-Rahman (sixth grade) I saw the news and wanted to do something for Japan. So I made a donation with my friends. I know that our contribution is not enough, however our mind exist with people in Japan.
・Ms. Suha Khalid (teacher) When the natural disasters happened in other countries, I could see them calmly. But this time, I am so shocked when I heard the news of Japan. Japan is a peaceful country and has been doing technical support and humanitarian aid to many other countries. The action of JEN is one of those things, I think.
We were so encouraged on our way back from schools and we thought that we need to keep doing our best for supporting people in Iraq. In the near future, we hope that the news of revival of Japan will reach Iraqi who were cheering us, people in Japan, with banners today.
Al Shorjeh Market is well known as the oldest market in Baghdad. Its history can be traced back to the late Abbas Caliphate in the 13th century.
This market was originally called Rayiaheen (meaning “perfumer”) Market. The name changed to Attareen (“spice merchant”) Market, then to Al Shorjeh Market, as it is called today. The origin of the current name has various theories. Some say that it comes from the Arab word for “saltwater well” or “sesame oil”, while others say it comes from the Turkish words for “small river of saltwater”.
Anyway, the market is an important place for the people of Baghdad. They come here to buy all kinds of candles and spices for big events, such as Ramadan (the fasting month) or Eid, which is a grand festival celebrating the end of Ramadan.
There are more than nineteen alleys inside Al Shorjeh Market. Many shops are lined in the alleys, selling goods such as soap or stationaries―you can buy about anything. There are also thirteen accommodations and four mosques, as well as two traditional coffee houses, one of where singers of classical Arabian music (maqam) gather.
Sadly, a part of Al Shorjeh Market’s buildings have been destroyed by bombing and old age. Such buildings are gradually being rebuilt into new ones, which are changing the atmosphere of the traditional market.
The oldest and the most famous street in Bagdag, whose whole town constitutes one culture beyond the era, is Al-Mutanaby street.
This street dates back to the Al-Saray market, which was the paper manufacturing market in Isramic dynastic period (750-1285, 1261-1519AD)originated with the Abbasid family.
You can enjoy various cultures once you step in this street. They sell only books there and on every Friday, book lovers come here from Bagdad city and neighboring cities.
This street is 700 meters long and located between western Tigris River, which is in the central Bagdad, and Al-Rashid street.
People friendly call this street in many nicknames changing with the times.
In Isramic dynastic era it was called Darob Zahhi, in Ottoman empire era it was named Al-Khamniya, and under the occupation of British Empire in the 1920s the name was changed to Al-Saray street.
It also came to be called vaguely ’Palace street’ because there was the British military headquarter near here.
In 1936, when the Faisal I, the emperor of Iraq, requested to establish a committee which discuss the name of this street and open space, they named it Al-Mutanaby after the Arabic famous poet.
After Iraq war finished in 2003, various fields of books including the religion, the social, the political problem and also the political criticism, which was treated secretly before the end of Iraq war, began to be sold openly and freely in the Al-Matanaby street.
In the morning, "Pacha" is one of the popular breakfast which people in Baghdad eat especially in the cold morning!
Pacha is a food which well cook the cow’s head meat with bones and the internal organs. We eat the Pacha over on top of the bread which is dipped in soup called tissue leave. According to your taste, it is also delicious to top with pickles, lemon juice and onion!
Some people say that they prefer to use sheep’s head or tongue instead of beef. It easier to eat than beef with a bone, but it might be easy to digest reason.
We call "Pachechi" who sell the Pacha. Pachechi buy Pacha’s ingredients, beef and mutton, from butcher. Then, they begin the work called “Samotto” which is cleaning up the meat seared with fire for a prolonged time. Once the meat is clean, just cook Pacha and sell them!
"Pacha" is thought as food which is rich in vitamins and minerals needed by our body. Therefore, it has become one of the most popular breakfast for people who require physical strength to work in particular.
My name is Mays and I am a new member of JEN Iraq team.
I was born in Bagdad in 1982 with my father was a diplomat and my mother was a lawyer.
I lived close to different cultures because we moved from place to place due to my father’s job.
After I graduated from the pharmaceutical department of Bagdad University, I got a job of medicines exportation and had relation to not only hospitals but also Ministry of Health in Iraq.
After that, I thought I would like to do what helps people further and I made my new start as a member of JEN today.
I’m going to cultivate a better understanding of JEN from now on since it’s the first day for me, but what I can say at this moment is that it is able to carry out my work at JEN delightfully with my friendly colleagues.
Thank you very much for your kind attention for my introduction.
Here in Amman, the wedding season is from early summer to early autumn. If you hear cars honking loudly in the street, that’s likely to be a sign that a wedding is taking place. During the wedding season, we could hear this sign of celebration almost every day.
At a hotel, we came across couples giving a mass wedding. The ceremony is full of life – the bride and groom enter the hall while a band plays music, and the guests dance and parade around them. The music and dancing go on till late in the night.
(Please also check our entry in October 2004 describing wedding customs in Baghdad:).
Pages are bound between covers made of carved wood. Written on one side is a line from the Quran, and on the other side are words of invitation.
This is an invitation card for a wedding ceremony. Pretty, isn’t it?
Below is the meaning of the words of the Quran quoted in this invitation. (http://quran.com/2/255)
255. Allah - there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer of [all] existence. Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them, and they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills. His Kursi extends over the heavens and the earth, and their preservation tires Him not. And He is the Most High, the Most Great.
The reason is that the adhan is centralized in Amman city. Two large mosques take turns reading the adhan (though it is not certain whether they switch every week or every month), which the other mosques receive and deliver in their neighborhoods. On the other hand, outside of Amman city, each mosque reads the adhan on its own.
I heard there aren’t many places that use the centralized system like in Amman. In Iraq and Saudi Arabia (the location of Mecca), the mosques recite the adhan by themselves.
By the way, I heard that in winter, there are times when you can hear coughs and sneezes during the adhan. Only a live program would allow that!
I’ve begun explaining about the adhan in January, and this time is the final entry.
I’ve already told you that there are five prayers a day, but there are six times you hear the adhan. Don’t you think it’s a little strange?
Actually, the first and second times are announced with 10 to 15 minutes in between, before the prayer at the beginning of the day. The first time of prayer is just after daybreak, so it is still dark. Therefore, the first adhan serves as an alarm clock, and the second one tells you the time of prayer.
It makes me smile when I imagine that it reflects the people’s thoughts that however prayers are important, it’s hard to wake up in the morning!
As you might know, Muslims give prayers five times a day (please check our blog entry in October 8th, 2009 which explains the timings). Announcements, called adhan, are called out from each mosque to tell people the time of prayers. The adhan is not recorded, but a person recites it every time.
Words of the adhan are the same in every country and region, but there are differences in how they are delivered. Here in Amman, you can hear the calls of adhan from mosques here and there at exactly the same time. There is also a radio program which announces the timing of prayers, and it starts at exactly the same time as well.
On the other hand, outside of Amman City, the timings of the voices are slightly different. There are some mismatches, as if when listening to a troll. Can you tell why?
I’d like to explain the reason for that in the next report. Don’t miss it !
“We have our teeth treated when we get cavities; we drink medicine when we get sick.” We often hear comments like this when we interview teachers, parents and children.
Even when children enjoy studying in a safe school, it would be difficult for them to concentrate in class if they have a sore tooth or continuous diarrhea.
JEN hopes to assist improving the sanitary conditions of entire communities through teaching children methods of healthcare.
In 2010, our target locations were Baghdad city, Anbar (which neighbors Baghdad), and Babil.We installed and repaired toilets and water facilities, and also held a workshop on sanitary reform. In the workshop targeting elementary school teachers, held in October and November, thoughts, requests and suggestions were actively shared among the participants and also JEN staff. During this workshop, we heard many comments that the teachers wished to hold such workshops on a broader basis, meaning that they were eager to share the experience with other schools, parents of their students and the whole community as well.
We also received suggestions on the teaching material from the teachers’ point of view. It is very important for us to look back on our activities, so that in the near future, the teachers themselves would be able to conduct health education in a more effective way.
In December, JEN expanded the area of activity to Kirkuk and Diyala. We have now taken on school renovation and hygiene education in five provinces in central and northern Iraq. We have been able to learn many lessons from our activities in 2010, and are looking forward to making use of the experience in our new projects.
Thanks to the cooperation of all of the supporters, UN-OCHA and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, school reconstruction and hygiene promotion project had been completed in the end of October and November respectively. We would like to say thank you again.
The new project has been started from December 1st. On this project, two prefectures are newly added as our action field. They are Diyala prefecture (bounded on the northeast of the capital Baghdad) and Kirkuk prefecture (located on the north side from Baghdad). Now our project is taken place in five prefectures; Baghdad, Babil, Anbar and the above-mentioned two prefectures.
These newly added two prefectures are not under good international support due to the security problem. It is said that many school buildings were destructed by fierce battle during the year 2006 ~ 2007 in Diyala. In other words, it is said as the hardest prefecture for the citizens to enjoy the basic social services.
In Kirkuk prefecture where the refugees, returners and people in several ethnic groups as Arab, Kurd and Turkmen live together, the international support is still not enough for their needs. In 2007 as the terrible epidemic year of cholera in Iraq, the patients in this prefecture accounted 60% of the whole. We are apprehensive that the morbidity rate will get higher in case of re-epidemic as it is one of the most densely populated prefecture in Iraq.
Disease transmitted by water such as cholera can be adequately prevented by good hygienic condition. JEN is going to take actions for hygienic enlightening projects started with the reconstruction of broken water and other hygienic equipment.
We hold the hygiene promotion workshop at 25 targeted schools from the beginning of October.
It was scheduled for two days at each school, targeted mainly for the teachers. On the first day, we had a lecture and on the second day, we had a review and also the guide of actual teaching method for children.
It might be a bit busy for the teachers to participate in the interval of their own classes. It was greatly pleased for us JEN members to hear a teacher say casually to a latecomer, “I heard a very useful lecture during your absence!” We realized that our long processed hygiene promotion project was received as a help for them.
We distributed the teaching materials and hygienic kits at this workshop, of which introduced several time on this blog. For checking detailed content of teaching materials, please refer to following blog.
Hajj starts on the 8th day in December, the month for pilgrimage on Islamic calendar. Muslims sacrifice animals on 10th day.
It’s regulated to offer a sheep per a pilgrim or a cow / a camel per seven pilgrims. These animals should not have any disease: they should not be blind even in one eye, should not have difficulty in walking with leg disease, and should not be emaciated for only skin and bones. Its age is also limited as over 5 years old for a camel, over 2 years old for a cow, and over 6 months for a sheep. Traditionally, pilgrims had been butchering the animals by themselves or observing others do butchering. In these latter days they don’t have even to observe by paying for an agency. This change has some reasons, but one of these seems to be a hygienic problem by facing a left meat on street.
Then, to where do this butchered meat go? To be eaten by pilgrims? To be thrown away? No way, it is to be packed and delivered to the needy all over the world.
December 10th on Islamic calendar falls the first day of Eid holiday (=the festival of sacrifice called Eid ul Adha). All of the Muslims who are not on Hajj also sacrifice to celebrate this holiday.
Hajj (the large pilgrimage to Mecca, for detail please refer to the article updated on July 16th, 2009 ) season will be started soon. Before this pilgrimage, male pilgrim should have his head shaved and should wear two pieces of white cloth called ihram. All kinds of plain white cloths without any pattern and any embroidery can be used as ihram. Even a belt to fasten the cloth on waist also hasno seam. It has only a pocket to keep the valuables. On the other hand, there’s no restriction on female’s cloths. She should have her just a little of hair tips cut.
No one can reach to Mecca and its neighboring area without ihram. Then, when do male pilgrims from all over the world change to the special cloths?
If he tries to reach by road, he can use one of five changing rooms called Miqat, located at 11 ~ 187 km away from Mecca.
If he reaches by air, he can change his cloths in a restroom on airplane before crossing the border. Anyway, here’s a problem that they have limited number of restrooms for all of passengers. There is always a long line at restrooms. I have heard about an unlucky man at the tail of the procession missed to change before crossing the border. Some people finish the change at departing airport to avoid this kind of risk.
Here Anbar prefecture where we have river Euphrates, is located in the west from the capital Bagdad, bordered on Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. People here still have tribal society and the number of main tribes exceeds 50. I would like to introduce Anbar to you with new pictures if possible, but unfortunately most of the landmarks are tumbled down.
I have been working for JEN as an engineer in Anbar since December, 2009. Before that, I had been belonged to a humanitarian supporting organization in Gulf States to engage in schools and wells construction/reconstruction projects for Southeast Asian people who needs to be supported. I feel happy to work for others in the field of humanitarian support, putting my specialty to account.
At last, do you know how we Iraqis feel for Japanese people? If you ask to 10 Iraqis, all of them will say as ‘diligent, good natured and always with smile’. (Of course I’m one of them who answers so!)
Some of you who read the article for sweet tooth Jordan, updated in the beginning of July, might be interested in daily meals in Jordan. Today I’m going to introduce about Jordanian breakfast.
This picture shows a popular style of breakfast. Clockwise from the top, Khobs=pita bread:
It’s sometime pronounced like ‘Hobs’ in other countries, but it seems ‘Khobs’ is more similar to Arabian pronunciation.
Farafel:Fried bean paste with spice
Foul:Boiled and mashed broad bean
Hommos:Garbanzo bean paste, also called as ‘Hummus’
Arabian Salad:Salad
You can buy ‘khobs’ with a coin everywhere. It’s sold by the kilogram (roughly 12 ~ 13 pieces), not by loose as on picture. 1kg of Khobs costs only about USD 0.35. (Ex rate as of 19th February 2011)
Various makers have their original canned hommos. It will taste soft as in restaurants if you mix it with olive oil, mustard, ketchup and water.
Some of you who read the article about " sweet tooth Jordan ", might be interested in daily meals in Jordan. Today let me introduce Jordanian breakfast.
The picture shows a popular style of breakfast. Clockwise from the top,
*Khobs=pita bread: It’s sometime pronounced like ‘Hobs’ in other countries, but it seems ‘Khobs’ is more similar to Arabian pronunciation. *Farafel: Fried bean paste with spice *Foul: Boiled and mashed broad bean *Hommos: Garbanzo bean paste, also called as ‘Hummus’ *Arabian Salad: Salad
You can buy ‘khobs’ with a coin everywhere. It’s sold by the kg (roughly 12 -13 pieces), not by loose as on picture. 1kg of Khobs costs only about USD 0.35*.
Various makers have their original canned Hommos. It will taste soft as in restaurants if you mix it with olive oil, mustard, ketchup and water.
It has passed for two weeks since the second term started in Japan. Here in Iraq, the students have two more weeks to enjoy their summer vacation. (Anyway it seems to last boiling hot days over 40℃ in Baghdad.)
Now JEN project is in the last-minute preparation stage for the Hygiene Promotion Project. (For detail please refer to the article written on February 4th and July 22nd.)
Already purchased the cleaning equipment, hygiene kits such as soaps and tooth brushes, our last work is only to prepare the teaching material. It will be organized the content, ordered some illustrations, and will get the approval of the Ministry of Education in Iraq before printing. We have been discussed in detail like the best size of the text would be…, the quality of papers would be…it would be better to select strong and lustrous paper for covers… and so on. Completed texts will be arrived from printer in the end of summer vacation.
This project is highly supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affair (UN-OCHA) and all of the supporters.
It is in September and has been for two weeks since the second term at school started in Japan. Here in Iraq, the students have two more weeks to enjoy their summer vacation. (Anyway it seems to last boiling hot days over 40℃ in Baghdad.)
Today, JEN's project is in the final preparation stage for the Hygiene Promotion Project. (For further detail, please refer to the article on 4th February and 22nd July.)
Purchase of the cleaning equipment is done such as hygiene kits such as soaps and tooth brushes. Our last work is to finalize the teaching material. The content, some illustrations to be inserted in order, and will get the approval from the Ministry of Education in Iraq before sending over for printing process.
We have been discussing detail precisely, like the best size of the text would be…, the quality of papers would be…it would be better to select strong and lustrous paper for covers… and so on. Completed texts will be arrived from the printer in the end of summer vacation.
Now we are in September basis Islamic calendar, a Ramadan term of this year. (As for Ramadan, please refer to the articles updated on September 2008 or October 2007.) Muslims fasts during daytime, from sunrise to sunset in a day.
This is a kind of confectionery called Klaicha, plenty made before Ramadan, and to be eaten well during Ramadan. This is made of the paste rolled with dates (fruit of date palm, shown in black part on picture), and later cut into pieces. Before the recipe was simplified, it had been made at a price. It had been rounded piece by piece not to show stuffed dates, coated its surface with yolk and then baked. It was a kind of work taken whole day. In Jordan and Palestine, sesame is occasionally stuffed instead of dates as it’s also familiar to them.
In Iraq, cutting down a palm tree is said to let a life disappear. During 2003 invasion of Iraq, a large number of palm trees were cut down to clear all the things shut out visibility. Some of Iraqi people think this is why they had heavy mortality.
Now we are in September based on Islamic calendar, fasting season of the year. (More information about fasting season or "Ramadan", please refer to the articles updated on September 2008 or October 2007.)
This is a kind of confectionery called "Klaicha", plenty made before Ramadan, and to be eaten well during Ramadan. This is made of the paste rolled with dates (fruit of date palm, shown in black part on picture), and later cut into pieces. Before the recipe was simplified, it had been made at a price. It had been rounded piece by piece not to show stuffed dates, coated its surface with yolk and then baked. It was a kind of work taken whole day. In Jordan and Palestine, sesame is occasionally stuffed instead of dates as it’s also familiar to them. In Iraq, cutting down a palm tree is said to let a life disappear. During 2003 invasion in Iraq, a large number of palm trees were cut down in order to visualize things are cleared. Some of Iraqi people think this is why they had heavy mortality.
What Can We Do With Only *\ 2,000 on Repairing Work?
In various activities of JEN we have been introduced to you until now, I’m going to let you know today a part of what we can do with definite budget.
For example, we have watering equipment like this.
Water pipe underruns as below picture.
It has 6 meters from water main to reach the tap, and we can replace 1/3 of it to new one with \2,000.
If we have \2,000, we can also repaint two doors, or we can place two of new fluorescent lights.
If we would like to repair a rest room, we can re-cover the floor with mosaic tile or we can place a hose and a tap as you can see on the left side on below picture.
The article on hygiene promotion project is appeared on autumn issue of JEN news letter.
What Can We Do with your Contribution? - Repairing Work in Iraq.
Let me introduce to you, what we can do with definite budget.
For example, we have watering equipment like this.
Water pipe underruns as below picture
.
It has 6 meters from water main source to reach the tap, and we can replace 1/3 of it to new one with JPY2,000(*).
If we have JPY2,000, we can also repaint two doors, or place two of new fluorescent lights.
Moreover, to repair a rest room, we can re-cover the floor with mosaic tile or we can place "a hose and a tap" as you can see on the left side on below picture.
The article on hygiene promotion project is appeared on autumn issue of JEN news letter .
We will have Bon Festival, a Buddhist function in mid August in Japan. Most people would visit their ancestor's grave. Anyway, it should not be well known that people in Iraq also have custom to visit family grave.
They visit two times a year; the first day after Ramadan (=called 'Eid', a festival to celebrate the end of Ramadan), and the first day of Hajj (= Pilgrimage to mecca). Christian era counts 365 days for a year, but Islamic era (=Hijrah) counts 354 days for a year. Basis Christian era, we feel like the first day of Eid and Hajj changes every year. For this year, as Ramadan period was 30 days from August 11th 2010 A.D, Eid started from September 10th, and Hajj was from November 16th.
They don't have custom to put flowers and other offerings on graves just like Japanese people do. Instead a passage from Koran should be read out by a member of family, or sometime by Mullah, a man well familiarized with Islamic commandment and doctrine, or by a beggar.
Incidentally, remains are wrapped with white cotton cloth after being cleansed. Each remains are committed to the earth, lied in the direction their heads toward Mecca. For Shia Muslims, being buried in Najaf prefecture is highly boasted as they have first Imam (=leader) of Shia Ali's grave there.
Now JEN's project is under way side by side with Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with UN-OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs). During the 7 months from April to the end of October this year, school reconstruction and hygiene promotion project are taken place in elementary schools and junior highs schools in Baghdad.
As of July 15th, 7 school buildings are completed reconstruction. We are planning to prepare the cleaning equipment, hygiene kits (such as toothbrush and soap) and the teaching materials which will be used at our hygiene workshop. The hygiene workshop will be started once the new term started.
Hygiene workshop has two purposes to prevent children from infectious disease transmitted by water such as cholera, and to help children’s understanding the importance to keep clean by cleaning their school. This project also helps to maintain the improved school environment by school reconstruction project. The cleaning equipments and hygiene kits will be handed to children so that they can practice studied hygienic knowledge at once.
Here in Jordan, we rarely have spicy hot foods. Instead what we see everywhere in the town is sweet food.
If you order a cup of tea here, it will be served with plenty of sugar. So sweet lemonade with mint is no surprise for the people here, even if it gives me a little regret ordering it to have a refreshing taste.
At first I arrived in Jordan for work, I thought it was just by coincidence to have so sweet foods. Now as I know how sweet tooth the people here, I learned to order a soft drink without sugar and adjust the taste by myself to avoid too sweet drinks.
It is not only drinks that is sweet, but also the sweets. They are the great enemy for dieters as it also contains plenty of oil. In a Korean restaurant, you will be served Jordan tasted sweet barbecued beef. In an Italian restaurant, you might be served sweet coleslaw salad for relish.
Thanks to the cooperation of all our supporters and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, four school buildings are being newly reconstructed in our school reconstruction and hygiene promotion projects. Three out of four schools are already in progress, but the remaining one is yet to be touched. Why would that be?
The annual baccalaureate exam for Iraqi students is held in June. Sixth graders take this exam to graduate, seniors in intermediate schools (for 3 years from age 12) and secondary schools (3 years from age 15) to graduate and enter higher level schools. Exams are taken one subject at a time every two days, and in total it takes two weeks to complete. The examination fee is free. The cut-off line is 50% correct answers to pass this exam. If students fail to pass, they need to retake the exam next year. Apparently, retaking the exam places you in further disadvantage since each retake deduces one point from your total score. Students who are retaking the exam for the first time are allowed to repeat their senior year to prepare for it, but they must prepare for the second retake and then on by themselves.
Grade dictates students’ options for high school. Without good grades, it becomes difficult for seniors in intermediate school to go on to secondary schools. In this case, they could go into industrial, commercial, or technical high schools. If you are a senior in secondary school, grades will affect your chances to become accepted to prestigeous national universities with excellent professors and free tuition.
Since the one remaining school was being used as a baccalaureate exam site, we were not able to commence our project there.
As I have already introduced a lot about ‘Garment’, today I’m going to introduce about ‘food’.
Here in Amman, the majority of citizens are Muslims. As it’s said that Muslims don’t take pork meat, what we see at a meat section of supermarkets are only chicken, beef and lamb meat. We never see pork in supermarkets. You may have a question whether expatriates are unable to have pork until their home-leave, doubt so. There’s a way for non Muslims. In Amman, there is specialized ‘pork meat shops’ (not just ‘meat shop’) ran by Non Muslims.
The shop I have visited sells processed and frozen pork meat. Even frozen whole pork carcasses is available! 200g of frozen pork shoulder cost me 2 Jordanian dinars (= USD 2.82, currency pegged since 1995), far more expensive than other kind of meat I usually take. Although, my first bite of pork meat in a while tasted so special.
“Before the toilets were reconstructed, many students left the school early to go to the bathroom. This is because our toilets were absolutely unusable. Now, we not only have great toilets but also electric fans and electricity. Thanks to these improvements, students are more motivated, and fewer students are late to school. I am also aware that we are trying to maintain the toilets in their functional state.”
This is a comment that we received from Mr. Abd, who teaches Arabic to sixth graders, at the school that was reconstructed through the combined effort of all of our supporters and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is unthinkable in Japan that students go home to use the toilet. Here in Iraq, however, it is accepted as nothing unusual. To make matters worse, students do not come back to school once they return to their homes because they live quite far.
We will continue our work to enable students to properly learn in school as soon as possible.
Last time, I introduced you to Iraqi men’s headwear called kafiyyeh. This time, I would like to talk about the Muslim women’s headwear.
You might easily imagine what they look like, but people may imagine them differently. One might imagine it to be a piece of black cloth that covers from head to toe except for the eyes, while another may imagine it to be a piece of white cloth that covers from head to back.
Here in Jordan, where we have the JEN office, we see women in different head wears, but the most popular style is the one that covers from head to neck. There are many different color variations among these cloths, and some of them are embroidered. There are many ways to wear it, too, but today I will introduce you the simplest way.
1)Bind your hair up with a wide hair band. Please be careful not to show your ears and hair.
2)Wear the cloth from your head and leave one end longer than the other. Roll up the short end to your throat to hide your neck.
3)Pull up the longer end (right side of the picture) over your neck, around your head, to your right ear. Fix the cloth around the ear (marked with an arrow on the picture) with a pin, and you now have the Iraqi headwear!
Comment from a Father at the Reconstructed School in Baghdad
Thanks to the cooperation of all of our supporters and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it has been five years since we started our school reconstruction and hygiene promotion projects in three provinces in Iraq (Baghdad, Anbar, and Babil). Our hygiene promotion project aims to improve the local hygiene environment and enhance the local people’s sanitary habits.
Recently, I*, who have never actually been to the project site, received a pleasant message from a staff in Baghdad.
It’s a message from the father of a student who goes to the recently reconstructed school, and I would like to share it with all of you.
“All families in this region are talking about the school that has been reconstructed lately. The toilets and electricity had been out of order and left unrepaired for over six years. Now, my son loves going to the newly renovated school. Thanks to JEN, he has become more motivated to learn and his marks have gotten better. From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank all of you who helped reconstructing our school from the bottom of my heart!”
*Due to security situations in Iraq, all Japanese staffs are residing in the neighboring country Amman and remote-monitoring the project.
Imagine an Arabian man. What is he wearing? Don’t you imagine him wearing something around his head?
This piece of cloth is called kafiyyeh. They wrap it around their heads or necks to protect themselves against sunburn and the cold. As you can see in these pictures, there are many ways in which you can wear it.
Can you see something black holding the red kafiyyeh?
I used to think they were using two layers of rubber bands, but I’d been mistaken. It was actually an inelastic cord.
Ｔhe color of the cloth generally indicates where the person is from. The color combination of red and white is Jordan, black and white Palestine, and black with fine white stripes is Iraq (especially the Shiites).
Here in Amman, we also see a lot of people using kafiyyeh to decorate the inside of their cars.
As we are working in emergency and a complicated situation in Iraq, there are no fixed activities or duties. We need to always do whatever that is necessary to achieve our goal.
I start my day by calling our staff to check if everything is ok and pray for no bad news especially, from the local authority and contractors. If the day starts without such problems, then it allows me to focus and concentrate on the rehabilitation activity, material purchasing and training program.
To develop our activities even further, I am studying now the GIS system. This is a geographical mapping system that is enhanced with many features to show on the map assistance density, population concentration and secure zones. These maps can then be shared with JEN’s partners such as distribution contractors to facilitate our projects.
So far I passed about 20% of this system. However it still a lot to and requires some familiarity with database technology. In any respect, the race of 1000 miles starts with one step forward.
Iraqi parliamentary election was held on last 7th March. The polling stations were placed not only in Iraq but also in 16 foreign countries. One of them is here in Jordan. Today I am going to introduce the election notice paper that was distributed to every family, which shows how to vote for a party and a candidate.
A: Every party has its own number. B: To identify a candidate, every candidate also has his or her own number. Candidate’s name is shown by the photograph.
Now, how to vote? First of all everyone inks their forefinger as they visit a polling station. This ink seems to stay and difficult to remove and we see people with ink on their finger everywhere on the street!
First, you receive a voting paper and mark following three questions. 1) The voter’s registered address in Iraq 2) Party that you vote for 3) Candidate that you vote for Once the three sections are marked, voting is completed!
It was another interesting finding of different voting systems in Iraq and Japan.
Muslims have a duty to pray five times a day, a service called “Salat”.
While those who have time go to a nearby Mosque every time to pray, the majority of people pray in quiet places in their house or office using a mat specially made for praying purposes. Wherever they are, they always pray facing the Kaaba in the Saudi Arabian Mecca.
JEN’ local staff also start washing their hands, legs, and faces when they hear an announcement from the Mosque or an alarm set on their mobile phones that signal that it’s time to pray.
How do those who move around a lot know the direction of Kaaba?
The answer is in the prayer mat. The mat comes with a disc that has numbers written on it. You simply have to turn the mat around to set the compass needle to each country’s designated number (Jordan ‘s number is 225).
I am impressed by the massive scale of Muslim praying all over the world toward one place, all at the same time.
The school renovation and hygiene project for 17 elementary and junior high schools in Baghdad enters its final stage, which has started in March 2009 supported by our supporters and government of Japan.
Now, JEN’s Program Officer is organizing two-day hygiene workshops in each school. The workshop teaches how to build and maintain the students’ health in the long term by using the renovated brand new hygiene facilities that connect to public water supply system.
On the first day, school teachers from each school are taught basic knowledge on hygiene, infections like cholera and H1N1, and importance of cleaning.
On the second day, a teacher conducts hygiene education for students, following review of the first day. Thanks to teachers’ endeavor, the class sometimes includes practical training of how to brush their teeth and to wash their hands using the hygiene goods that JEN gave out.
The teachers who attended the two-day workshops will each conduct hygiene education in their classes.
15th October is UN’s “Global Hand washing Day”, designed to teach the importance of washing hands for prevention of infections. The day was celebrated all over the world.
Every year, 1.5 million children of five years-old or younger lose their lives from diarrhea. It is said that washing hands with soap can reduce the occurrence of diarrhea by 60% (UNICEF, 2009). This day is therefore a very important one to save children’s lives.
JEN held workshop events at 17 junior high and high schools in Baghdad that JEN had renovated to teach children the importance of washing hands. The events were held for one week around Global Hand washing Day. JEN organized ceremonies of washing hands at renovated water supply facilities. JEN also held photo contests on hygiene. UN agencies gave cute posters and T-shirts.
JEN will continue to focus on Hygiene education so that Iraqi children learn the habit of hand washing and live without fear of cholera.
It seems that when the Japanese bow endlessly in front of their houses, it feels strange to people living in Arab countries. That is because for Muslims, bowing is only done for Allah to show on’s devotion.
Muslims practice their religion by bowing and praying toward the Kaaba temple at Mecca in Saudi Arabia five times a day. They go to Mosque on Friday, which is their religious holiday of Islam and pray, even if they pray regularly in their house . Here in Jordan, weekend consists of two days, from Friday to Saturday including the Muslim holiday.
The timing to pray are 1) dawn, 2) sometime between dawn and noon, 3) sometime until when the size of their shadow reaches the size of the actual body , 4) sometime between sunset until dusk, 5) dusk.
The praying method is very precise. First of all, they wash their hands and face in prearranged order. Sunnis are required to wash feet as well. Then they stand upright facing toward the Mecca. Then they repeatedly say “Allah is great” while moving your open palms to your ears, bowing, kneeling down to the ground and bowing forward until the forehead touches the ground, in veneration. Finally, kneeling and facing down, they pray for blessing of Allah to Muslim and the Prophet. In the end, they will recite their final words, “peace be upon him” while swinging your head from side to side.
Bowing is in fact a very important part of their religious practice Of course, they also have culture to respect older persons like Japan. However, people do not bow in front of the elderly to show respect It is one of the many moments to feel the cultural differences.
This week is the last week of Islam’s fasting month of Ramadan. Excitement and anticipation in the area grew as the “time-off for Eid” neared the 20th day of Ramadan. During Ramadan, various companies set up tents throughout the city, offering Iftar or `dinner after sunset`, completely free of charge. These tents are mainly used by those who have completed the spiritual journey but either cannot enjoy Iftar with their family, or cannot afford it. JEN’s office in Amman was very near a tent run by a Jordanian trading company.
JEN always tries to express their interest and respect for the ritual and often visits the tents. Obviously we understand the spiritual importance of Ramadan to Muslims, and as the tents are primarily for those entering into Ramadan, a Hijab scarf hiding hair is always worn for female staff, and long-sleeved shirt and pants by all.
Once inside the tents it was clear that it is mostly male laborers who use the tents, with only three family groups. Many were very interested in this unfamiliar group of Asian women, as understandably they were not the usual type of person you would see eating Iftar! Nevertheless, we were always welcomed warmly by the locals. The tents offer different dishes every day, the days dish being a “Moroccan stew with tomato and gram”. It was indeed very delicious! They are open everyday during Ramadan.
Arab world is in the midst of Ramadan (the month of fasting) which continues for one month once a year. Through the month, Muslims live more faithfully following Islam’s teachings than other months. Muslims frequently go to mosques and pray in morning and evening.
JEN’s Amman office is located near a white and comparatively new mosque in Amman. We can hear the “azan”, a loud announcement for salat, the prayer, five times a day. I am glad that I can live an environment where I can enjoy hearing azan when I go to sleep and when I am working.
However, there is only one thing I am annoyed with. That is the traffic jam around mosques. A street crossing close-by that we must use to go everywhere is packed with double-parked cars along the two sides of the street. Sometimes the cars block the whole street crossing!
Visitor paper is very useful to stay in Amman in the long term. However issuance of the paper needs several procedures. At first, you need to register your organization with the Ministry of Industry and Trade of The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. And then, you also need to register your office with the city government of Amman and take an HIV/AIDS blood test.
Then, you need to file some documents at the Ministry of Interior for foreiner registration, get a work permit from the Ministry of Labor and be interviewed at police stations. Through these six steps, the visitor paper will be finally issued.
Jordan accepts many immigrants from states such as the neighboring country Egypt, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. There are many agencies that were developed to deal with the legal procedures. It is not rare that one applicant has around 20 passports. However, individual applicants must go through the crowd at the desk and convince and beg the lazy officials, to promptly deal with its procedures, again and again.
This process for Japanese people is the same as Iraqi people. However, for Iraqi people, bank’s balance statement and an interview to investigatewhether they have any relationships with fringe groups and other steps are needed.
JEN has supported 17 Elementary and Junior High Schools in Baghdad to renovate water and hygiene equipments supporters and Japanese Government. Now 10 out of 17 schools have been completed since February 2009. Another 7 schools have entered the final stage.
Most of the building constructors which join JEN’s school renovation projects have been in partnership with JEN since they started the projects in Iraq in 2003. JEN registered building constructors made requirements for security, in observance of the guidelines by the Iraqi Ministry of Construction and Housing, referring to the quality of work, access to the sites and price. JEN called for bids for the projects so their skill to renovate the schools was proven and JEN knows their ability of office work through actual bids and contracts.
When I came here as a finance officer, invoices and receipts issued by the building constructors included many typo errors. So sometimes it took two months to make them issue the correct documents. Over the last year, their ability of office work has developed gradually. Some companies changed the design of their documents and they responded to our requests quickly and correctly.
I am very pleased if JEN’s projects contribute to development of the local building constructors’ written competence.
Today, thousands of teachers need to be trained in Iraq. The efficiency depends on the experience, but also they always need to continue their skills to brush up.
It is believed in this decade that the sufficient changes should be implemented to education. For example, “illiteracy” is regarded as “a lack of ability to access the new knowledge”. The Ministry of Education of Iraq has continued to emphasize the importance of training teachers in its annual plan since 2003. However, apparently, this training has been really limited and making only a little progress.
It is also planned that the government of Iraq should contain training for teachers by cooperating with international organizations. And it is proposed that teachers are to come to Japan for the effective training and also specialists should be sent from Japan to Iraq for the support of their education system.
The Education department is always making a progress bit by bit. Recently JEN has emphasized the development of the education environment. This project not only develops access to education for children, but also educates students for the future of the country. At the same time, JEN hopes for the development of health and that our project can be used effectively.
Iraq, Jordan and other Arabic states generally regards honor and dignity of the“family” as the most important value of society. According to Iraqi staff, those who were recognized as refugees by the legal process and migrated to liberal western states suffered from a lot of mental stress.
Most Iraqi people are devout Muslim. The relationship among their family is recognized as the most important thing. Muslims live based on Islam. For example, Muslims consistently pray 5 times a day and never drinks alcohol.
If those who have Islamic value, living in western states, not all Iraqi people, but most of them must live in the place where there is no school and shopping center with equipment for praying. It is very difficult to keep their Islamic living practice because work and study prevent them from going to Islamic religious service on Friday (holiday in Islam).
This causes a generation gap mentally between parents who try to keep their Arabic culture and children who go to school in a new environment and have friends there. It frequently causes social problems, too.
I am a new Programme Officer in Baghdad. I am an Iraqi, born in 1956. I work in the field of education since 1980. I hope that peace will prevail in my country and everyone works dutifully towards construction and development in all areas.
You know that my country was subjected to three wars since 1980 until 2003 and a scientific and an economic blockade since 1991 until 2003, as well as the problems that occurred after 2003. that these wars have led to the underdevelopment of the country to keep pace with development in all spheres of life. It has produced many of the problems of educational, health, environmental, economic and others. Japanese people would know very well the negative consequences of the wars more than others.
In these lines, I shall focus on the most important issue that must address is the development of people’s understanding. To enable this development, each of us should understand his rights and duties and have the love of the homeland to contribute to the reconstruction of the country. All decisions need to be made based on public interests, love, peace and tolerance rather than hatred, violence, revenge. It is true that this kind of peace education requires time, I think we should start now, and the beginning with children (kindergartens and schools), because children are more flexible to new concepts and the one who hold the future of my country and its communities.
Therefore, we have to think about how to do this task. What is the role of the state? How can non-governmental organizations to contribute to it? We should benefit from the experiences of other countries in this area, particularly Japan.
People living in Arab countries reportedly do not use interest-earning bank accounts. How do they manage their asset without fixed deposits?
Serving as an alternative, there is something called the Islamic Banking in the region, which is a system that serves as a go-between for personal investments. The bank and individual investor agree to invest in some project and receive an “advantage” which is not identified as “interest”. The advantage usually ranges from 5% to 10%. However, they sometimes may not receive any advantages. Even though they will not receive any advantages for some years, they can maintain a relationship of mutual trust. This is the style of Arabic business.
Another way of asset management is the possession of gold. Thanks to the increase in the price of gold, acknowledgement of “gold as fortune” is now widely prevalent. Some say “possession of gold is the best way of asset management because it makes men happy by getting lots of money, and at the same time makes women happy by receiving gold”.
In Amman, there exists a long street of gold shops (suku) which get very crowded during the weekends. The designs of gold items seem to be different from Japanese tastes, which are mostly big ornaments or heavy chains.
On November 3rd, the staff of JPF (Japan Platform) visited JEN’s office in Amman to monitor JEN’s projects in Iraq. The JEN project in Iraq has been executed through remote management since 2003.
JEN has concluded the last projects funded by JPF in Baghdad, by achieving complete or partial renovation for 84 elementary or junior high schools, hygiene education, distribution of study desks, foundation of school management committees and facilitation for the committee.
JEN is currently carrying out the renovation of 18 schools. The projects have benefited 75,000 students, 3,500 teachers and more than 5,000 labors.
In 2004, JEN renovated 6 sewage facilities in Baghdad, which benefited more than 100,000 people and 400 laborer’s lives.
JEN would like to take this opportunity to thank JPF for its long-term assistance and everyone for their support in JEN’s Iraq projects.
This will be the last JPF funded project. However, JEN continues renovation of water supply facilities in schools which is a highly prioritized need in the educational field.
After the fasting month of Ramadan that I introduced twice in these blogs, a local staff brought Arabic sweets (see the photo above) to our office. These treats taste very sweet.
These are called “Ma’mool” in Jordan and “Kulaija“in Iraq. They usually eat it during “Eid”, the festival that occurs five days after Ramadan. In order for the sweets to bring happiness, it must be home-made. The local staff bought a home oven so that his wife could bake the cookies.
In Iraq, around five million people are currently away from their homes due to the war. For a maximum six years, some of the people have baked the “Kulaija” away from their homes. Year after year, they hope for peace and stability of their home-nation, and an immediate return to their homes.
JEN helps to prepare an acceptable environment returnees from evacuation site to return to, through the improvement of the education environment in Iraq.
I would like to talk about "almsgiving" which is one of The Five Pillars of the Muslim. Almsgiving sounds like a difficult concept but it just means 'contribution'.
There are two kinds of almsgiving. One is "zakat" and another one is "sadaqa". Nowadays, zakat is recognized as systematic (obligatory) almsgiving and sadaqa is recognized as voluntary almsgiving.
"Zakat" is comparable to a tax imposed on Muslims, which is used for assistance to the poor. People pay it to the government like tax. Every year the government decides the rate of this tax. This year, they decided 1.5 JD (approximately 212 JPY) per person.
On the other hand, "sadaqa" is a voluntary donation. Neighbors ask each other for donations and hand it to aid poor families. This is a mutual aid system among neighbors, which is different from governmental welfare.
Such a mutual aid system is prevalent across the Islamic world. One of them is called "table of Allah" where Muslim give Iftar to the poor. We can see tables and chairs beside mosques, restaurants and hotels. People are taking a seat there in the evening. Anyone can take a seat and it is free. It is chance for the poor to have delicious meal because the restaurants must give them the same quality as the meals served inside.
The season of Ramadan of this year has begun. Ramadan is the 9th month in the year of the Hijra, the Islamic calendar. During the season, Muslims deeply study the Koran and perform “The Five Pillars of the Muslim” or five duties deemed on every Muslim; Shahadah (profession of faith), Salat (ritual prayer), Zakat (almsgiving), Sawm (fasting during Ramadan), and Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).
Japanese are unfamiliar with Ramadan, which is one of the Islamic duties. Ramadan does not mean that Muslim eat nothing for a month. It means that Muslims refrain from eating from sunrise to sunset. It is prohibited to have not only food, but also water and smoking.
Every day, when we hear azan, reciting the Koran from the mosques, every Muslim begins to have Iftar (dinner after fasting).
In the afternoon, roads that are usually already crowded with many cars, become packed with event more cars to go home. In the evening, drivers get crazy because they are anxious to get home by sunset. Some of them violate the speed limit and drive violently, nearly getting crushed.
Then when the Muslims finish Iftar, they feel full of much appreciation for Allah. After Iftar, they meet their relatives and friends till late at night. We can see electric spectaculars like Christmas and nicely dressed people in the city.
Jordan is cooler than it’s neighboring countries, and also has a large source of water. However, the time of year has come, as usual, to become worried and anxious about the water shortage. Jordan has suffered from it every year because there are no reservoir in the country. Therefore there are laws such as one that bans car-washing by hose.
The temperature in Iraq is 10 to 15 degrees C higher than that in Amman. In the summer season in Iraq, it has become 50 degrees C or over in hottest days. Reportedly, in Sadr City, a poverty stricken place in Baghdad often faces water stoppage and has insufficient public facilities for water supply. The hotter it becomes, the desire for access to safe water increases.
JEN’s school renovation project focuses on the facility related to water supply or sewage water. Because schools are public facilities, it is possible for this facility to become the water for the surrounding community as well. JEN has now decided that the current school renovation project which is supported by JPF (Japan Plat Form) and other donors shall include Elementary and Junior High Schools in Sadr City. JEN hopes the renovated schools will contribute to the communities in the area.
There has been severe inflation in Jordan over these past few years. From 2003 to 2008, the price of sugar (that supports the lifestyle of sweet-tooth Jordanians) has risen from JPY1,000 to JPY4,000 per 50kg, and similarly the price of 25 kilograms of rice has risen from JPY450 to JPY2,500.
There are two main reasons for this price rise: The first is that due to the War in Iraq, the crude oil agreements with neighbouring country Iraq have failed. Prior to the war, Jordan received oil from Iraq for half its original price in exchange for Jordanian food and basic needs (there is a more favourable climate in Jordan to grow food). However, during the war from 2003, Jordan was faced with no alternative but to import oil at standard prices from countries such as Saudi Arabia or Kuwait. Under the old agreement, one barrel of oil (159 litres) was US$14, but now the same amount costs US$141. Just like Japan, daily functions in Jordan depend on oil, and therefore this had a very large effect on Jordan.
JEN is now organizing pictures of the operation which was completed in the beginning of April. It is a fun work to see photographs of cleanly newborn schools after restorations. This time, I am fascinated by the toilet tiles.
Don't you think that the tiles are as decent as of hotels with pastel colors and cutovers?
According to staff members in Baghdad, building constructors in Iraq collect samples from European countries in recent years and study interior designing.
JEN's specification describes to apply tiles on toilet walls and the quality of the tiles has to fulfill the standard which JEN specifies in the specification. However, it does not require elaborate designs.
The building constructors seem to make efforts for high completeness to the extent permitted for their budgets. We can imagine that children use the toilets comfortably.
The restoration of schools terminated in the beginning of April. It was conducted by the donation of the Japan Platform(JPF) and individual donnors from September last year.
We conducted mainly restorations of tanks, toilets, sinks and others which were needed to repair urgently in 25 elementary schools and junior high schools in Baghdad, and pass over to the Education Ministry of Iraq.
New operations started from the end of April focus on 18 elementary schools and junior high schools in the capital city. They will fix water-related facilities, electric equipments, doors and windows, and will build up safe and clean educational environment.
JEN’s educational supports in Iraq will continue to make the place children love comfortable.
While implementing JEN’s school reconstruction projects, we make an attempt to take into consideration the opinion of the teaching staff. This is why there are small variations in each of the schools, such as the colors of the walls.
The faucet shown in this picture is one such example. I do not think this type of faucet can be seen in Japan. The handle of the faucet is at the bottom, with the tip facing upwards. In Japan, there are multi-purpose faucets where the tip of the faucet can rotate according to whether you want to drink the water, or wash your hands.
I was left wondering why we could not install what I believed was a more convenient faucet that faces up for drinking, and faces downwards for washing. I asked the local engineer about this. He explained that he is avoiding rotating faucets because they consist of more joining parts, and it is easier to break.
After the school reconstruction is complete and handed over to the Iraqi Ministry of Education, it is the responsibility of the teachers and staff to preserve and maintain the facilities. It is essential for us to accommodate our facilities to make repair as low cost as possible and strong to stand the wear and tear of the long-term use of these facilities by the school children.
(Continued from previous entry) ‘Men also make an effort to look attractive for their partners,’
The men talked about how they must always appear clean and tidy, and wear the cologne that their wife likes. They think that such efforts are necessary, that it is the key to a happy marriage!
Men crowd the perfume stores in the shopping districts of Arab countries that are lined with a variety of perfumes. I hear from Muslims that in the Hadith (sayings by the Prophet Muhammad), which is considered just as important as the Koran, there are many references that express the need to respect your wife.
My friend showed me a picture of him and his wife taken at their home during their wedding anniversary. The picture showed a cheerful woman with light makeup and beautiful hair. What left an impression on me was the warm look that they were giving each other in the picture.
Just as with any religion or culture, there may be Muslim women that behave in a modest manner. However, it is limiting to make judgments based on biased information or generalizations. I think it is important to put ourselves into their shoes as we come into contact with all types of lifestyles and ideologies. This might be a roundabout way in order to pursue a project that suits the locals’ needs, but it is important as I am gaining new perspectives on culture on a daily basis.
Local staff members not only have conversations about the progress of the project, or the Iraqi situation, sometimes daily conversation extends to cover topics such as Arab culture and the teachings of Islam.
The other day the topic of women’s fashion came up. Though Jordan consists largely of Muslim believers, it has a relatively liberal atmosphere. However, while some women stride through the city wearing fitted, glamorous clothes and makeup, the reality of the situation is that the majority of women cover themselves entirely wearing a headscarf and light makeup.
The wife of one of our staff is one such woman that seems to favour a more conservative and reserved dress sense. Following Islamic values, she dresses in a way that does not draw attention to her when she goes out. However, we learnt that when she returns home, she applies makeup before her husband comes home: ‘This is normal!’ he answers and smiles, ‘of course, it’s only for me to see!’ he adds.
If this story ended here, modern opinion may have you thinking that ‘Islamic women are still living in the shadows of men…’ However, his story continues…
Given the present security situation in Baghdad, international staff members are unable to go directly onto the project site. We monitor the progress of the construction and maintenance through pictures taken by our local staff members in Baghdad.
Amongst the pictures we received last week was one of a both beautiful drawing of a playful animal drawn as part of the construction. In the past, we have seen flower patterns and slogans, but this is the first time we have seen an actual drawing.
JEN covers the outer coating of school buildings in the construction, but it does not include pictures. The paint used to draw such pictures on the walls is at the personal expense of the local construction company. The local construction company that oversees the construction work for JEN projects is chosen through an appropriate bidding process.
The two schools shown in these pictures have both been given positive assessments in their past projects with JEN. The fact that the company purchased the paint at their own expense despite the ongoing competition amongst the contractors may have been a sign that they wanted to display the high quality of their reconstruction. Or perhaps they wanted to provide a modest gift to the children that live in the midst of such hard times.
In any case, it is incredibly wonderful that these delightful drawings are creating happiness for both the teachers and students alike.
There are relatively few national holidays in Iraq and Jordan. However, towards the end of last December, there was a rare streak of holidays including the Festival of Sacrifice, Christmas, and both the Christian and Muslim New Year. Kirieche, a homemade Iraqi sweet, was made and shared to celebrate the Festival of Sacrifice.
As the holiday season continues, JEN, with the support of the Japan Platform, are continuing our project to provide renovation support to elementary and junior high schools in Baghdad.
On January 11th, Baghdad saw it’s first snowfall in over ten years. To those who have never seen snow, it seemed to rouse a renewed hope for a brighter future. Since last fall, Iraq has been seeing slow improvements in the security situation. More positively though, last December there was a law passed approving the return of former Ba’th party members back into public office. With this, the country took their very first steps towards national reconciliation.
We hope that 2008 will bring fortune and happiness to the People of Iraq. This year, we are hoping for your continued unconditional support for the children of Iraq.
Rain brings a look of delight to the faces of the Jordanian people after a long period of drought.
After the rain came and went for a few days, I was delighted to spot a small bud of green arising from the red dirt in the outskirts of Amman. In Jordan, although it is difficult to see any green outside of the spring season, it is possible to spot some Bougainvilleaes flowers from time to time.
This flower reminds me of a scene from my favorite television show that is set on a beautiful wharf covered in Bougainvilleaes.
I was surprised to find out that my special flower is called ‘The Disorderly Flower’ here in Jordan. Upon asking my friend where the Bougainvilleaes got such a name, my friend suggested that perhaps it is because the stems of the Bougainvilleaes grow in such random, disorderly directions. It is true; the stems of the Bougainvilleaes at our office grow in different directions. Then, from these disorderly branches, an orange flower will suddenly bloom from the light pink stems. Thinking about this, I understood the Jordanian interpretation of the Bougainvilleaes.
I was shocked when a local staff member later told me what the Bougainvilleae were called in Iraq – ‘The Hell Flower’. This negative name is puzzling to me, because contrary to the names they have been given, Bougainvilleaes seem to be appreciated in both countries!
In Jordan, the five consecutive days following December 18th are holidays celebrating the Festival of Sacrifice.
For the Festival of Sacrifice, each Muslim family is expected to offer one sheep, cow or camel as a sacrifice if it is economically feasible for the family to do so. This custom has its roots in a historical story. In this story, the Prophet Ibrahim offered his son to Allah, as a sacrifice yet Allah understanding the strength of his religious devotion, told him he should sacrifice a lamb instead.
Sheep are the main choice of sacrifice in Iraq and Jordan. According to the laws of Islam, the family should keep one third of the sacrifice, give another third of it to their relatives, and give the last third to their poor neighbors. Billboards advertising sheep could be seen all over Amman before the Festival of Sacrifice. An organization, Um Ali, collects donations from these billboards in order to provide meals to the poor. Um Ali derives its name from Prince Ali’s mother, the late princess Alia, wife of the former King Hussein. It is clear that Islam places a strong emphasis on making contributions to the poor.
While I was clearing away some photos of students taken in front of an old school that had yet to be rebuilt, I felt a little uncomfortable at seeing the children with their arms crossed in some of the pictures.
In Japan, crossing our arms in front of people of seniority such as teachers is considered rude. Upon asking a local staff members about this, I was told that especially in elementary school, students cross their arms in order to express respect for their teachers. I felt much better understanding that rather than a gesture of defiance, this was a gesture of respect shown by children towards their teachers. On the other hand, it seems that it is unusual to cross arms to those of similar age groups.
There have been reports on the improvements of the security situation in Iraq since November; however political turmoil is not over yet. It is too early to tell whether such positive trends will continue.
Every time I see pictures of these children, I hope for the day when they smile from the bottom of their hearts.
The Jordanian government declared Tuesday, November 20th a holiday due to the parliamentary election.
The government is making a strong appeal to the nation for votes. Prior to the election, there were many posters of various sizes and different designs with pictures of the candidates could be seen along the streets of the town. In addition many cars decorated their windows with posters of those they are supporting.
The Election Campaign Office interested us more than the posters. The special pavilions suddenly appeared in any empty spaces. They are same kind of pavilions as those used for wedding or funeral ceremonies. We can get a sense of the national character of Jordan through these pavilions even though the styles of the pavilion vary among the candidates. During the campaign, some candidates are said to rent many in order to gather their supporters for speeches about Jordan’s future outside and under the blue sky.
Contaminated foods and water hit the summer in Iraq by Cholera. It is only recently that the government announced that the situation is getting better after the summer.
Please see the photo taken at the washing-space of the girl’s elementary school in the slum area of the Baghdad we repaired.
There was no water and swage system prior to our repairs and the washing-space without the water was used as storage. We also needed to repair electronic facilities to be able to use electronic devices.
We made it clean and pink tiled washing-space for girls as well as for the bathrooms. They can also enjoy the lights and fans.
JEN is repairing the school infrastructures as described above for both elementary schools and junior high schools in Baghdad.
It is well known that the Arabic language is written from right to left. Are you interested to know how it is handled when you type Arabic into a PC? This photo is from the computer screen of our local staff. It reads “Hello to the supporters of JEN’s activities!” in Arabic. The PC needs to be set up so that the cursor moves from the right to left by clicking an icon, what is also interesting is that the numbers go from right to left as in Japanese while the words go vice versa. When numbers are typed in, the order changes automatically as shown in the photo so that it shows “2007”. You can select either Indian numbers or Arabic numbers.
You have to handle two different keyboards when you make English materials, since the Arabic keyboard is specially designed and cannot type in Roman Characters. To write in Roman Characters, you have to switch it the other way around.
The end of Ramadan, the fasting month of Islamic calendar that started on September 13th, is approaching. In Amman, houses are alive with electrical spectaculars of Islamic symbols such as the moon and stars in preparation for Ramadan.
In Jordan during this period, “devout” Muslim abstain from food between 5.00 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. I imagine it would be much harder to tolerate thirst rather than hunger because they cannot drink anything either.
Because the period of Ramadan is becoming earlier year-by-year based on the western calendar, fasting may take place in the heat of the summer hereafter. It is difficult for me to image working while fasting in Baghdad, where it exceeds 50 degrees in the hottest part of summer.
After sunset, the family comes together for a meal called ‘Iftar’ to break the fast. They frequently have this dinner with their friends.
They read the Koran, give to the poor, and promote bonding among family members. Ramadan is a special month for devout Muslims, while other less-devout Muslims can be seen sneaking a snack during the day.
During summer season, I can see a fruit in the vegetable shops in Jordan. This fruit is unusual looking as can be seen in the photo. This is a “Cactus-Pear” which is a type of prickly pear. When I pick it up, I felt a pricking sensation, giving me small splinters in my finger.
I have seen a man on the street wearing tough gloves, cleaning and peeling the “Cactus-Pear”. Now I can understand that this is a necessary service for customers. In supermarkets, the “Cactus-Pear” is seen on the shelves both peeled and packaged.
The “Cactus-Pear” has many seeds inside. Maybe I can say it tastes like a sweet watermelon. The pain in my fingers lasted for a while. However, it was interesting to find a new food.
The last Saturday of July in Anman was full of cheerful high school students leaning out of car windows.
The frenetic sound of horns announced that it was the last day of school exams, and that the grades had been released also.
The final exam scores not only serve as proof of the student's graduation, but they are also decisive for entering university.
Jordanians usually celebrate by ringing their car horn.In the beginning of July、the well known ruins of Petra were chosen as one of the "New Seven wonders of the world". The decision was announced at one o'clock in the morning, but the celebrating horns sounded until well past two a.m. and there was no sign of them stopping anytime soon.The same thing happens when Jordan's soccer team wins a match.
Last month the Asian cup was won by Iraq. Their team's winning brought the country a lot of happiness during difficult times.
However, 50 people who were celebrating the great result unfortunately fell victim to a suicide bombing attack, and others were killed by stray bullets from guns fired in celebration.
In Jordan, the once popular firing of guns in celebration seems to have been abolished by law.
I wish Iraq would also discontinue this tradition to prevent incidents occurring just when people are celebrating happy moments.
In Iraq, it is possible to gain sufficient water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. However, gaining water from these rivers has become extremely difficult due to the inability to conduct maintenance on the systems because of financial difficulties caused by the economic sanctions, and also as a result of the bombardment of the facilities during the war.
In its school reconstruction operations, JEN pays special attention to the construction of water supply facilities. This is because many of the schools that JEN reconstructs have water supply facilities that are completely unusable. Previously, these kinds of schools used to pump water with a hose from nearby neighborhoods. Some schools did not even have tap outlets for hand washing, and we also had pictures of other schools, prior to their reconstruction, where sanitary conditions were terrible.
Along with restoring the drainage systems through the replacement of the sewage pipes, JEN is also constructing water supply facilities such as water tanks to ensure that children and teachers are still able to access water despite disruptions to the water supply.
It is three years since Badwan, a Jordanian staff member, started working at JEN’s office in Amman. As he had previously worked as concierge at a high-class hotel, he is very considerate of and communicates well with people. As well as this, you can often see his sentimental side. For instance, when we reminisced about the international staff that used to work together in the office, he was moved to tears. In both of these ways, he is valuable for JEN.
He has a good wife who likes cooking and they have six children meaning he leads a full and happy daily life. However, when he talks about his home, Palestine, which he strongly longs to return to, his face is clouded. It will be a long time before this dream comes true.
Badwan says that he is happy to work as one of the members of JEN to support people, who are in vulnerable situations. In our small office in Amman, we work hard to try and contribute to developing the conditions of education in Iraq, with the co-operation of field staff like Badwan.
Let’s have a look at how children play while they are at school.
Boys are big fans of playing soccer. There are lots of soccer fans in Iraq, and the Japanese animation “Captain Tsubasa” is a big hit. The story’s hero is Tsubasa, whose name translates into Majid in Arabic.
What girls enjoy the most is skipping. Playing tag and hide-and-seek are really enjoyed by both boys and girls.
There are other fun games that seem popular, such as “stand and sit” which is played in the classroom among all students. Similar to the Japanese “hata-age” (raising the banner) game - raise red, raise white, don’t raise white! - the teacher calls out “stand, sit, or don’t sit!” and doing the actions determines the winner.
We asked our field staff members about how Iraqi children play, and they feel that the children spend all their free time just as Japanese children do.
Safety inside schools is barely maintained, but with the security situation worsening and upsetting the children, this might be the only place where they can enjoy themselves.
Spring has come in Jordan. Families enjoy sunny weekends picnicking in the green spaces found here and there. Although it is only a short spring, just a few months, during this season fresh flowers and grass fills Jordan’s fields and makes people happy. Strangely, people picnic, not only in the green hills of the suburbs, but also on land alongside busy highways, wherever they can find grass growing!
People say that Iraqi people also used to picnic in this way before the war. Families, relatives and friends enjoyed peaceful weekends in the green suburbs of Baghdad. While military operations continue to intensify in Baghdad, zoos and amusement parks are supposed to be reopening in the city. However, many people are still in fear of their lives and do not like to leave their homes.
Playing in the sun, children are full of cheerful smiles in Jordan. We hope that one day, Iraqi children will also be able to play on a sunny day without any fear, as children do in Jordan.
In Jordan, a Japanese female is always mistaken for a Philippine at every corner around the town.So is at JEN’s office in Amman, agents come to mistake a Japanese program officer for a Philippine servant.One day an agent spoke to her at the door:
“I want to see your father or mother”.
Sounds as if he came across a little girl, but he simply meant in broken English: “call your Master or Madam”.
That happens because many female servants immigrate to Jordan from Philippine, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka.
A woman from Sri Lanka has been working in Jordan for ten years.She migrated after having worked for several years in a factory right after completing secondary school.She got through her initial struggle to keep up with housework and Arabic language.Now she speaks Arabic and English fluently.She still studies English eagerly every day and night.Meanwhile, she never forgets to send remittance to her family in Sri Lanka.
Working in Jordan seems to make her stronger despite any difficulties.
What is a big difference between a Japanese passport and an Iraqi one?Scarcely any countries reject the Japanese one today for an entry or a visa permit.How about the Iraqi one, how many States would welcome it on the border?
A mass exodus of refugees provoked from and within Iraq has already reached 50,000 per month.An influx to contiguous Jordan and Syria climbed to the amount of 500 thousands to one million.However, both asylum countries have been tightening the regulation of the Iraqi nationals on the border and on the issue of visas and residential permits.
Still, a large number of Iraqi refugees remain in the two neighbouring countries after the expiry of their permits and hide themselves illegally.
They are unable to receive any social services such as education.Jordan, overloaded with the increase of refugees, has been appealing to the international society to share the burden.
“Thanks, but I must not catch a cold – at least today!”
“Something special today then?”
“Eh well… my wedding anniversary,” he replied with a shy smile.
“A husband forgets such anniversaries while his wife is looking forward to – that always happens not only in a soap opera – still you are a perfect mate, lucky your wife!”“Oh no, my PC helps.Important anniversaries pop up automatically on my desktop a week before each – our wedding, our first date, and our engagement… quite a good number to input.”
Love grows after marriage – an Arabic saying that he strongly believes in.He married one of his relatives.Without having asked her out before, he directly asked her father for a permit to propose to her.
He has been happy at home for ten years with his wife, her handmade cooking and their children.Here is a sweet wedding, love, and happiness in Arabic style!
We are repairing three primary schools and one junior high school in Baghdad. After the repayment has finished, schools become amazingly beautiful as if it was reborn, bathroom especially.
In Iraq, water line and sewage treatment equipment has been destructed and some schools do not have bathrooms available. Muslim has a passion for cleanliness; they have to pray with their body clean. It must be hard for them to co-op with dirty bathrooms.
One of the schools JEN had recovered, bathrooms for teachers had been destructed because of war, therefore teachers had to go to the neighbours to use bathroom and felt inconvenient. Some girls were reluctant to go to school because of dirty bathrooms. When JEN recover these bathrooms, we use tile that easy to clean up.
Our desire is make children can concentrate on study without quibbling.
Here is a letter from Jordan, signed Nami Uesugi, a Japanese staff appointed to JEN’s Office in Amman in May:
“It is a great pleasure for me to interact with people from different background from my own.Still, as it is the first time for me to get involved closely in a Muslim society, I had a slight fear before coming to Amman if I could make it in such a new working environment.However, my fear disappeared as soon as my arrival thanks to kind help of local staff in Iraq and in Jordan.I would like to write about one of them, a program assistant in Baghdad.She is such an attractive Venus - it is a pity that I am unable to show her fantastic picture for her security, as unfortunately in Iraq international workers like her have been targeted by militia groups.When I timidly called her for a work on a holiday, she willingly came to office adding that she even enjoyed a different face of the city from clouded weekdays.I was impressed by her kindness and passion for work which, despite very difficult situation in Iraq, made me believe again that people could work together without any boundaries.”
The biggest problem in Baghdad today, is electricity.
Electricity often goes off for long spans of time during the hot of the day; just as you think it has been on for 2 hours, it is followed by a sudden 4 hour blackout. Many houses have generators of their own, and those who don't rent them from others, usually paying them worth 7 hours of electricity per day.
The current temperatures in Baghdad hover around 45 degrees, but in August, the hottest month of the year, they hit as high as 60. Needless to say, an air conditioner-or fan at the very least-is absolutely necessary to get by. Most households within Baghdad have one or the other of the two, but during blackouts they have no choice but to rely on generators.
Whenever or wherever you may be, including your own house, death is always lurking around the corner. If a family member is just a few minutes late in coming back, you cannot but help call them on their cell phones to make sure of their safety.
Not only adults but many children as well own cell phones, so that should something happen, they can contact their family immediately.
Although there still are children who go to school on foot, there are others who go by car, or have monthly contracts with shared taxis. Schools are basically open throughout the school term, however, parents decide daily whether they should send their children to school or not based on daily security reports. Teachers understand and respect this circumstance.
The marketplace, a place where many people gather, is a typical target for bombings. Therefore, locals avoid the market as much as possible, and instead try to get their shopping done at nearby grocery stores.
Even when living side by side with many such dangers, people go shopping, children go to school...Peoples' lives go on.
A security training program, organized by the IOM-IRAQ (International Organization for Migration Iraq Mission), was held at Amman. The program was constituted of 2 parts; during the first 2 days, participants were intensively taught about wireless radios and mines, as well as how to behave when one is kidnapped, and the latter 2 days involved practical training setting an ambush in the desert, or being taken under confinement, as the assumed scenarios.
During the training, explosives were set up by the road, and the trainees’ cars were “attacked” with colored bullets, as well as threatened by armed staff at a fake checkpoint. Even though participants knew it was only training, long sessions under strained conditions proved stressful.
Obviously, it does not mean that one’s safety is assured by simply undergoing such training. It is possible, however, to decrease the risk of oneself or one’s colleague from being exposed to danger, from learning the ways to react in the case of an emergency. Through such programs, we hope to always be prepared for work in unstable areas.
