As I write this, we have discovered some fantastic news! The Shriners Hospital has accepted Rusul and she will be traveling to Greenville, SC soon. Our need for fundraising has become urgent. With several upcoming fundraisers and donated items waiting to be sold, we are anxious to get started.

Our first presentation will be next month, March 14th. During the Social Justice Movie Night at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville, Ann Cothran will be traveling up from Greenville to speak about No More Victims and to show a movie about Salee. Although this is not an official fundraiser for Rusul, we will seek donations.

Our first major fundraiser will be the weekend of April 12th. Some details still need to be worked out and we will update here when the final plans are set.

The occupation of Iraq continues and I feel so helpless sometimes. Being a part of the No More Victims - Asheville group gives me hope and a feeling that I can help. I am grateful for the sisterhood we have.

No More Victims first came to my attention a few years back, but it was in the summer of 2007 that I discovered that one of the children they are helping was in Greenville, SC - which is only 75 miles from my home town of Asheville, NC. So, right then and there I decided to try and get this child, Salee, to come to Asheville for a visit.
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Be sure to mark your calendars and save the date for:
FIRST PORTLAND, OREGON COMMUNITY NO MORE VICTIMS PLANNING MEETING

(Organize to welcome an injured Iraqi child to Portland for treatment
& powerfully tell their story!)

THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 2008
7 PM
FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH
1101 SW 12TH AVE.

ALL are WELCOME!!!
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We met Cole last December when he came to our mosque to talk about No More Victims. Our newly-formed youth group, eager to start a project, approached him after his presentation, and we asked what we could do. He told us about Shaymaa and asked us to help her out.

Shaymaa is a four-year-old girl who lives with her grandfather in the city of Fallujah in Iraq. On April 6, 2004, a terrible attack during the first siege of Fallujah killed Shaymaa’s father, severely injured her mother, and left her paralyzed – she was only three months old at the time. She and her grandfather, two of the only survivors of the attack that killed 31 people – 17 of them children – struggled to get by. Finding adequate medical care for Shaymaa’s injuries was next to impossible in Fallujah.

Our youth group set straight to work. We sent Shaymaa letters and drawings telling her and her grandfather that we were deeply sorry for the war, and that we would like to help them in every possible way. We asked them about problems they had encountered in finding rehabilitative treatment. Then, we set out to accomplish our next task: fundraising for Shaymaa’s treatment. (more…)

On November 15 we held a fundraiser with a panel of professors on “The Human Cost of War.” We played a clip of the No More Victims video and then allowed each of the four professors to comment on the video and on the human cost of the war. The program created an environment where students and faculty could consider the war in a more total sense and ask difficult questions. Maha’s story was explained to the students, and we were able to raise money towards the purchase of her wheelchair. We also had free shawarmas and other Middle Eastern food that served as an incentive for students to initially attend the lecture.

Omar and his father Sabah were able to attend the program. Students loved playing with Omar and everyone was shocked to see the burns that still cover much of his body —realizing how real and pressing the cost of war truly is. (more…)

This is an outreach message the new Portland, Oregon chapter is passing around in order to secure help from the broader community.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We are writing to offer you a role in an important and very meaningful humanitarian project. Possibly you share our varied emotions about the U.S. occupation and war in Iraq — grief, outrage, and hopelessness. We recently learned of a project that felt very compelling for us — as a way to organize something good and hopeful in response to the killing and destruction carried out in our name in Iraq.

We would like to create a project here in the Portland area with the organization called No More Victims. No More Victims (NMV) is an American group that has developed a way to address the unfair burden children are bearing in the brutal Iraq war. They identify specific children who have been injured by the war, and help local communities here organize to aid the children and their families. Participation can happen in several ways: (more…)

I first met Cole Miller on a very cold January day in Washington, DC. about 2 months before the invasion of Iraq began in 2003.  I was at a protest, trying to prevent the war from happening, and afterwards I went into a coffee shop to warm up.  As I looked around I suddenly saw this man holding a poster with the picture of a young Iraqi girl I recognized.  I said to him, I know the man who took that photo, Alan Pogue.  And so Cole Miller and I began talking.  That began a collaboration and friendship which has continued to this day.

I am pleased to say that Seattle area residents have been good in finding ways to express a natural, healthy compassion for the Iraqi people — first during the terrible period of the economic sanctions — and now during the even more terrible period of invasion and occupation.  But it has required educating folks about the reality of U.S. policies. (more…)