No More Victims - News Archive

On the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we hear about two Iraqi children who suffered near life-threatening injuries in the war: 8 year-old Ahmad Sharif lost his eyesight and right arm after being caught in crossfire and 3 year-old Alaa Khalid Hamdan was seriously injured when a U.S. tank opened fire on her family’s home. Their fathers join them to tell their stories and two activists speak about their efforts to bring the children to the U.S. for medical treatment. Read transcript, view video, listen to audio…

NEWPORT BEACH – After nearly three months in the United States, 3-year-old Alaa’ Khalid Hamdan Abd still gets frightened when she hears the word “Americans.”

The Iraqi toddler associates Americans with the American military. Her home in Al Qaim, Iraq, was inadvertently hit by a tank round on May 3 during a military operation in the area. The round killed her two brothers, 4 and 5, and a cousin, while the children were having a tea party. Abd needs surgery to reconstruct her abdominal wall, which was damaged in the explosion. A surgery in Orlando to remove micro-shrapnel from her eyes and reattach her retina was successful. The surgeon there said if the eyes had gone untreated a few more days, she would have been blinded forever. (more…)

Tiny shrapnel bits pepper the left side of 2-year-old Alaa’ Abd’s face, looking at first glance like black freckles. Metal slivers in her left eye have left her with little vision, and each day she sees less.In hopes of restoring her sight, Alaa’ and her father arrived Saturday in Orlando, where she will be seen this week by an eye specialist.

Alaa’ became one of the faces of the Iraq war in May when, her family says, a U.S. tank shell burst inside their home, blinding the child and rending her flesh from head to toe. The explosion killed two of her brothers and three cousins.

The children, all younger than 10, were having a tea party.

Now Alaa’ (pronounced Ah-LAH) has a chance of regaining her sight thanks to the Orlando eye surgeon, a local college student who wouldn’t take no for an answer and the group NoMoreVictims.org that tries to get medical help for the war’s youngest victims. (more…)

First, there are the children Mary Kay McNeil sings with: kids in Seattle schools and in choirs who infuse their own ideas into the lyrics of songs about peace and friendship.

And now there are the children that the choirs will sing for: among them, Abdul Hakeem Ismael, age 7, and Alaa’ Khalid Hamida, age 3. (more…)