The two girls had never met before last weekend, but they already had a special connection.One is a 12-year-old Iraqi who lost her legs during an American airstrike. The other is a 15-year-old Carmel High School student.

Three years ago, Salee Allawi was playing outside her home in Fallujah, Iraq, when a missile hit. The explosion killed her brother and injured her legs so seriously that they were amputated below the knees.

On Sept. 19, Salee traveled with her father, Hussein Feras, from Los Angeles — where she is spending the month to break in her new prosthetic legs — to the Peninsula to meet Lexi Mooneyham, a Carmel Valley girl who raised $600 to help pay for Salee’s travels to the United States.

“Meeting her was like a dream come true,” Lexi said. “It was reassuring to know that all those efforts I was doing were going to a great cause, that I helped someone and to see the effects of that.”

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Bear hugs and welcoming smiles greeted Salee Allawe when she returned to Shriners Hospital for Children on Wednesday, two years after traveling to Greenville from Iraq to be fitted with prosthetic legs.

The Iraqi girl lost both legs in a missile strike, according to No More Victims, the group that arranged her trip. She captivated Greenville in 2007 with her courage and determination as she underwent surgery, then was fitted for the legs that let her walk and play again.

She was scheduled to return 12 to 18 months later for new legs to accommodate her growth, but No More Victims instead arranged for her treatment near its Los Angeles headquarters.

But because Salee and her father, Hussein, preferred the care they received in Greenville and felt at home here, local volunteers raised money to pay for their return visit, said Ann Miller, the group’s national community coordinator.

“The care (in Los Angeles) was good, but they’re just so much more comfortable with the team in Greenville,” Miller said. “They are so excited to be coming back.”  (more…)

Here’s the rest of the Soapbox Radio interview with Cole Miller.

Cole Miller — Part 2.1: Cole Miller

Cole Miller — Part 2.2: Cole Miller

ASHEVILLE – In September, Anne Craig went from despair to hope when she met Salee Allawe, a 9-year-old Iraqi girl who lost both legs in a U.S. bomb attack near her home.

“I knew I could do something about the devastation that’s been caused in Iraq,” Craig said. “I decided then to start a chapter of No More Victims here in Asheville.”

No More Victims is a national relief organization that works to get medical sponsorship for war-injured Iraqi children and to forge ties between the children, their families and communities in the United States. It is the subject of the monthly movie night at the Unitarian/Universalist Church on Friday.

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nbsp;GreenvilleOnline.com has a short clip of Salee’s departure.

One works in literacy training, another to prevent child abuse. A third cares for her ailing grandparents.

With day jobs like those, you’d think they’d spend their free time unwinding at the spa. Instead, these women put their heads together to help a war-injured child in Iraq.

The result is new prosthetic legs for Salee Allawe, a 10-year-old Iraqi girl who lost both limbs below the knee in an air strike last fall. (more…)