Raghad Ali is a 12-year old orphan who lives with her grandmother. They are very poor and she was taken out of school to clean houses. She was often forced to work long hours and sometimes her employers abused her. She cried when she saw other children her age going to school. The staff of the Baghdad Street Children’s Center reached out to Raghad’s grandmother for her permission for Raghad to attend the Center and she agreed. At the Center Raghad gets two healthy meals a day, tutoring, recreation and play, health care, and lots of care, love and attention from the staff.

Children like Raghad are at high risk of being trafficked into prostitution and forced labor, of being arrested for vagrancy or other charges. By providing her with a safe place to go every day, Raghad is protected from abuse in a place where she spends every day building important skills that will help guarantee her a brighter future.

When I lived and worked in Iraq we funded this Center and I know the staff and the quality of their work. When the funding ended the Center closed and the children were so devastated that they wrote letters to the donor asking them to reopen the Center which was the only place where they felt they had a family. The Sponsor Iraqi Children Foundation (SICF) was moved to take on fundraising to support the Center, and they raised just enough money last year to open the doors.

The staff was so dedicated to these kids that they agreed to work for free until more funds were raised!! Today they still work on a tight budget, but we are committed to making sure this Center doesn’t close again.

Please make a donation in any amount you can afford to help provide services in a safe space for Iraq’s most vulnerable children.

THANK YOU.