IRAQ: Children, families in need of immediate winterization aid

Amman, JORDAN  — For children of the thousands of families who fled the ongoing violence in Iraq, another hardship: Winter. 

“Temperatures have already begun to drop, and heavy rains have wrought havoc for people living in tents or exposed building sites,” says Ashraf Yacoub, response manager for World Vision, a children’s aid agency.

In Iraq, the needs are massive but funding has not kept pace with the growing number of displaced persons, now 1.9 million and counting, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. The agency is reporting a funding shortfall of $176 million to assist families in preparing for the wet snow and cold, common to the mountainous areas of northern Iraq.

“We’re concerned that children and the elderly, those most vulnerable, will face even greater health risks when the snow comes. We’re trying to fill gaps, distributing tarps, rope, blankets and mattresses, but the needs are great, and time is short,” Yacoub says. 

Nearly 1.3 million people will need shelter and 2.8 million people will need food assistance this winter in the nation, according to the UN.

World Vision worries that if funding is not met children and their families will not have appropriate shelter or clothing to cope. Urgent interventions are required to protect them from the sub-zero temperatures, World Vision says.

More than 600,000 people are in need of immediate winterization assistance. 

In the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, winter temperatures have arrived in the Dohuk governorate, where World Vision is providing much needed winterization items, including blankets, carpets, and tarps.

“We don’t need anything else…but please, just help us for winter,” pleads Wadha, a grandmother in Dohuk. Wadha and her family are living in the open, with only some plastic sheets, cardboard, and wooden pallets to protect them.

Her eldest son, Majdi,* 20, and daughter-in-law, Amina,* 18, welcomed their first baby three weeks ago. They have not yet named the infant girl. In a place where life is fragile, the family patiently waits because naming is contingent on survival, which for this baby is anything but guaranteed.

With a snowy winter approaching, they do not have appropriate clothing. And the plastic sheeting that brought them shade in the heat of summer will not be enough to protect them when temperatures drop below zero in this mountain town.

Thousands of families who fled the ongoing violence in the north have sought safe shelter in camps, building sites, and schools. Families are in dire need of blankets, clothing, improved sanitation, and hygiene kits. The country is also currently hosting 220,000 refugees from Syria, some of whom have now been displaced again within their host country.