 | | Volume 11, No. 3 |
Winter 2008 |
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Helping Families in Baghdad’s Sadr City
  (Photo credit: IOCC Iraq) |
Baghdad, Iraq — IOCC recently provided food and emergency supplies to vulnerable families living in Sadr City, one of the poorest and most densely populated districts of Baghdad and the site of continuous heavy fighting between insurgents and multi-national forces. Through a $400,000 grant, awarded to IOCC by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), about 2,400 vulnerable individuals received high protein foods as well as hygiene supplies for at least three months. One in four children under five years of age in Iraq is chronically malnourished. The residents of Sadr City who benefitted from the distribution include low income families, single-headed households, orphans, the elderly, invalids, and internally displaced persons (IDPs). “The effects of war and the general economic slowdown exacerbated by 12 years of economic sanctions have adversely affected Iraq’s food security,” says George Antoun, IOCC’s Regional Director. More than 60% of Iraqi families are entirely dependent on the government’s food ration program, however, the Iraqi government has announced plans to end the program for some citizens this year. IOCC’s previous aid to Iraq included a distribution of food and hygiene supplies in early 2008 to 3,000 families living in Baghdad and Mosul.
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