OWFI, our partners in Iraq, have discovered hundreds of children in the town of Haweeja born with birth defects and suffering from alarming rates of cancer. Evidence points to a US military dump one mile from the center of town, where for years, radioactive munitions have been detonated.

The US may be leaving Iraq, but we want our sisters there to know that we will not abandon them.

In Haweeja, MADRE’s prepared to meet the immediate medical needs of children. And MADRE and OWFI will work together to compile evidence of responsibility for these families’ needless suffering and demand accountability.

Turn your Outrage into Action

We’ve created the Haweeja Action Team to support our Iraqi sisters and their families. We want the families of Haweeja to know that MADRE stands with them. We hope you’ll stand with us, too.

Join the Haweeja Action Team by signing on to the message of support below. Tell our sisters in Iraq that they, and their families, are not alone.

By joining the Action Team, you will become a part of a critical circle of support. As we move forward, you’ll also receive updates from Haweeja, more opportunities to demand justice, and access to phone calls with our partners in Iraq.

Add your name to the message below – and share this with your friends. The more names on the message, the more the mothers of Haweeja feel our support.

To the Mothers of Haweeja

To our sisters:

We stand with you in your fight for justice from the terrible repercussions of war.

As MADRE members, we will call for an investigation of the health crisis in your community and demand accountability from the US government.

We stand with you for peace and justice and a healthy, happy future for your children.

In friendship,

-Name

Click here to sign the message of support and join the Haweeja Action Team.

For more about MADRE’s work in Haweeja, click here.

MADRE and OWFI, our partner organization in Iraq, have begun to uncover the devastating impacts of the war on women and families in the town of Haweeja. The harsh aftermath of living in a war zone has already been well-documented in Fallujah.

Keep reading to learn about the crises in Fallujah and Haweeja, just two communities among many still reeling from the war, and what MADRE is doing to help.

Fallujah: a growing health crisis

The site of intense anti-insurgency fighting in 2004, Fallujah experienced extensive damage, casualties and displacement.

But the catastrophe did not stop there. Since 2004, families in Fallujah, as in Haweeja, have suffered alarming rates of cancers in children and birth defects, including missing limbs and severe brain damage.

The war decimated health care services throughout Iraq. The hospitals that remain are under-resourced and struggle to meet the overwhelming need. As a result, many Iraqis still lack access to essential care. In Fallujah, this has made the crisis even more debilitating for children and their families. 

Evidence is mounting that birth defects in Fallujah may have been caused by weaponry used in US attacks.

The US military admitted to using white phosphorous, a chemical weapon. The US is also suspected to have used depleted uranium, a highly toxic and radioactive metal, in its arsenal of weapons.

In fact, research has shown high levels of radiation and environmental contamination throughout Iraq.

Despite this evidence, the US and Iraqi governments have done little to address this growing health crisis. Now the US is withdrawing from Iraq. As the troops leave, and US commitment to the country wanes, it is the children, mothers and families of Iraq who suffer most.

Haweeja: the crisis spreads

The situation in Fallujah is well-documented. But in the impoverished town of Haweeja, a crisis is emerging—and the parallels are foreboding.

An alarming increase in birth defects and child cancers in Haweeja has worsened the suffering of an already strained community.

A young mother in Haweeja told us of her daughter, Mina. She cannot walk and is in constant pain. Through tears, her mother told us that the only time Mina looks at peace is when she is sleeping. Mina’s mother knows that without medical care or mobility devices, her daughter’s future is grim.

MADRE is working with OWFI to help meet the immediate health care needs of children like Mina by providing medicine, mobility equipment, counseling and more.

We are also searching for answers—for Mina and other children in similar or worse condition. Families point to a nearby munitions dump used by the US military. For years, US soldiers detonated ammunition and explosives in an open field just one mile from the center of town.

The US may be leaving Iraq, but MADRE will not abandon our sisters. At MADRE, we understand the long-lasting and devastating effects that war has on families and their communities. We know you do, too.

In Haweeja, we are prepared to fight with our sisters for the long haul. We will meet the immediate needs of mothers and their children. And we will work with OWFI to compile evidence of responsibility for these families’ needless suffering and demand accountability.

Learn more

Donate to support MADRE's work in Haweeja 

After a severe storm, flooding and landslides can wash tents and homes away and spread water-borne disease like cholera. MADRE is organizing an emergency response—join us.

We are collecting donations for plastic sheeting, food aid, water jugs, broad-spectrum antibiotics, water treatment to prevent cholera outbreaks and other emergency relief.

Our partners at KOFAVIV know how to reach the most vulnerable people in the community with urgent aid supplies. And they have a strong history of sustaining their communities through disaster, from the devastation of the earthquake to the outbreaks of cholera. You can give them the tools they need to respond quickly and effectively.

By working with grassroots groups, we can get urgent aid into the hands of people who need it most. Please donate today.

UPDATE - August 28: Our partners at KOFAVIV visited the displacement camps, took pictures of the destruction and sent us these updates.

We would like to extend our most heartfelt congratulations to you on being awarded the Women's World Summit Foundation's Prize for Women's Creativity in Rural Life!

This award marks an important stride in generating visibility to the powerful work you are moving forward in 115 marginalized indigenous communities along the Coco River in the North Atlantic Coast in Nicaragua.

The programs you developed through Wangki Tangni to meet the immediate needs of these local indigenous communities while also promoting women’s empowerment, the preservation of traditional values, and agricultural food security are both innovative and effective and continue to serve as an inspiration to MADRE. Your tireless hard work and dedication is an integral and vital force in the promotion of women’s human rights that sets an example for everyone to follow.

Together, we continue our work for a world where human rights are a reality for everybody. We support you and are honored to work with you.

Sincerely,
MADRE

By Yifat Susskind

“They are among the most marginalized people, suffering at the hands of governments playing political games with their lives. In my travels to Cuba and Palestine, I have seen this firsthand.”

***

“Blockade” and “embargo” are just words, bureaucratic jargon. But they represent very real policies being enacted and supported by the US that are devastating the lives of women, children, and families in Palestine and Cuba.

The suffering caused by these blockades and embargoes is often invisible to many—but not to me, nor to any of us at MADRE, an international women’s human rights organization. That’s because our partners are directly impacted by these policies. They are among the most marginalized people, suffering at the hands of governments playing political games with their lives. In my travels to Cuba and Palestine, I have seen this firsthand.

In Cuba, a small boy with lymphoblastic leukemia is denied US-made drugs that could save his life. He may be the next victim of the shameful US embargo: left untreated, this type of leukemia is fatal in two to three months. Cuba has created a medical system that is a model for the world, putting people’s right to health first. But the embargo bars Cuban doctors and nurses from accessing the medicines they need to save lives.

In Gaza, Palestine, a mother rushes her four-year-old daughter to the hospital. The girl struggles to breathe through a violent cough. But because of the years-long Israeli blockade, which keeps vital supplies out of Gaza, the emergency treatment she needs is missing. Red tape and military barriers stand between her and life-saving care in Israel. To her mother’s horror, the little girl dies.

Tragedies like these are all too common throughout Cuba and Palestine—and these are the stories that I hear from our sisters in both places. While the two countries may seem, at first glance, to have little in common, both have been cut off by embargoes and blockades that limit their access to urgent medical care. Their people have suffered needless, avoidable sickness and death as a result.

MADRE has seized a historic opportunity to make an incredible difference. We’ve located a US-based intermediary licensed to ship medications directly to Gaza, bypassing the usual bureaucracy and red tape, and we’ve been able to renew our government-issued license to send humanitarian aid to Cuba, which we lost because of embargo restrictions.

And, because of MADRE’s unique model of partnership with grassroots women, we already have sister organizations at the ready, prepared to immediately deploy the supplies to doctors, hospitals, and most importantly, the patients who need them most. In this moment, we have the opportunity to save thousands of lives, to overcome damaging politics and reach out to the real people whose suffering has been the result of red-tape and bureaucracy.

MADRE already has a strong track record of helping women and families in both Cuba and Palestine. Until we lost our license to ship humanitarian aid to Cuba because of embargo restrictions, we helped ship millions of dollars-worth of medicines to hospitals there.

For years, we’ve worked with our Palestinian and Israeli partners who have counted on MADRE and our supporters to help them work for peace. In Gaza, hospitals depleted by the blockade have few medical supplies to provide life-saving care. Our support will equip them with urgent medical aid, including sterilization kits, needles, anesthetics and blood for transfusions.

The dollars we raise and the support we send will translate directly into nutritional supplements, antibiotics and vital medical supplies. They’ll become medicines to treat meningitis, cystic fibrosis, asthma, pneumonia and childhood cancer. They’ll buy gauze and latex gloves, and provide missing parts for neonatal respirators, incubators, infusion pumps and pediatric needles that often mean the difference between life and death to sick children.

It’s a simple issue: denying life-saving medicines to children and families is cruel and unethical — and should not be considered a “policy option.” We know what to do to help alleviate the suffering of those trapped behind the blockades. And we know how to do it: by providing urgent humanitarian aid and by advocating to change harmful policies.

What do these places have in common? They have both been cut off by embargoes and blockades that limit their access to urgent medical care.

We want our partners to know that we still stand with them, after all these years. So, even as we’re organizing a campaign of humanitarian aid, we’re also sending these letters of support.

MADRE has always stood against embargoes that hurt women and families. We are recommitting ourselves to ending destructive US policies against Cuba and Palestine. We hope you’ll stand with us.

Tell our sisters in Cuba and Palestine that they are not alone. Add your name to the letters below – and share this with your friends. The more names on the letter, the more our partners feel our support.

To Cuba

To our sisters:

For far too long – more than 40 years – you have borne the burden of the harmful US embargo. You have been prevented from purchasing urgently needed medicine, with grave consequences for you and your families.

We denounce the embargo, and we call on the US Administration to reverse that policy immediately. We pledge to keep up the pressure and to stand with you, our partners and friends in Cuba, as you fight to promote health and human rights.

Click here to sign.

To Palestine (Gaza)

To our sisters:

We stand with you, as you work to end the blockade of Gaza that threatens the health and safety of your families and communities. No mother should see her child die for lack of medical care, and we grieve with every mother who has.

This conflict will not be solved through policies that isolate and undermine communities and that violate human rights. We promise to keep up our work, in partnership with you, to bring an end to the blockade. 

Click here to sign.

For more insight about MADRE’s work in Cuba and Palestine, click the links below:

• Cuba
• Palestine

On a quiet evening in July 2008, Betty Gonzalez received an alarming phone call. Through the cackle of the phone’s static, a menacing voice informed her that her daughter Rosemary had been kidnapped. The anonymous messenger warned her against calling the police—and then swiftly hung up.

Betty immediately reported Rosemary’s kidnapping to the local authorities. They dismissed her concerns and refused to begin the investigation until 24 hours after Rosemary was reported missing. When the investigation commenced the following day, their efforts were half-hazard and mocking.

Betty’s worst fears were confirmed several months later, when Rosemary’s battered body was found. The Guatemalan Public Ministry did not investigate her death nor prosecute any suspects. Elizabeth is still fighting for justice.

Rosemary’s case is not unique. Throughout Guatemala, women and girls face widespread violence, sexual assault and discrimination. A staggering 99% of femicide cases go unprosecuted, creating a climate that perpetuates violence against women.

MADRE has been part of a crucial effort to reclaim women’s human rights in Guatemala.

Together with our partners, we presented a report before the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations on violations of women’s human rights in Guatemala. The report focused on violence against women and highlighted the following points:

• Femicide
• Gender-based violence
• Violence and political discrimination against Indigenous women
• Violence against women in prisons
• Human rights violations within maquilas (sweatshops)

Ana Ceto, a leader of our sister organization in Guatemala, traveled to New York to testify before the committee. In her testimony, she elaborated on the discrimination that Indigenous women face and offered recommendations to ensure that their rights are protected.

In response to the testimony and report, the Committee concluded that Indigenous women face a triple discrimination—based on social origin, race and gender—and urged that all necessary measures to allow for access to justice be taken. The concluding observations handed down by the Committee closely echoed the concerns raised and recommendations proposed by MADRE and Ana Ceto.

This is a huge victory for Rosemary, Betty and our partners. For years, they have worked tirelessly to give a voice to Guatemalan women. Finally, it seems like someone is listening.

Growing Crisis: Violence against Women’s Rights Activists and Journalists in Mexico

Join MADRE and fellow activists for a conversation July 18th

 New York, NY— As representatives from around the world gather for the 30^th Anniversary of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), JASS (Just Associates), MADRE, the Hague Appeal for Peace and the Center for Constitutional Rights invite you to a conversation with five women’s rights leaders from Mexico and Costa Rica on:

Courageous Responses to a Growing Crisis: Violence against Women Human Rights Defenders & Journalists in Mexico 

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

1:00-3:30pm 

at

Church Center for the United Nations

777 United Nations Plaza, 10^th Floor Conference Room

New York, NY

Please RSVP to Natalia Escruceria (natalia@justassociates.org)

Before delivery, the midwife alerted MADRE to activate the Afghan Women’s Survival Fund. With our support, the underground escape network sprang into action. Moments after the girl was born, a male activist waiting nearby in a car whisked Giti away to a nearby safe house. This heroic driver risked his life by posing as Giti’s male relative (it’s required by custom that a woman only be in a car with a male who is a relative) as well as by aiding in her escape.

MADRE members were right there with them as they made their way to freedom. Your gifts provided fuel for the car, medical help, clothing, diapers and necessities for the baby, cell phones, funds for safe emergency housing and so many other costs needed to coordinate covert escape.

MADRE also helped Giti’s baby come into the world safely through our support of “safe birth” medical kits containing basic supplies that our midwife partners urgently need. Afghan maternal mortality rates are the second highest in the world!

The good news is that Giti and her baby girl are now living in a safe place in the capital city of Kabul. Our partners will see that she and her baby have the means to start a new life. We want all our stories to end this well.

Read more about the conditions women face in Afghanistan.

Keep reading for more information about the threats women face, and what we’re doing about it.

Violence against Women: 

Afghanistan remains one of the most dangerous places on earth to be a woman.

“Honor killing,” marital rape and domestic violence, among other forms of abuse, is widespread and deeply entrenched in notions of traditional gender roles. It is estimated that one in three Afghan women experience physical, psychological or sexual abuse.

These women are systematically denied access to their basic human rights, including education, healthcare and freedom of movement. For example, cultural practice forbids a woman to travel outside the home without a male relative, making it nearly impossible to escape life-threatening abuse.

In these situations, Afghan women have little chance to live a life free from violence.

Maternal Health:

Afghanistan is also one of the worst places to be a mother. With one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, a woman in Afghanistan dies from child birth every 27 minutes.

A majority of these deaths are preventable, but barriers stand in the way of Afghan women’s access to health care services, such as pre- and post-natal care:

• Cultural preference dictates that a woman be treated by women, despite a scarcity of trained female health workers.
• In rural Afghanistan, the nearest clinic could be hundreds of miles away, too far to reach in an emergency.

As a consequence, only 16 percent of Afghan women receive prenatal care, and only 14 percent of births in Afghanistan are supervised by skilled health attendants. Unsurprisingly, Afghanistan’s health record is among the worst in the world.

How MADRE Helps:

While the status of Afghan women’s health remains dire, the recent rise in midwifery throughout the country has proven essential in improving the health—physical, mental and social—of women in Afghanistan.

MADRE recognizes the unique opportunity offered by a midwife’s access to the intimate spaces of women’s lives that are often hidden away from public view. For a woman trapped in an abusive and violent situation, her midwife is one of the few people she can open up to about the dangers she faces.

Through expanding our Afghan Women’s Survival Fund, an underground rescue network where women who are threatened with violence can covertly escape to safety, MADRE has newly partnered with a network of midwives to help identify at risk women.

The midwives, who themselves must remain anonymous throughout this process for their own safety, can now activate the Fund to connect abused women to resources and aid them to safety. Our Fund covers the costs of emergency medical care, food, shelter, transportation, clothing and other personal effects for women to escape.

Midwives do more than deliver babies—they give women a chance at a healthy life, safe from violence. When we support midwives, we help to clear that path to safety.

To support the Afghan Women’s Survival Fund, click here.