February 1, 2016
The consequences of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq are deep and seemingly intractable, with enormous impact on the Iraqi people along with Syrians, Kurds, both Christians and Muslims alike. The continued and dramatic outcome of that war is reflected in the displacement of millions of people within the Middle East, along with the growing refugee stampede out of their homelands into Europe.
CRO continues to reach out to those refugees who have landed in California. We gather their stories and add them to the growing numbers on our U C Berkeley Library site, oskicat.berkeley.edu.
CRO Creates FIRST HAND REPORTING ON IRAQI REFUGEES IN CALIFORNIA. Most of us don’t experience first hand the tragedies the war brought. When CRO has the opportunity to interview someone who has been wounded and we can help, we do. Ahmed Al Kubaisi arrived in California 5 years ago. He was made paraplegic and wheelchair bound by an American bullet that injured his spinal cord. He was 14 years old. Ahmed miraculously made his way to the US. CRO organized an Indiegogo Campaign, indiegogo courage over tragedy, to raise funds for Ahmed’s rehabilitation. It is a successful ongoing campaign, raising $8000 toward state of the art physical therapy using robotic equipment. Ahmed continues to demonstrate growing strength and ability to function on his own.
A BOOK IS IN THE WORKS! In order to get our refugee stories to a wider public David Harris, http://www.davidharriswriter.com will be writing a book proposal based on our interviews. Ruth Friend who made the interviews is preparing the materials, creating transcriptions of interviews, and coordinating follow up interviews. We hope to be able to present a book proposal to a publisher within the year.
We are actively seeking a publisher to present our proposal to. If you can help us identify a publisher who would be interested in this work, please let us know. And, if you can donate toward the project we’d appreciate any contributions towards travel, transcribing and all the costs incurred by a project like this. We hope to raise $5,000.
GO TO THE DONATE BUTTON ON YOUR RIGHT
Thank you for your continued support.
Warmly,
Ruth Friend,
President CRO
