Sending peace to Iraq

[Johnny E]

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Sending peace to Iraq

Children help spread message of love, friendship

By DEBERA CARLTON HARRELL

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The Iraqi doctor sat on a corner of the stage, listening and smiling as Seattle grade-schoolers sang for the orphans of Baghdad.

We are children of peace. We are the children of the world.

But when they sang the words in Arabic, Enas Mohamed broke down. It was not just the lyrics, but the innocent faces smiling back.

Nah-nu awladdul salaam, Nah-nu awladdul aalaam.

Mohamed, a research coordinator at the University of Washington, cannot block her emotions when she thinks of friends and family still in Iraq, and the devastating effect of war on children there.

"When I see these beautiful faces, I remember the same thing in the faces of Iraqi children," Mohamed said Friday, after the students' bilingual performance.

Next week, Mohamed leaves for her hometown of Baghdad, where she'll be visiting children in hospitals and orphanages.

"They need so much love," she said. "When I arrive, I don't know where to start, which one to hug."

Mohamed will bring compassion beyond her own. She will take a videotape of the 200 Salmon Bay Elementary students singing peace songs in English and Arabic, along with the children's drawings and personal messages of goodwill. Mohamed is hoping to soften Iraqi hearts that she says have turned hard toward the United States.

"I feel so torn," she says. "As a doctor, life is so precious to me. When I live here, I see American lives and wonderful people. ... But Iraqis are not seeing the picture I am seeing.

"Many think Americans are greedy monsters who just want oil. I am trying to help them, especially children, see Americans the way I see them. I am thinking about the future."

It is particularly difficult for thousands of orphaned children, Mohamed said, whose only association with Americans is through soldiers or occasional relief workers.

Mary K. McNeill, an artist in residence with Seattle Public Schools, wrote one of the taped songs, "We Are the Children of the World," with students five years ago to help them deal with post-9/11 trauma.

McNeill said she asked the kids to think about "their deepest hope" and "what connects all the children of the world?"

Singing -- and peace -- emerged as "something we could share," McNeill said.

"It had to be something universal," she said. "Our humanity is a shared humanity."

A mutual friend hooked up McNeill and Mohamed, who thought the same song could help traumatized Iraqi children.

In a videotaped message translated into Arabic by Mohamed, Salmon Bay fifth-grader Bailey Nurmia said: "Hi, my name's Bailey. It must be really hard when you've lost so much. I wish peace for you and that the war will end."

Rachel Berner-Hays, 10, said, "Once it's over, I hope we get to be friends."

And classmate Eliza Baumeister added: "I feel really bad for you that you have to live through this. When the war is over, I'd like to meet you and shake your hand."

Mohamed said there is no doubt in her mind that the messages will give Iraqi children hope.

"When they hear these songs, they will feel the love and friendship," she said. "And these drawings, I know, they will put them under their pillows."

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FOR MORE INFORMATION

www.childrensingforpeace.org

For an audio clip of the singing, go to blog.seattlepi.nwsource .com/audio/wearechildrenofpeace.mp3

Edited June 10, 2006 by Johnny E