German Doctors Bid to Help Iraq's Traumatized Youth

The images of the stature of Saddam Hussein being toppled by allied forces in Baghdad might have signaled the of most fighting in Iraq, but the humanitarian battle in the Gulf is only just beginning.

Aid agencies are already racing to restore basic services in the region and the U.S. plans to set aside €86 billion ($95 billion) in aid over the next two years for the reconstruction of Iraq. The International Red Cross has also now set up a special tracing unit set up by the International Red Cross to help Iraqis find missing family members and trace Iraqi prisoners of war.

Now German doctors want to add to the humanitarian effort and build a special treatment center for the rehabilitation of Iraqi children and their parents who have been the victims of torture under Hussein's dictatorial regime.

The planned center, which will cost around €1 million to build and run for three years is a joint initiative of International Physicians Against Nuclear War (IPNWW) and the Berlin Treatment Center for Torture Victims.

The center's initiator, Salah Ahmed, is now looking for the funding needed to start the project. A spokesperson for IPNWW told DW-WORLD: "The big problem at the moment is finding the money, of course. But Salah says, once he has the money, he'll leave for Baghdad the next day."

The center will offer children to chance to talk about their trauma in group therapy sessions attended by parents and school teachers.

In addition, IPNNW wants to send 12 trained psychotherapists to the Baghdad as well as to the cities of Basra and Kirkuk to train Iraqi health workers to treat psychologically damaged children.

Iraq's traumatized children

Many Iraqi children have been severely scarred by living under Saddam's regime, according to a recent survey carried out in Iraq by psychologists.

The report -- the first study on the emotional health of Iraqi children since 1991 -- found that half of the 317 children questioned had regular nightmares and difficulties sleeping. Around 40 percent said they felt their life was not worth living.

Ahmed says the need to help is great.

"First the Iran-Iraq war for ten years, then the first Gulf war, then the second Gulf war, and eleven years of (U.N.) sanctions. There are children who were born at the start of all this and are now 21 years old and have been constantly traumatized throughout their lives," Salah Ahmed, an Iraqi-born family therapist from the Berlin Center for Trauma Victims, told DW-WORLD.

"If this generation is not supported, chaos and anarchy and lawlessness will be the result," he said.