Zahra, 8, Kadhim, 6, Hassan, 2

“It was around the time of the commemoration of the fortieth day after Imam Hussain’s martyrdom. My father took his car and went to go pick up some people and to take them to the city of Karbala. On the way, he got into a car accident and the car flipped over while he was inside, and he was killed, along with two other passengers.

We were forced to leave our home because we couldn’t afford the rent. Now we live in this mud house far away from people. We don’t even have clean water to drink. We don’t have enough money to buy clean water like other people.”

“My grandmother receives forty dollars every two months from the government and gives it to us. But most of the time she doesn’t have money to take a taxi to go and pick it up.

We don’t really go out. There’s nowhere to go. We wouldn’t be in this kind of situation if my father was still alive.”

“We used to own a piece of land. My father was working hard to try to build a house on it. We used to tell him what color we wanted our rooms to be and what kind of things we wanted to keep in them. But soon after his death, the families of the two people that passed away in the car accident with our father wanted us to compensate them for the death of their family members. They didn’t care that we were small children who had nothing but the land. They didn’t care that my mother had to support three small children all on her own. So, my mother sold the piece of land so she could pay them. They took the only thing we had.

“Now we live in an old army camp. The soldiers helped my mother build a mud house for us. I can’t sleep here because there are snakes and scorpions everywhere. The sound of the helicopters is always ringing in my head.  Sometimes it rains during the winter, and our house turns into mud. So, we stay and sleep outside. When the soldiers pass by, they give us a place to stay for one night, and they help us rebuild the mud house.

“My life has turned into a living hell. I don’t go to school. I don’t want anything in my life.

I just want to leave this camp. I just want to live in a normal home. There’s one thing that we really wish we had. We really want a TV so we can watch cartoons like other small children.

Sometimes I think about running away when I get a little older, but I don’t know where I’d go.” – Zahra

The above represents one of many orphan stories by victims in war-torn regions. Your support can make a difference for orphans like Zahra, Kadhim, and Hassan. Make a contribution today by clicking here.