Raed in the Middle

This is what one family (stationed in Amman, Jordan) is doing about the warfare on their homeland:

"Thursday, April 14, 2005
Third Batch Sent, Phase One Over

Today, I am announcing the end of Phase One of the Campaign: Emergency Aid for Civilian Victims in Iraq. My family and I started this campaign more than five months ago. Majed, my youngest brother, is the fund raising director. All the money was sent either to his paypal account, to his mail address, or to the bank account. My mom and my other brother, Khalid, were handling distribution inside Iraq. Niki and I were responsible of receiving money from Majed, buying medicines, and sending them to Baghdad. Rana and Rafat are my friends from Iraq, Rana has a registered Iraqi NGO and they helped us transfer the first batch. My aunt in Amman is a pharmacist, and she helped us buy medicines and transfer the second batch. Dr. Salam is a member of a registered Iraqi Ngo called “Doctors for Iraq”, he helped us in transferring the third batch and distributing it inside Iraq. The first batch was sent to AlGarma town near Fallujah, the Second and Third batched will be distributed this week. (I'll publish more pictures and papers of receipt from hospitals as soon as I get them)

The total amount of the donations is $18,343 USD, we spent $17,783 USD and still have $560 USD to be transferred to Phase Two. Out of the $17,783 USD, the total spent on secondary Items is around 5% (i.e. Taxes, Fines, Transportation, Money exchange and transaction fees), and the rest was for buying very important medicines to the Iraqi civilians in effected cities and towns under siege and bombing."


Left: Ashraf, our neighbour, after helping me move the boxes to my parents' place on the third floor...
Right: My mom was totally shocked when she woke up and found the house FULL of medicine boxes!!

Since this post was published Raed´s brother Khalim has been arrested in Baghdad, Iraq and the family doesn´t even know on what charges he is being held!

Read more about Raed and his family´s project, news (if any) of his brother and about his and his family´s thoughts on the war, in Raed´s blog: http://www.raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com, linking to the blogs of more family members.