Swiss offer hope and help to Fallujah’s disabled

The city of Fallujah has been the scene of violent fighting between militias and Coalition forces Keystone

The Swiss development agency is pressing ahead with a rehabilitation centre for the disabled in Fallujah, despite ongoing violence in the Iraqi city.

Around 4,000 people in the area are thought to have disabilities as a result of the wars in Iraq.

Most aid projects have been put on hold because of the almost daily attacks and suicide bombings in Fallujah, according to Daniel Beyeler, coordinator for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in Iraq.

Beyeler, formerly based in Baghdad, has himself been moved to Amman in neighbouring Jordan for his own safety.

“We have had this project in the pipeline for quite some time,” he said, adding that its main purpose will be to offer medication and rehabilitation programmes for victims of war.

Nationwide network

The centre will be part of a network of rehabilitation centres, which the Iraqi Handicapped Society – a local non-governmental organisation – plans to set up around the country in the next few years.

Beyeler maintains that the long-term goal is to set up a rehabilitation centre for the disabled in each of the country’s 18 governorates.

Building work is due to start soon and will be carried out by local contractors. “The construction is a minor part of the project, because the building already exists,” Beyler explained.

He said the main challenges were logistical, and primarily concerned the distribution of medicine, because drugs that could not be obtained locally had to be imported from Jordan.

Challenge

“The major challenge will be to supply medicines and [to build] a small dental clinic,” he added.

The centre in Fallujah is expected to open within the next few months, offering medical services to the disabled.

“We expect that about 100-120 out of the 4,000 handicapped people living in this area will come to the centre for medicine and medical treatment every day.”

Fallujah – traditionally a Sunni Muslim stronghold – has been a hotbed of resistance and insurgency. It has been repeatedly bombarded by the United States Air Force over the past few weeks.

American-led coalition forces in Iraq maintain that militants linked to the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have entrenched themselves in the city, and are using it as a base to carry out their activities.

Iraqi doctors say hundreds of people have been killed in Fallujah over the past few weeks, as a result of ongoing fighting and US bombings.

Why Fallujah?

Beyeler said central Fallujah was chosen as the location for the rehabilitation centre – there is already one in Baghdad – because the SDC wanted to “give the people a little bit of hope”.

“We decided to get involved in Fallujah because nobody else helps those people in great need… and we want to assist war victims in getting their lives back on track and in reintegrating into society,” he explained.

After 13 years of sanctions and three wars, international aid agencies are struggling to help the shattered country back on to its feet.

But the worsening security situation has forced relief organisations to withdraw their international staff and the level of assistance has declined considerably.

Beyeler said that another project financed by the SDC – the reopening of two schools in Baghdad – had just come to an end, and that the agency was not planning to finance any new projects in Iraq in the near future.

swissinfo, Katalin Fekete

Key facts

The first rehabilitation centre for the disabled was opened in Baghdad in January.
The Fallujah centre will be staffed by five people, including a volunteer doctor.
Construction and start-up costs are expected to be SFr125,000.

In brief

Iraqis have endured three wars in the past two decades, as well as 13 years of sanctions.

The Iran-Iraq war lasted eight years in the 1980s, and was followed by the 1991 Gulf War, and the US-led invasion in 2003.

The Swiss development agency almost doubled its budget for Iraq last year to SFr8.1 million, and plans to spend another SFr8.3 million this year.