We’ve often posted news here about the involvement of Ruth Group and Iraq Action Group in a No More Victims project to bring 2 year old Mustafa Ghazwan to the Bay Area for a cochlear implant. A U.S. bomb near his home in Iraq destroyed his hearing and after much work by No More Victims and local fundraising he will be arriving in July. The funds being raised, services donated by UCSF doctors, the implant company and many others are the response of one extended community to heal some of the war’s damage.

We are not alone. No More Victims has projects in many communities, including the Boston area. They’ve forwarded this news clip about 5-year-old Omar Mahmoud, the child they are helping recover from severe burns suffered when US troops opened up on the car he was traveling in. He lost his mother, and almost his own life.

From the clip: “Sabah Kadir, Omar’s father: My whole family was devastated by what happened, and the most devastating thing, was losing my wife.

He heard the driver screaming, ‘we’ve been hit, we’ve been hit.’ They’d been hit by U.S. forces – a convoy had opened fire on the car. Omar’s father was hit twice in the back trying to rescue him. He got Omar out of the car, but couldn’t rescue Omar’s mother, who burned to death in the car.”

More pictures and history of Omar from the Boston Group.

We are so strengthened to be joining other groups like these, all in their own ways helping their communities to help those who have lost so much in the war. The Bay Area project will be working on a short film about Mustafa when he comes, trying to build on the good work done all over the country, and to connect many more to the necessary work of the years ahead.

You can still contribute time, money and talent to the Marin effort. Contact Amy Skewes-Cox (amysc@rtasc.com).