Empowering citizens Engaging governments Rebuilding communities

IRD’s health advisor referred Omar
Mohammad Abas to a hospital that specialized
in treating amputees, where he was fitted
with an artificial leg and underwent an
intensive five‐week physical therapy program
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Building community trust
advisory council, the local governing authority. In doing
so, the group learned of an effort to provide needy
families with cooking oil and propane. But that effort
had not been extended to Al Bir due to the lack of
municipal capacity—simply put, the local government
had no way to distribute the goods. So the citizen
group responded, first by conducting a house-by-house
needs assessment, then organizing a distribution
network consisting of donated warehouse space and
vehicles staffed by volunteers. Once the network
was in place, the community action group developed
a distribution schedule and a publicity campaign to
inform residents about the program.
Through the community action group, IRD helped put
individual citizens directly in touch with government
leaders. Even tenuous links between public and
private interests, IRD believed, would help citizens
regain trust in their local political system and open
doors to broader improvements in the physical and
social infrastructure. The Al Bir group, for instance,
had a broad impact. In addition to helping distribute
cooking materials, it also helped coordinate a public
health campaign to provide safe and sanitary circumcisions
for young boys. IRD assisted the group in
organizing qualified practitioners and nurses to come
directly to families’ homes and perform the operation
free of charge. The program proved very popular in
the community: it was both low cost, and it improved
local capacity to deliver health and social services,
especially for children.
With Iraq’s essential services in poor shape even
before the 2003 invasion, community action group
members placed their greatest priority on initiatives
that would, among other things, revitalize roads,
schools, medical facilities, sports facilities, sewage
systems, and electricity delivery. Even with the
improvements needed for services like water treatment
and power supply, more than a third of the
economic and social infrastructure budget was
directed to school rehabilitation. A total of 278 school
projects were completed through the infrastructure
component. But with so much work to be done and
so many people in need, program components often
overlapped. Years into the conflict, Iraq’s Ministry of
Education built a school in the Sadr district for 500
children orphaned by the war. But the ministry did
not have money to purchase generators, computers,
or administrative supplies. After being contacted by
the local community action group, IRD furnished the
school with its missing equipment through ICAP’s
Assistance to Civilian Victims (ACV) program.
Addressing the needs of innocent victims
Omar Mohammad Abas, an Iraqi university student,
was standing outside his family’s home in May 2003,
when a gunner on an American Humvee opened fire.
Abas was not the intended target, but the gunfire
struck him in the left leg. His injury was severe, and
doctors were forced to amputate above his left knee.
Almost two years later, in February 2005, the community
action group representing Abas’s neighborhood
brought his story to the attention of IRD mobilizers.
IRD’s health advisor referred Abas to a hospital that
specialized in treating amputees, where he was fitted
with an artificial leg and underwent an intensive fiveweek
physical therapy program.
IRD financed Abas’s treatment and prosthetic leg with
ACV funds. Launched during ICAP’s second year, the
civilian assistance program was conceived as a way
to provide relief for Iraqi civilians who were harmed as
a direct result of US military operations. The congressionally
earmarked funds were intended to benefit a
wide range of Iraqis, from individual citizens to large
families to entire communities. Projects were divided
into a number of categories—community-based activities
included reconstructing or expanding local civil
services, such as orphanages, hospitals, or centers
for the disabled; rebuilding or refurbishing individual
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