Empowering citizens Engaging governments Rebuilding communities

Regarded as Iraq’s preeminent facility for
the treatment of communicable diseases,
the Ibn Zuhr Hospital was the country’s only
hospital with specialized equipment and staff
trained to treat patients with HIV or AIDS
mobilizer, the group set about identifying and ranking
needs to develop program proposals. They then
worked with IRD to put together a realistic implementation
plan for projects that the group could organize
and fund through their own resources. The projects
ranged from small neighborhood cleanups to work on
a much larger scale, like the restoration of facilities
at their renowned but war-damaged neighborhood
hospital.
Regarded as Iraq’s preeminent facility for the treatment
of communicable diseases, the Ibn Zuhr Hospital
was the country’s only hospital with specialized
equipment and staff trained to treat patients with HIV
or AIDS. During 2003, looters stole vital equipment,
supplies, and drugs. They also started fires, smashed
windows, and damaged equipment. After the looting,
some hospital staff set out on their own to restore the
facility’s capabilities by scrounging medical equipment
from other Baghdad locations and, in some
cases, purchasing supplies with their own money.
The destruction of the hospital was a bitter blow to
the community’s residents, who not only viewed the
hospital’s work as a source of pride but also relied on
the facility to provide emergency room services and
primary healthcare. The Ibn Zuhr community group
designated the restoration of the hospital, a vital
piece of the community’s infrastructure, as its top
priority.
Group members met with hospital staff to determine
the most urgent needs and worked with mobilizers to
develop a proposal. ICAP provided the hospital with
much needed equipment, such as diagnostic tools
and machinery for sterilizing medical instruments. For
the community contribution, the Ministry of Health
provided the hospital with additional equipment and
office furniture. At the same time, group members
developed their own project to dovetail with the
ICAP-backed project. Canvassing the neighborhood,
members raised donations and signed volunteers to
repaint rooms and make basic carpentry repairs. Using
equipment donated from local businesses, volunteer
electricians repaired the hospital’s damaged electrical
system, not only restoring its functionality but also
bringing the wiring up to international standards.
The enterprising Ibn Zuhr community group, continuing
its independent work, soon created its own NGO
to provide assistance to the disabled. Relying solely
on community donations, the newly formed NGO
began providing clothing, wheelchairs, and medical
care to hundreds of disabled children living in the
Mada’en district. Members contacted IRD for ongoing
guidance on projects and fundraising strategies,
while mobilizers continued to provide capacity development
support. “Those residents didn’t wait for
someone from outside their community to tell them
what they needed or how to proceed,” said Ernest
Leonardo, the chief of party for ICAP. “They took the
initiative to organize themselves and to get to work.
This kind of grassroots activism is at the heart of
civil society.”
The Ibn Zuhr community group exemplified the positive
outcomes that a program like ICAP, intended to
reengage citizens through stronger civil society, can
achieve. Just as impressive was the commitment
of the Ibn Zuhr group to restoring order even as the
larger societal fabric in the Mada’en district began
to unravel. On April 20, 2005, less than a year after
the formation of the Ibn Zuhr action group, 57 bodies
were fished from the Tigris River downstream of
Mada’en; residents said that hundreds more were in
the water. Days before that discovery, insurgents had
taken control of Mada’en district streets, and the local
government reported 150 Shia men and women had
been kidnapped. 6 The evidence pointed to a systematic
killing believed to have taken place over several
months, during the same time that Ibn Zuhr residents
and IRD staff had been taking steps to rebuild the
area’s civic pride and functionality.
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Building community trust
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