Helping Mohammed
There was quite a response to our Unreported World film last friday with the Baghdad Bomb Squad. Many viewers got in touch asking specifically about Mohammed Jabbar and whether there was a way to help him. And now there is – through the British bomb disposal charity Felix Fund who have set up a Just Giving page for Mohammed and men like him.
As his friend Rawad told us during our filming Mohammed was always poor, and the other members of the unit are on ordinary, modest police salaries so cannot help. Money could change Mohammed’s life in two ways – with his need for prosthetic limbs and his general living situation.
He told us that he would have to survive, and theoretically support his wife, kids and mother on a meagre police pension of around $200 a month. The cost of living in Baghdad is high – don’t be under any illusions that money goes much further over there than it does here. It isn’t Africa or Asia.
When it comes to prosthetics he says he has been given a “take it or leave it” by the medics the state paid for – and the heavy plastic leg is uncomfortable and painful. Getting new, electronic, hi-tech limbs is very expensive and probably not practical given the conditions Mohammed lives in. They also need maintenance which means difficult travel abroad. But there are modern quite simple prosthetic limbs which are not too complicated or expensive and which are much better than the device he has at the moment. That is a more realistic possibility. Even then it is unlikely Mohammed will ever get a usable prosthetic arm – experts here say they take much more complicated fitting and therapy to be useful. But a leg at least would, as Mohammed put it, allow him to walk with his kids and possibly let him get some sort of work.
As for compensation from the state it was something Mohammed’s commanding officers at the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit base clearly felt awkward about. Although they said they still had hopes that a payment would one day be forthcoming it was clear those hopes were not high. And When I asked the government spokesman Ali Dabbagh why injured officers go uncompensated he bluntly said Iraq has many priorities and cannot afford to make payments to every injured person – even those who lost limbs while saving the lives of others.
Follow Krishnan on Twitter @krishgm
There are 4 comments on this post
Maybe Mrs Trump or Mrs Sugar or any other Mrs Rich Husband could give the money she spends on her nails being done every month to help men like him? I was very touched by Mohanned Jabbar’s testimony.
Thanks for finding this so people can donate by what seems a very sensible route. It must be hard for you to see these things but at least you can bring these forgotten and neglected stories to public attention. Unreported world does this outstandingly well.
The thing to remember is that until things change drastically there will be many Mohammed’s. Iraq has the ability, through oil, to be as rich and developed as the Emirates and Qatar. However – western “democracy” has just produced a ruling class who are busy lining their own pockets whilst ignoring the needs of the people. 9 years after war and invasion Baghdad citizens STILL only have electricity for a few hours a day. The country isn’t moving forward, and we in the west must accept a lot of the blame as we caused this by invading in 2003.
Yes, Saddam was a despot and tyrant, but culturally Arabs respond better to a single ruler, either benign and well advised, or autocratic in a more severe way, than they do to democracy. For those of us who work in Iraq and see this everyday it comes as no surprise to see both the struggle of these guys, that Krishnan accompanied, to make a difference, and the resistance of the authorities to admit (by stopping filming and clearing up quickly) that there is a problem. In Iraq perception is everything, facing facts and dealing with the truth come a lot lower down the list.
In years to come, when the Oil rich Kurdish North breaks away to form it’s own fully independent Republic and Kurdish homeland (it is developing exponentially faster than the Arabic southern 2/3′s of Iraq already), the rest of the country will just tear itself apart unless things change drastically. But there’s no sign of that happening any time soon.
Contrary to popular and sometimes jingoistic belief, this will eventually be proven to NOT be the UK / US’s finest hour.
We seek refuge in allah from self distruction and blame game.
The concept and idias of Haram & Hallal may not have been limited to meat products.
Every sane person could be saddened by feud the in complex dimentions.
Had there been to concept of democracy in its varying modes; the vivid example would have been seen in this remeniss.