By Sanjay Suri
LONDON, Apr 13 2004 (IPS)

The violence rocking Iraq is hurting no one more than the weakest sections in the country.

Voluntary work has come to near standstill, and work that is still continuing is becoming difficult to monitor or control.

Major charity organisations that had stepped in eagerly to carry out much needed relief work following the invasion of Iraq began to pull out after the bomb blast at the UN headquarters in Baghdad in September last year. Now skeleton services that remained have been shaken.

"We put a stop on sending non-Iraqi staff into the region soon after the UN building was destroyed," Dominic Nutt from the charity Christian Aid told IPS. "That embargo has been reinforced in light of the recent events."

Christian Aid has been working since then through Iraqi organisations and other organisations linked to their charity, Nutt said. "But we have problems monitoring our work, and so that makes it very difficult for us."

The related organisations have been engaged in educational, humanitarian and human rights work, Nutt said. The organisation had begun to develop its work in the south after working actively in the Kurdish areas up north for the past ten years. But the new efforts made by the group are now jeopardised.

The major charity Oxfam also withdrew its international staff months ago because of the security situation. "We still have local staff working to provide water pumps and clean water in several areas," a spokesman for Oxfam told IPS. But the development work is a fraction of what Oxfam would have liked to do.

Oxfam is also providing funding to local agencies and other groups engaged in charity and developmental work within Iraq. The spokesman declined to offer details in view of the security situation.

Charity and security evidently need to go together. Several major charity organisations never found Iraq safe enough even from day one. ActionAid took a political stand supporting a strong role for the United Nations, but did not put staff in on the ground.

Tearfund, another major British charity, chose not to work within Iraq. "We are not working through any partners in Iraq either," a spokeswoman for the charity said.

One of the busiest charities working within Iraq, Care International, is struggling to keep up its work.

"Obviously our work is made more difficult in the situation, and we have to keep a very low profile," a spokesman for Care International told IPS. "Our staff are continuing as best as they can."

Care International continues to run its office in Baghdad. Its staff there are all Iraqi nationals. "We do not want to publicise their work too much," the spokesman said.

Several of the projects Care International has taken on had started before the war.

These include water and sanitation projects in 14 governorates in central and southern Iraq. A well-developed project has been set up to improve the quality and availability of water in Diyala governorate. The charity has also taken up water projects in several towns within Iraq.

The group is continuing to provide emergency medical supplies to hospitals through its medical staff.

But after the attacks on the UN headquarters and on the Red Cross, the very act of doing good has become dangerous. Few major charities are now entering Iraq even indirectly.

Cafod, a Catholic relief agency, is one of few charities that says it has actually stepped up work in the face of the violence.

"We are engaged in considerable work through our partner Caritas Iraq," a spokeswoman for Cafod told IPS. Caritas Iraq is running its relief operations mainly through Oman.

The organisation is also working with other partners in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon for a broader regional response, according to a statement from Cafod.

Its programmes in Iraq involve "long-term reconstruction and development of local villages and school systems, as well as a nationwide supplemental feeding program targeting children and women."

But the increased violence is inevitably jeopardising many of these plans as well.

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