This is the story of Iraq’s first private orphanage.
Iraqi Safe House
In the sectarian war that erupted after the 2003 American invasion, many Iraqi families were torn apart. The UN estimates that 870,000 children have lost one or both parents. The Iraqi government puts the number at 5 million.
After seeing how many ragged children lived in the streets of Baghdad, Hicham al-Dhahabi, then a street seller, decided to start “The Iraqi Safe House for Creativity” - an orphanage and school for boys with no viable families. “Outside the orphanage, murders were happening daily,” Tareq, a recent graduate says. “He was like a father and a mother to me.”
Street kids are prime targets for recruitment by criminals, militias and terror groups. “If they pay you 1,000 or 10,000 dinars, you’ll do what they ask because you have no other income,” Tareq adds. Since 2003, more than 150 boys have passed through the orphanage. Hicham al-Dhahabi’s motivation is clear: "We’ll reap what we’ve sown. You can't expect children who didn't have rights growing up to respect the rights of others".
