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Iraqi Kurdistan Gov't KRG failing to
protect elderly 9.6.2012
By Ruwayda Mustafah Rabar, Kurdish Rights |
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Khadija Rasul and Mohammed Mustafa Mawlud . Photo:
Ruwayda Mustafah Rabar.
June
9, 2012
ERBIL-Hewlęr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — The Kurdish Regional
Government (KRG) is failing to protect many elderly
Kurds from neglect, abuse and fraud. They are often
neglected in poor regions, sometimes by their own
families and have no avenues to turn to. I visited
one of the poor regions in the Hewler [Erbil]
province known as Gilkand. The roads were narrow,
bumpy, dirty and neglected. The couple I visited
could not read, or write. Khadija Rasul and Mohammed
Mustafa Mawlud lived in a one-bedroom house, built
with bricks, with no electricity or air conditioner.
The weather is currently 30°C and will become more
hot soon.
Mawlud was listening to his radio, with sweat
rolling down his forehead and face. Khadija welcomed
us inside, and talked about her life,www.ekurd.net
hardships and lack of assistance they have received.
The couple lived in the Gilkand region, and without
children. Khadija said, “We have no one to look
after us. We don’t even know how to get the air
conditioner to work”. She said locals have donated
things to her family, and that she is often too shy
to ask for their help, and would rather die than
beg.
Although Mawlud and Khadija could not read or write,
they had a mobile phone, but didn’t know their own
number or how to use it. KRG needs to have a scheme
to protect elderly people from neglect, to set-up
institutions that monitor the health and surrounding
of those who are above the age of 60, and to pay for
their carers.
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