Humanitarian Aid

picture taken from inside of a blackhawk helicopter by David Fulton

Friends;

My life continues to be interesting. As many of you know I have long been interested in impacting the Iraqi civilian population. In order to do that I have been visiting with folk in the CA (Civil Affairs) community of the Army. One bright young Captain (I will not name people in something posted online for security reasons) understood my vision. She offered to fly me to a truly poor area of Iraq that is run by the Marines. It would be a long hard journey that would take over a week to accomplish so we talked further. What I am truly interested in is establishing a process whereby humanitarian aid can flow from faith communities to people in Iraq on a continuing basis. Aha, she said, you need to talk to the PRT, (Provincial Recontruction Team). This team is run by the U.S. State Department and it deals with building capacity or building processes that will enable Iraqi's to govern themselves. This led me to meet with a Lt. Commander from the Navy who is a PRT member in charge of working for the Rule of Law and Women's rights. She has been working with a women in Mosul who is running a women's center that seeks to empower women to function in the civic life of Iraq. I am meeting with that woman on Monday! The Lt. Commander suggested I meet with the USAID coordinator for Northern Iraq. This I did. His name is Dr. Ron. He was tremendously excited about my ideas of creating a pathway for humanitarian aid in Iraq. He is planning a conference for September that will seek to build bridges for Iraq. He asked me to participate in the conference. He believes that an Interfaith Non Government Organization (NGO) could be a pathway for helping the people of Iraq. I find this tremendously exciting and see it very much as a possiblity for making peace as relgious communities in this war torn country. Please, pray for the success of these efforts, and for peace in this place!

DAVE