For 12-year-old Iraqi Sarah al-Jamal, the world as she knew it ended the day her father was shot dead in front of her eyes.
Once bright, talkative and a top student, Sarah is now one of the growing number of Iraq children traumatized by the conflict and who can no longer deal with the daily reality of life in Iraq's battered capital.
"She suffers from constant nervous breakdowns and starts screaming hysterically when she sees a policeman or a soldier," said Hussein Ali Mohsen, the director Al-Rajaa Institute for Special Needs.
"Her mental status is no longer stable and she cannot concentrate on her studies," he said.
"The death of her father in front of her eyes has changed the girl into another person," Mohsen said.
The school was founded in 1968 and once just welcomed developmentally challenged children, mostly with Down's Syndrome, but since April 2003, the facility has opened its doors to children scarred by Baghdad's harsh post-war realities.
"We have been in a state of war for the past three years and the cases of children suffering from nervous breakdowns are increasing," Mohsen said.
So far, the school has five students like Sarah, while the rest of the 70 pupils have Down's Syndrome.
"There are definitely many more cases out there, but because of tradition and society most of the families prefer to keep them indoors. We never know about them until they approach us," Mohsen added.
The war is hard on all of the institute's children. The simple passage of helicopters criss-crossing Baghdad's skies can spread panic and sow fear among the pupils.
"With every bomb that explodes and every helicopter flying overhead, we have chaos in the school," Mohsen said.
When this happens, the school's dedicated corps of 10 teachers swing into action and try to distract the children from their fears with toys or leading them in a familiar song or dance.
Sometimes, it's just a matter of reading them a story.
"We do everything for these children," said teacher Hayat al-Khafaji. "We sacrifice our time and now we risk our lives to teach them."
For salaries ranging from US$70 to US$330 a month, the teachers navigate their way daily through the city's dangerous streets to teach the children.
The school looks to provide their students with the basic skills they need to survive in life, including reading and writing, as well as lessons on how to interact with others.
"The children at the institute learn how to use computers and we try to help them with what materials we have," Khafaji said.
Next to her a young girl with Down's Syndrome sits in front of a computer screen featuring simple, colorful programs.
When the Down's Syndrome students reach the age of 17, they are placed at "rehabilitation" schools established years ago by the labor ministry to teach them trades so that they can make a living.
"Girls continue learning how to use computers or sewing, while boys learn trades such as carpentry or mechanics. It's all so that they can earn money when they become adults," Khafafi said.
For Umm Abdallah, however, the institute's modest means are not enough for her child traumatized by the war and she laments their lack of resources and unimaginative teaching methods.
"The institute doesn't even have a swing in its garden for the children to play on," she said.
"No one cares anymore and the way they teach the children is outdated!" she added.
For her, the daily crises of life only seems to be getting worse.
"No one escapes from the agony of this war. Even these children who do not understand what is happening are suffering," she said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not