After losing his right hand in an Iraqi torture cell and enduring rocket attacks on his Baghdad home Nazar Joodi thought life in America would be easy, but out of money and running out of options, he has discovered a new kind of trouble in suburban Maryland.
Joodi’s American story began in 2004, when he and six other Iraqi torture victims were brought to the United States with the help of Virginia-based journalist Don North to receive state-of-the-art prosthetic hands at a renowned Houston hospital. The men received VIP treatment and were flown to Washington to meet with President Bush and senior Cabinet members.
Upon returning to Iraq, however, where news of Joodi’s treatment was broadcast throughout the country, he became a target of the insurgents. The family fled to Turkey for one year before being granted refugee status in the states.
“Fame was harmful in Iraq,” Joodi said. “But fame here, I think, would be useful, because we need help.”
Now, the Joodis are six of about 80 Iraqi refugees to resettle in the Washington region with the coordination of D.C.-based International Rescue Committee. Through the nonprofit, each person is allotted a one-time sum of $425 from the U.S. State Department and $1,200 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for survival through the first four months of life in the United States.
For the Joodis, who arrived in early March with one duffle bag per person, that meant just under $10,000 for a security deposit, four months of $1,450 for rent, furniture, food, health care, transportation, communication and everything else.
“The Iraqis that we’re serving now are coming with very serious medical and psychosocial needs,” said Vu Dang, a regional director with the International Rescue Committee, adding that most Iraqi families are like the Joodis and come from comfortable backgrounds, making the adjustment to relative poverty even more difficult.
At a Thursday doctor’s appointment, Joodi sifted through a two-inch pile of insurance cards and half-filled-out documents before seeing a doctor and receiving a referral for a psychiatrist to deal with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I made my family a promise,” Joodi said, “that our problems in Iraq would be solved in America.”
HOW TO HELP
The International Rescue Committee serves about 500 refugee families per year, the majority from Burma, Ethiopia, Iran and Iraq. You can help by volunteering to sponsor a family by providing monetary donations as well as providing help with specific needs such as language instruction and transportation. The agency also accepts monetary and in-kind donations that are then matched by government funds. Contact Kate Evans at the Silver Spring office at 301-562-8633, ext. 207.
