Focus on children's centre

Twelve-year-old Ahmad Mu'ayyad is learning how to wrestle. Aspiring painter Hanin Rida, aged 10, is throwing pots, firing her finished pottery and learning how to draw. Budding actor Mithaq Abu Ali, has already acted and sung in three plays. At a youth centre started by Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), children can try all sorts of things they have never done before. Mu'ayyad said he can do sports at school, too, but only soccer. Painting and plays were virtually unknown to the children until they came to the centre. They can also learn crafts and sewing, dancing and how to use a computer or play games such as basketball and football. "Here, they are forgetting the bad things in life," said Tore Winsvold, NCA's country representative. "We'd like children to experience the nice things in life," he told IRIN. NEED FOR ANONYMITY Workers at the youth centre and NCA are careful, however, not to disclose the youth centre's location. Even though they want the children to forget the unstable world is outside the centre's high walls, a recent bombing at the Turkish embassy scared both the children and their teachers. "Our area is safe, but when we ask parents why when they don't send their children, they say they could be kidnapped," Asya Ali, a sewing and crafts teacher, told IRIN at the centre. "No one has been kidnapped, but its scary, especially if there's an explosion nearby," she said. Winsvold said the centre was maintaining a low profile by not putting a sign on the door or advertising, although inside, a welcome sign thanks Norway for its help in opening the centre. Children now come to it by word of mouth, although many from the neighbourhood were invited when it first opened. The teachers are all local Iraqis. "We have happy children, lots of them," Winsvold said. "The worst thing that could happen to us is to have maniacs place a bomb or a grenade there because they think its under Western influence." NEW THINGS TO LEARN The children seem oblivious to the worries. Just like children anywhere, they're excited to be learning new things. For example, 11-year-old Ali Hasan, tells anyone who will listen about the karate movements he knows now. He gives frequent demonstrations to his friends, who gather around to listen and watch. Dressed in colourful painter pants and a purple jacket, Rada said once her parents decided it was safe, they let her come to the youth centre alone, even though its about a 15-minute walk from her house. "We are all very happy that it's here," Hanin said. "It's up to God to protect me from bad things in the street, including if there are kidnappers." Most of the children at the centre are from poor families who otherwise wouldn't get a chance to have such cultural experiences, teacher Asya Ali said. Besides the hundred or so children inside the centre, another 20 to 30 children play in the street outside the walls. Up to 300 children come to the centre daily, said Berit Stroemme, an NCA colleague of Winsvold's. Poor families often pressed their children into service selling cigarettes or polishing shoes rather than going to school or playing with their friends, Stroemme said. She is training social workers at the centre to talk to families suspected of making their children work to convince them to allow the children to go to school and to the youth centre. Once the various children's theatre groups get going, organisers hope they will travel around to perform for others in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq. Children really liked to perform plays and sketches about the songs and traditions of Iraq, Imhad Hadi, the theatre director at the centre and head of the local humanitarian group, Childhood Voice, told IRIN. "Certainly they all go to school, but they didn't get these kinds of opportunities before," he said. Reflecting how tough life can be in the streets of Iraq, the children recently put on a play about how to avoid people who try to take advantage of them. The play, called "The Beggars", was about children taken away from school by an old man, who made them work for him. "It was really good," Ali Hasan said of the play. "This is my new hobby. I don't like sports now except for volleyball and basketball," he added. All of the children are really excited, Asya Ali said with her hand on the shoulder of Ghufran Salim, a 15-year-old whom she is teaching to make sewing patterns for children's clothes. "We had a great response from the children," she said. "They are full of energy." FUTURE PLANS The NCA project costs about US 20 cents per person, Winsvold said, so the entire youth centre project cost just a few thousand dollars. The UN World Food Programme plans to build a kitchen there. An upstairs area will be opened for parents to come and watch their children. Childhood Voice is expected to take over more of the work of running the centre with a board of advisers. Also, in the future, Winsvold plans to teach children about film-making to complement the acting and plays. A choir is also in the fledgling stages. "The children of Iraq have a lot of problems, as you know, but now they are developing new skills. It's really good to see," Winsvold said.