Blauser, an American from Texas, has been working since 2005 to make a difference in the grim lives of children like Abdullah, by providing a specialized wheelchair which is specifically catered to children with disabilities and manufactured under Western standards. Photo: Rudaw

DUHOK, Kurdistan Region – If it wasn’t for Brad Blauser’s special wheelchairs, six-year-old Serdar Abdullah and more than a thousand disabled children in the Kurdistan Region and other parts of Iraq would have been confined to their beds, probably never seeing anything of the world outside their rooms.

Blauser, an American from Texas, has been working since 2005 to make a difference in the grim lives of children like Abdullah, by providing a specialized wheelchair which is specifically catered to children with disabilities and manufactured under Western standards.

“These kids can use crutches, but if they have to use them their whole lives they will develop sores under their armpits,” Blauser said, as he adjusted the seat and straps for Abdullah, teaching her father how to do it himself.

“It is best if they get wheelchairs,” Blauser said during a recent four-day visit to the city of Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan, where he gave away 40 of the specialized pediatric chairs to children, working out of the Early Detection of Childhood Disabilities (ECDC) center.

“These chairs are very important for the children and for the parents, because they will help parents take better care of the child -- and it’s comfortable for the child,” said Dr Raving Saleem Doski, manager of EDCD.

“Instead of being put in bed for 24-hours a day, the child can sit up and see the world around,” Doski explained.

As Abdullah was wheeled into the center by her father in a baby carriage, her abnormally large head – a result of a condition known as hydroencephalitis – bent awkwardly to one side, because the child has no control over her head movements. Both of her legs, which have lost muscle from lack of use, hung over the edge, forcing her body to sit continuously in an “L” shaped position.

When she was wheeled out in her new chair, her head sat properly on the body for the first time in her young life.

But Brauser’s supply – and the money for him to continue his fight -- ran out after the last of the 40 chairs was wheeled out of the clinic in Duhok. The chairs have been a drop in an ocean of misery: there are 1,000 cases of Cerebral Palsy alone in this single province, and Blauser’s chairs are not available from disability centers in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan.

UNICEF estimates there are more than two million disabled children in all of Iraq.

“Even until this point I am just a man, with now a very small budget, almost out of money and almost out of wheelchairs. Which creates the next question, do we continue?” Blauser contemplated.

“That is a question the people here in Kurdistan will have to answer. There are so many children, in so many villages, in so many areas that need these chairs,” he explained.

Iraq has a higher percentage of persons with congenital and acquired disabilities than other countries, according to a Global Research report. UNICEF numbers show that 24 percent of victims from unexploded landmines and ordnance in Kurdistan are children under 14.

Blauser began to provide war-torn disabled Iraqi kids with wheelchairs as a contractor working on an American base in Mosul during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

After he heard from a US battalion surgeon about the pressing need for the chairs, he took it upon himself to go off base during non-working hours to deliver the wheelchairs, often escorted by military convoys into towns during the height of Iraq’s post-invasion sectarian conflict.

“I knew it was dangerous, but I was doing it for the kids,” Blauser said.

His work during the war even got him an award as a CNN Hero, an annual award from the news organization given to individuals working for the common good of mankind.

Blauser said a lot of money came in following the CNN story, but as the years rolled by it began to dwindle.

Then, in July 2009, Roc Wheels, the non-profit organization that is Blauser’s partner in the project, was given a USAID World Learning Grant of $100,000.

The money was used to get an existing factory near Baghdad start manufacturing wheelchairs locally for hospitals in Iraq, including Kurdistan.

“Most of the grant went to training and equipment, but it also paid for the first 350 wheelchairs,” Blauser said.

Once US troops pulled out, Blauser went back to his hometown in Texas in December 2011.

From there, he continually checked up on the local factory, and in 2012 he finally got the call that the chairs were ready for him to pick up.

After minor repairs and adjustments, the new wheelchairs made their way to Suleimani, Erbil and Duhok.

According to Blauser, one child’s case in Sulaimani was so severe he had developed an excruciatingly painful cyst on his back the size of a baseball. Because surgery was not available in Iraq and Kurdistan to fix his condition, his mother had no options to help the boy escape his pain. But with Blauser’s wheelchair, the staff at the Teaching Children’s Rehab Center in Suleimani, were able to provide a little relief.

Iraq once had one of the Arab world’s best healthcare systems, but it all imploded following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi forces in 1990 and the subsequent international embargoes on Baghdad.

Khaled Ali Qasem, head of physical therapy at EDCD, said the Kurdish government has not updated him on physical therapy practices since 2001, and that most of his new knowledge has come from books and the Internet.

Along with the inadequate medical care, disabled children in Kurdistan and the rest of Iraq also suffer from a negative societal stigma, according to Blauser. Children with disabilities in Iraq are viewed as burdens and often bring disgrace to their families, according to the Global Research report.

Bushra Hana cried as her son, a three-year-old with cerebral palsy, was being fitted for a wheelchair. She explained that her tears were not of joy but sadness, because his son will never be part of a society that will always shun him.

“These children are human beings, they deserve to be viewed that way and given an opportunity to live a full life,” the mother said, wiping her tears.

Blauser has submitted a proposal to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to fund the production of 600 more chairs.

But his request has been placed in the queue as the funding for his endeavor “just isn’t there,” according to the Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

“Everyone always asks me why I am wasting all my money and time helping kids whose own government doesn’t even care about,” Blauser said. “And I say I am here to help because no one else will.”

RUDAW