Mama Zainab sponsors sixty orphans in Iraq

Alaa Kooli-Dhi Qar

More than four decades ago, she was just an orphan girl who entered the orphanage in Nasiriyah (the center of the province of Dhi Qar in southern Iraq) to save herself from loss, after she found out she was alone in this world and later became one of the most famous nannies since the founding of the orphanage. A symbol of the perseverance and motherhood of children who have lost loved ones over the years of war.

Zaynab Mohammed Mubarak (69 years) "Mama Zaynab" as the children call it in Dar al-Bara'im for orphans in Nasiriyah, entered the house after she lost her parents, a small, to get a job there in 1979 as a nanny, where she spent her life since more than forty years ago Now she is caring for the children.

After reaching the age of retirement, the ministry issued an official letter to the labor departments in Dhi Qar as "Mama Zaynab" volunteer, because of its status and impact on children, and stay in the house for life, according to Al Jazeera Net.

According to her, "Mama Zainab," she is considered one of the oldest employees of the orphanage since its opening, after being the only woman working in it, where she alone was responsible for more than 75 children.

How did the story begin?
Mama Zaynab was able to get a job at the orphanage, although she entered an orphan, becoming a nanny caring for orphans coming to the house. After one of the people was appointed as the director of the house, "we received more than sixty children, and there was only me and another woman" .

She confirms that she is now responsible for orphaned children between the ages of six and eight years, before being transferred after that age to another nanny, but they are usually all near to hear the stories and stories that tell them.

Mamma Zeinab remembers the years of war that she had in the house where she worked and supported more than sixty orphans. She managed to save dozens of them when the chaos of the regime and opposition took place in the country in 1991.

And did not abandon them when the Americans entered Iraq in 2003 and insisted on completing their education and study despite the difficult circumstances that prevailed in the country during that period.

Orphans graduated
Many of the children who lived in the enclave of Mamma Zaynab managed to become influential in society, leaving engineers, teachers, a police colonel, and a university professor.

The "Mother of the Orphans" hope that the remaining orphans - the number of 15 children - will receive scientific certificates such as the first generation that I have raised and kept their comfort.

The center of the orphanage in Nasiriyah since its opening in 1979 and its care for many orphans, and even after being referred to retirement six years ago, it is still the same activity and vigor and vitality, according to Al Jazeera Net Abbas Al-Shatri employee of the House.

And "Mama Zainab" more than an employee of that house as a mother of orphans, it knows a lot of problems and seek to resolve, and attention to details relating to orphans in a personal way, according to the Director of the House Hussein Odeh march to Al Jazeera Net.

The home is frequented by children who have no parents and who are victims of family disintegration, as well as those with persistent problems. Mama Zaynab seeks to attract them and solve their problems.

Wars and orphans
The researcher and academic specialist in sociology at the University of Dhi Qar d. Uday al-Shabib said that the orphanage was the result of crises, wars and family disintegration.

He adds to Al-Jazeera Net that Iraq so far did not get out of the impact of the war with Iran, and also the social effects of the Gulf War, pointing out that the country pays so far many funds compensation was better to go for development.

He added that Iraq needs strategic solutions in social policies, such as the revitalization of education and youth and the use of real energies, and develop skills and capacities to open up and communicate with the world.

Several organizations working in the field of women and children are seeking to follow up on the situation of orphans in the governorate, which has increased significantly over the last few years due to wars and terrorism, and some of them provide assistance and development activities for children in the governorate.

"We continue to monitor the situation of orphan children and ways to promote them from the cultural and educational aspect. Some assistance has been provided with regard to clothes and school supplies, but the government effort remains the first to support this sector.