Soldiers Seek Families for Iraqi Orphans

MILWAUKEE — Having overcome great obstacles to adopt an Iraqi orphan with cerebral palsy, Scott Southworth is spearheading an effort to find families to care for another 21 disabled children from that unhappy land.

Soldiers found the boys in June in a government-run Baghdad orphanage, naked and emaciated on concrete floors in their urine and feces. Swarms of flies covered some. Others were tied to the outside of their cribs.

"It was just gut wrenching," Southworth said.

A soldier in the military police unit Southworth led in Iraq, Sgt. Kerry Otwaska, saw a television clip on the orphanage in June. Devastated, he called Southworth, who contacted another comrade, Lt. Sheree Gunderson.

All three had spent time visiting children at the Mother Teresa orphanage in Baghdad, and they recognized some of those boys in the television report — they had been moved to the government facility. Three of them have since died.

"Feeling sorry for them on our end isn't enough," Southworth said. "We need some action."

The Iraqi health inspector general has expressed support, and they are waiting for the Iraqi government to give them permission to bring the boys — with disabilities like autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy — to the United States. The U.S. government then has to grant the boys visas.

The three are screening people who have offered to help. They have found families, mostly in Wisconsin, for about half the boys, Southworth said. They plan to ask local doctors to donate their help.

Southworth points to his own success in adopting Ala'a.

"This isn't a dream we want to make reality," he said. "It's a reality we want to expand."

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EDITOR'S NOTE — Anyone interested in participating in the effort to care for these children can contact Scott Southworth at shsouth (at) mwt.net.

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