Iraqi Kids School Sponsorship

24th August 2006

Hello from Amman, Jordan, where we've been filming our new doc for the last three weeks.

Our film features Iraqi refugees - more than 600,000 of them here - so we've been talking to loads of families. The war has caused any number of insurmountable problems - family members killed, others seriously injured, houses destroyed, no work permits, no income - but one problem that does seem solvable is getting their children enrolled in school. Most of the kids we've met haven't been to school since the American/British invasion of their country in 2003. They've just been hanging round getting bored and miserable.

It's not that there's no school for them to go to - just that they can't afford the fees. But one whole year costs only 55 pounds for primary school and 62 for secondary. Seems outrageous that they're suffering so much - even more - for the lack of such a small amount of money. Specially when the US and UK governments spent, what, 200 billion dollars to destroy their country?

Anyhow, we thought you good people out there might like to help out. Anyone with a credit card can sponsor a kid right now, on the following page. The new school year started yesterday, so the sooner we can get the money to them, the sooner they can get back to school.

By the way, the first thing anyone says to us when we mention we're from London is that they heard about the million-strong anti-Iraq war demonstration in 2003. Said it made them feel so much better knowing that the citizens were against the war, even as the bombs rained down. So the march did have a very positive side, even if it didn't feel like it at the time.

Hope you can help.

Franny & Lizzie
Spanner Films
24 August 2006