At least one million children in Iraq have seen their lives ravaged by conflict. Please join me to support the work of one woman who is trying to help them.

Dear Friend, I would like to invite you to the first showing of my video portrait, “Hear My Song, Kathy Kelly: Stories from Iraq” at the studio-theater in my home.

The evening will be a fundraiser to help Kathy Kelly, the subject of the video, publish a pamphlet about what can be done to help young victims of the Iraq War who have been torn from their homes and their families.

No one has made a greater commitment to the people of Iraq than Kathy Kelly. She has been jailed over 60 times. For bringing medicine and toys to Iraqi children during the US/UN sanctions she was threatened with 12 years in jail. She has been to Iraq 24 times in the last twelve years. During 2007 & 2008 she spent over 10 months in Amman Jordan, aiding Iraq refugees.

“I’ve felt like an urn,” she wrote to me, “holding ‘sad stories,’—traumas so harsh as to make me wonder how people survive—told sometimes furtively by mothers who don’t want to disturb their children.”

With the financial support I hope that you can help provide, Kathy plans to publish a pamphlet. She wrote, “publishing a small pamphlet that would explain, through pictures and text, more about the conditions of Iraqis who’ve been displaced.. Your note encourages me to work on creating that pamphlet.” So many Americans are generous when they understand how they can help the truly unfortunate—particularly children.

Won’t you join with me, Fred and others to learn more from Kathy and to support her courageous work?

Sincerely,

Patricia Wheeler

PS. If you cannot attend that evening, won’t you simply mail me a donation? I will for forward your contribution to Kathy at VOICES For Creative Non Violence in Chicago (info [at] vcnv [dot] org ), with which she is affiliated. Please make out your check to Voices for Creative Non Violence

Patricia Wheeler was the 2008 Recipient of The Helene Van Buren Residency at the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology in Otis, Oregon where she completed this multimedia portrait.

note…….light refreshment served, film 22 min.