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U.S. pitches in for Iraqi kids

Mar-29-2004 » Filed Under: Iraq News

[Link to Full Article]
By Willis Witter
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

BAGHDAD — Contributions of clothes and toys from Americans to poor Iraqi children have swamped flights of military mail into Baghdad, forcing officials to scramble for ways to handle an influx of generosity that no one had anticipated.

Cardboard boxes filled with hand-me-downs normally destined for neighborhood garage sales began piling up at the Baghdad Convention Center late last year in response to an e-mail appeal from American soldiers to families and friends back home.

The request found its way onto the Internet, and soon people from across the country were mailing clothes, toys, notebooks, backpacks and shoes at super-cheap postal rates to a military address in Baghdad.

The system, devised for families to send care packages to loved ones in the military, was suddenly flooded with gifts for Iraqi children. That's when two young Americans, who were working as volunteers at the Convention Center, stepped in and began delivering the boxes to the poorest neighborhoods in Baghdad.


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