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WHEN Ahmad Rustam returned to his native Iraq after 25 years in exile it was the homeless children, begging in the war-damaged streets, which affected him most.
Now back in his adopted home in Glasgow, the engineer and his Scots wife Ann Marie have set themselves a mission: to build an orphanage in Baghdad.
The couple plan to renovate Mr Rustam's family property in the city and convert it into a home for some of the city's hundreds of homeless children who live in bombed-out buildings resulting from the US-led invasion of Iraq.
Iraq has been called "a nation of orphans, widows and the handicapped" because of its recent, frequent wars, including an eight-year conflict in the 1980s with Iran.
Mr Rustam, who left Iraq in 1978 because of persecution under Saddam Hussein's regime, is appealing to Scots and expatriate Iraqis for help to launch the project.
He said: "I went to Baghdad in July 2003 and it was my first visit since I left in 1978. Baghdad looked like a hurricane had run through it. It was especially upsetting to witness the homeless kids. They live in the ruins of buildings. These kids have lost their families and are hungry and traumatised. It is a hand-to-mouth existence. By day they beg, then they disappear into the night. They are the invisible children - one of the many hidden casualties of the occupation."
Estimates of the true numbers of orphans across Iraq range from 1.5 million to 5 million, but because of the continuing chaos in society there is no national policy on what to do with them.
The orphans trawl through dumps, sleep outdoors and hang around hotels, busy intersections, mosques and US military installations. Some are even used as sex slaves and prostitutes, drug runners and spies. After his visit to Iraq, Mr Rustam talked with his wife and they decided they should do something to help the homeless.
His mother and daughter also left Iraq because of political persecution and the family home was taken over by local Iraqis. But three weeks ago the Rustam family learned they had finally managed to reclaim their property. Mr Rustam said: "It is worth around £300,000 and we could sell or rent it. But we decided that this was our chance to aid the rebuilding of our devastated country. Because of the security situation and the risk for foreign nationals, many aid agencies are leaving and it is increasingly clear that Iraqis must help themselves, including exiles across the world."
Apart from providing urgently required jobs for local people in Baghdad, Mr Rustam hopes the Scottish connection will engender trust between Iraqis in Baghdad, expatriates in the West and Scots. "Iraqis in Scotland do not want their people at home to only think of Scots as part of an army of occupation in the south of their country. We want our countrymen to see Scotland as a country with a heritage of human rights," Mr Rustam said.
In Baghdad, power cuts and polluted water are the norm and simple survival is the order of the day. Some mosques have taken over state orphanages but the status of children is complicated by the fact that Islam allows a man to refuse to raise another man's children as his own.
The United Nations Children's Fund operates five orphanages in Iraq, aiding children in a culture where a woman often is not allowed to bring her children into a new husband's home.
A study this week found that poverty levels in Iraq had increased by 30% since the US-led invasion.
Anyone who can offer financial help or would like to get involved with Mr Rustam's Baghdad Shelter project can e-mail him at: ahmadrustam@homecall.co.uk
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