?PLANTS for Peace? will be on sale outside St James? Chapel, Okehampton, later this month to raise money to supply much-needed medical aid for children living in Iraq.
Okehampton Peace Coalition and Okehampton Quakers will be giving the money raised from the sale of donated plants on Saturday, April 17, from 9.30am onwards, to the charity ?Medical Aid for Iraqi Children (MAIC).
The charity is among a handful of organisations which started operating in Iraq in the 1990s following the impact on Iraq?s vulnerable of the UN?s economic sanctions and the first Gulf War.
Since its inception in 1995, MAIC has played a significant role in saving children?s lives and continues to do so today. MAIC has so far donated and delivered medicines and medical equipment worth £2-million to 24 paramedic hospitals in Iraq.
Ann Pulteney, spokesperson for Okehampton Peace Coalition, said: ?Since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 by coalition forces, many people in Britain who were opposed to the war have felt helpless witnessing the further destruction of a country already facing economic and humanitarian hardship.?
Okehampton Peace Coalition hopes that through the money raised by ?Plants for Peace? people will know they have supported an international effort to ease the suffering of a people, particularly its children, damaged and impoverished by war.
Mrs Pulteney said the beleaguered health care system in Iraq was badly hit by the recent war. Unprecedented looting of hospitals, the outbreak of disease due to malnutrition and the contamination of water plus the pollution of the environment had added major hazards to those already facing the Iraqi people.
She said mortality rates among pregnant women were already three times higher than in the pre-war period and exposure to radioactive material used in the war had led to unusually high numbers of birth defects.
Unattended weapons and explosive remnants of war have injured many children. The trauma of war has also greatly affected many children. UNICEF estimates 500,000 children are in need of psychological treatment, many suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, yet there are no child psychiatrists in Iraq.
Donated plants will be gratefully received at the stall on the day or can be left at 91 Station Road, Okehampton beforehand.