11 May 2011

Iraq's abandoned children

Iraq is full of street kids; children with one or both parents killed, or some who have merely been abandoned.
It has been estimated that there are now over a million orphans in the country. But there are just four small orphanages in the capital, Baghdad - none of them filled to capacity.
The Iraqi government says that relatives would rather abandon children they are unable to take care of, than bear the shame of bringing them to an orphanage.
Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf reports from Baghdad.