sylwia kapuscinski

Iraq: Nursing Home

There is one nursing home in Baghdad, a city of 5 million people. It accepts all Iraqis, based on what many residents say, it is their home of last resort.

There are 44 women and 73 men in the home, and one nurse. The war's aftermath has kept better workers away because the home is on the fringe of Baghdad in an area not considered secure.

About one in five residents has dementia and about one in 10 is incontinent. The odor of gasoline permeates the home, after it is cleaned, because workers use a mix of gasoline with water as a cleaning agent. There are few cleaning supplies, or medicines. Most residents are forlorn and forgotten.

Badreya Muhamad, 70, right, stands in the hallway of Shamayea Nursing Home in Baghdad, Iraq. Muhamad's sons-in-law didn't want Muhamad to live with them because she is unable to take care of herself.
  
Nursing home residents gather around Hamdeya Mehdi, 40, right, who is serving chicken and rice. Once a month Mehdi does Zakat or charity to the poor.
   
Baker Mahmood, 80, remembers his life as he sits in pain on his bed. "I need a doctor, I need medicine. I need to be taken to a hospital, not a nursing home. Here they don't even have medicine for pain, " said Mahmood.
     
  
Nurse Bassen Loyay, 39, left, checks irritation in the eye of Foaad Zeya, 64, at Shamayea Nursing Home in Baghdad, Iraq. Loyay is the only nurse at the nursing home, and this blood pressure device is one of the very few medical instruments the nursing home owns.
   
Abass Chechan, 33, left, gives a bath to Hamza Saheb, 65. Chechan worked as a private in the old Iraqi army. "When I see patients who are dirty, I feel it is my duty to help them," said Chechan.
  
Fatma Kalife, 67, was abandoned by her family because she is unable to take care of herself.
     
  
Hasoon Sayeed, 83, who has lived at a nursing home in Baghdad for the past two years, drinks tea in his room. Sayeed used to work as a psychologist in Baghdad. Sayeed says that for the past year conditions at this nursing home have worsened. Seniors now receive only about $5 a month from humanitarian organizations and under Saddam Hussein they used to receive about $80 a month.
  
Resident Fatma Kalife, 67, right, sits in her room as nurse's aid, Mahduia Muhamad, 45, cleans the hallway. Kalife was abandoned by her family because she is unable to take care of herself.