Rusul arrives at airport!

July 10, 2008
This photo was taken this afternoon at the Greenville-Spartanburg airport. Rusul is the little girl in the brown dress, Ann C of No More Victims is in the white pants besides Rusul. Rusul's father is in the black shirt with stripes on it, and as you can see, there is plenty of media around.

This photo was taken before we handed Rusul a bunch of flowers. Here in Asheville, we adopted "Roses for Rusul" as a campaign theme, so we brought a bunch of peach colored roses to the airport. There were eight of us from Asheville, and one women brought a bunch of flowers from her garden. Many people also brought toys for Rusul.

Rusul is a beautiful child. Her right foot and bottom leg were damaged in a US missile strike while she was playing in her back yard. This happened in November 2006, just outside of Fallujah. Rusul has beautiful eyes and a warm, quick smile. She walks on the ankle of her right foot.

As we were welcoming Rusul at the airport, a man came up to me and asked who she was. I told him the story, and he said "I guess this is what they call collateral damage." He said that he noticed Rusul on the plane (he was on the same flight) because she was such a beautiful child. He did not notice her injury until she started to walk off the plane.

I heard that Salee, Rusul's sister, wanted to come with her sister and dad to the US. Salee was here in the US for surgery and prosthetics last year. Salee lost the both her legs (above the knees) in the same missile strike. Salee was really attached to Ann C. of No More Victims.

The same missile strike killed their older brother and another neighborhood child who was friends with Salee. We are still raising money to help pay for the care of these children and to take care of their family back in Iraq. Please go to No More Victims if you can help.

I will be updating Rusul's visit to the US on a regular basis.