Tempe Sister Cities to Send Wheelchairs to Iraq

Tempe Sister Cities recently received a grant that will help it reach out to a partner city in Iraq and send wheelchairs to victims of wartime violence.

Sister Cities International announced that its Tempe program will participate in its Partners for Peace project with Iraq.

Tempe will help out the Iraqi city of Hilla, south of Baghdad.

The program was chosen for the project through a competitive grants process managed by Sister Cities International in cooperation with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.

“The grant from the State Department is $20,000, and there are several aspects to what we’re doing with it,” said NoRa Trevino, Tempe Sister Cities director.

“We want first to reach out to people in Hilla and open up the lines of communication.

“Then we’ll have a meeting with a delegation from Hilla this fall when they come to the United States.”

Trevino said Iraqi officials will visit Tempe officials “to learn about democratic government,” and coordinating committees in both countries will work to improve humanitarian conditions in Hilla.

Trevino said that the grant money will be used, in part, to put on the group’s 35th annual Oktoberfest celebration at Tempe Beach Park.

She said the event usually draws about 200,000 people over three days.

“We’ll use money we earn at Oktoberfest to send 280 wheelchairs to Hilla, which I’m afraid they have a very great need for,” Trevino said.

Richard Neuheisel, president of the Tempe Sister Cities organization, said the group’s goal “is always to promote peace and understanding throughout the world.”

Hilla is about 60 miles south of Baghdad on the banks of the Euphrates River. Nearly half a million people live there.

In 1991 after Saddam Hussein’s forces temporarily lost control of the city during an uprising at the end of the first Gulf War, Hilla’s residents were terrorized and thousands executed in reprisal.

Also, during the two Gulf wars and the insurgency that still rages, hundreds of Hilla residents have received injuries that have reduced or eliminated their mobility.