MILWAUKEE -- Having overcome great obstacles to adopt Ala'a, an Iraqi orphan with cerebral palsy, Scott Southworth is spearheading an effort to find families to care for another 21 disabled children from that country.
Soldiers found the boys in June in a government-run Baghdad orphanage, naked and emaciated on cement floors in their urine and feces. Swarms of flies covered some. Others were tied to the outside of their cribs.
Sgt. Kerry Otwaska, a soldier in the military police unit Southworth led in Iraq, saw a TV clip on the orphanage in June. He called Southworth, who contacted Lt. Sheree Gunderson.
The Iraqi health inspector general has expressed support, and the soldiers are waiting for the Iraqi government to give them permission to bring the boys -- with disabilities such as autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy -- to the United States. The U.S. government then must grant the boys visas.
The soldiers are screening people who have offered to help. They have found families, mostly in Wisconsin, for about half the boys, Southworth said. They plan to ask local doctors to help."This isn't a dream we want to make reality," he said. "It's a reality we want to expand."
Merry Christmas, Mr. Southworth & Sgt. Otwaska
