The mission of the Muslim Peacemaker Team is to bring all Iraqi groups together in peace to work for the good of the country by getting in the way of violence while encouraging the people to be self sufficient. Our immediate goals are to teach peace and human rights so the Iraqi people can once again live in a civil society, to help the people to maintain their physical health, and to lift their spirits by providing encouragement and support.
MPT will continue to organize new trainees into peacemaking teams until there are at least 20 teams working throughout the country.
The most pressing issue is sanitation education. Members of MPT will be the educators and will train others to help them. The infrastructure of the country has been ruined by the first Gulf war, the years of sanctions, and now a second war. Water and sewage treatment plants have been destroyed. Most Iraqis do not have a dependable source of pure water and have electricity only 6 to 8 hours a day. Contaminated water and spoiled food are main causes of illness. MPT will be organizing teams to go house to house to tell families how to protect themselves by adding some household bleach to hot water for bathing, washing dishes and clothing. Families also need to learn to adapt to the lack of dependable refrigeration for their food.
Education about basic human rights as defined by the U.N. and the Geneva Convention will be developed for the Iraqi National Guard, police forces, and teachers and taught by the MPT.
Planting green belts around cities to protect them from sandstorms is a future goal. At one time, sandstorms occurred about three times a summer, but with climate change there now are sandstorms every week during the summer months. These natural windbreaks will provide shelter from the blowing sand. Iraq has millions of palm trees, but the ongoing war causes destruction of the vegetation on a daily basis. A tree nursery may need to be developed for this project.
The best way Peace organizations across the the world can be involved is to be supportive of the Christian Peacemaker Teams and the Muslim Peacemaker Team by promoting them in the community.