Oregon Public Broadcasting

A six-year-old Iraqi boy, who lost a leg in a U.S. missile attack four years ago, arrived at Portland International Tuesday.

He’s here with the hope of getting a prosthetic leg and correcting other medical problems. Kristian Foden-Vencil was at the airport to greet the boy's flight and files this story.

About 60 people, carrying everything from toy helicopters to stuffed animals, gathered to welcome Mustafa Abed – a boy they’ve never met.

They carried signs and wore yellow T-Shirts saying "Ask me about Mustafa."

Zhaha Hassan, a Palastinian American, brought a toy racing car and her 5-year-old so Mustafa could have a friend.

Zhaha Hassan: “I really wanted to welcome Mustafa and his father into the community and to let him know that there are many Americans that do not support the Iraq war and are very upset about the loss of life and the injuries to innocent Iraqi civilians and many children – hundreds of thousands of children.”

Another well wisher, Muhammed Baghdadi, of the ‘Iraqi American Community of Portland,’ says he’s working to find Mustafa’s father an apartment for the stay, as well as a cell phone. Baghdadi says helping Mustafa is a drop in the ocean.

Muhammed Baghdadi: “It’s only symbolic, it’s like taking a sample of the ocean over there. There’s thousands and thousands of kids and women who need immediate help right now, but something is better than nothing. And it’s a good start for the American people as well to see this, because if you don’t see it, it’s not going to really matter to you.”

As Mustafa and his father came out of the gate spontaneous applause erupted and they flocked around the pair.

After pictures and  a gift exchange, Mustafa’s father Ahmed was asked what it’s like to get such a welcome.

Ahmed's Translator: “He said: I’m very happy to be in the place that I need to be in the most to help my son. But at the same time, just as happy as I am, I am upset for the rest of the kids, with the same injuries, if not worse, that are left behind in Iraq with nobody helping them.”

Abed and his mom were returning from a visit to a medical clinic near Fallujah in 2004 when they were caught in the attack.

Mustafa’s injuries mean he needs a colostomy bag and he's missing his left leg from the hip down.  Ned Rosch, of the charity ‘No More Victims,’ helped organize the visit. He says helping Mustafa makes him feel like he’s doing something about the war in Iraq.

Ned Rosch: “90 percent of the hospitals are without supplies. Many of the doctors have fled or been murdered. So the health situation is dire in Iraq. For four years now he’s needed help that he just can’t get.”

Shriners Hospital and local doctors and nurses are volunteering to fit Mustafa with a prosthetic leg -- and to perform diagnostic surgeries to see if the colostomy can be reversed, allowing him to move his bowels normally again.

The hospital has also offered to fit a new leg every two years until he’s fully grown.  Rosch says helping Mustafa is the primary goal.

Ned Rosch: “But there are many secondary goals that we think are quite important. One is to put a human face on this war. I think it’s been going on now for longer than the Second World War and as a result it’s not on the front pages and we’ve become somewhat numb to it and I think that we all need to remember that the suffering that’s going on, we need to do everything that we can to bring it to a close.”

Mustafa is the first child ‘No More Victims’ has helped in Oregon. About a dozen other kids have been looked after by other medical communities around the country.

The number of Iraqi civilians who’ve died or been injured in the war varies depending on who you talk to. Figures range from about 90,000 civilian casualties to an astronomical 655,000, estimated two years ago by the British medical journal The Lancet.