Events in the past 10-15 years have meant that Iraq's once highly sophisticated health-care system has fallen to rack and ruin. To fight the very low morale, Iraqi people are making use of many approaches, some of which are unconventional, such as circus entertainment to raise spirits in paediatric wards. This Reportage looks at the events that have lead to the current health-care crisis in Iraq through the eyes of those living and working there. It is based on interviews done by Jo Wilding, an independent humanitarian activist and writer working on various grassroots rehabilitation and solidarity projects in Iraq, in Al Mansour teaching hospital, Shahid Adnan hospital, the centre for Nuclear Medicine, and the Ministry of Health in Baghdad.