Whether people support the war in Iraq or not, it is important they know about the humans at risk, said one Penn State graduate at a photographic presentation on Iraq.

Robin Hoecker, who graduated in 2002, spent one week about two months ago in Baghdad with a delegation to investigate the consequences of sanctions on the people in Iraq and neighboring countries, and returned with over 400 photos, some of which she showed during her presentation, "The Human Face of War."

"If we just watch the news, there seems to be one resident of Iraq and that is Saddam Hussein," Hoecker said. "But underneath the arrows on the maps on TV and in the CNN graphics, there are millions of people."

Hoecker spent time in Baghdad, Iraq's capital city, taking pictures as part of a delegation of religious and humanitarian leaders. The National Council of Churches organized the group.

They met with Iraqis at churches, mosques, hospitals and schools. Hoecker took pictures of people on the street, emphasizing that many of them are not very different from Americans.

"There were so many women in jeans, leather jackets and lip gloss," she said. "It was a lot more developed than I thought it would be."

She expected people to be poor and dirty, she said.

People were very welcoming, she added. They gave her samples of food at markets and let her take their pictures.

"I wasn't expecting hospitality, I was expecting hostility," she said.

Hoecker showed some pictures of babies suffering from malnutrition in hospitals, many deformed and premature.

She said they were results of poor water quality, which has existed since the Gulf War.

The delegation visited schools, seeing contrasting pictures of smiling children bundled up in jackets and scarves due to the lack of heat. Electrical blocks were not rebuilt after being destroyed during the Gulf War, causing Baghdad to have rolling blackouts since the early '90s.

Hoecker visited the site of a destroyed bomb shelter where over 400 Iraqis, mostly women and children, died. It was reported at the time to hold state officials, not civilians. The Iraqis left the destroyed shelter as a memorial to those who died, she said.

"[Casualties are] a reality of war that has to be faced," she said while showing pictures from the bombing a decade ago, the bodies in them charred and burned.

During the question and answer session following her speech, Hoecker was asked how people in Iraq viewed war with the United States.

"They feel their government is out of their control. I think they are very nervous about what is going to happen," she said.

Hoecker said it was hard to get a feel for what the Iraqi people actually want because they are reluctant to talk about it.

"It's obvious they are living in a very controlled society," she said, citing the pictures of Hussein everywhere in the city.

About 75 people attended the presentation.

Shari Keefe, a member of the Unitarian fellowship with Hoecker, said she attended the speech because it was a different way of being educated due to the photos.

"I don't really know a lot about the Middle East," she said. "I'm here to be educated."

Some classes required the attendance of students, said Lauren Stern (sophomore-human development and family studies). This presentation sounded interesting and counted as one of two out-of-class assignments for her sociology course, she said.

Hoecker said her trip to Baghdad destroyed her stereotypes of Iraqis.

"The window that we saw of Iraq was a controlled window; however, what we saw was real," she said.