With the summer heat still in full swing, some 306 cases of cholera have broken out in Iraq. At least 12 people, including four children, have died from confirmed or suspected cases of cholera a United Nations statement said today.

But a mission to Iraq lead by the World Health Organization and UNICEF said the cases were being contained and the government has responded swiftly.

The number so far is much smaller than the 4,700 cases reported last year and "below Iraq's annual average of 600." a United Nations statement said Thursday.

The outbreaks and ensuing deaths have built up in "rural areas" where people live with no clean water and sewage running through the streets.

According to the July quarterly report from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction only 20 percent of families outside of Baghdad province have access to sewage facilities.

Driving through Iraq's province is all the proof one needs. In many southern provinces the sewage runs like rivers through the towns while children play nearby and young kids swim through the dirty river water.

Some 66 percent of the cholera cases broke out in the southern province of Babel which is a concern, the United Nations statement said. The WHO is monitoring 950 surveillance sites in Iraq that watch for suspected cases and UNICEF is working with partners to "provide water, hygiene supplies and information for over 45,000 people and schools."

The cholera outbreak has been the talk of Iraqi newspapers over the past few weeks.

Below a political cartoon from today's Al Mutamar newspaper shows a monster rising from a heap labeled "filth" and "foul water." The monster is labeled "cholera," and he chases after a man who thinks "This is what was missing!"

Ansam Imad Ahmed is just 25 and a war widow. Like tens of thousands of others her husband was killed. In November of 2006 men in a vehicle with tinted windows shot him from their car. Under the mask of black glass they stole away a husband and father of three.

At just 23 Ansam was left alone. She had no skills and no money. At first she lived in one small room in her husband's family home with her three children. The place they had lived together when her husband was alive.

But five months after her breadwinner's death the family grew tired of the burden. They contributed nothing to the household and her eldest brother-in-law told her she and the children had to leave.

Ansam packed up her children and went to the only place she knew _ home. But there her five brothers refused to help and once again she was alone.

"I was desperate," she said. "My children's five uncles abandoned them and I had nothing."

But unlike so many women Ansam got help.

At a small center in Arrasat in central Baghdad run by Salma Jabou, the advisor to the President of Iraq on women's affairs, she learned skills. They teach simple things here, sewing, basic computer skills and nursing.

As Ansam recounts her tale this week, the tale of so many women, she smiles and sews the petals of a flower onto a blue sheet.  She works here now for about $200 a month.  She learned basic skills and stayed on at the center.

She also found support. She met other women who'd lost their husbands to the violence and they to found themselves alone, broke and desperate to feed their children.

"I can feed my daughters now," she said.  She smiled and looked up to continue her conversation with another widow.

Ansam is one of tens of thousands. It is unclear how many widows there are in Iraq. Numbers vary from 700,000 to as many as five million.

"It is a terrible situation," Jabou said. "The woman goes back to the fold of the family with no skills and she is open to the violence of family members. She will have no option but to bear the violence or take her children to the streets."

Many turn to prostitution or begging and the children suffer as well, Jabou said. Most often they are forced to work and cannot go to school.

Jabou hopes that her center can alleviate some of the problem. But every two months only 50 women are trained _ a small fraction of the number of women who need help.

So many are forgotten.

A bombing in central Baghdad today killed two and injured at least five. Shattered glass littered the streets and Iraqi police and American soldiers cordoned off the area.

But for store owners it was another day. They swept up the shards of glass as they have done countless times before. They called the glass repairman to come and install panes of glass in their storefront and they planned to open up later that afternoon.

Yaarub Abdul, 46, a stationary store owner brushed the debris around his shop into a dust bin. He reorganized the disheveled shelves and restocked recordable CDs.

"Thank God for your safety," passing patrons called out as they walked by the crowd of Iraqi police and American soldiers that responded to the incident.

"I'll be open in an hour," he said. "God will protect me."

By the afternoon the debris was sure to be gone and business would be back to normal until the next time.

I've just returned from break to Iraq in the midst of the month of Ramadan.  During this time Muslims fast from sun up to sun down. The month is a time of self-reflection, piety, kindness and self-sacrifice. The first days of Ramadan were marked with the heat of the summer months here. At Iftar, the time to break one's fast, the staff chugged water after working in the heat throughout the day.

Just before dinner the streets are empty and people are at home with family feasting and the next day at dawn their fast begins again.

Television caters to fasting patrons with Arabic soap operas that last through the month and other Ramadan programming. A favorite show was already scarred by violence in Iraq, "Your Iftar is on us." Last week four members of the show were killed. But still the show goes on with a TV crew that surprises a needy family each day with a specially cooked dinner and household appliances on the Iraqi Sharqiya channel.

But generally Ramadan is better than last year in Baghdad. Families can go out to dinner if they like, shop after the Ramadan feast or lounge in parks. Life is not back to normal though; today a prominent cleric in the southern port city of Basra was killed. Three women's corpses were found west of Mosul and the head of the Journalist's Union was injured. Earlier this week 22 people were killed in one bombing. These are just a few of the incidents that have pockmarked the week.

Violence is still here but maybe this month will be a generous one for Iraq.