Health Care for Iraqi Kids
Cliff West
Heath Care for Iraqi Kids
As many of you know, Dean Winslow has dedicated a lot of his time to arranging to bring Iraqi kids to the US for life-saving and/or life-altering medical intervention. This all started in March of 2006 during Dean’s fourth deployment to the Middle East when he had the opportunity to volunteer in a clinic near the base that provided medical care to Iraqi civilians. There were a few kids he met there that couldn’t receive the appropriate care in Iraq, and so the process was started. Over the past couple of years, Dean has worked with lots of dedicated volunteers both here and in Iraq to get the kids help. Instrumental to identifying the kids and to managing the considerable logistics is an organization called NIAC (National Iraqi Assistance Center) in Baghdad. The NIAC is run by US Army Civil Affairs which works with several civilian Iraqi physicians and acts as a clearinghouse for Iraqi children who need medical care currently unavailable in Iraq. This organization will be phased out shortly and its functions transferred to the Iraqi Ministry of Health, but before “closing shop” on this project, Dean has identified 7 more kids and has received commitments to treat them in the US.
- Ali Ismaeel Alwan is a 12 year-old boy with a rib cage abnormality and scoliosis. Shriners Hospital in Philadelphia will be performing surgery and providing post-surgical care and rehabilitation in November. Ali is a beautiful boy with an amazing presence – we were lucky enough to meet him and his mother on a previous pre-surgical trip. He is currently the size of your average 7 year-old because his rib cage has grown crookedly to the extent that it crowds his heart and lungs. If he weren’t receiving this care, he would not reach adulthood.
- Shriners has also agreed to care for Mena Salah Ali, a 10 year-old girl with scoliosis, and Zainabl Ali Muttashar, a 2 year-old girl with a complicated clubfoot deformity. While these conditions are not life-threatening, life for a girl in Iraq with a severe deformity is most likely to be bleak. They both will be treated this fall.
- Shriners in Galveston will be treating Rasool Kadhem, a 17 year-old boy with severe wound scars on his hands and forearms that have curled his hands into fists, making them largely non-functional. The treatment is expected to restore 95% of function to his hands and arms.
- A.I. DuPont/Nemours Children’s Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware has agreed to treat three very ill children. Both Saleh Haytham Saleh, an 8 year-old boy, and Ahmad Majeed Ahmad, a 13 month-old toddler, have severe congenital heart problems. Ali Othman Ali is an 8 month-old baby boy with congenital urinary bladder obstruction. The treatment that the DuPont/Nemours Children’s Hospital is donating will save their lives.
You’re getting this email because we’re hoping you can help by donating some United Airlines frequent flier miles (and please feel free to forward this email!) Rotary International has been incredibly helpful with this process by making it easy to donate miles and by managing the considerable logistics of getting tickets for the kids and their chaperones. You can donate anywhere from 3 miles to 300,000 miles just by filling out the donation form (attached; if you have a hard time reading it, use “print layout” view); please return it to Laura by either pdf or fax: 650-592-1917.
We are grateful to the many, many people who have spent an amazing amount of time helping to get these kids over here, and especially to the hospitals, doctors, nurses, radiologists and other medical professionals who have donated their services to help these kids. Even United Airlines, Dean’s buddies with the Air National Guard, and the USO have gotten involved in surprising ways, helping to provide comfort during these long and often difficult journeys. Each of these kids (and we’ve already had 8 kids over here) has had sponsors and most often host families (and host churches) helping to take care of them. The women of our church even made a beautiful quilt for one girl who was 12 when she came over. And there are also many dedicated volunteers in Iraq working hard to facilitate this process. These are most likely to be the last kids we bring over as the Iraqis bring their medical services back up to par. But if there happen to be “extra” miles donated, they will be assigned to a charity with the same mission: bringing kids to the US who otherwise wouldn’t get life saving and/or life-altering medical care.
Thanks for slogging through this long email, and thanks for your support.
Dean and Laura Winslow
Laura J. Neish
LJN Partners, Inc.
650.592.1917 fax
This message was forwarded by
Clifford West
Parish Administrator
Church of the Epiphany
off...@churchoftheepiphany.org