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3 heading home with healed hearts!

March 31, 2008 by bobby · 1 Comment 

Aria, Juliana and Rebar all returned to their homes and families in Iraq on March 23rd after having successful heart surgeries and recoveries in Israel!

These kids are returning home as totally new little people! The blue tinge to their skin is gone. They can run and play like all the other kids. They can breathe normally and have boundless energy! The outlook for their future is bright!

We’re all part of something huge here- bringing hope for life to kids and their families and a whole country that desperately needs it. Thanks for being on board with us! Who ever thought shoes could be part of something this amazing?

         

Hussein’s recovery slow, but steady

March 31, 2008 by bobby · Leave a Comment 

Four year old Hussein’s heart surgery one month ago was a success, but his heart has not been able to maintain a steady beat. On March 12th the surgeons placed an internal pacemaker into Husseins chest to regulate his heartbeat and to ensure that his heart continues to function properly.Hussein’s mother has been burdened with a lot of worry and stress as her son went through yet another surgery (this time for the pacemaker) and then they received news about increasing conflict in their hometown in Iraq.Our partners in Israel wrote, “Hussein’s mom looked very drained while we were talking, and after a little while of sitting with her, she got a phone call from her husband that made her upset. He told her that there was a great increase of conflict in the city where they live in Iraq, that it was dangerous in the streets and on the paths leading into the city. He told her that he feared for the timing of her return with Hussein. This was very upsetting news.”As Hussein’s heart is healing and being cared for in very tangible ways, we think of his mom and the burdens on her heart. And since it’s nothing that surgery can fix, we pray for peace in Iraq and for the hope that Hussein’s healing heart carries to spread throughout that country.

         

Trip to see Aras in Halabja

March 25, 2008 by ruth · 2 Comments 

Last week I made my first visit to one of ‘our kids’ - Aras, the start of what I hope to spend much time doing here as ‘Director of Rehabilitation & Family Relations’ for BSSL.  

Aras was the first kid that was mostly funded for his surgery through BSSL . When we arrived in his neighborhood we first spotted him out playing on the street with his friends - running around, laughing, having fun! It was my first time to meet him and I definitely would not have suspected that he had been through so much in the past few months!  

I had a wonderful time with Aras and his family. They thanked us over and over again for all that we had done to help Aras. His mom had put together an extensive photo album telling Aras’s story during his time in Israel. It was fun having Aras talk me through all the photos from him lying on his bed immediately following surgery through all the various stages of recovery. He’s a real sweet kid!  

Thank you for making it possible for kids like Aras to have the life saving operations that they need!  Arya and Rebar just returned on Saturday so I’m also hoping to be able to visit them soon. This week I’ll also be visiting Baveel so check in again soon to see an update on how he’s doing.  

         

Arya leaves Israel

March 23, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment 

The time has come for sweet Arya to return home. Exchanging hugs and seeing the joy on the mothers’ faces and the health of the children after their surgeries was a delight!
We bade each other farewell here at the house before they set of for he border.

         

Returning Home Soon

March 18, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment 

We met both Arya and his mother in the hospital with big smiles on their faces. His heart is doing well and he is considered to be in good health. Tomorrow Arya will undergo one last minor operation to fix his right thumb, which has a small deformity. He will be returning home soon!

         

$16k and 21 Children to Heart Screening

March 12, 2008 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

Buy Shoes. Save Lives., Rayalla Organization, and Kurdistan Save the Children and other local partners recently raised and distributed over $16,000 to 21 children and their families so they could travel to Amman, Jordan for heart screening. 

 

Some of these children will likely go straight to surgery due to the severity of their case. Others will be placed in line until funds are available to fund their surgeries - whether through donations or the revenues from our online store. 

         

In Search of Shoes

March 9, 2008 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

You’ve heard that bit about the Iranian border, terrorist crossings, tea smugglers, porous trails in between security checkpoints, etc? Apparently it’s all true. 

 

We went  to Hawraman in search of shoes yesterday. Hawraman is a typical border town, having been arbitrarily divided and thereby having been forced to grow up on two sides of the border. We didn’t go into Iranian Hawraman; but Iraqi Hawraman was phenomenal. 

 

We did indeed see tea smugglers, with their mules packed down, weaving the windy roads into the Iranian mountains. Supposedly the donkeys know the trail by heart and can still deliver the tea (or whatever else they smuggle) if the Iranian officials get too close and the human guide has to abandon the cargo. 

 

Hawraman is built into the mountains in a terraced manner. We climbed 540 “stairs” to one guy’s house just to buy 7 pairs of shoes. We trekked another kilometer to a roof top patio where we inspected some 200 shoes and walked away with 28. But the net result was money saved and more control over the product compared to buying in the larger city markets; not to mention greater economic impact. 

 

We were there at the behest of a former regional commander of the Kurdish peshmerga, whose guests for the day included a few scraggly Americans (that would be us), business men decked out in Western suits and ties, a parliamentarian for the Regional Government, the former 20-year mayor of Halabja, and a number of armed guards. And though it was entirely unnecessary, he sent one of his guards with us to traipse through the city “just in case.” 

 

As with all the former peshmerga with whom I’ve sat, I found it funny that a man would swear on the Qur’an while downing whisky shots and gambling over poker. Nice guy… but what does swearing on the Qur’an really amount to in that context?

 

Part of his agenda for the day was to connect us with the poorest klashmakers in the community. In this way, this protector of the people was acting as a conduit for foreign investment directly into the lives of the city’s poorest - without skimming anything off the top for himself. 

 

The same could not be said for the parliamentarian. He tried to horn in on our bulk purchase and buy a pair of shoes at our significantly discounted mass-meets-mercy prices. To my astonishment, the klashmakers stood their ground and told him he could afford a full-priced pair!

 

We left Hawraman about 5:30 p.m., feeling completely at home, but having been previously warned that “it is not a safe place at night.” I’m guessing it’s not because of the tea smugglers. 

 

We arrived back in our city a couple hours later, completely worn out from the “up-hill-both-ways” drive. For the first time in my life, I can actually conceive of my father’s “when I was a child” stories. 

 

We’ve made some preliminary arrangements for the klashmakers to visit our office next week to make a delivery according to our specifications. We’ll be eager to see how that goes, and excited to continue on partnership with them in the event that all goes well. 

 

Thanks for reading… over and out.

 

The BSSL  Peeps

         

Read the Austin Monthly Article

March 1, 2008 by Jeremy · 1 Comment 

We had to lay off on the online publication of the Austin Monthly article for a few months until the magazine had entirely been taken out of circulation, all copies burned, leaving no remaining chance for the publishers to lose money from our giving you the dish online instead of from newsstands.

So click below to download the PDF and read the Austin Monthly article, and if you live in the Central Texas area, we highly recommend picking up a copy at your local coffee shop or Barnes & Noble or Borders.Special thanks again to Lynne Margolis, Matthew Rainwaters, Robyn Finlay, and Editor Melissa Delaney for the great job and the funds they helped generate for children in Iraq!

         

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