read our blog »

1: What are you trying to accomplish?
2: What's your evidence that you can accomplish it?
3: How is it possible that you can provide an open heart surgery in Iraq for less than $1,000? Is that the full cost?
4: So is that the same thing as saying that my donation doesn't really make a difference? That the "up to 85%" funded locally by those inside Iraq is all that is really necessary to make this work?
5: Any other costs?
6: What is the bottleneck to more surgeries: money or skilled labor?
7: I'm skeptical of non-profits and charities because they always seem to be asking for more money. How can I be sure that Preemptive Love Coalition has "room for more funding" and that I'm not paying into a huge savings account, "Rainy Day Fund", or something similar?
8: Do you have enough volunteer surgeons available for unfunded Remedy Missions? (i.e., are there trips that you could fund if you had more money, or is there a labor bottleneck?)
9: Many heart surgeries require follow-up treatment (including additional surgeries). Do you have a way of providing these to patients?
10: How do you assess whether surgeries are completed competently and appropriately?
11: What is the rate of complications during and following surgery?
12: How do you assess whether surgeons are performing additional surgeries that they would have not had the funding or motivation to perform otherwise?
13: How do you assess whether surgeons are charging their patients for the surgeries you fund?
14: Do you follow up with the surgeons you've trained to assess whether they are correctly applying their training?
15: What information is available on the activities - and competence - of the surgeons you've trained?
16: Where do surgeons work after completing training? Do they serve poor patients?
17: How much do you spend each year on "program" expenses and how much on "overhead?"

----------

Q: What are you trying to accomplish?

A: Train Iraqi heart surgeons and nurses so they can eradicate the backlog of tens of thousands of Iraqi children waiting in line for lifesaving heart surgery. [Back to Top]

Q: What's your evidence that you can accomplish it?

A: Each year we continue to increase Iraq's total number of pediatric cardiac surgeries with new surgeries in Iraqi centers that would not - indeed could not - have been accomplished otherwise. Ministry of Health (MOH) officials speculate 500 surgeries were accomplished in 2009 (of which we provided 23 - 4.6% - outside the country). The addition of our 82 surgeries in FY 2010 - to the 500 baseline - for a total of 582 approximated surgeries, represents an increase created by PLC of 14% over 2009. In FY 2011 we anticipate increasing Iraq's total number of pediatric cardiac surgeries to at least 719 (or another 19% over FY 2010 directly attributable to our surgeons and our training).

Each year the local teams with which we work will become more proficient, and each year they will independently take on a larger case load than they could have the year before. None of these figures yet account for that additional output.

In March 2010 the Iraqi Ministry of Health asked us to expand our work to three additional sites. In May 2010 we began additional discussions about establishing a fellowship program in which international surgeons and nurses would take up residence in the Iraqi system to train locally for 40 weeks out of the year.

Our model does not rely strictly on volunteers because the level of need in Iraq outstrips what we could reasonably supply through volunteer labor alone. Accordingly, we set our budgets so as to actually contract the international surgical and nursing staff we need to accomplish our mission.

Sure, this increases the cost-per-mission (and thereby, cost-per-child) over early "mission" models in which volunteerism was idealized and training was not necessarily prioritized. But our contract labor + volunteerism model is inarguably the only way to create a nationwide quarterly training program and fellowships inside Iraq with international experts across approximately 6-8 surgical sites. Moreover, our model does not face the same sluggishness of learning that other surgery organizations suffer because we do not have the same rates of turnover; we have incredible consistency across our programs and missions. [Back to Top]

Q: How is it possible that you can provide an open heart surgery in Iraq for less than $1,000? Is that the full cost?

A: The "less than $1k" numbers we routinely publish represent the amount in "program costs" we spend from our international donor money. The figure does not necessarily account for every single management, overhead, or fundraising expense.

Our total expenditures for FY 2010 were $188,919. We performed 82 surgeries during the same period for a per child total of $2,304 (though this data is a bit moot moving into 2010-11 as we abandon our very expensive "surgery exports" program(s) in Turkey, etc. and focus henceforth on more cost-effective in-country surgeries alone).

When all of our Remedy Mission partners are taken into consideration - including the Iraqi Government, medical companies that donate medicines and supplies, and local organizations - the real Remedy Mission cost to all donors is in the range of $5,400 - $7,000. Put another way, up to 85% of the total cost of a single surgical/training mission is now subsidized by local, Iraqi constituent institutions. [Back to Top]

Q: So is that the same thing as saying that my donation doesn't really make a difference? That the "up to 85%" funded locally by those inside Iraq is all that is really necessary to make this work?

A: There is not a single site across Iraq for which our Remedy Missions are fully funded. If we fail to provide our 15-19% of the overall budget, Remedy Missions fail, surgeons and nurses do not get trained regularly, on-site audits from our international team do not happen, up to 20 children are delayed from receiving surgery, and a few may even die or become inoperable. Your role in funding the remaining 15-19% is as critical in the short term as any other entity. A single Remedy Mission is binary - it either happens or it doesn't. Your money makes it happen. But our goal is to continue to graduate all our programs so they are 100% funded locally in the next 5-10 years. [Back to Top]

Q: Any other costs?

A: Our numbers per Remedy Mission do not account for "indirect costs," such as the cost (or value) of our volunteer medical staff from around the world, costs to local healthcare systems, the cost of a family to travel to the surgery site, the opportunity costs of lost income for families as they wait for surgery, etc. The reason we think it's important to note this here is because lifesaving is actually quite difficult. Building a pediatric cardiac surgery system for the entire country of Iraq is laborious and full of complexities. [Back to Top]

Q: What is the bottleneck to more surgeries: money or skilled labor?

A: People often assume that the biggest need is more Iraqi heart surgeons. We could use a few more, but the real bottleneck is skilled nurses, technicians, and non-surgical physicians. A surgeon is only as good as his support staff. One of our biggest challenges is training pediatric cardiac intensive care nurses. To date, we haven't found a better model than our Remedy Missions through which we bring quarterly hands-on training to local nurses (and surgeons) in Iraq. Rather than exporting the nurses to Europe or the USA for training (whose medical systems barely resemble the Iraqi system), we train them with what they have on hand in their local environment. [Back to Top]

Q: I'm skeptical of non-profits and charities because they always seem to be asking for more money. How can I be sure that Preemptive Love Coalition has "room for more funding" and that I'm not paying into a huge savings account, "Rainy Day Fund", or something similar?

A: For the record, we are skeptical of non-profits as well! In 2012 PLC needs $350,000 on hand at any given time to cover our cash flow needs for up to three Remedy Missions per quarter. We are still 30% under-funded against that goal. In addition to cash flow needs, we still require 15-19% funding on most of our missions after local sources contribute their portion; we have un-funded pilot programs in new cities where local doctors have been requesting our help (but where weve yet to woo local philanthropists or health directors); and we have research and social service initiatives through our Followthrough program that require funding at present because we have not yet sought local funding for those initiatives (seeing as how they relate mostly to our Monitoring & Impact Evaluation objectives). Please see our "Funding Gap" page to look deeper into our anticipated program costs, the sources of funding we are counting on, and the funding gap between the two for the next few years. [Back to Top]

Q: Do you have enough volunteer surgeons available for unfunded Remedy Missions? (i.e., are there trips that you could fund if you had more money, or is there a labor bottleneck?)

A: Great question! We use a hybrid volunteer/staff model. Roughly 25-30% of any one of our Remedy Mission teams is employed by the International Children's Heart Foundation (typically the surgeon, scrub nurse, anesthesiologist, ICU doctor, and often a part-time ICU nurse). The remainder of the team typically comprises volunteer physicians, technicians, and nurses from across the world. Because the hardest-to-come-by positions are contract labor for us and NOT volunteers, we have never failed to run a mission for lack of personnel. We have only cancelled or turned down a request for a future mission due to lack of funding. [Back to Top]

Q: Many heart surgeries require follow-up treatment (including additional surgeries). Do you have a way of providing these to patients?

A: Yes, we do. Our model dictates quarterly visits to each program site (a hospital inside a regional hub). Our reliance on local cardiologists ensures that the local team prioritizes and almost entirely sets the agenda for patient selection (within a development curricula) - after all, Iraqi doctors are the ones who are most intimately connected to the patients and their daily progress! When a local cardiologist sees a child who has either (1) deteriorated and requires another intervention or (2) advanced as expected to the next step of a complex, staged intervention, the child is prioritized for follow-up treatment. [Back to Top]

Q: How do you assess whether surgeries are completed competently and appropriately?

A: Because we are a broker and play a combination administrative and financier role in the coalition of partners working in Iraq to develop pediatric cardiac care, we are able to stand in-between the local surgical team and the international surgical team (whom we contract as a third-party to train and perform surgeries in Iraq). If the local team or health directorate suspects a lack of competence in the international team, a cavalier attitude, or a single poor judgement call, our role is to be the go-between - to be the advocate for the local healthcare providers vis-a-vis the international surgical team.

Similarly, if the international surgical team feels pushed by the local surgical team to perform procedures with which they are uncomfortable or for which they think the local system is ill-prepared, they are able to refuse children for surgery and/or use us (PLC) as a go-between.

The checks-and-balance between the two teams helps us ensure surgeries are performed in a competent, appropriate manner. [Back to Top]

Q: What is the rate of complications during and following surgery?

A: We report our in-hospital and 60-day mortality after each Remedy Mission. You can finds those numbers here. We also produce reports after each Remedy Mission detailing the trip, including data on intraoperative complications, post-operative complications, and mortality. You can find those reports here. We are also deliberately raising the funds necessary to help us bring our various heart hospitals into compliance with the International Quality Improvement Collaborative for Congenital Heart Surgery in Developing Countries. If this kind of quality improvement and reporting initiative interests you, we are currently looking for financial partners for our Followthrough program. [Back to Top]

Q: How do you assess whether surgeons are performing additional surgeries that they would have not had the funding or motivation to perform otherwise?

A: Pediatric heart surgery in Iraq is almost nonexistent without our work. There are two active programs for relatively simple surgeries (one in Erbil and one in Baghdad). Local surgeons claim that combined they perform no more than a few hundred pediatric surgeries a year. In every location where we work, pediatric heart surgery is effectively nonexistent. Therefore, every surgery performed at our program sites (both when we are present and when we are not) are "additional surgeries" that they would not have had the SKILL to perform without the FUNDING we employed to train them in their local environment. [Back to Top]

Q: How do you assess whether surgeons are charging their patients for the surgeries you fund?

A: Because we work in public (government) hospitals - and because healthcare in Iraq is provided almost entirely free of charge - it is widely known that any cardiologist, surgeon, or administrator seeking compensation for services is acting outside of Iraqi law. [Back to Top]

Q: Do you follow up with the surgeons you've trained to assess whether they are correctly applying their training?

A: We see them quarterly in their local environment and perform real-time audits of their skills, recollection of past training, application of new techniques, etc. Additionally, our international surgeon remains on call at any time via phone, Skype, or email for consultation. [Back to Top]

Q: What information is available on the activities - and competence - of the surgeons you've trained?

A: Because our Remedy Mission training program only began in late 2010 - and pediatric heart surgery at our sites across Iraq is the same age - there is still relatively little independent practice to report, and therefore little data on the activities and competence of our surgeons and their teams. But as they begin performing more surgeries independently, we are trying to align each site/surgical team with the International Quality Improvement Collaborative for Congenital Heart Surgery in Developing Countries (a data collection and tracking initiative of Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard University). [Back to Top]

Q: Where do surgeons work after completing training? Do they serve poor patients?

A: As of Q2 2011 there was only one private hospital in Iraq (to our knowledge) providing pediatric heart surgery (and those surgeries were on the lower end of the complexity scale). Our work does not necessarily mean to exclude private hospitals as they continue to come online and become viable options, but at present the government system has a better equipped foundation for training local surgical teams. As we look to fully graduate our local surgical teams in the next 5-10 years, we imagine that most of them will stay in the public sector for all of the stability, pensions, and benefits of loyalty provided to those who stick with it. But, undoubtedly, some will seek positions at private hospitals (assuming private hospitals are willing to invest in the requisite capital purchases necessary to establish a credible program). In the public sector, rich and poor are served alike. In the private sector, poorer patients would be at an obvious disadvantage. [Back to Top]

Q: How much do you spend each year on "program" expenses and how much on "overhead?"

A: As a rule, we do not adhere to the model that claims that "overhead" is somehow bad and "program" is somehow good. There are very bad program expenses. There are overhead expenses that are excellent investments. We agree with Paul Brest, President of the Hewlett Foundation, when he said, "Achieving a low overhead ratio drives many charities to behaviors that make them less effective and means more, not less, wasted dollars." Therefore, we spend as much on overhead as we need to accomplish our mission. The mission itself is our North Star - not arbitrary (even harmful) standards about overhead-vs-program expenditures. For the record, however, you can find a current pie chart of our expenditures here (and if you're into that sort of thing, you'll probably be impressed!). [Back to Top]

50 Family Focus + Two Teams of Turks = 90 Kids in 2010

December 30, 2009 by Jeremy · 343 Comments

2010datavisual

To date, we’ve served 45 children by offering families a hand-up in their efforts to save their own children’s lives. We’ve seen poor families work harder and smarter to take part in our family participation program to fund a portion of their child’s surgery.

As we enter 2010 we plan to up the ante and send 50 children out to surgery in Istanbul, Turkey at the Anadolu Medical Center. We hope to do this by sending four children every month. (January’s group is already set and February and March are filling up quickly!). The price tag for these surgeries will be roughly $500,00 – with at least 50% of that amount coming from local Iraqi sources!

2010datavisual2

Additionally, we hope to make 2010 a year of investing in local infrastructure by creating forums for the exchange of knowledge, skills, and experience by bringing in foreign experts to operate and train local cardiologists, surgeons, and nurses to hasten the day of more local solutions to local problems in Iraq.

We aim to bring 2 surgical missions into Iraq this year to serve 40 additional children in local hospitals by training local surgeons, cardiologists, and nurses. We have already begun screening candidate hospitals, cardiologists, and surgeons to ensure our investments go to the most disciplined and visionary practitioners.

Kids like Honya, Vary, or Mohammad have made 2009 an amazing year. Does 90 kids mean that 2010 will be twice as joyous?

Click here to join in on the Fifty Family Focus for 2010.

Jeremy Courtney lives and loves in Iraq as a co-founder and Executive Director of the Preemptive Love Coalition. He's also the father of two spectacular children, and married to the lovely Jessica Courtney. When not absorbed in PLC work he can be found writing songs and singing about hope and future. Follow Jeremy on Twitter: @JCourt.

Filed under: Anadolu Sağlık Merkezi, AtlasJet, Development, Family Participation, Financial Transparency, Heart Surgery, News, Our Kids, Partnerships, Peacemaking, Urgent, Volunteers

How I Blew It With Family Participation

December 22, 2009 by Jeremy · 1 Comment

jeremy
Photo: Matt Addington

The broader coalition of groups working to end this backlog of sick Iraqi children met today – and I blew it. In the meeting with international partners and local healthcare professionals I made a statement in my closing argument that I got totally wrong. The worst part is, because it was my closing argument, I ended with a particular oomfph that conveyed how I thought I had gotten it especially right.

Until our Family Services Director (and my wife, Jessica) corrected me over lunch.

I was making a case to the entire group for encouraging family participation financially. To drive my point home, I said “and by doing so, we will reduce our costs per child so that we can all send a lot more kids to surgery. And obviously, that’s the bottom line for all of us.”

I botched it! Sending more kids to surgery has never been our bottom line!

I stand by the mission of the Preemptive Love Coalition to eradicate the backlog of thousands of Iraqi children waiting in line for life-saving heart surgery, but sending more kids is not a singular bottom line. And, in spite of my rousing speech, hopefully it never will be.

My wife was right when she corrected me: You should have said that family participation subverts the Iraqi culture of dependence and creates buy-in among families so that they fully and meticulously participate in the after-care of their children per doctor’s orders.

–
sheikh
Photo: Matt Addington

The biggest challenges in Iraq are not financial or infrastructural. There is plenty of money available to create the infrastructure needed (excepting the crony-ism and embezzlement). The biggest challenge facing Iraq is one of vision and values; they are questions of personal and communal character.

If the money were released today into the society to solve all its woes, woes would likely proliferate. The character and values needed to handle such an influx of finances, technology, and education cannot be set up over night like so many mosques.

What I should have said in that meeting is that our bottom line is the development of character and the transformation of communal values. We don’t do it in an imperialistic “we know better than you” sort of way. But with every heart surgery we facilitate, there is an accompanying transformation for which we work: will the character of this family be significantly affected by cooperating with “The Other” to save their own child’s life? Will participating in the solution create a long-term legacy of change that out lives our own foreign presence here?

“Family participation subverts cultures of dependence and creates buy-in, being the only system with the explosive potential to transform societies into communities who see life as an opportunity and a gift rather than a right and a given.”
— Jessica Courtney

If nothing else, this legacy of change is growing in the local employees we train and in whom we nurture the freedom to dream up and pursue “local solutions to local problems.”

Too often in Iraq people show up in any number of proverbial “bread lines” waiting for this month’s hand-out. The country is shackled by a dehumanizing form of socialism that parades itself around as government generosity.

So even though it is tremendously counter-cultural — both in Iraqi culture and often in the culture of charitable organizations — this is our bottom line for requiring family participation. It’s not primarily to send more kids to surgery, as though the development aid we seek to contribute was primarily an issue of goods and services. No, we require family participation because it has the explosive potential to transform societies from those who do not own their problems, their solutions, and the continual maintenance and upgrading of their systems into societies – even communities – who see life as an opportunity and a gift rather than a right and a given.

Requiring local participation (familial, communal, etc) has a way of taking foreigners off the High Horse of the Hero. People do not look at us as saviors or praise us as such. No, we’re probably seen more like parents making their kids eat broccoli because it’s “good for them.”

Developing “local solutions to local problems” will – without a doubt – create a more robust, technologically adept, and character-driven society than the dumbing down of import/export. So while we remain engaged in exporting children for life-saving surgeries outside the country, and while we seek to ramp up the importing of foreign health care professionals, we always do so with the long-term in view. And we do it so as to create local transformation and not merely the checking off of more boxes on our program report cards.

Yours,
jeremy-signature
Jeremy Courtney
Executive Director
Preemptive Love Coalition

See More on Our Local Solutions to Local Problems:

Filed under: Development, Family Participation, Financial Transparency, News, Partnerships, Peacemaking

Consult with Samaritan’s Purse Doctor; Suggests Children for Surgery in Istanbul

December 21, 2009 by Jessica · Comments Off

dr-kirk-mohammed

Baby Mohammed was diagnosed with Transposition of the Great Arteries (or TGA) moments after being born and was sent to have his aorta pierced by catheterization so that his blood would mix enough to keep him alive long enough to grow a little before a very difficult surgery of switching these arteries to their proper place on his heart. Now, six months later we will be taking him to the Anadolu Medical Center in Istanbul, Turkey to get the surgery that will save his life.

Above you see him with cardiologist Dr. Kirk Milhoan of Samaritan’s Purse on a recent trip to northern Iraq to pre-screen children for surgery as a part of Samaritan’s Purse’s Children’s Heart Project.

Mohammed was very sick a few weeks ago and his oxygen saturation dropped below 65%. When he had the chance to be seen by Dr. Kirk his saturations were over 86%. Dr. Kirk confirmed the diagnosis and recommended him for surgery in January.

Thanks to the amazing year we’ve had and the generosity with which you’ve given, we’ll be able to send Mohammed to Surgery.

Follow Mohammed on Twitter: @MohammedUmed. Subscribe to Mohammed’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Mohammed’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.

	Mohammed is slated for surgery in January 2010. We will be collecting money for his life-saving surgery throughout the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. What a chance to make a profound difference in the life of a child and his family!
	GENERAL DONATION Donate the amount of your choice to fund Mohammed and our January group by entering it in the field below. All donations made before January 2010 will go to help the Preemptive Love Coalition send Mohammed (and any others in his group) to life-saving heart surgery. Donation:

Jessica Courtney lives and loves in Iraq as a co-founder and Family Services Director of the Preemptive Love Coalition. She is also a mother of two children and is married to PLC's Executive Director, Jeremy Courtney. When not absorbed in caring for Iraqi children and sharing life with Iraqi families, she enjoys sewing and scrapbooking.

Filed under: Anadolu Sağlık Merkezi, Family Participation, Mohammed Umed, Our Kids, Partnerships, TGA, Urgent

Shwana Gains Weight; Prepares for School Midterms 7 Months Post-Op

December 20, 2009 by Jessica · 284 Comments

We visited Shwana in his village today, arriving only two hours before his mid-term test. He sat politely with us talking about football and playstation then excused himself to go study for his test. Sitting under the kitchen window for light (because his house doesn’t have electricity during the day) he and his brother studied together.

We sat in the other room talking over their chants of memorization in the background. His mother proudly explained how he has now outgrown all of his clothes that were falling off his body before his surgery just 7 months ago. Weight gain can be a great sign of health in a post-op child!

His father arrived from his job as a teacher just before lunch in time to quiz Shwana a little before he needed to leave. The entire family exuded happiness and pride in him as we ate a delicious Kurdish meal. After a very quick lunch, Shwana left and hurried to school so he wouldn’t be late for his test.

It was a great day with his family and we are excited with him that what you made happen with a single surgery in Istanbul, Turkey has led to a completely normal life for Shwana back in Iraq.

Filed under: ASD, Our Kids, School, Shwan, Surgery Updates

Do YOU Have What It Takes?

December 9, 2009 by Cody · 19 Comments

thisisit

“This is all it takes?”

That was our response when we received some heart valves in the mail this past week. This tiny piece? This is all it takes to turn a little boy gasping for breath into a soccer player? This is all it takes to turn a little girl who has to be carried to school into a girl who laughs as she races her friends to the playground for the first time? To turn a dying heart into a thriving heart?

This is it. (Plus a couple decades of practice, amazing medical facilities, and a stellar surgical and support team!).

Now, this ACTION TEE below is all it takes to put a life-saving, child-transforming, heart-mending valve into the hands of our doctors! Order our NEW Heartmender Action Tee TODAY and you’ll put a gift under the tree that literally SAVES LIVES with profits from the shirt covering the costs of these heart valves!

This is all it takes. Do you have it?

DID YOU GET YOUR SHIRT?

CHRISTMAS BLOG SPECIAL — 20% OFF!

Cody Fisher is the co-founder and Development Director of the Preemptive Love Coalition. He moved to Iraq in 2007 where he met his wife and since then they've been waging peace and mending hearts across Iraq. His passions are photography, peacemaking, and food that doesn't come out of a can. You can follow him on Twitter: @candmfisher.

Filed under: Go Blog It!, News, Store

Fighting for Families

December 8, 2009 by Cayla · Comments Off

When a child is chosen for surgery, their family is adopted by a member of the PLC team. This person makes it their goal to do whatever is necessary to defend the family in this time of vulnerability. They are the family advocate.

The care offered to the family goes far beyond a healthy heart. When I visited the team in Iraq a month ago, I was able to see this care first hand on various home visits I made with PLC’s family advocates.

Here are some examples of what I saw:

Honya went to Istanbul for surgery in November. Her advocate sat with her parents to explain what the process would be like and what to expect in the hospital.

Heran needs a follow-up surgery but must gain weight before that’s possible. Her advocate has been visiting weekly, checking her weight and encouraging her closer to this goal.

Taban has completely recovered from her surgery but lacks motivation in school. Her advocate met with the school board, persuaded them to let her enroll, and continues to support her education.

Zana has also been doing well, but his mother was keeping him from school for fear he would turn up sick again. After some reassurance, she allowed him to begin his studies.

Shwana has fully recovered and is doing great, but others in his family are still in need. His family advocate is in the process of acquiring a wheelchair for his disabled cousin and was able to give helpful exercises to his grandma who recently had a stroke.

PLC does so much more than just heart surgeries; they truly care for the Iraqi people and work to show them that they matter. I was astounded to see how much is invested in the lives of the children and their families and how big of a difference it really makes.

HELP PLC IN THEIR ADVOCACY ON BEHALF OF IDREES BY GIVING TO HIS SURGERY IN HONOR OF A FRIEND BELOW:

	Idrees is slated for surgery in January 2010. PLC will be collecting money for his life-saving surgery throughout the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. What a chance to make a profound difference in the life of a child and his family!
	GIVING IN HONOR OF ANOTHER In honor of a friend or family member, donate the amount of your choice to fund a January surgery for Idrees by entering it in the field below. PLC will send you a Christmas card about Idrees along with a Preemptive Love Coalition “Hope for the Holidays” magnet as a physical expression of your gift on behalf of another. Donation:

Cayla Willingham is Remedy Mission Coordinator and Family Advocate. When she isn't spending time with families, she enjoys cooking, hosting friends, haggling in local bazaars and souks, and learning local languages.

Filed under: Family Participation, Heart Surgery, Heran, Honya Mahdi, School, Shwan, Taban Ali, Zana Tofiq

Idrees’s Parents Take Part in Financing Their Son’s Surgery

December 7, 2009 by Jeremy · 1 Comment

Idrees Yusuf’s family does not have a lot of money. Having visited their house in the volatile city of Kirkuk, I can personally vouch for their meager mode of living. Still, they have stepped up to our challenge to take part in financing Idrees’s surgery alongside our donors and Buy Shoes. Save Lives. customers in America, Europe, and throughout the world.

As Christmas approaches and you give these donations and gifts on behalf of Idrees, you can take heart that you are not giving a mere hand-out. You are helping a family who has chosen to see Idrees’s heart problem as their problem and is working on all fronts to make sure they participate in the surgical solution.

Their portion is not going to be nearly enough to get the job done. In fact, it will probably only cover airfare and accommodations. We welcome your help. And Idrees needs your help. But not as a hero who swoops in to save the day. Instead, Idrees needs your help as one who affirms his parent’s sacrifice and comes alongside.

This is not welfare. This is development.

Follow little Idrees on Twitter: @IdreesYusuf. Subscribe to Idrees’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Idrees’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.

	Idrees is slated for surgery in January 2010. We will be collecting money for his life-saving surgery throughout the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. What a chance to make a profound difference in the life of a child and his family!
	GENERAL DONATION Donate the amount of your choice to Idrees by entering it in the field below. All donations made before January 2010 will go to help the Preemptive Love Coalition send Idrees (and any others in his group) to life-saving heart surgery. Donation:

Filed under: Family Participation, Featured, Financial Transparency, Go Blog It!, Heart Surgery, Idrees Yusuf, Our Kids, Partnerships, Peacemaking, Surgery Updates

NEW Shirts Just For YOU!

December 4, 2009 by Cody · 5 Comments

peaceweb

Dear Peacemakers & Heartmenders –

As 2009 draws to a close you’ve used your voice, resources, and passion to provide 21 heart surgeries for children in Iraq! Twenty one boys and girls, 42 parents, and countless communities across Iraq and the world have been affected by your generosity this year alone!

But here’s another way you can mend hearts and make peace this Christmas! You’re the first to see our brand new Heartmender & Peacemaker tees! Wipe the drool off your keyboard, get out your digital shopping cart and give your family and friends a t-shirt that literally mends hearts and makes peace!

bodyweb

The Heartmender Tee

Put our yellow Heartmender Tee under the tree this year and 100% of the profit pays for heart valves and patches–the pieces that literally turn a dying heart into a thriving heart!

The Peacemaker Tee

Stuff our olive Peacemaker Tee into a stocking this Christmas and 100% of the profit goes directly to our Followthrough Program, the program that creates cooperation and peacemaking opportunities between communities at odds. In this shirt, your family and friends can know that you’ve brought together Arabs, Kurds, Turks, and Westerners who are breaking down the barriers to peace in Iraq and throughout the world with life-saving heart surgeries.

CHRISTMAS SALE: Peacemaker Tee

Every time we give a heart surgery to an Iraqi child we broker reconciliation between clashing communities. Imagine yourself in this shirt waging peace on Iraq! All proceeds fund our Family Services program.

Price: $19.99
Size:

CHRISTMAS SALE: Heartmender Tee

These dear Iraqi kids are often born with holes in their hearts that need patching and valves that need replacing. And it’s outrageously expensive! Buy this tee and stand in the hole between what could be and what should be.

Price: $19.99
Size:

Cody Fisher is the co-founder and Development Director of the Preemptive Love Coalition. He moved to Iraq in 2007 where he met his wife and since then they've been waging peace and mending hearts across Iraq. His passions are photography, peacemaking, and food that doesn't come out of a can. You can follow him on Twitter: @candmfisher.

Filed under: Featured, News, Peacemaking, Store

Honya is Doing Great Back at Home in Her Village in Iraq

December 3, 2009 by Jessica · 1 Comment

We visited Honya and her family this morning and she looks great. The incision from her amazing heart surgery is almost completely healed and she finally has enough energy to learn to sit up on her own and to crawl around for the first time. Only 20 days after surgery she is acting like a normal 9 month old and her fingers and cheeks have a wonderful pink hue. We watched family videos from the last 4 days of the holiday here in Iraq.

Follow 9-month-old Honya on Twitter: @honyamahdi. Subscribe to Honya’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Honya’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.

Jessica Courtney lives and loves in Iraq as a co-founder and Family Services Director of the Preemptive Love Coalition. She is also a mother of two children and is married to PLC's Executive Director, Jeremy Courtney. When not absorbed in caring for Iraqi children and sharing life with Iraqi families, she enjoys sewing and scrapbooking.

Filed under: Heart Surgery, Honya Mahdi, Our Kids, Peacemaking, Surgery Updates

Baby Honya’s last day in the Hospital Before Going Home to Daddy

November 16, 2009 by Joshua · 657 Comments

Its been no secret we think this little baby is adorable. And we know you do, too. I mean c’mon, look at this girl.

This is harder than it should be though.

We know its not the way this is supposed to be….we’re supposed to be excited about seeing her leave, going home to her family, back to normal life….but we’re going to miss seeing her each day!

Today, she is well rested and smiling a lot. Today, we are praising God for a successful surgery and the new life that has been given. In fact, today we’re grateful for our Followthrough program and the fact that we will continue to see this little girl grow up into the hope & future that has been provided for her.

And we’re grateful for you… because without you we could not have made this happen!

Follow 9-month-old Honya on Twitter: @honyamahdi. Subscribe to Honya’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Honya’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.

Joshua is a PLC Summer Intern who spends a majority of his time with PLC taking exceptional photos of children in Iraq in an effort to humanize Iraqis and portray them as people full of dreams and hope. When his camera is not in-hand, Josh is often found in local tea houses with friends and also enjoys traversing the great outdoors.

Filed under: Anadolu Sağlık Merkezi, AtlasJet, Heart Surgery, High Pulmonary Pressure, Honya Mahdi, Our Kids, Partnerships, Peacemaking, Surgery Updates, VSD

Next Page »

SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTER

Get our good news stories straight into your reader or inbox for free!

OUR BLOGGERS

Matt Willingham is the PLC press secretary and writes primarily on politics, history, general updates and visual peacemaking through photography and film.

Cody Fisher is a PLC cofounder and writes primarily on program development and peacemaking by giving us a lens into the lives of the real people we love.

Jeremy Courtney is a PLC cofounder and writes primarily to emphasize our vision and values, including organizational and financial transparency.

Preemptive Love Coalition provides lifesaving heart surgeries for Iraqi children in pursuit of peace between communities at odds. We offer the untold thousands of Iraqi kids suffering from life-threatening heart defects a chance at the surgery they need to save their lives. With our world-class international surgical partners, we create long-term solutions by training local Iraqi doctors and nurses so they can sustainably save lives without our help.

Popular Tags

Amman Arab Basra BSSL Buy Shoes. Save Lives. buyshoessavelives CHD children Congenital Heart Disease Development echocardiogram Fallujah heart heart surgeries Heart Surgery hope hospital Hussein ICHF ICU International Children's Heart Foundation Internship Iraq Iraqi children Istanbul Jeremy Courtney Jordan Klash Kurdistan living light international LLI najaf nasiriyah Peacemaking PLC preemptive love coalition Remedy Mission Remedy Mission I Remedy Mission II Shia cities Shia Iraq Southern Iraq Surgery Turkey Wordless Wednesday

Archives

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

Contributors

Jeremy Courtney (323)
Matt Willingham (157)
Cody Fisher (119)