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Heartmender Tour Takes on L.A.

September 22, 2010 by Cody · Leave a Comment 

Los Angeles::Los Angeles Skyline @ Los Angeles DWP Headquarters
Photo Mike Smith // All Rights Reserved

After four days in San Francisco, kicking off our Heartmender Tour (and only receiving one parking ticket!) we’ve made the trek down south to Los Angeles. Sunday marked our first full day in the “City of Angels” but only after a long day spent in deep discussions in restaurants, on high school campuses, and in local churches, where we continued our Heartmender Tour about postures of peace and cooperation between peoples at odds Iraq and around the world.

We’ve run into social workers, actors, doctors, engineers, business men, hipsters, friends we haven’t seen since 3rd grade, former travel companions, and people from just about any background you can think of.

What I love most about the Heartmender Tour is the fact that just a couple weeks ago, few knew the story of Ahmed or Mohammed. Now, people all over the West Coast have been able to hear their story, see them on film, and in some way become a part of their story.

Their stories are speaking up on behalf of thousands of other kids just like them in Iraq, waiting for surgery. Their stories are mobilizing entire communities here on the West Coast to take up action by becoming monthly sponsors. Their stories are mending hearts.

To join their story and become a part of ours here in Los Angeles, be sure to reach out to us while we’re in town! We leave Friday and we would love to see you!

Write us at info@preemptivelove.org or find us on Facebook (http://facebook.com/preemptivelove) or Twitter (http://twitter.com)!

To make a donation or become a monthly heartmender, click here.

With You,

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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.

Reclaiming Hearts in San Francisco on our Fall Heartmender Tour

September 13, 2010 by Cody · Leave a Comment 

heartmender

Last night was our first stop in San Francisco for our Heartmender Tour and we couldn’t think of a better place to kick it all off! It was hosted by our wonderful new friends from the Mission District where we feasted on the city’s finest local food and shared great dialogue on issues of justice, peacemaking, reconciliation, and creating postures of preemptive love that stretch from San Francisco to Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.

It was a night centered around stories: our stories, their stories, and stories of Iraqi children and their families; all in the pursuit of peace. Through film, photography, and by sharing our hearts with each other we began a journey towards reclaiming the practice of peacemaking and reconciliation.

We’ve always loved the Mission District, but last night it was taken to a deeper level for me. I fell in love again with the people and the mosaic comprising so many backgrounds, histories, faiths, and perspectives.

And thanks to the generosity of all those who attended, hearts were mended – both in our group and in Iraq!

Could a night be better spent? We don’t think so!

We will be in San Francisco until Wednesday morning before we head down to Los Angeles. If you’re in the city and want to meet up, give us a call or send us an email at http://scr.im/heartmender.

With You,

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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.

You Just Helped More Kids in 12 Days Than Any 12 Month Period in Our History… for Less!

September 13, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

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Deeya is alive and doing well at home today because of the surgery you provided for her in Iraq!

Wow! What a phenomenal trip it has been these last few weeks as you have brought a new remedy to the children of Iraq through the surgical and nursing team of Dr. William Novick. It’s high time we update your impact to help Iraqis make a better future for themselves and their children.

The total expense for our first Remedy Mission was approximately $90,000. This amount was further subsidized by the Director of Health in our city and the Kurdish Regional Government in Washington D.C., and the International Children’s Heart Foundation. The balance was underwritten by you!

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This family was not yet chosen for surgery… they are still waiting for our next Remedy Mission.

Locally, Remedy Mission was a great success. We ended the week at dinner with the governor and the health director where they invited us to start our next Remedy Mission as quickly as possible. When we suggested May 2010 as a next date, all the surgeons and the health director rallied together to urge us to begin again in February instead.

Our current proposal is a five year plan comprising four trips per year to make the Sulaymaniyah Cardiac Center a premier facility in the region that is able to perform 12-14 surgeries per week without foreign assistance. We estimate that this will cost $1.5m and we are currently talking with the local authorities in hopes that they will choose to shoulder the majority of that expense.

During Remedy Mission ICHF and local surgeons performed 25 corrective cardiac procedures. Put differently, we helped more kids in 12 days than we have in any 12 month period to date… at a massive savings compared to our work in Iraq… with hands-on training for Iraqi doctors and nurses! A typical all-inclusive surgery in Istanbul costs us $10,000 (after subsidies). That expense is usually shared among the family of the child, local and international donors. The typical PLC international donor portion of a surgery in Turkey is $3-5k.

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Cody Fisher reviews the list of kids who received surgery and kids still in line for February 2011.

The numbers for Remedy Mission look much different. Not only are we able to work in partnership with others more during Remedy Missions, but every surgery represents a local development and training opportunity. The all-inclusive price for all partners was approximately $3,600 per child (compared to $10k in Istanbul and much more in the States or Europe).

Remedy Mission has taught us a lot about being fiscally and developmentally responsible. Therefore, in an effort to redouble our commitment to long-term local solutions, we will be increasing our Remedy Mission funding in hopes of facilitating four Remedy Missions in our current city in 2011.

The following families are still waiting in line for our help…. Will you be the remedy? Donate the amount of your choice below to get our next Remedy Mission off to a strong start!

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With you,

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Remedy Missions are international pediatric heart surgery teams that we bring to Iraq to to perform lifesaving heart surgeries and develop the infrastructure for the future. If you’re on Twitter this week be sure to use the #Remedy or #RemedyMission hashtag to describe all the good news coming out of Iraq this week via @preemptivelove and @babyheart_org. If you’re on Facebook, “Share” this story with the button below.

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: @Jeremy_Courtney.

The Good & The Bad: A Report On One of Our Remedy Kids Who Did Not Make It Through

September 7, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 


Video by Jon Vidar

We strive for transparency here; not marketing or public relations fluff. At the beginning of our Remedy Mission we chose a few children to feature on the website. At that time, we did not know which ones would survive and which ones would die; who would have an easy course and who would have a most difficult course. We chose them for reasons of timing, dramatic tension, and relational connectivity.

One of the families that was NOT chosen for feature, was actually concurrently featured by a photographer friend that we hired for some of the other work on Remedy Day #1. Jon Vidar had been out to meet Samal and her family weeks before Remedy Mission formally began. Jon was eager to see Samal get the surgery she needed. When he began her story for his personal project, we all had assumed and hoped that she would be one of the ones who benefited greatly from the surgery.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. Push play above to watch Jon’s excellent piece above to learn more about the situation in Iraq, our Remedy Mission solution, and Samal’s story in particular.

The one thing the ending slide does not capture with enough nuance is the bitter fact that Samal’s brain probably died before a knife was ever laid to her chest after her oxygen levels crashed to 10% for approximately 12 minutes. In that 12 minutes the O.R. team prepared her for surgery, opened her chest, and put her heart on the bypass machine, but she was without oxygen for far too long before they could intervene; they feared she was brain dead. They proceeded with the surgical correction for her heart and took precautionary measures after surgery to give her the greatest chance at recovery, but Samal never pulled through; she was probably too far gone before the surgery technically began.

There are no words or stories, prayers or personal presence that makes a loss like this more palatable. It’s dark and horrifying for the family; and, to a lesser degree, for those of us who invested a tiny bit of ourselves in Samal and her well-being.

There are no good words to wrap up a post like this… but there are more stories of hope to come.

With you,

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Remedy Missions are international pediatric heart surgery teams that we bring to Iraq to to perform lifesaving heart surgeries and develop the infrastructure for the future. If you’re on Twitter this week be sure to use the #Remedy or #RemedyMission hashtag to describe all the good news coming out of Iraq this week via @preemptivelove and @babyheart_org. If you’re on Facebook, “Share” this story with the button below.

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: @Jeremy_Courtney.

VIDEO: Remembering Saddam Hussein’s Chemical Attacks on Halabja

September 5, 2010 by Jeremy · 4 Comments 

A sobering remembrance of the 1988 chemical attack on Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan and the repercussions still felt by residents today.

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: @Jeremy_Courtney.

VIDEO: The World I See is the World You See by The Tiziano Project

September 3, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

Tiziano | 360° Kurdistan presents the journalistic efforts and personal accounts of Iraqi citizens in the Kurdish north alongside the stories of their professional multimedia mentors.

The Tiziano Project provides new media tools and training to community members in conflict, post-conflict and developing regions.

For more insights into the world in which we work, from the eyes and hearts of those who live here, visit http://360.tizianoproject.org.

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: @Jeremy_Courtney.

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