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WE HAVE KIDS IN SURGERY RIGHT NOW! THROUGH THESE STORIES WE'RE INVITING YOU TO BE A PART OF THE NEXT LIFESAVING SOLUTION. GET TO KNOW THESE KIDS & PLEASE GIVE WHAT YOU CAN FOR THE NEXT GROUP! |
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Baby Honya’s last day in the Hospital Before Going Home to Daddy
November 16, 2009 by Joshua · Leave a Comment
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.
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff 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. |
Vary’s Last Day in the Hospital - Leaving for Iraq Tomorrow!
November 16, 2009 by Joshua · 1 Comment
This is the happiest we’ve seen her since her arrival in Istanbul. Laughing with us, playing with us, dancing to the music playing on her room TV, she was as happy and healthy as could be hoped for.
The feeling of watching this little girl play is… well, what we work for. She is healed. She has been given new life. Her mom is at rest, no longer fearing her daughter’s heart; no longer being forced to live a cautious life because of it.
Vary has been healed, and now boards a plane with something that wasnt there when she left. Hope for the future.
Follow 2-year-old Vary on Twitter: @varybahman. Subscribe to Vary’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Vary’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff 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. |
Honya is Breathing Entirely On Her Own Just Hours After Surgery
November 10, 2009 by Joshua · 1 Comment
Baby Honya is sleeping calmly in ICU, waiting for doctors to clear her to release to her room. Her oxygen levels are great off room air and the strength of her own lungs! And her pulmonary pressure is (so far) entirely under control!
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.
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff 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. |
Vary Heads In To Surgery
November 9, 2009 by Joshua · Leave a Comment
Vary’s mother is excited about all the possibilities the future could hold for Vary and their family if this surgery is successful.
Not quite sure if she’s happy to be getting away from the camera or scared of all the sudden attention she is getting back people in weird hats…
One last hug… a final close cuddle before sending her child away to what could be a life-saving surgery… Still, Vary’s mom is unable to shake the reality that it could also precipitate her death.
Vary is separated from mom and taken into the operating room…
For little Vary, the road to surgery has been a difficult one. She’s lived long enough with her heart condition to know doctors when she seems them; and she has has come to fear them. Upon seeing them in her doorway, she immediately recoils and clings to her mother…a mother who must hand her only daughter into the hands of foreign doctors - whose words she cannot even remotely understand - to save her life.
Follow 2-year-old Vary on Twitter: @varybahman. Subscribe to Vary’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Vary’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff 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. |
Vary’s Surgery Will Be More Complicated Than We Initially Thought
November 9, 2009 by Joshua · Leave a Comment
The doctors at Anadolu Medical Center in Istanbul, Turkey explain how they were able to identify an additional problem that was missed by doctors in Iraq due to out-dated equipped and less experience in the field. Vary’s surgery will be far more complicated and more risky than we initially thought. The course for Vary’s surgical correction includes lowering her body temperature to 16 degrees Celsius, draining all the blood from her body, and resecting a portion of the artery dangerously close to a critical nerve that could leave Vary with neurological damage.
Just as subpar equipment and medical facilities in Iraq are stand-in substitutes for the diagnostic and therapeutic equipment that these dear people really need, so, too, do make-shift educational systems, requirements, and expectations stand-in as substitutes for standards, critical thinking, and comprehension-based testing. Because of this, Vary’s mother has to sign the documents acknowledging the risks of death and other complications with an inked thumbprint because at 23 years old, she lacks the ability to read or write.
Vary’s mother doesn’t really have much of a choice. Of course she’s scared of neurological damage, other complications, and the risk of death during surgery… then again, she’s already heard that her daughter is sentenced to death without this surgery. So we gathered, prayed, and Vary goes to surgery in just a few short hours.
Follow 2-year-old Vary on Twitter: @varybahman. Subscribe to Vary’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Vary’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff 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. |
Honya Goes to Surgery First Thing Monday Morning in Istanbul
November 8, 2009 by Joshua · Leave a Comment
Honya Mahdi has been sick with an infection in her right lung… but the pediatrician and heart surgeon have both cleared her for surgery first thing tomorrow morning.
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.
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff 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. |
The Plane, the Airport, the Bus: A Photographic Peek at Our Journey with Three Iraqi Kids
November 4, 2009 by Joshua · Leave a Comment
Vary is two years old and very scared of this new place. She is old enough to recognize doctors as doctors….and given her heart condition, has come to fear them.
This little nine year old, Mohammad, has been great. Very calm, very respectful….I even had him laughing last night as he was getting his EKG.
Honya is a very sick nine month old girl. We are so nervous for her…..she’s the riskiest girl we’re sending.
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff 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. |
Idrees is Selected for Life-Saving Heart Surgery - Dances with Siblings in Celebration!
October 19, 2009 by Joshua · Leave a Comment
Copy & Paste the code to the right to embed this slideshow in your blog or website:
We traveled yesterday to Kirkuk - one of Iraq’s most volatile cities - to visit the home of Idrees and to let his family know of his having been selected for heart surgery in January 2010. As talks progressed about logistics and prospective dates for his surgery, I was outside with the kids.
Push play above to see an audio slideshow of all I saw… In making this, it was our hope that this would further change the way we all look at Iraqis. They are not helpless or hopeless. Even in a volatile city like Kirkuk - and even when facing life-threatening odds - they are all, Kurds, Arabs, Turkomen - resilient people full of hopes and dreams and most of them, like Idrees’s family, stand ready to help themselves when given the opportunity.
Press play above!
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.
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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! | |||
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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.
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff 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. |
SWEET LITTLE RANU GAINS MUCH-NEEDED WEIGHT & STARTS SCHOOL AFTER LIFE-SAVING SURGERY
October 6, 2009 by Joshua · Leave a Comment
Poses for a picture… never camera shy!
You just can’t stop this girl from smiling!
Eating pomegranate seeds by the bowl-full!
I went with PLC’s Family Services Director, Jessica Courtney, to visit Ranu Bahadeen and her family on Tuesday in what turned out to be one of the most enjoyable home visits I’ve been on.
This little girl was really shy at first, given it was my first visit to their home, but by the end, I didn’t want to leave! She was so adorable. We started this game of stealing the pomegranates from each other’s bowls…..which ended in hilarious laughter and wishing we didn’t have to leave…
A few months ago her parents didn’t know if Ranu would be alive today. But thanks to you and your kindness, her life-saving surgery has provided her with a brand new life. She’s gained some much needed weight, has more energy, and is now going to school for the first time!
WHAT A DIFFERENCE YOU MADE IN THE WORLD OF THIS FAMILY!
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff 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. |
Zana Continues to Grow and Amaze After Newsmaking Heart Surgery in February
September 30, 2009 by Joshua · Leave a Comment
Today Ruth and I visited the home of Zana Tofiq, whom you helped send to surgery in February with the group we called the Great Eight. Zana’s case was particularly difficult and the doctors in Turkey still talk about it to this day… and for good reason!
Today Zana is in great health and very active - as we observed in the energetic game of football (soccer!) played in the street with his neighborhood friends.
The impact you make on these dear kids in Iraq is breathtaking! And for those of you who are new to our work from Twitter or Facebook, we urge you to give us a try and see what your donation can do today!
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Joshua Gigliotti is a PLC Summer Intern ('09) turned short-term staff 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. |
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