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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?"

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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]

An Interactive Graphic Overview of What We’ve Been Up to for the Last Few Years

August 23, 2009 by Jeremy · 486 Comments

Drag and drop and click and scroll and comment and push and play your way through some of our [online] activity from the last year.

Special Features of Note:

Be sure to Click on Map>Play Events for a Worldwide Conversation of Sorts Between Our Offices Around the World

View fullscreen below for more room to play around!

CLICK HERE FOR A FULL SCREEN VERSION

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: A Thin Place, ASD, Ahmad Bakhtiyar, Anadolu Sağlık Merkezi, Art, AtlasJet, Bruska, Coverage, Daryan Salah, Family Participation, Financial Transparency, Forgotten Story, Giving Away Money, Go Blog It!, Heart Surgery, Heran, Internship, Kadeeja Mahdi, Lawaran, Lawen Kemal, Mazyar Tahir, Misdiagnosis, Mohammed Gaelan, News, Our Kids, Partnerships, Peacemaking, Ranu Bahadeen, Rezhin, Roman, Roshna, Ruzhan Feris, Sad, SerhangYaseen, Shad Faraydoon, Shad Faraydoon Memorial Fund, Shwan, Store, Surgery Updates, TGA, TOF, TOF/DORV, Taban Ali, Tarza, Urgent, VSD, Volunteers, Zana Tofiq

Meet Daryan

July 20, 2009 by Jeremy · 1 Comment

darian-web

There has been a lot of back and forth in the PLC office as to whether or not we should even introduce you to Daryan or just quietly send him to surgery. Daryan’s condition is very bad – and with Shad’s death in June (as well as Honyar’s in February) – we have been reluctant to draw your attention again to what might end up as another tragic story of pain and loss.

But there is a hopeful flip side: when days look darkest and all hope seems gone, the surprise joy of a miraculous intervention and recovery can be enough to really change the world.

If we only showed you the safest children of whom we were assured success, our work would be devoid of much meaning. It’s in the riskiest, most difficult cases that our hopes are heightened – along with our fears. And it is in these cases – whether success or failure – that we find our own hearts and the communities among whom we work most affected and changed.

darian-2-web

So this is Daryan – a four-month-old with a number of problems that prompted the Kurdish doctor in our city who has seen 99% of our kids to date to say, “This is the worst child I have ever seen.”

Already the odds have been stacked against him and his family. He is clearly malnourished. But PLC staffers and volunteers have come alongside the family to offer practical guidance on newborn and infant feeding techniques. His family did not have passports, but through the hard work of PLC’s Iraqi translator (and through a lot of string pulling and system-playing) both baby and mother now have passports in hand – a full 24 hours before the plane takes off tomorrow!

Daryan has proven to be a fighter and a survivor thus far. There is a massive road ahead and there is no guarantee that our Turkish doctors will even accept Daryan to surgery after performing their own diagnostic tests. And if they do not accept him to surgery, he will be sent back to Iraq to await him imminent death. But if they do accept him! What a glorious change could be wrought in his life! Of course, surgery alone is no guarantee (as we have seen before). But we will take what we can get for Daryan, one step at a time.

Follow 4-month-old Daryan on Twitter: @daryansalah. Subscribe to Daryan’s updates via RSS here. Follow Daryan’s thread of longer stories (with pictures) on the PLC blog here.

NOTE: In accordance with PLC’s desire to lend a hand-up by avoiding strict hand-outs (when possible), Daryan’s family has funded approximately $2,500 of PLC’s highly-discounted surgery price themselves.

Filed under: Anadolu Sağlık Merkezi, Daryan Salah, Featured, Giving Away Money, Go Blog It!, Heart Surgery, Internship, News, Our Kids, Partnerships, Peacemaking, Surgery Updates, Urgent, VSD, Volunteers

Meet Mazyar

July 20, 2009 by Jessica · 241 Comments

maziar-web

Mazyar is a cute little three year old boy from the city in Iraq where PLC has our office. Like many of the children we know about, Mazyar’s condition is very complicated. He received an operation last year in Tehran, but it was only stage one of a full-correction. PLC is coming alongside his family in this second surgery in as many years to help Mazyar receive the full correction – and hopefully the full life – that every parent wants for their child.

Mazyar also has a cleft lip. We have made inquiries into charitable surgical options for him while in Turkey, but as yet we have not made any definitive plans for a cleft correction.

Follow 3-year-old Mazyar on Twitter: @mazyartahir. Subscribe to Mazyar’s updates via RSS here. Follow Mazyar’s thread of longer stories (with pictures) on the PLC blog here.

NOTE: In accordance with PLC’s desire to lend a hand-up by avoiding strict hand-outs (when possible), Mazyar’s family has funded approximately $2,500 of PLC’s highly-discounted surgery price themselves.

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: ASD, Anadolu Sağlık Merkezi, Family Participation, Giving Away Money, Go Blog It!, Heart Surgery, Internship, Mazyar Tahir, Memos, News, Our Kids, Partnerships, Peacemaking, Volunteers

Meet Mohammed

July 20, 2009 by Jessica · 57 Comments

hummad-web

Mohammed is eleven years old with a fourfold combination of heart problems called Tetralogy of Fallot. The doctors expect that his quality of life will be significantly improved by a relatively routine (still plenty difficult) heart surgery in Istanbul this week.

Mohammed and his family hail from one of the more “hot bed” regions of Iraq along the fault line of semi-autonomous Kurdish and Arab areas.

We always enjoy taking older kids to surgery because, though there is a considerable risk for older children, it’s always a joy to experience the journey with them and to hear them express in their own words the impact that a surgery makes on their well-being. Look for more of Mohammed’s own words and gratitude on the blog as the week goes on.

Follow 11-year-old Mohammed on Twitter: @mohammedgaelan. Subscribe to Mohammed’s updates via RSS here. Follow Mohammed’s thread of longer stories (with pictures) on the PLC blog here.

NOTE: In accordance with PLC’s desire to lend a hand-up by avoiding strict hand-outs (when possible), Mohammed’s family has funded approximately $5,000 of PLC’s highly-discounted surgery price themselves.

Filed under: Anadolu Sağlık Merkezi, Giving Away Money, Go Blog It!, Heart Surgery, Internship, Memos, Mohammed Gaelan, News, Our Kids, Partnerships, Peacemaking, Surgery Updates, TOF, Urgent, VSD, Volunteers

Meet Ruzhan

July 20, 2009 by Jessica · Leave a Comment

ruzjan-web

We met Ruzhan through a community of American’s on the northern border of Iraq who recommended her to PLC for surgery a few months ago. What’s more, the business they run and all of their staff came together to actually fund 50% of Ruzhan’s surgery themselves and donated that money to PLC.

Follow 8-year-old Ruzhan on Twitter: @ruzhanferis. Subscribe to Ruzhan’s updates via RSS here. Follow Ruzhan’s thread of longer stories (with pictures) on the PLC blog here.

NOTE: In accordance with PLC’s desire to lend a hand-up by avoiding strict hand-outs (when possible), Ruzhan’s family has funded $2,500 of PLC’s highly-discounted surgery price themselves.

Filed under: Anadolu Sağlık Merkezi, Giving Away Money, Go Blog It!, Heart Surgery, Internship, Memos, News, Partnerships, Peacemaking, Ruzhan Feris, Surgery Updates, Volunteers

The Great Eight (Taban)

February 12, 2009 by Jessica · 4 Comments

After only 2 weeks in Iraq, working with families who’s children need heart surgeries to grow into adulthood, it was an exciting day to come face to face with two of these families and their children. Both families, whose children are 11 and 13 years old have known since birth that their children have serious heart conditions.

It was wonderful to be the bearer of such great news and tell Taban’s family, who has been waiting for 13 years to find a way to help cure their daughter, that she will be able to leave for surgery on Sunday. In just a few short days she will be on her way to Turkey where she will receive the heart surgery she desperately needs. I have been very touched by the kindness and devotion of these families to do whatever it takes to help their children get the surgeries they need. They are willing to entrust their children, their futures, and even invest their hope in us, The Preemptive Love Coalition.

As we shared several glasses of tea with them, they took the time to welcome me to their country and their village and thank me for leaving my home in America to come and help their children. Although these two children urgently need surgery, the Doctor reviewing their cases is very hopeful that their surgeries will be successful.

Not all of the children we have seen this week have as much hope for a full recovery, or even that they are eligible to receive surgery. And even in the midst of being the potential bearer of wonderful or terrible news for these families, I would not choose to be anywhere else in the world than here in Iraq sharing in the joy,

sorrow, hope, pain, and healing of these children and their families.

Filed under: Amazed, Giving Away Money, Heart Surgery, Our Kids, Partnerships, Taban Ali, VSD

Kurdistan Save the Children Comes through in the Clutch!

February 11, 2009 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment

We’ve been getting ready to send a group of Iraqi kids to life-saving heart surgeries in Turkey next week. After crunching the numbers, we thought that we could stretch and send six kids this month. But we had eight who desperately needed urgent surgeries.

Enter our local partner, Kurdistan Save the Children.

Normally, KSC helps contribute to the funding of a couple of kids each month. But they really stepped up to the plate and quadrupled their commitment for February.

Instead of helping two kids this month, they’re helping eight, contributing $2,500 towards each of their surgeries!

That’s $20,000 (or doo defter, as we like to say here in Sulaymaniyah)!

That means that instead of sending just six kids, we can now send eight over the next week, probably saving two extra lives in the process.

It also means that we’re seeing our vision of local solutions to local problems become a reality.

We know that the only hope for sustainable development is when people are empowered and encouraged to tackle the challenges they face together. That’s why we ask for a child’s extended family to contribute something to the cost of their surgery: we don’t want our generosity to rob them of their dignity or their responsibility. Instead, we want to strengthen families as a constructive element of civil society here in Iraq.

And it’s why we’re increasingly looking to form partnerships with Iraqi NGOs and businesses to support their efforts to care for the lives of their own people.

This month, we’re seeing it happen. Local contributions will cover almost half the cost of these eight surgeries. We’ve still got a long way to go, but it’s great to see how far we’ve come.

Filed under: Amazed, Giving Away Money, Heart Surgery, Partnerships

PLC Gives $12,500

July 14, 2008 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment

Thanks to a series of summer fundraising events in the States, the friends of PLC have raised at least $12,500 for heart surgeries to go to Iraqi children. Money is still coming in, but we’ve applied the first round to the sweet kids below who will now be able to travel next week to heart surgery outside of Iraq thanks to the kind kids and their parents who gave this summer so that others could live!

Shkar, 6 years old

Shkar’s case is very urgent and has recently caused him a great deal of difficulty breathing. His surgery is long-overdue, but doctors believe that he can still have a normal life. We plan for Shkar to be in surgery July 2008.

Hevi, 12 years old

Hevi has a condition called Tetralogy of Fallot, a combination of four anatomical abnormalities. Thankfully, doctors believe she can be fully healed and lead a ‘new life.’ We plan for her to be in surgery July 2008.

Shanaw, 12 years old

Shanaw’s case is very urgent. Though it’s difficult to see under the face-painting you see in the picture, Shanaw’s skin is very blue due to a severe valvular obstruction in her heart. Doctors believe she can be cured through surgery and go on to a healthy, normal life. Shanaw has received all her funding now and we plan for her to be in surgery July 2008.

Kale, 8 years old

Kale’s family keeps calling to remind our partnering organization that their little girl still needs help. Her favorite subject in second grade is English… We’re eager to follow up with her when she returns from her surgery. You can write notes to Kale in simple English here. Kale has received all her funding now and we plan for her to be in surgery July 2008.

Sarah, 8 years old

The cardiologist at the March 2008 screening found that the heart of this frail little girl can be fully restored through surgery. Her internal organs are all on the wrong side (situs inversus) – sometimes surgeons will use a mirror to operate in this case! We hope to have her in surgery in July.

Filed under: Giving Away Money, Go Blog It!, Heart Surgery, Medical, Our Kids, TOF

PLC Gives $5,000 for Two Surgeries

July 10, 2008 by Jeremy · 1 Comment

Your purchases and donations continue to spur on and encourage local Iraqi NGOs to stand beside us as we help their children. In conjunction with Kurdistan Save the Children we’ve just sent another $5,000 Iraqi heart surgeries outside the country!

Kale, 12 years old

Kale has cerebral palsy but constantly has a huge smile. It is wonderful to see her mom put so much concern into her daughter in a culture where the mentally challenged are often abandoned. Kale had a large hole, 2.5 centimeters, in her upper ventricle. We helped send Kale to surgery on February 20th but she is only now receiving the money she needed for her surgery. With our partnering organization, we went ahead and pushed her surgery through and Kale returned to Iraq on May 6, 2008 with a healthy heart.

Sarah, 8 years old

The cardiologist at the March 2008 screening found that the heart of this frail little girl can be fully restored through surgery. Her internal organs are all on the wrong side (situs inversus) – sometimes surgeons will use a mirror to operate in this case! We hope to have her in surgery in July.

Filed under: Giving Away Money, Go Blog It!, Heart Surgery, Our Kids, Partnerships

Happy Birthday, BSSL! Meet PLC!

July 7, 2008 by Jeremy · 1 Comment

On July 7th, 2007 an amazing thing happened… a guy named Chad was the first of hundreds and hundreds of compassionate people to purchase the as-yet-unknown shoe called Klash. Chad and hundreds like him have given us the encouragement and confidence we’ve needed to keep selling Klash and using the proceeds to fund heart surgeries for Iraqi kids.

And as cliche as this is about to sound, lots of people thought we were crazy. Most thought it was a three week project that we would outgrow. Some thought it was a silly failure to comprehend the real needs of Iraqis. Indeed, at times we probably thought so ourselves. But as one month has turned to twelve, there is no denying the magnetic force behind the simplicity of our message.

The Preemptive Love Coalition, via the “Buy Shoes. Save Lives.” program, has now sent 13 kids to surgery, funding them at various stages along the way to the tune of $36,500. What a pretty tune! We raised and gave away an additional $16,000 for pre-op heart screenings and have money waiting for 6-7 kids that we plan on sending later this month.In 12 months we’ve invested nearly $22,000 into local klash-making economies, plus tens of thousands more into the broader economy as a by-product of operating our business. We’ve sold $33,000 of Klash across the US, UK, Europe, Africa and Australia, and have seen such a range of creativity exercised in helping these children that we sometimes just sit astounded at all you do!

One of the major developments of the past year is the way in which we’ve reorganized under the banner of The Preemptive Love Coalition. After 4 months of selling shoes to save lives we started realizing that we had more to say than “buy shoes. save lives.” We wanted to say “Love your enemies. Do good to those who do bad to you.” In a region where “tit for tat” is the predominant peacemaking method, we wanted to lead out with another option.

Our “this for that” model is as simple as encouraging those who would be with us to find something in their current environment and use it (“this”) in the service of the thousands and thousands of Iraqi who are waiting in a line for life-saving heart surgeries outside the country (“that”).”This for that” is also about giving back love for hate; kindness for oppression; truth for perceptions.

As we look forward to the coming year we envision moving deeper into the hurt of Iraq and working among the more oppressed and excluded groups of people. We want them to know that there is an entire movement of people in America and around the world who will not abide the ongoing retaliatory methods of “peacemaking” in the region. We are those who use all manner of “this” for that – for peace; for kindness; for truth.

We are The Preemptive Love Coalition. Thanks for being with us!

Jeremy, Cody, Michelle, Ruth, Scott, Bobby
Audrey, Angel, Chris, Colby, Jesse, Peter (THE INTERNS)

Filed under: Amazed, Giving Away Money, Go Blog It!, Memos, News

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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 kids in pursuit of peace between communities at odds. We offer the 30,000 Iraqi children 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.

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