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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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Mazyar in Surgery for His 2nd Surgery in a Year - Expecting Full Correction
July 24, 2009 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Mazyar got a bit of a delay on his surgery today after doctors Çiçek (pronounced CHEE-check, btw) and Arsalan needed a little more time than they expected for Mohammed’s TOF/DORV surgery. But Mazyar is in surgery now for his second surgery in the last year, the first of which was conducted in Iran by a facility that, for whatever reason, made a few decisions and performed a procedure that disappointed our Turkish experts.
In any case, a full correction is expected today for little three year old Mazyar and the risks have been estimated at an encouraging 2-3%.
A few pictures with Dr. Sertaç Çiçek and Dr. Ahmed Arsalan in surgery taken by one of PLC’s summer interns, Benjamin Landis.
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.
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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. |
Meet Mazyar
July 20, 2009 by Jessica · Leave a Comment
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.
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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. |
Meet Mohammed
July 20, 2009 by Jessica · Leave a Comment
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.
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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. |
Meet Ruzhan
July 20, 2009 by Jessica · Leave a Comment
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.
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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. |
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 that “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)
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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. |
This Made Me Smile
July 2, 2008 by Jeremy · 1 Comment
CLICK HERE and read the post…
Then check the comments about 11 comments down.
JAC
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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. |
Arya
April 16, 2008 by Ruth · Leave a Comment
Last week Kanar (my translator) and I visited Arya and his family in their home. We had a wonderful time with them! Arya is doing amazing - he’s a two and a half year old boy with Down’s Syndrome. He had a hole in his heart repaired plus an extra thumb removed and arrived back in Kurdistan a few weeks ago. Ayra has one of the the biggest smiles I’ve ever seen and he’s so sweet! His family are over the moon with how he is progressing. He’s even been able to learn how to walk in these past two months since having his heart fixed! Before he often had pneumonia and just not enough energy to motivate him to learn how to walk. His family are so thankful for the way which we have been able to help them. We’ve been invited to their home today for lunch as a way for them to show their gratitude to us. I’ll let you know how that goes and hopefully I can post some pics too!
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Ruth Simpson is a Family Advocate for the Preemptive Love Coalition in Iraq and a certified physio-therapist. Ruth also hails from Ireland, though she's slowly losing her amazing accent amongst all the Americans. When not sharing her life with PLC's kids in Iraq, she's most often serving some other constituent group with her rehabilitative skills and compassion. |
BSSL Photo Shoot
April 8, 2008 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Shots from the recent BSSL Photo Shoot…
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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. |
The Embassy
February 29, 2008 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
The Embassy
Today we had a meeting with US Embassy brass working in the North. We initiated the contact a few weeks ago while seeking out funding for an art exhibition we are hosting here in April through Buy Shoes. Save Lives.
Since we’re committed to keeping all our profits for heart surgeries, we needed to seek outside funding for the art gallery - the primary purpose of which is to raise awareness of Kurdish art and mobilize civil society to play a helping role in the reconstruction process.
We were very encouraged by the response of the Embassy’s team to Buy Shoes. Save Lives. in general, and the proposal for the art exhibition in particular. The only two criticisms they had was that our budget was too small and that our venue was too small.
We are specifically asking for the Embassy to send a delegation to the installation, so I think the security concerns surrounding a high profile diplomat entering a crowded bazar for a photo op was on their minds.
The best hint of their approval for the project came when they requested a second meeting with us a few hours later to reformat the proposal into beuarocrat-speak and further discuss the implications of USAID funding for a for-profit business.
In our off hours between meetings we beefed up our marketing budget and will likely be pursuing an even higher profile for the event as a result.
Among the most exciting things was their eagerness to lend their name to the event and their insistence that they help us deliver invitations to all the appropriate ministers and diplomats on our list.
On a personal level, one of the suits was interested to hear more due to the fact that his son suffered from a hole in his heart as a child and was adversely affected by the limited healthcare available in East Asia where they were living at the time.
In other BSSL news, the Relevant Magazine interview we did is finishing its run on stands this week and has single-handedly produced almost $10,000 in sales!
Thanks for tracking with us!
J
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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. |
“Buy Anything. Save Lives.” at iGive.com
December 14, 2007 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Buy Anything? Save Lives?
For some of you, it may already seem ludicrous that buying shoes could in any way be connected to saving lives. And now we are about to tell you that buying just about anything can help to save lives.
We recently stumbled across a New York Times article that tipped us off to a website that makes a percentage donation from any purchase on participating partner webstores to a cause of your choice (Buy Shoes. Save Lives., anyone?).
All you have to do is go to iGive.com, register as a user, and then use their website to navigate to hundreds of well known online retailers. That means when you go shopping at say, Gap.com or iTunes or HomeDepot.com or Expedia or buy.com, a small percentage of every purchase will be given to Buy Shoes. Save Lives.
The percentage donated usually ranges between 1-4%—certainly nothing like the 50+% to fund heart surgeries when you buy handmade shoes or stylin’ tees through our website—but this is a case where money is time and every penny counts when you’re trying to save the lives of Iraqi kids.
And when Americans spend over $100 billion (and growing) each year buying things online, we’d be more than willing to put a paltry one percent of that towards saving lives and investing in the local economy here.
So before you buy those last minute Christmas gifts online, go register at iGive.com and designate BSSL as your cause (No. 44486). Then anytime you shop online, make sure that you stop by iGive first to see if you can shop through a store that will let you buy anything to save lives.
Compassionate capitalism, anyone?
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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. |
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