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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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Three Kids Headed Home with Happy, Healthy Hearts
March 10, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
This doesn’t look like the happiest group of people, but trust us, they are! It was 6 a.m. at an airport! Few are happy in that context!
It’s been a great journey for Muhammed, Baroof, and Sozyar. Both Muhammed and Sozyar were “urgent.” It was unclear whether Muhammed or Baroof would even be operable. And look at them today!
In our talks today with Dr. Resmiye at the Anadolu Medical Center she used words like “miracle” and “unbelievable” and “they won their lives back” to describe these kids.
Usually we try to keep a healthy balance of the “miraculous” and that which can be reasonable calculated according to the medical numbers. It’s hard to build a budget around miracles! But we are thrilled to celebrate GOD’s kindness in the lives of these children alongside the Turkish doctors who, themselves, have said that it is GOD’s doing and not just their own.
By the time this posts, Muhammed, Baroof, and Sozyar will be resting at home - in the city or the village - with their daddies and extended families who have been missing them so much.
As much as the surgery at this point, the fact that you’ve paid for round trip airfare through our partnership with Atlasjet Airlines for these kids is a great source of comfort, because healing means precious little when it separates you from the ones you love the most!
These children are now enrolled in the Preemptive Love Followthrough program. We’ll track their progress as Baroof goes back to school and Muhammed and Sozyar learn how to walk, and we’ll offer a number of services to them for the next six months (and often, much longer).
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Followthrough Program
With our Followthrough program we monitor a child’s healing and re-entry into their home culture, teach the importance of activity and a balanced diet, and address issues like racism and other radical ideologies. This amount represents the costs of medications, special needs, teaching materials, etc.
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Follow baby Sozyar on Twitter: @SozyarHamdan. Subscribe to Sozyar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Sozyar’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
Follow Baroof on Twitter: @BaroofAbdul. Subscribe to Baroof’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Baroof’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
Follow Muhammed Adnan on Twitter: @MuhammedAdnan. Subscribe to Muhammed’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Muhammed’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) 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 Deelan (Twitter: @DeelanKameran)
March 2, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Deelan arrived in Istanbul, Turkey last night on a plane from Iraq thanks to Atlasjet Airlines and the generous support they’ve offered to help us get this February group to surgery. If you are one of our summer interns, we highly recommend that you choose Atlasjet to fly into Iraq.
Our Family Services Director, Jessica Courtney, (who, if you’re keeping score at home, is also my wife) accompanied Deelan, his mother, and one other family to Istanbul last night to round out our February/March group of surgeries.
Special thanks to the Alice Abdi at the Anadolu Medical Center for the continual support, for staying late at the hospital to receive these dear kids, and for sending - as always - a special private van to pick up these fearful families. This keeps our costs low, speeds up our travel, and most importantly, shows the kind hearted desires of so many here in Turkey as they reach out to Kurds and the rest of the people of Iraq in providing these deeply discounted, life-saving heart surgeries.
Deelan is not doing well at all - crying nearly constantly and facing down dangerously high pulmonary pressure in addition to the huge hole between the lower two chambers of his heart .
Deelan is scheduled for surgery on Wednesday.
Follow Deelan on Twitter: @DeelanKameran. Subscribe to Deelan’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Deelan’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
*In accordance with PLC’s desire to lend a hand-up by avoiding strict hand-outs (when possible), Deelan’s family contributed $5,000 towards PLC’s highly-discounted surgery prices.
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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. |
Baroof Worries in His Room Before Going to Surgery This Morning
March 1, 2010 by Ruth · Leave a Comment
I spent an hour with 12-year-old Baroof this morning right before he was scheduled to have his life-saving surgery.
He’s a really sweet boy from a village in the north of Iraq. He speaks a different dialect of Kurdish from the one I know, but despite the language barrier we were still able to understand each other some. He told me that he’s really missing his dad and his brother and sister who are just a little older than him. He seemed a nervous as he waited which is to be expected, and he was also very hungry from having to fast before the surgery.
He was very excited to be able to talk to his dad for a few minutes before I left him but from the tears in his eyes afterwards we could tell that he is really missing him.
Baroof was taken into surgery at 11:40 a.m. Istanbul time. We’ll keep you updated on Baroof as we hear more in the next few hours.
Follow Baroof on Twitter: @BaroofAbdul. Subscribe to Baroof’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Baroof’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
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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. |
Meet Baroof (Twitter: @BaroofAbdul)
March 1, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Baroof is the fourth of the initial four children we brought with us to Iraq on February 23rd. He came to us through an organization in northern Iraq. When Prof. Dr. Sertaç Çiçek and his team saw Baroof in our Iraq screening two weeks ago, they wondered whether or not he would be operable. In any case, the window of operability was certainly closing quickly.
Baroof’s condition is known as an “aortopulmonary window” - or AP window - a rare heart defect in which a hole between the major blood vessel feeding the heart and the one going to the lungs. AP windows are so very rare they account for approximately .1% of all congenital heart defects according to U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Baroof was admitted to a diagnostic catheterization on Thursday night in which Dr. Levent from the Anadolu Medical Center determined he would be operable - and confirmed that he very much needed surgery… and fast.
More information to come on Baroof…
Follow Baroof on Twitter: @BaroofAbdul. Subscribe to Baroof’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Baroof’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
*In accordance with PLC’s desire to lend a hand-up by avoiding strict hand-outs (when possible), Baroof’s family worked with the regional government and with personal and government funds contributed $6,000 towards PLC’s highly-discounted surgery prices.
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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 Dua (Twitter: @Dua_Arif)
February 24, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
We met Dua and her family through a partnering organization on the northern Iraq-Turkey border near the area where Dua lives. As a result, we’re just now getting to know her (whereas we’ve had relationship with some of these other families for months).
Dua was diagnosed in Iraq with “tricuspid atresia” - a defect that only accounts for 1-3% of all congenital heart defects. In short, this defect means there is an absence of the tricuspid valve. From Wikipedia (because a lot of other sites prohibit quoting their information!):
Therefore, there is an absence of right atrioventricular connection. This leads to a hypoplastic (undersized) or absent right ventricle. This defect is contracted during prenatal development, when the heart does not finish developing. It causes the heart to be unable to properly oxygenate the rest of the blood in the body. Because of this, the body does not have enough oxygen to live, and steps must be taken to keep the child alive.
And for bonus points, you can click here to read more on the Fontan procedure for which Dua is a candidate (though her operability is still undetermined).
Follow Dua Arif on Twitter: @Dua_Arif. Subscribe to Dua’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Dua’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
*In accordance with PLC’s desire to lend a hand-up by avoiding strict hand-outs (when possible), Dua’s family worked with the regional government and with personal and government funds contributed $6,000 towards PLC’s highly-discounted surgery prices.
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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 Sozyar (Twitter: @SozyarHamdan)
February 24, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
The team of Turkish doctors personally pre-screened and selected Sozyar for surgery when they were with us in Iraq last week working with us to promote more local (Iraqi) solutions to these local problems.
Sozyar was referred to us by a local organization, saying she was in need of “urgent surgery.” Because of the tremendous cooperation of the Anadolu Medical Center and Prof. Dr. Sertaç Çiçek we are almost always able to fast track children like this and see them served before it’s too late. They visited us and we sent Sozyar to surgery in exactly two weeks. We could not do that without your faithful giving and the highly interested and capable Turkish team.
You can click here to read more on the Fontan procedure that the doctors plan on performing for Sozyar.
Follow baby Sozyar on Twitter: @SozyarHamdan. Subscribe to Sozyar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Sozyar’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
*In accordance with PLC’s desire to lend a hand-up by avoiding strict hand-outs (when possible), Sozyar’s family contributed $4,000 towards PLC’s highly-discounted surgery prices.
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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 Muhammed (Twitter: @MuhammedAdnan)
February 24, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Muhammed’s presence in our life is a testament to the way the Preemptive Love Family Services Team has lived out our Core Values - namely, our pursuit of excellence (or constant improvement) and the way we seek to provide whole solutions for whole people. But all that sounds a little vague, so let me break it down…
In February 2009 a Kurdish soldier knocked on the door of our office. Though I hadn’t done anything wrong, I was sure I was about to be hauled in to give an account for something ridiculous. Thankfully, I was wrong. His name was Hywa and his daughter needed a life-saving surgery…. very urgently. We fast-tracked his family to surgery, but unfortunately he had already missed the optimal surgery window for his daughter when he first appealed to us. His little baby died in March 2009.
But Hywa and I formed a friendship that was somehow wrapped up in our mutual efforts to save his child’s life. When we put Honyar on that plane to Istanbul there was an initial feeling that we had both succeeded. And as I stayed back with him in Iraq, we cried together, somehow feeling like we had both failed that day she died. Of course, it was not the same grief for me as it was for him, and I would dishonor him to imply otherwise. But we celebrated, mourned, and grew together.
A few months later Hywa referred his friend Sami to us because Sami’s boy Danar was dying from a similar heart defect. We sent Danar to surgery in January 2010 and Danar can be seen doing really well after his surgery in our video of follow-up echos a few days ago.
After Danar returned from surgery, his father, Sami, referred Adnan to us because Adnan’s son is similarly facing death from extremely high pressure in his lungs as a result of two large holes in his heart.
Call it the “butterfly effect” or “serendipity” or “Providence” or a “job well done.” I’m really proud of our Family Services Team and all the work they’ve done to leave a lasting impact on families like Hywa, Sami, and… hopefully… little Muhammed’s family.
Follow Muhammed Adnan on Twitter: @MuhammedAdnan. Subscribe to Muhammed’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Muhammed’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.
*In accordance with PLC’s desire to lend a hand-up by avoiding strict hand-outs (when possible), Muhammed’s family told us they would sell their car to help their son and ultimately gave $6,500 towards PLC’s highly-discounted surgery prices.
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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. |
OUR CORE VALUES: Multi-Dimensional Reconciliation
February 8, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Photo: Matt Addington
Call it settling accounts, setting to rights, or the restoration of friendly relations - reconciliation is why we do what we do.
There are thousands of children in Iraq who are born with hearts “at odds” with the good intentions of GOD when He created the world. We want to set that physical situation to rights; to reconcile what is with what should be.
But a healed heart is an occasion for only a tempered celebration if your family is living in the middle of civil conflict between ethnic neighbors or regional superpowers. Sure, much of this strife comes from global issues that are beyond our direct reach. But a few days on the ground in Arab Iraq, Kurdish Iraq, Turkey, etc makes it clear that these “global issues” are exacerbated by our closely held opinions about “the other.”
Photo: Matt Addington
So we work to unravel the effects of evil that were wrought by Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaigns, by years of sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shi’i Muslims, and by ethnic struggles.
For example, Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen are in a political (and possibly cultural) struggle over the historic city of Kirkuk - each laying some sort of ancient claim to the city; each group (generally) vilifying the other. On his Restorative Justice blog, Dr. Howard Zehr talks about our “temptation to emphasize ‘otherness’,” whether it be through photography, storytelling, or our administration of justice. At the Preemptive Love Coalition, we do not deny “otherness” when working between ethnic and tribal prejudices or religious worldview differences. But we try not to make “otherness” our starting point.
Communication guru Joseph Grenny talks about the important role that “storytelling” plays in our emotions and actions. According to Grenny, (1) we make an observation (e.g., Saddam Hussein was an Arab with largely Arab soldiers that attacked our city) and (2) immediately start telling ourselves a story (e.g., therefore all Arabs in Iraq want “our” land and are evil and would kill us if they had the chance) which (3) leads to strong emotions (like fear and hate), thereby (4) triggering fight/flight instincts inside us such as protectionist policies or aggressive police (or vigilante) action. The fork in the road is that first story we tell ourselves when faced with an observable fact.
Photo: Ben Hodson
Torture used by Saddam’s Baath Party in the “Red Security” building leaves an easy “observable fact” as the basis of an errant Kurdish story against all Arabs.
You can see how this plays out closer to home, as well. Observable fact: Men who wrapped themselves in Islam attacked America on September 11, 2001. But the stories that have flowed from that fact have been varied. And the emotions that arise from those stories have been serious and sincere. And over the past decade the actions that have come out of those various emotions have changed the course of world politics, international relations, and daily life for millions.
So when you donate, host an event, or buy a tshirt or pair of shoes, you are engaged in something bigger than the shuffling of money from one place to another to save a child’s life. We give people over “here” a tangible opportunity to save a life over “there” and to see “those” people as exactly that: people. Humans. Sons and daughters. We are all more than the images we receive from the professional media. It’s not “us” helping “them” get over “their” problems. It’s “us” becoming reconciled with “us”.
And in case you are wondering… Yes, we are just naive enough to believe that when we start seeing each less as other and more as brother these “global issues” might start to change too. And if they don’t… well, we are still committed to making change in the neighborhoods where we live and work; to be people of peace - whether anyone joins us on the journey or not.
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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. |
Mohammed Umed Fit to Fly Home to Iraq on Tuesday
January 25, 2010 by Jeremy · Comments Off
It’s been a longer journey for Mohammed Umed than any of us hoped… three full weeks! But we’re so happy to announce that Mohammed has been cleared to fly home to his daddy and family in Iraq on Tuesday with a total correction and a clean bill of health!
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As we wrap up our January surgery group we are deep into preparing our Feb/March combo group of 8-9 kids. This little guy, Baby Mohammed Adnan, is scheduled for surgery in that group. We are urgently collecting money for his surgery because doctors say that waiting any longer may leave him inoperable, facing imminent death. What a chance to make a profound difference in the life of a child and his family! | |||
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HEAL MOHAMMED’S HEART
Donate the amount of your choice to Baby Mohammed Adnan (square pic above) by entering it in the field below. All donations help the Preemptive Love Coalition send Mohammed (and/or any others in his group) to life-saving heart surgery.
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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. |
Hamma Cleared for Tuesday Flight Home to Iraq
January 19, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment
Just two weeks after leaving Iraq it’s exciting to know see Hamma headed out of Turkey on a Tuesday flight home to Iraq! More pictures of his progress to come once he lands back with his family and has some time to rest in Iraq…
One thing has been driven home through our work in Iraq this week: all other things equal, most Iraqis prefer to travel to Iran or Jordan for urgent and non-urgent medical care. Both Iran and Jordan have a history of helping Iraqi refugees and providing safe-haven during difficult times. On the other hand, among most Kurds (at least) in northern Iraq, there is a stigmatization of Turkey as a country that oppresses their own Kurdish minority, though much (unfortunately, not all) of those policies and pogroms have largely ceased in the last ten years.
Anadolu Medical Center is helping change the way people in Iraq think about their neighbors to the north. When Hamma’s mom lands back in country she will be faced with questions about “the Turks.” How were they? Were you scared to speak your language or be identified as a Kurd? Etc. She will pass on story after story of how she was respected and cared for. And by changing the way we think about each other, we just might be able to change the way we treat and relate to each other.
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Isn’t it amazing to watch life-saving in progress? We are able to do this because thousands of people like you have given $10, $25, and $50 - or whatever they could - to impact the future of kids in Iraq. |
Follow Hamma on Twitter: @HammaDana. Subscribe to Hamma’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Hamma’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) 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. |
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