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?"


----------

 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]

Jeremy Courtney Founder, Executive Director Twitter: @Jeremy_Courtney

“I'd love to hear any critique or questions you might have!”

DROP A NOTE OR DONATION BY MAIL: Preemptive Love Coalition 1300 Darbyton Dr. Hewitt, TX 76643 GIVE BY PHONE: To make a gift over the phone, using your credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover), please call +1 (806) 853-9131 during normal business hours. IRAQ OFFICE: +964 770-355-6298 (local)

“So…Why Are We Here?”

January 12, 2012 by Cody · Leave a Comment 

After flying in from England, Iceland, Pakistan, Canada and America, all 15 of us walked into the hospital today to kick off the first day of Remedy.

We made it up to the operating theater on the second floor then promptly moved into a debate about football and why the Americans get away with calling it “soccer”. From there the debate shifted to American football and how that name doesn’t even make sense for the sport.

With people from over five countries in one room there are bound to be more debates like this one!

After we agreed to disagree, the lead ICU nurse posed the question. “So, why are we here?”

After a few seconds he continued, “I’m not sure what your past experiences are or how many trips you’ve been on like this one but I can assure you that we’re not here to do a bunch of surgeries. We’re here to use surgery as a tool for teaching and empowering others.”

And just like that, as soon as we knew again how to answer the question of why we were here, Remedy was officially underway!

Yes – we want to save as many lives as possible these next two weeks. But more than that, we came to teach.

The debate about “soccer” and “football” is bound to continue, but the debate about why all of us are here was answered with that one statement.

The first surgery gets underway in just minutes…stay tuned!

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.

In A Word: “Dayjob”

September 7, 2011 by Lydia · 1 Comment 

A man sells (and models) toys in the Sulaymaniyah bazaar.

Lydia Bullock wrote and photographed for us during the 2010 summer internship and then again for 7 months in 2011. She documented surgical missions in northern and southern Iraq. See more of her excellent work on our Flickr stream, or follow her on Twitter: @lydiabullock.

Kurdish Book Salesman

April 13, 2011 by matt · Leave a Comment 

As PLC's Press Secretary, Matt Willingham writes, reads, edits, tweets, updates, and works with a camera so as to connect hearts and minds to Iraqi children in need. On the side, he likes reading stories, devouring the great food his wife cooks up and exploring DSLR work. He's also mildly obsessed with Twitter: @mehtin.

His Heart Condition is Threatening His Life – Have You Met Alawi?

February 18, 2011 by Jeremy · 860 Comments 

You need to.

This just may be the cutest and most adorable boy in Iraq.

Alawi Hussein is just under three and a half years old and he was born with a congenital heart defect.

At 9 months old, instead of taking bets on what his first word was going to be, his parents were coping with the devastating news that Alawi had a heart problem. It was a heart problem, like most heart problems in Iraq, that could only be fixed outside of Iraq.

The list of countries that could help him was long.

Iran.

Turkey.

Jordan.

India.

America.

Basically – many other countries except the one he was born in.

While the list of opportunities was long, the list of actual possibilities for Alawi was short.

Hearing about all the doctors overseas that can heal your son is simply cruel if you don’t have the money – or even a passport – to pursue the option.

His family had to learn to enjoy the time they had with Alawi and just hope for a remedy the doctors might have somehow missed.

That surprise came this month when they were called by their local cardiologist here in southern Iraq and told that Alawi no longer needs to go overseas to be saved, because of a team of doctors and nurses that was being brought in to save his life at the hospital just fifteen minutes from their home

It was thirty-two months later than they were hoping but remedy finally came to southern Iraq.

We still hope that Alawi’s family will visit foreign countries someday, but not as last chance medical tourists!

You are the Remedy.

You bring in medical teams every time you give. Our medical teams teach Iraqi doctors and nurses. Our medical teams save lives. So Iraqi doctors and nurses learn how to save lives. Our medical team goes home. The Iraqi’s keep saving lives.

It’s one beautiful domino affect!

We hope we can save Alawi’s life this week… and not just because he’s one of the cutest boys in Iraq! Follow Alawi’s story this week on the blog and on our Facebook page (<-- link) to see what comes next...

Our Partners

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.

Cardiac Caths Save Lives, Time, Space, Money, & Dodge Dishonor for Females Before Marriage

August 29, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

Photos by Heber Vega

This week we were able to help three children without subjecting them to the trauma of an open-heart surgery. A procedure in which a catheter is inserted through the femoral artery, all the way into the heart, and ultimately used to correct a number of different heart defects.

Recovery times from these types of procedures are considerably shorter and the procedure itself is considerably less risky for the patient. These patients don’t stay “parked” in an already crowded Intensive Care Unit and typically end up going home in a much shorter period of time than even the fastest surgery patients.

The International Children’s Heart Foundation team prefers to use this method whenever possible, but finds it particularly helpful with older females who might otherwise be considered less desirable for marriage with a huge scar down the sternum.

All three kids who received cardiac cath intervention this week are discharged and playing safely at home; even while we have two in ICU and a handful still in the ward.

Thanks for making our training and surgery mission happen this week. This Remedy Mission and the various diagnostic, interventional, surgical, and administrative techniques learned locally this week will continue to save lives long after all these kids go home!

Have you enjoyed this week? We have! Please consider making a donation for our next mission if you believe in what we’re doing by clicking the DONATE link in the header above.

With you,

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: @JCourt.

Nivar Leaves for Surgery Tonight!

July 17, 2010 by Preston · Leave a Comment 

Thanks to your amazing support, Nivar is leaving for heart surgery in Turkey tonight at 6 p.m. (Central). Nivar has a four-fold set of heart conditions called Tetralogy of Fallot.

While this is one of the most common forms of congenital heart disease, it is also one of the most debilitating. The hole and restricted blood flow in her heart keep her from playing with all of her friends. Nivar’s birthday is soon approaching, and she also is the proud new sister of a little baby girl. With this surgery, she can enjoy her birthday and new baby sister even more.

Follow Nivar on Twitter: @NivarMohammed. Subscribe to Nivar’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Nivar’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.

Preston Wright, a PLC summer intern ('10), has dedicated his summer to spending time working with the Iraqi people, specifically, visiting with Kurdish children, Klash makers and doctors. When he is not preoccupied with his intern duties the West Tennesseean enjoys playing soccer and working with children.

Chro Leaves Iraq for Surgery on Saturday

July 16, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

If you have followed our blog this week, then you have undoubtedly been introduced to Chro and her family already. Next week, surgeons will be operating to undo four life-threatening abnormalities within her heart.

Chro’s four-fold set of heart defects is not uncommon in Iraq; however, in the face of the multiple problems in Chro’s heart, she has a devoted family, skilled physicians, and passionate communities crossing boundaries to provide hope for a corrective surgery.

We hope that through this surgery, Chro can return home with a healthy heart, an invaluable gift for a soon to be big sister and her family.

Follow Chro on Twitter: @ChroArkan. Subscribe to Chro’s updates via RSS HERE. Follow Chro’s thread of longer stories (with pictures & video) on the PLC blog HERE.

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.

Jeen Mustafa is Leaving for Surgery on Saturday

July 15, 2010 by Jeremy · 1 Comment 

Meet Jeen Mustafa. Jeen is currently living with Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), which affects the two upper chambers of the heart. Her disease creates a hole between the two upper chambers of the heart, mixing the blood going to the lungs with the blood going to the rest of the body. Because of your financial help, Jeen is leaving for surgery on July 18 along with 4 other children with congenital heart disease. Jeen will be receiving a non-invasive surgery through catheter, which also significantly reduces the danger of the procedure.

Follow Jeen on Twitter: @JeenMustafa. Subscribe to Jeen’s updates via RSS HERE.

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.

An Update on Sozyar, Five Months After Surgery

July 12, 2010 by Sophia · Leave a Comment 

At last week’s home visit, two-year-old Sozyar puckered her lips and blew me a kiss as I was walking out the door.

Sozyar, who has a much more delayed development and a much longer medical history chart than most other children her age, is doing remarkably well given where she was less than half a year ago. When Sozyar went to surgery in February, she only knew how to lie down and bat her big, beautiful eyes. Now, five months later, she has grown tremendously and is attempting to pull herself up and crawl. If she continues developing at this rate it won’t be long until she is walking!

With a healthy appetite (she ate from everyone else’s dishes at lunch) and a feistiness for asserting herself, she has begun to reach milestones in her recovery.

Sophia Pappas, a PLC summer intern ('10), is passionate about living, loving and saving lives. While in Iraq, Sophie enjoys wandering the bazaar, trying local foods and playing with the kids.

Preemptive Love and Prosperity Candle Working to Combat Social Injustice in Their Communities

July 8, 2010 by Joshua · 2 Comments 

Luma.
Wafa.
Arib.
Nezhet.
Ibtisam.

These names represent five of the strongest women I have ever met.

These women are actively standing in rebellion against a social system in Baghdad which works to suppress them — a system which imposes and restricts. It was truly an honor to meet them, to talk to them, to laugh with them, to grieve the death and pain of this war with them, to share tea with them. And it is an honor to now call them friends.

Working for Prosperity Candle, an organization which employs women from conflict areas, these women are empowered to break beyond the veil of oppression working to smother them and to whole-handedly take their lives back from the powers who have fought to rob them.

Making candles subverts this. It screams in the face of oppression. It fights back against a male-dominated culture that identifies women as less useful, as less valuable. Making candles, in my opinion, has never been more powerful.

It would be impossible to explain their mission better than they have themselves:

“Our vision is bold – we imagine a world lit by millions of points of candlelight, each reflecting the resilience and courage of women who have survived inconceivable hardship and seek to create a better future.”

(taken from the Prosperity Candle website)

I love the language of a world lit by millions of candles each radiating the soft light of its wick and releasing into the air the stories of widows, of children lost, of hope amidst pain and of love amid war.

Operating in Baghdad, perhaps the world’s epicenter of extremism and violence, these women will not be intimidated into inactivity. They are strong. And they will continue to share their stories with the world with each candle produced. Their stories are painful, bringing stinging tears and causing me to grieve the sin of this world and the misery it brings to so many. These are stories of love robbed by bombs, of hope shattered by shrapnel, of bitter pain and of a deep, lasting sorrow.

Because of the nature of our work in Iraq, the Preemptive Love Coalition intentionally connects with others who share a common vision, whether or not we are fully capable of incorporating it into our mission. Prosperity Candle is one of these groups, and it has been a joy to partner with them.

Our shared longing for social justice among disadvantaged people groups is what drew us to partner with them for peace and equality in this region. Just as we are concerned with giving children the opportunity for new life, Prosperity Candle strives to give these women and others like them the ability to work independently in their communities. It is that shared concern for humanity that unifies our visions to stand in a hostile place, and become advocates for justice.

After seeing a video produced by PLC’s director Jeremy Courtney, Prosperity Candle contacted us in the hopes of having a video filmed of these women and their work. Last weekend, after finalizing details with Jeremy and Heber Vega, a dear photographer friend of ours, we finally hosted our new friends from Baghdad. I was there to photograph and help Jeremy and Heber with their work, but mainly to just sit and talk with the women.

Since then, I have struggled to write my thoughts. I’ve sat down, stood up, taken walks, come back to the computer and still feel it is impossible to fully write in such a way that will give you an adequate understanding of these women — or perhaps an adequate expression of my own thoughts.

Why has this weekend with them so affected me? Why will this weekend with women from Baghdad be one of the highlights of my time in this country?

As I’ve spent dedicated time reflecting on these questions, I think a facet of these strong emotions is rooted in my my heartfelt love for reconciliation and peace. These women, for many reasons, should not like me.

Even now, I’m shocked by the chill that last sentence brings to me.

Given who I am, where I am from, and what my country has done to the people of their community, these women should have taken their aggression, their frustration and their anger out on me, the American. But they did not. And it has deeply affected me.

There is still much to write about, still much of their stories to tell.

This has been the easy part to write; the parts that have driven me to tears are still untold.

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. Follow Joshua on Twitter: @JoshGigs.

Next Page »

SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTER






Get our good news stories straight into your reader or inbox for free!


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.

• Popular Tags

  Amman Arab Baghdad BSSL Buy Shoes. Save Lives. buyshoessavelives CHD children Congenital Heart Disease Development echocardiogram God heart heart disease heart surgeries Heart Surgery hope hospital Hussein ICHF ICU Internship Iraq Iraqi children Istanbul Jeremy Courtney Jordan Klash Kurd Kurdish Kurdistan nasiriyah peace Peacemaking PLC remedy Remedy Mission Rezhin saddam hussein Southern Iraq sulaymaniyah Surgery Tarza Turkey Wordless Wednesday

• Archives

  • 2012
  • 2011
  • 2010
  • 2009
  • 2008
  • 2007

• Contributors

  • Adam Brandt (4)
  • Alex Phillips (10)
  • Anton Warkenton (1)
  • Awara Hassan (6)
  • Behar Godani (1)
  • Benjamin Chasnov (1)
  • Cayla Willingham (3)
  • Claire Baker (1)
  • Cody Fisher (102)
  • Esther Perez (6)
  • Jeremy Courtney (88)
  • Jessica Courtney (20)
  • Joshua Gigliotti (23)
  • Lauren Sawyer (2)
  • Liz Jones (1)
  • Lydia Bullock (52)
  • Matt Willingham (78)
  • Preston Wright (4)
  • Ruth Simpson (16)
  • Ryan Rosenberry (2)
  • Sophia Pappas (6)
  • Ted Harrison (3)
  • Tim Mason (1)