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]

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)

Jeen’s Surgery is a Total Correction After Doctors Work Until 4 a.m. on Failed Catheter Correction

August 3, 2010 by Jeremy · 6 Comments 

It has been a rough week for Jeen Mustafa. Her loving sister brought her outside of Iraq by donating her life-savings to PLC in hopes of procuring for her sister a non-invasive correction for her relatively simple heart defect. Simple does not mean unimportant, however; especially when it is your sister. Jeen would have never risen to the top of our charitable surgery list because her situation was neither urgent nor listed as complicated enough to warrant surgery outside of Iraq’s extremely new surgery industry. So, in an attempt to heal Jeen, her sister offered to pay the entire amount if we had the space and time to heal her sister without displacing another child. We were happy to help and grateful to all the staff and doctors at the Anadolu Medical Center for making this a reality.

We remain committed to helping children who cannot get help inside Iraq, and we draw our cues from the governments with whom we work and from local cardiologists. If they tell us a surgery cannot be performed in country, then we consider that child for placement outside. Thankfully, local adult cardiac surgeons across the country are starting to make forays into pediatric surgery. To be precise, they are vastly different. But we are thrilled to see local surgeons eager for training and upgrading, such as that we are seeking to provide with our Remedy Mission in a few weeks.

Back to Jeen, it was very important to her sister that we pursue for her a non-invasive trans-catheter closure correction in which a catheter and umbrella-type closure device is inserted through the thigh, into the heart, and expanded and attached to the walls of the heart to close the hole that is currently causing her problems as she enters young-womanhood and anticipates marriage and children in the next decade. We ordered the closure device with her sister’s money, and the staff at Anadolu Medical worked overtime upon overtime until 4 a.m. to attach the device non-invasively by catheter. Unfortunately, it ultimately proved impossible and unsafe to settle for that correction and surgery was scheduled.

Surgery was not in the plan and not in the budget. But Dr. Sertaç Çiçek in his continued graciousness and kindness to the children of Iraq agreed for his team to perform surgery pro bono to compensate for the drama and disappointment. Surgery is exactly what they had been trying to avoid. The risk; the recovery; the scars – these were all the things they sought to avoid. But scared and heartbroken Jeen went into surgery to correct the TWO holes in her heart that were revealed during the diagnostic testing.

A few hours later Jeen emerged from surgery with a total correction. It was not the way we had anticipated. But a total correction is a total correction! She has a scar, but she no longer needs to fear marriage and child-birth as a death sentence. She can walk to school with her girlfriends without tiring. She can pay attention and pursue her education and her impressive English-learning without distraction.

And that scar? We think it will stand as a testament to the kindness of the Turkish team that worked for more than they had to and gave far more than was expected to serve a Kurdish child whose family risked it all at the hands of the Turks; the same Turks that some of their neighbors on the Iraq-Turkey border can only see as enemies are the very Turks who saved her life. And this is just the sort of kindness and compassion we’ve seen repeatedly by Dr. Sertaç Çiçek, his entire team, and those in charge of nursing and administration at the Anadolu Medical Center in Istanbul, Turkey.

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

Purple Dress & Purple Skin – Nivar Arrives in Istanbul in Time for Much Needed Heart Surgery

July 18, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

Her purple dress could not have matched her skin tone any better. As Nivar disembarked the airplane after arriving safely in Istanbul, I was more than a little scared that all our efforts were going to amount to a movement from the frying pan to the fire.

The oxygen in a crowded airplane cabin at cruising altitude is not the ideal environment for a child with a heart defect that inhibits the flow of oxygen throughout her body. And when I saw Nivar crouching down in the airport after going through the first round of security, I was really afraid that we might lose her right then and there.

In GOD’s kindness she worked through her breathing difficulty with the determination of someone who has never known any better. While I was worried about her, she seemed to hardly know anything was wrong. This shortness of breath, clubbed hands and toes, and deep blue skin is all she’s ever known.

Upon arriving at the hospital it was more of the same. She preferred to crouch on the floor to sit in her beautiful private bed. In fact, she preferred to crouch on the floor to pretty much any thing else at all.

But she’s here. She survived the flight and the travel across town – two things that we are constantly concerned about with children who are as sick as Nivar. Now she is in the capable hands of the medical staff at the Anadolu Medical Center. In a few days’ time, she will have had her heart surgery and, with great likelihood, will be on her way to a totally new life of long walks and intense soccer matches with her brother.

Stay tuned for 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.

Baby Leena Leaves Iraq for Urgent Surgery in Turkey

April 14, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

It was about mid-morning on Sunday when Leena’s dad came into our office, frantically looking for help for his daughter who was dying before his eyes from her congenital heart defect.

We contacted our partners in Istanbul at the Anadolu Medical Center and they concurred: it might be too late for Leena, now 50 days old, but if there was any remaining chance she should come immediately.

With unprecedented speed we worked with Leena’s father and their extended family to get Leena to surgery. The family and friend network rallied quickly sold their car and rallied with a total of $10,000. Within just a few hours we were able to get our local staff, Leena, and her mother on the very last seats out of Iraq on Tuesday’s flight to Istanbul.

The picture above is Leena’s last moments with her father before leaving him to go back to the village where he is 8 year old Mohammed Star’s elementary school teacher, whom we sent to surgery in November 2009.

Are you looking for a way to get involved? Let us suggest the following three actions: - Sign up for our newsletter to stay apprized of news and deals on stuff you can buy to save lives in Iraq. Name: Email: - Send out a “tweet” or a message about us on Facebook, suggesting your friends check out these dear Iraqi kids. - Give your time or money. Both save lives! For volunteering, send an email to cody@preemptivelove.org. For life-saving tee shirt, shoes, and scarf purchases, head over to our Buy Shoes. Save Lives. store for our 25% OFF SPRING SALE. For donating money, please use the fast and simple form below.

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.

The Fear in a Mother’s Eyes as Muhammed Goes in to Surgery

February 25, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

Both baby Muhammed and his dear mother looked pretty concerned as Muhammed went into surgery… the first of this February group.

Going first is a blessing and a curse. There is always a lot of tension among the mothers until that first child comes out of surgery… and then out of ICU. On the other hand, there is a lot of tension seeing other children go before yours into surgery and there is always this lingering suspicion that the goodwill will run out before the doctors get around to helping my child.

So Muhammed drew the first straw with all its attendant excitement at this healing that has been so long-delayed and all the anxiety at the dangers after hours of serious conversations with medical professionals about the course of treatment and very real risks associated with these difficult surgeries.

There will be more information on Muhammed in a few hours.

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.

Muhammed Resting & Smiling in His Room Waiting for Surgery

February 25, 2010 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

Muhammed is full of sweet smiles waiting for surgery. More information about timing and his condition forthcoming….

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.

How Preemptive Love Works Toward Local Solutions to Local Problems

August 21, 2009 by Jeremy · 2 Comments 

VISION & VALUES

By the end of Quarter 2 2009 PLC had spent $225,605 to fund heart surgeries for Iraqi kids, impacting forty families in life-changing ways, and decreasing the overall backlog by an additional ten percent.

You’ve heard that the Preemptive Love Coalition exists to eradicate the backlog of Iraqi children waiting for life-saving heart surgeries and to create cooperation between communities in conflict. But it is important to us that you understand how we seek to accomplish this mission and why.

We strive to fulfill our mission by creating…

- Local funding for local problems
- An ethos of volunteerism and community in hopes of subverting the prevailing distrust of one another
- International partnerships and infrastructure that will outlast our own organizational presence in Iraq

When we started in 2007 we began to calculate the need in terms of $10,000 surgeries for 4,000 children… or $40,000,000. The scary thing was the reality that surgery prices would likely go up with the global economic situation and that the 4,000 on “THE LIST” were probably just representatives of a larger number.

As we stared down what seemed to us to be a giant need, we finally realized that we would need to change the system and the rules of engagement if we would ever be a part of achieving the results we wanted. After a year and a half of ambling through different procedures and a lot of trial and error we implemented what proved to be our most impactful strategy to date: to partner with families for their healthcare.

Many in Iraq told us the U.N. had created a culture that prevented Iraqis from engaging in their own advancement

Many in Iraq told us that the United Nations (and others) had created a culture here that prevented Iraqis from a willingness to engage in their own advancement; that the mentality was one of waiting around for others to give handouts. Still, we were hopeful that partnering with families for 25% of the package price would be a revolutionary start.

At the same time, we committed ourselves to seeking an additional 25% in local funding from charities, businesses, and local philanthropists.

All the while, we work diligently to maintain and extend the scope of our logistics and medical partnerships so that we can continue to provide the greatest services at the greatest prices.

Here are a few more details on how all that works…

MARKET vs. PLC PRICING

The life-saving heart surgeries we provide take place at the world-class Anadolu Medical Center (ASM) in Istanbul, Turkey. Before discounts and partnerships, the total market prices on the services offered by PLC begin at $22,000. For heart conditions that are more complicated, prices would easily exceed $50-75,000.

Through partnerships with Atlasjet Airlines, Anadolu Medical Center, and medical supply providers around the world, PLC is able to regularly facilitate life-saving heart surgeries for Iraqi children at 60-70% off market prices.

After all of our partnerships, discounts, subsidies and patient family contributions the remaining cash need per child is approximately $5,000 before we can schedule a surgery.

PLC also keeps cash reserves on hand for the occasional surgery that runs far above the average cost.

After PLC provides 60-70% discount off market prices for airfare, in-city transportation, and hospital services, local Iraqi sources (families, charities, businesses) pay an average of 57% of the remaining cash needs, and PLC pays the remaining 43% through our internationally donated funds.

FAMILY FUNDING

Families of children seeking heart surgery are expected to contribute $2,500 toward the health care of their children. This $2,500 helps PLC offset the remaining cash needs related to international travel, diagnostic testing, hospital stay, surgical expenses, and/or post-discharge room/board needs for their children.

When the patient’s family cannot contribute this $2,500 out of their own personal savings, they are encouraged to appeal to extended family, friends, employers, and religious communities for financial help. Unlike many who work in the relief and development world, we do not believe that Iraqis are helpless or that we are their saviors. They have proven to be people of great dignity, creativity, and worth and our overarching commitment is to come along side them as they pursue hope & a future.

LOCAL IRAQI FUNDING (CHARITABLE)

For each surgery, PLC seeks an additional $2,500 from Iraqi businesses and charities (such as our partner, Kurdistan Save the Children). Charitable donations solicited by PLC are not intended to substitute for or reduce the family’s share of the total costs.

Through the shared responsibility for the funding of these surgeries, we hope to nurture a value of volunteerism and community that will eventually produce a greater love for all in our community and more local funding to solve local problems.

LOCAL IRAQI FUNDING (COMMERCE)

By investing over $25,000 to date in micro-enterprise development across multiple villages and cities through our Buy Shoes. Save Lives. program, we have sold enough hand-made Kurdish Klash shoes to fund 11% of our life-saving heart surgeries to date (other merchandise sales excluded).

This Buy Shoes. Save Lives. money is different kind of local solution to these local heart problems. Though the revenue itself is not “local” (Iraqi), neither the 11% for life-saving heart surgeries nor the $25,000 in micro-enterprise development would be available without PLC’s Buy Shoes. Save Lives. program.

This is yet another example of the people of Iraq working for their future, doing more than taking hand-outs, and playing a significant role in developing their own systems and sense of civic responsibility.

Four More Children to Travel to Surgery

July 20, 2009 by Jessica · 288 Comments 

Tuesday afternoon PLC staff will travel with four children to the Anadolu Sağlık Merkezi in Istanbul, Turkey where they hope to receive life-saving heart surgery at the hands of Dr. Sertaç Çiçek. We are excited to introduce them to you one by one throughout the day today here on the PLC blog. We are in the final process of waiting for cooperative funding and passports before boarding the plane in a little over 24 hours.  More pictures and stories to come…

Five of the Great Eight Land in Turkey

February 15, 2009 by Jeremy · 49 Comments 

We’re happy to announce that five of the eight surgery candidates have successfully landed in Turkey, have been received by ASM – our medical partner in Turkey – and are beginning the necessary steps to undergo surgery in the coming days.

If all goes well, some of them will be back with new hearts in as few as two or three weeks.

The second group of the Great Eight is set to travel on Tuesday night!

Thanks for your support and generosity!

Preemptive Love Coalition

Welcome to the Coalition, Anadolu Sağlık Merkezi

January 7, 2009 by Jeremy · 760 Comments 

The Preemptive Love Coalition is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Anadolu Sağlık Merkezi. Located in the suburbs of Istanbul, Turkey, ASM is a new, state-of-the-art, not-for-profit hospital system affiliated with Johns Hopkins Medicine and supported by the Anadolu Group, one of Turkey’s leading conglomerates.

The doctors, administrators and staff at ASM are eager to pursue a long-term partnership with PLC to eradicate the backlog of over 3,000 Iraqi children on a waiting list for heart-saving surgery.

Because of the quality and capacities of this hospital, PLC will now be able to send more than twice as many children a month as we are currently able to send. (Of course, we’ll also need to more than double the funding that we have available to take full advantage of this opportunity as well.)

We hope to send our first group of kids to surgery at ASM in early February 2009 and then will hopefully steadily increase the number of children going to surgery there as our financial and personnel resources expand.

We are grateful for this new key partnership and for the hundreds of healed and happy hearts it promises for the future.