A wise man once told me if I ever wanted to kill a giant, I needed to hang out with a giant killer.
His point was that if I wanted to do something that made a difference in the world then my first task was to find someone that was already making a difference and then spend as much time with them as I could.
A week doesn’t go by where I don’t remember that advice. It’s something that shapes my best days and holds me accountable on my worst days.
Even today, it continues to shape my work with PLC. The “giant” we’re out to bring down is infamously known in our office and our writing as “The Backlog”. It’s a list with thousands of names of children on it, all who are waiting in line for lifesaving heart surgery. We know children who have been on that list for their entire lives – but we’ve also had the great privilege of watching children’s names be taken off that list after they’ve received a lifesaving operation during one our Remedy Missions. But The Backlog still has claim to thousands more.
We hate The Backlog.
We hate everything it stands for in Iraq and we strive for its demise. It’s an enormous and ugly foe. It truly is a “giant” and that’s why from day one, we’ve been looking for other “giant killers”. We’ve been on the search for other organizations that have the tools, resources, and downright grit to to make The Backlog a thing of the past.
That’s what led us to our partners at Living Light International (LLI).
LLI started taking on giants back in 2007. Currently, they lead one of the largest efforts to date in helping care for the orphans in Iraq. They embody love to orphanages overflowing with children by providing essential medical care, education, and support groups.
Simultaneously, they are on the front-lines of supporting women’s rights in Iraq. They tirelessly advocate on behalf of women, finding them jobs, providing them with necessary training, and empowering them in their local communities.
As if these “giants” aren’t enough for one organization, they are continually on the look out for the next one, which is what ultimately led them to The Backlog.
Since partnering with PLC in the fall of 2010, they have helped us take hundreds of names off the waiting list by helping us provide children with surgery. They have forged partnerships with doctors and hospitals all across Iraq, even to the point where we have had to tell them to stop because we couldn’t keep up with that kind of growth!
And they do it all of this pro-bono. LLI is completely volunteer led and they don’t have any intention of changing that. They continue to give and give without asking for anything in return.
And that’s why we love LLI.
They are indispensable in our fight against The Backlog and when this “giant” falls, it will be because the Coalition has these kinds of partners.
So join us in giving some of that love back to LLI. Click over to their Facebook page and thank them for all they’re doing to save kids like Hussain. (If they don’t respond to you right away then that probably means that they’re out on the front lines again, looking for the next thing to take on).
Beating The Backlog takes a Coalition, and we’re grateful that LLI is a part of it!
