Ang Peregrino Recommends 94: Preemptive Love

Pre­emp­tive Love
URL: http://​pre​emp​tivelove​.org/

About two years ago, I fea­tured a great move­ment called BUY SHOES, SAVE LIVES. It’s great to know that they’re still at it. PREEMPTIVE LOVE is the com­pany behind it.

There are untold thou­sands of chil­dren in Iraq today suf­fer­ing from heart dis­ease that threat­ens to take their lit­tle lives if they do not receive surgery out­side the coun­try. And time is run­ning out because years of war and cor­rup­tion have led to a health care sys­tem that is entirely ill-equipped to han­dle the enor­mity of the task.

Con­gen­i­tal Heart Disease

For many Iraqi chil­dren heart dis­eases begins in utero. In a coun­try like Iraq, these are some of the hard­est dis­eases to under­stand because the con­tribut­ing fac­tors are not always iden­ti­fi­able until it is far too late. Though it remains a topic of great spec­u­la­tion, experts have hypoth­e­sized that Sad­dam Hussein’s 281 chem­i­cal attacks on the Kurds of north­ern Iraq are a con­tribut­ing fac­tor to con­gen­i­tal heart dis­ease in many today. Mal­nu­tri­tion is cited by local experts as another sus­pect. Intra-family mar­riage is still prac­ticed by many today and prob­a­bly con­tributes to the preva­lence of these diseases.

Cur­rent Mea­sures Being Undertaken

The great news lies in how much is actu­ally being done by a small coali­tion of orga­ni­za­tions to address the preva­lence of con­gen­i­tal heart dis­ease in Iraq. Chil­dren have been treated in the United States, Italy, Aus­tria, Jor­dan, Israel, Iran, and in Istan­bul, Turkey through PLC’s part­ner­ship with the world class Anadolu Sa?l?k Merkezi (ASM). In addi­tion to the surg­eries out­side the coun­try PLC is work­ing with Turk­ish and Amer­i­can doc­tors to train local Iraqi teams for the future — so that once the facil­i­ties are ready Iraqi doc­tors and nurses are bet­ter equipped to begin han­dling these cases themselves.

This is PREEMPTIVE LOVE’s Core Values:

1. Multi-Dimensional Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion
2. Long Term Local Solutions
3. Pur­suit of Excellence
4. Hope for the Hopeless
5. Whole Solu­tions for Whole People
6. Finan­cial Transparency