Medicine for Peace Searches for Missing Iraqi Children

In the 1990's MFP's "Iraqi Children's Project" brought a large number of desperately ill Iraqi children to the U.S. for life-saving surgery. Most of the children suffered from congenital heart disease, and were unlikely to survive because of the deplorable state of Iraq hospitals. The Iraqi health care system had been crippled by the Gulf War and U.N. imposed sanctions.

After receiving curative surgery in the U.S., the children returned to their homes in Iraq. MFP lost contact with many of the children because of the widespread violence and displacement of the population resulting from the recent war and the occupation. For the past six months MFP volunteers have attempted to locate the children. We were saddened to learn of the death of Danya, a young girl from Hilla with congenital heart disease, and of Biggar, a Kurdish boy who was suffering from a disease causing blindness. Doya, a girl from the Al Sadr district in Baghdad had open heart surgery in the U.S. She is now suffering from heart failure because of the interruption in health services in Iraq, and MFP workers are attempting to deliver her medical care.

One might ask why MFP has spent so much effort to save the lives of a relatively small number of children. We have always believed that saving one child's life raises the hope of saving them all.

Medicine for Peace Monitors Iraqi Civilian Health Care

Hospitals in Iraq have been devastated by the war, the looting that followed, lack of medicine and vital supplies, and problems of security for hospital personnel. The pre-war quality of medical care in Iraq was already in a depressed state from the thirteen years of economic sanctions. MFP workers in Baghdad have initiated a comprehensive assessment of the ten largest public hospitals in Baghdad to determine their ability to deliver medical care to the civilian population-with particular focus on child health. The MFP assessments will assist in developing strategies to save civilian lives during this disruptive period.

MFP Clinic Delivers Care in Haiti After Coup

On February 29 President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forcefully removed from the Presidency for a second-time, and taken against his will to the Central African Republic. Over the next two months, armed gangs roamed the streets with lists of Aristide supporters: homes were burned, people were beaten and murdered. Thousands of corpses were found in the streets of Port-au-Prince, Cap-Hatien and in small towns.

As of July 2004, there appears to be no central government in power. Trash and garbage accumulate on the streets. In most towns, including Gros Morne where we work. There are no police or judiciary. Food prices have risen well beyond the buying power of most Haitians. So Haiti has become a country with more violence , worse poverty, and the most serious health crisis in the Western Hemisphere.

Throughout the violence, our clinic in the mountainous region in northern Haiti continued to provide services to a large number of poor Haitians. The clinic is operated entirely with the support of Medicine For Peace donors. We care for young mothers with difficult pregnancies, older patients suffering from high blood pressure and heart disease, and children suffering from a spectrum of infectious diseases including malaria and parasitic infestations. There is a general worsening of nutrition in this community since the coup, as evidenced by the increased number of children with kwashiorkor, a potentially lethal disease of severe malnutrition.

During the coming year, MFP will expand its health care programs in the Gros Morne region by initiating an infection control program with emphasis on sexually transmitted diseases, particularly AIDS. MFP training programs will continue with the goal of improving the quality of health care delivered by Haitian doctors, nurses and community health workers.

Children's Scholarship Fund For Girls completes twelfth year.

Hispanic girls have the highest school drop-out rate of any ethnic group in the United States. The CSFG began as a comprehensive tuition and remedial educational program to place refugee girls from El Salvador in safe and nurturing private schools in the U.S. The CSFG now supports Latina girls from many different countries whose families have come to the U.S. in the hope of a better and safer life. The fund has had extraordinary success: all girls in the program have finished high school and many have obtain scholarships at Vassar, Hunter, Union, St. Johns, St. Joseph's, SUNY, Trinity and other universities.

The MFP Bosnian Children's Health Project in Kozarac continues to care for mothers and children who were ethnically cleansed from their village during the Bosnian War.

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We were saddened learn of the recent death of Danya, a cardiac patient from Hilla.

An Iraqi child suffering from leukemia. Anti-cancer drugs are in short supply.

Dr. Michael Viola examining an infant in the clinic in Chab.

May, 2004. A Haitian child with the swollen belly and limbs of severe malnutrition-kwashiorkor.