WCF MOBILE CLINICS IN IRAQ

For the first time in 2 years, we were able to bring a mobile medical team back onto the field a few weeks ago.  Interestingly, it was to the last place I took a medical team to before the pandemic: Iraq.  Although our Life Center projects have been growing with local medical staff, it was good to 'get back into the saddle' with our mobile medical teams.

We worked together with our field partners to bring our team to 2 Yazidi IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps, 1 Syrian refugee camp and several local community centers.

Yazidi Camp

Some of these camps have tens of thousands of people in them and they function like small cities. Relative to other camps I've been to globally, these camps are more orderly and cleaner and in one case, they had semi-permanent shops that could be mistaken for any normal town street.  Our partner has several buildings (converted shipping containers in some cases) that we used to do our medical ministry.

Overall, we saw more than 350 patients who were Yazidis, Syrians and Iraqis in our 5 medical clinics. The conditions were challenging, but the team did a great job of adapting and serving.  We prepared for new COVID protocols, but we had no major issues, thankfully. Most people had chronic issues or other typical primary care issues.  Some were dealing with trauma and mental health issues.  In a few cases, when we used the temperature gun on a patient, they recoiled in traumatic terror as it reminded them of when they had a real gun to their heads by ISIS fighters.  We had to adjust to taking wrist temperatures. 

Trauma care is very important here.  In one Yazidi camp, dozens of girls who had been enslaved and terribly molested by ISIS took their lives since the beginning of the year.  

Everyone was very thankful that we made the effort to come to them to serve them.

Since the pandemic, we have been able to do Food-Hygiene Relief distributions among many of the Yazidi and Syrian camps, and local Iraqi villages.  We helped more than 20,000 people with this relief.  During the trip, we were able to visit several villages near the border and met with families who have been helped by this relief.  They expressed their deep gratitude for the help as the situation has continued to be very difficult.

Please continue to help support our Mobile Medical Program or our Humanitarian Projects for refugees.  Without you, it's impossible to continue in this important work.

For more information, please visit our Iraq projects.

God bless you for your giving!
Jerry