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Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
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Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff PhotographerGROUP HELPS WAR-INJURED IRAQI CHILDREN
NO MORE VICTIMS, founded in 2002 by a Los Angeles-based freelance writer, is a grass-roots group that connects American communities with war-injured Iraqi children and their families. All of the children helped by the program were injured as a result of U.S. military action.
The organization has three ways of helping Iraqi families: evacuation and treatment in the United States, advocacy and in-country assistance, and provision of medical supplies.
Evacuation and treatment in the U.S. requires a core group of five to 10 dedicated volunteers, as well as a larger group of occasional volunteers, to raise money and arrange free medical care. These are long-term projects that can take months. Cities that have participated so far include Boston, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Houston, Los Angeles, Nashville, San Diego and Seattle. Smaller cities include Asheville, N.C.; Delray Beach, Fla.; Greenville, S.C.; and Evanston, Ill.
Advocacy and in-country assistance can include anything from the delivery of wheelchairs to educational supplies and in-home tutoring. Children aided by these projects are injured beyond any medical remedy or have healed as much as can be expected. Advocacy projects are typically taken on by high school groups, college students and smaller communities. Medical supplies are purchased directly from an importer at below-wholesale prices. When possible, photographs are taken when the supplies are delivered to Iraqi hospitals and clinics, and the organization gathers testimonials from the medical staff.
For more information, click here. To reach the volunteers helping Noora Afif Abdulhameed, e-mail seggenberger@verizon.net or call 985-0234.
About 3,500 miles from her mother and home, Noora Afif Abdulhameed stepped off an AngelFlight plane Thursday afternoon at Portland International Jetport while clasping her father's hand.
The 6-year-old Iraqi girl, who lost part of her skull to a sniper's bullet, had arrived in Portland to receive the medical treatment that she was unable to find in her war-torn country.
Across the tarmac, a small group was waiting to greet the girl and her dad. Among them were Claire Phillips and Meghan Cantlin, two 8-year-olds from Falmouth Brownie Troop No. 1955 who presented Noora with a basket filled with a stuffed bear, a pink Barbie baseball cap and lots of toys.
In another basket was a handknit robe, slippers and a handmade quilt that had been signed by all of the troop members.
Madison Hurley, 5, of Portland gave Noora a bouquet of balloons -- one of which looked like a U.S. flag -- tied with colorful ribbons. She paid for the balloons with her allowance money, and hopes to have Noora over for a play date before her surgery.
Wearing a reddish-orange flowered dress and sandals, Noora grinned as she took the balloons.
"Thank you, thank you," her father, Afif Abdulhameed Otaiwi, said over and over again.
"That's very kind of you," Otaiwi told the group. "I want to thank all the people who helped my daughter to arrive here. I speak English a little. I can't express my (feelings). Thank you very much."
Noora and her father were brought to Portland by No More Victims, a nonprofit organization that brings war-injured Iraqi children to the United States for medical treatment. Their journey has been planned for five months.
Otaiwi and his daughter arrived at a No More Victims apartment in Amman, Jordan, the first week of June and began the process of obtaining visas for their trip. Cole Miller, founder of No More Victims, joined them on June 18.
After a 12-hour flight from Jordan, they rested in New York City for a day and a half before flying to Portland.
Miller, weary from traveling but excited about Noora's arrival, eagerly videotaped the children's cultural exchange at the jetport Thursday. "It's a sweet moment, huh?" he said.
Over the next three to six months, Noora and her father will live in the Ronald McDonald House on Brackett Street while doctors repair the damage to Noora's head at Maine Medical Center.
Noora was injured Oct. 23, 2006, in Heet, Iraq, when a U.S. sniper fired from a rooftop toward the family's car. The bullet destroyed tissue on the left side of Noora's head and her forehead, ruptured her cerebral membrane, and shattered part of her skull. She was unconscious "for a good long while," Miller said.
Iraqi doctors were able to save the child's life, but without the needed medical supplies and equipment, could not completely repair the damage to her head.
Noora's father, a 42-year-old history teacher at the high school in Heet, took her to several hospitals in different Iraq cities. She underwent seven surgeries to remove shattered bone from her skull and to transfer skin from her thighs to her head.
But after a while, Iraqi doctors told Otaiwi there was nothing more they could do.
"The treatment in Iraq for injured people is just for an emergency," Otaiwi said, now using a translator. "It's just an emergency to keep the people alive. I was hopeless when they said there was no more surgery for her."
Hope returned, he said, when he heard about No More Victims.
"There's a lot of kids like my daughter in Iraq," Otaiwi said. "They did not have the chance to have the surgery. But I am very happy to bring my daughter here, and I have the hope that they will help her."
As he spoke, Otaiwi brushed aside his daughter's dark hair, revealing more of her scarred scalp and a concave section of skin where the skull bone is missing.
Since her injury, Miller said, Noora...
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