Reconciliation Through Healing

The war in Iraq has officially ended almost exactly a year ago when President Obama declared "the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over...” on the 31th of August 2010 at the White House. And while many still wonder if it’s really over, we feel more concerned about the consequences for millions of Iraqis of 12 years of embargo and 2 disastrous wars.

We grew up in Paris with some refugees from the first war and always felt close to what happens in this country since then. That's why when we recently got in touch with Matt Willingham from the NGO Preemptive Love Coalition we were very eager to spread their message and help them make a difference. And we thought that we could start by publishing their fantastically designed new video "Reconciliation Through Healing".

PLC's mission is to provide lifesaving heart surgeries for Iraqi children. After years of embargo on medical supplies and (chemical) warfares there's an obvious higher rate of birth defects and especially heart diseases in the country while the medical system has simply collapsed and been unable to treat them. This has created massive waiting lists of children needing lifesaving surgeries.

The organization brings team of surgeons to Iraq so they can perform directly there and save lives. They also train local surgeons and nurses to help eradicate the problem on the long run which is always the smartest solution.

To fund their operation they rely on donations and the outcome of their very good campaign "Buys shoes. Save lives" with a website where you can buy beautiful hand-made Kurdish shoes, apparel and candles. All the profit are paying for the kids' surgeries and the training of local surgeons.

Obviously there's a lot more to say about the situation in Iraq, PLC and their action so we invite you to have a deeper look on their website for more information and also their excellent videos on their Vimeo page. We admire a lot the quality of all their films and certainly hope to achieve similar things one day to help make a difference.

Alex