First Medical and Training Mission
Amman, Jordan - May 2006
The Rotary Club of Montgomery Village has partnered with other rotary clubs as well as with Physicians for Peace, Hanger Orthopedic Group, Inc., The Mosaic Foundation, Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, MD, King Hussein Medical Center in Amman, Jordan, Amman Cosmopolitan Rotary Club, and the Ministry of Health in Iraq to bring aid to the amputees of war-torn Basra, Iraq. The numbers of amputees in Iraq rise as innocent civilians fall victims to landmines, bombs, and insurgent attaks. It is estimated that there are in excess of 50,000 amputees in Iraq, many of which are women and children. Health care in the war-torn nation is barely accessible and of poor quality. Prosthetics are desperately needed to improve the prospects and quality of life for these amputees.
The initiative of the Montgomery Village Rotary Club and its partners is multi-phased. Funding, PR are critical to this volunteer project. Secondly, a Nationwide Limb Drive is being conducted to collect used prosthetics to be broken down into useful components and send to Iraq. This effort will jump start their prosthetics program.
In May 2006, the first medical mission took place and involved the training of Iraqi Ministry of Health physicians and medical staff as well as directly providing treatment to Iraqi amputees at the King Hussein Medical Center in Amman, Jordan.
The next steps involve setting up the King Hussein Medical Centre in Amman, Jordan to be in a position to continue to train the Iraqi MOH personnel in Jordan by purchasing additional equipment and ultimately, when is safe to go into Iraq, the setting up of the Basra Prosthetics Centre wih the needed medical supplies and equipment.