MEDICAL AID MISSION
Wheelchairs and hearing aides for disabled kids.
UNICEF estimates 21 million children with disabilities live in the Middle East. 1 in 6 children in Iraq suffer injures caused by gunshots, shrapnel and explosives, compared with 1-in-50 childhood injuries worldwide, according to Reuters.
Disabled children are a particularly vulnerable group in Iraq. Decades of conflict resulted in limited educational resources for special needs children.
Doctors from Baghdad’s Central Hospital for Children report that the decline in obstetric and neonatal services have resulted in increasing numbers of child birth defects nationwide.
VRL’s partner, the Iraqi Institution for Development (IID) appealed on behalf of 14 disabled children living in Mosul, a city devastated by a war that left the locals without basic medical needs.
The 14 children were in need of wheelchairs and hearing aides, a total cost of $3,000.
Within a week, Veterans Rebuilding Life successfully raised the necessary funds to secure the wheelchairs and hearing aids, and deliver them to the smiling children seen in the accompanying photos.