International Aid Shipping Mobile Medical Clinic As Part Of Iraq Rebuilding Effort

International Aid
Monday, 14 April 2003

Staff member in Jordan to coordinate delivery

International Aid, one of the world's leading faith-based agencies in providing healthcare, has air-shipped a mobile medical clinic to help respond to the needs of Iraqi citizens impacted by war.

Sonny Enriquez, International Aid vice president of programs, is in Amman, Jordan working with International Aid partners in the region to coordinate the delivery of the clinic and determine where it can meet the greatest need.

"We have to lay the groundwork to ensure proper distribution – whether it's to help some of the 300,000 Iraqi refugees still in Jordan from the first Gulf war or people in Iraq," Enriquez said. "We have to answer the questions of where there is the greatest need and when that area might be stable enough to begin our work."

International Aid has developed a world-renowned medical equipment services program and sent $10 million of medical equipment to 2,000 worldwide hospitals and clinics in the past ten years. Included in the mobile medical clinic shipment to Iraq will be International Aid's exclusive "Lab-in-a-Suitcase," which provides 85 percent of basic diagnostic work and is designed for remote areas without electricity. Other clinic components include infant and adult examining tables, scales, medications, an EKG monitor plus a wheelchair, defibrillator, stretcher and sterilizer.

"Health delivery in Iraq has been in shambles for years," Enriquez said. "There's a lack of both supplies and training. Women and children especially have been suffering or dying as a result. Our goal is to set up a staffed community health program, assist hospitals by providing medical equipment, and train Iraqi people to maintain and repair this equipment."

International Aid has been working with a partner in the area that represents 20 Christian churches in Jordan and 72 more in Iraq. Because Christians are a tiny, persecuted minority in Iraq, they could be among those most in need, but International Aid is prepared to help whatever Iraqi population has the greatest need of medical care.

Myles Fish, International Aid president, emphasized the agency's long-term goal for Iraq as for all its worldwide relief and development missions. "We have a simple way of explaining our mission that we call 25/28," he said. "We are called to serve the ‘least of these' as Jesus called them in Matthew 25, but ultimately we're called to meet their spiritual needs and spread the Gospel to all nations, as stated in Matthew 28."

While in Jordan, Enriquez also is coordinating the delivery of 70,000 pounds of rice and dried beans to help feed Iraqi citizens. Similar to the mobile medical clinic, he will be working with International Aid's partners in the region to determine where the greatest need is for this food.

International Aid for more than two months has been soliciting financial donations in preparation to meet the needs of Iraqi refugees in Jordan, Iraqi people who are fleeing their country in time of war, or people in Iraq impacted by the war.

Based in Spring Lake, Mich., International Aid has expertise in health sector-related emergency relief and post-war rehabilitation, and it has responded to natural disasters and crises around the world, including most recently in Kosovo and Afghanistan.

For more information, or to contact International Aid, see their website at: www.gospelcom.net/ia