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UK: Kurdish Doctor helping children in
Fife and Iraq
11.5.2006
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It's a long way from
Kurdistan to Kirkcaldy - but for one Iraqi doctor it
is a distance that can be measured in terms of life
or death.
As a Kurd living in Iraq during the 1980s, Mohammed
Ibrahim survived the brutal crackdown launched by
Saddam Hussein against his people, only to be
conscripted into the Iraqi army during the Gulf War.
"You had to go," the 41-year-old explained. "If you
refused, the army would shoot you and your family
would be made to pay for the bullet."
During the conflict he was shot and wounded by the
Americans, and detained in a military hospital in
Saudi Arabia before being sent back to Kurdistan - a
region in the north of Iraq - after the war. |
Dr. Ibrahim
Photo:Fife |
However, when Saddam launched another crackdown
against the country's Kurdish population in response
to an uprising, Dr. Ibrahim was left with two
choices - stay and run the risk of being killed, or
build a life elsewhere.
Unsurprisingly, he chose the latter option, and it
was his experiences of war and suffering that led
towards his career as a paediatrician, and
ultimately, to Kirkcaldy.
"To see children suffering for something that has
nothing to do with them is a tragedy, and that is
what made me become a paediatrician," he explained.
After leaving Iraq, Dr. Ibrahim spent 18 months
working with children in Africa before moving to
Scotland in 1995.
After a stint working at a hospital in Glasgow, he
moved to Fife with his wife and two children, and is
now head of the Paediatric Ambulatory Unit at the
Victoria Hospital.
His life today is a world away from the trauma he
experienced under Saddam's rule, when his father's
farm was burned to the ground and chemical weapons
were used in attacks on his people.
But while some may have chosen to turn their back on
their homeland as a result of these experiences, Dr
Ibrahim has instead decided to help lay the
foundations for a stable Iraqi health service
through a scheme to train Iraqi doctors in the UK.
"We are training doctors in new techniques and
practices, and teaching them about the structure of
the NHS," he explained. "We are trying to lay the
foundations for the future for the Iraqi health
service."
He explained that the scheme was devised on a trip
to Basra last year, where Dr. Ibrahim established
links with Professor Mead Hassan, the head of the
paediatric service in the south of the country.
As well as bringing Iraqi doctors to the UK for
training, he also supplies Iraqi colleagues with
up-to-date medical information on paediatrics. He
said that years of neglect has left Iraqi doctors
without the means to effectively treat child
patients, and he wants to help improve the
situation.
"Iraq's health service has suffered from years of
under-investment because of Saddam, and that has
affected paediatrics," Dr. Ibrahim explained.
"People outside Iraq don't realise that it wasn't
Saddam who suffered because of the sanctions imposed
on his regime during the 1990s, it was ordinary
Iraqis.
"Under Saddam the health service in Iraq was very
run down, and children, who make up a large
percentage of the population, were used as a
propaganda tool to try and shame the West."
Despite the current problems facing Iraq's health
service, and the continuing violence in the country,
Dr. Ibrahim remains upbeat about the prospect of a
brighter future for his homeland. However, he has no
plans to return.
"I tell my children how lucky they are to stay in a
country that is peaceful," he said. "My family is
very settled here and my children even have Fife
accents. Sometimes I can't even understand them! We
are part of society, but we do keep some of our
Iraqi identity."
fifenow.co.uk
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