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Kurdish Group delivers $1M worth of
medical supplies to Iraq and Kurdistan
7.10.2007
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October
7, 2007
Images of dying children and overcrowded hospitals
are vivid in Dr. Goran Bekhtyar's mind, just days
after returning from a humanitarian trip in Iraq to
deliver more than $1 million worth of medical
equipment.
The donations — gowns, surgical gloves, hospital
beds, — were delivered by nonprofit Improved Health
Systems for Iraq, an organization Bekhtyar started
more than a year ago. The group is already
collecting another load for future trips.
"Those donations directly impacted 5,000 people,"
said Bekhtyar, whose family fled Iraq in 1974 when
he was 10 years old. "If you saw the conditions of
health care in Iraq, you'd realize that the impact
of everyday tragedy is too much."
While in Iraq, the Franklin man watched as one
mother stuck a plastic tube flowing with oxygen into
her child's nose to keep him alive. The hospital
didn't have oxygen masks.
Group went to Kurdistan
Bekhtyar and three other workers of Improved Health
Systems for Iraq spent a month in Kurdistan, the
'northern part of Iraq', distributing medical
equipment to several hospitals.
They returned home Sept. 25. The nonprofit operates
three offices in Iraq with 50 employees, Bekhtyar
said. |
Dr. Goran Bekhtyar says the donations of medical
equipment "directly impacted 5,000 people". Photo
Tennessean |
The donations came from
Project C.U.R.E., a nonprofit humanitarian relief
organization, and Smith & Nephew Orthopaedics, a
company that provides joint replacements and trauma
products, Bekhtyar said.
Bekhtyar, who's married and has two small daughters,
spent months in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 as a senior
adviser to the Kurdistan Regional Government's
Ministry of Health, visiting hospitals and
prioritizing projects there.
Bekhtyar's group went to Kurdistan, he said, because
it's the safest part of 'Iraq' where scores of
Iraqis have traveled to escape the war.
The health care system there is overburdened and
needs continuous help, he said.
"Emergency rooms don't have enough supplies to
handle the trauma of the war," he said. "Yes,
there's money being invested in Iraq, but is it
getting directly to the people? You can't tell by
looking at the hospitals. Because if you have to
bring sheets from home to the hospital, what does it
tell you?"
tennessean com
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