IRAQ: Medical students offer assistance to the disabled

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

BAGHDAD, 11 Oct 2004 (IRIN) - A group of medical students calling themselves the "amigos of Iraq" are offering their services for free to help people in the Iraqi capital living with disabilities as a result of being injured during the recent war.

Some 40 volunteers, including doctors, dentists, psychologists, pharmacists and physiotherapists who are either in the last year of college or have just graduated, are making visits to homes around Baghdad.

"We want to show that if each Iraqi can help the one beside them, we can make this a better place," Sajida Obeid, one of the medical student volunteers, told IRIN in Baghdad.

"My son was helped by this group of medical volunteers after he became disabled. They have been offering him physiotherapy and psychological help and I hope he can learn how to live without his arm. I'm very proud of the volunteers," Mrs Hassan, mother of a five-year-old boy, told IRIN.

The volunteers add that psychological assistance is one of the most important skills they can offer to disabled people who find it difficult to come to terms with what has happened to their bodies. This is particularly the case with children.

Juan Abdul-Kadar, one of the psychologists, told IRIN that they had achieved great results. She explained that some children needed at least three sessions of therapy per week, with adults in need of one session per week.

"It makes me sad when you have a child in front of you saying that he wants to play football with his brother, but is unable to do so because he has lost his leg," she added.

Medicine is also offered to those who cannot afford it. Pharmacists in the group have been asking shops to donate drugs and have received a healthy response. Those offering their kindness say they want to put an end to suffering. "I'm an Iraqi, I'm a human being and I cannot just sit in a chair and watch. I'm proud of what we are doing," pharmacist Haydar Jabbar told
IRIN.

The students are also equipped with physiotherapy skills, an added bonus as there are few medical facilities which offer this treatment in the city.

"Their work is helping us a lot as there is a lack of assistance in this area in Iraq. Our workload is easing which means we can see patients properly," Dr Mahmoud Jomaa, a physiotherapist at Yarmook hospital in Baghdad, told IRIN. "It just goes to show others that money isn't everything in life," Jomaa added.

The volunteers meet every week to decide how and who to treat next. News of the "amigos" work has spread and they have had interest from another 10 students this week. But there are restrictions on their work. Obeid said insecurity was stopping them from entering some crucial areas where recent fighting had taken place.

Those who have benefited from the charitable work say they are forever grateful to the medical students.

"Every day in my prayers I thank God for providing me with these volunteers who have become gifts to my sons," Suheyla Abbas, a mother of two children who lost their legs during the recent US-led war, told IRIN.

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