2009-01-20 14:35:42
Spring 2009
The year 2008 saw many changes both in my work and in the life of my country. At long last people in Chechnya were able to start rebuilding their lives, and I was able to work in Chechnya where for so many years I was a persona non grata. While Chechnya's children no longer face daily violence, far too many of them continue to suffer the consequences of a decade of bitter war. I will continue to dedicate my time and efforts to repairing the damage. I hope that all of you who have supported these efforts in the past will continue to support ICCC in the coming year. Thanks to your donations, the ICCC has made a difference in the lives of many Chechen children. Using your donations, for instance, the ICCC provided two large air conditioning units to cool the operating room at the Children’s Hospital in Grozny.
These air conditioning units, as well as the heating units purchased by ICCC the year before, are of course greatly appreciated by the permanent staff of doctors and nurses at the Children's Hospital, who face many shortages and material challenges daily. The units also contributed greatly to the success of a mission to Grozny from Operation Smile, the international organization which dispatches surgeons around the world to repair cleft palates and hare lips. This was the second Operation Smile to Grozny which I have organized in as many years. This time, our team of 26 medical personnel operated on more than one hundred children. I continued to monitor the children after the end of the mission, and all are doing well. The mission was such a success that I hope to organize another for the fall of 2009.
In addition to the surgeries that were a part of Operation Smile, I also used my time in Grozny last summer to operate pro bono on 40 other children with various birth defects and burns. Again, the ICCC used your contributions to support and make possible the work that I did - thank you. It is a time of great hope in Chechnya, and you have helped make these hopes possible.
Dr. Khassan Baiev
Chairman, International Committee for the Children of Chechnya
The year 2008 saw many changes both in my work and in the life of my country. At long last people in Chechnya were able to start rebuilding their lives, and I was able to work in Chechnya where for so many years I was a persona non grata. While Chechnya's children no longer face daily violence, far too many of them continue to suffer the consequences of a decade of bitter war. I will continue to dedicate my time and efforts to repairing the damage. I hope that all of you who have supported these efforts in the past will continue to support ICCC in the coming year. Thanks to your donations, the ICCC has made a difference in the lives of many Chechen children. Using your donations, for instance, the ICCC provided two large air conditioning units to cool the operating room at the Children’s Hospital in Grozny.
These air conditioning units, as well as the heating units purchased by ICCC the year before, are of course greatly appreciated by the permanent staff of doctors and nurses at the Children's Hospital, who face many shortages and material challenges daily. The units also contributed greatly to the success of a mission to Grozny from Operation Smile, the international organization which dispatches surgeons around the world to repair cleft palates and hare lips. This was the second Operation Smile to Grozny which I have organized in as many years. This time, our team of 26 medical personnel operated on more than one hundred children. I continued to monitor the children after the end of the mission, and all are doing well. The mission was such a success that I hope to organize another for the fall of 2009.
In addition to the surgeries that were a part of Operation Smile, I also used my time in Grozny last summer to operate pro bono on 40 other children with various birth defects and burns. Again, the ICCC used your contributions to support and make possible the work that I did - thank you. It is a time of great hope in Chechnya, and you have helped make these hopes possible.
Dr. Khassan Baiev
Chairman, International Committee for the Children of Chechnya
2008-11-29 21:37:21
January 2008
Dear Friends and Supporters:
Now that the situation in Chechnya has taken a turn for the better, I was able to spend two months in Grozny, assessing the medical situation there. During that time, two ICCC board members -- Ruth and Nicholas Daniloff -- visited me in Grozny . They were able to see for themselves the conditions in the hospitals, and how the ICCC money was being spent. See Ruth Daniloff’s Boston Globe article for her general impressions of Chechnya.
We visited the Grozny Neurological Hospital which has received some funding from the government to reconstruct the building. At the School for the Blind we also found that the buildings had been reconstructed and that they had heat. Khava Karimova, the head of the Blind Association in Chechnya, is working to identify blind and deaf children throughout the republic so that they might receive help. We have invited a specialist from the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston to visit, too. The Perkins School is one of the world’s leading specialists on special education for blind and deafblind children so that they can become members of society.
My conclusions after two months in Chechnya is that the aftermath of war is as bad as war itself. Behind the reconstruction which is taking place in the country lie terrible medical problems. Along with the soaring birth rate are soaring birth defects which are largely a result of the war and a contaminated environment. Each morning while in Grozny I went to the 9th City Hospital to consult with desperate parents whose children suffered from various defects -- cleft palates, hare lips, Down Syndrome -- as well as injuries such as serious burns. In Chechnya there are no specialist in birth defects, and pre-natal care is practically non-existant. The hospitals do not have basic diagnostic equipment such as ultra sound or x-ray machines. And despite the beginnings of reconstruction, hospital buildings are still in terrible shape -- while I was doing my consultations with children water was dripping from the ceiling.
Working with the international organization, Operation Smile, which operates on children with cleft plates and hare lips around the world, I identified 20 Chechen children in need of operations and traveled with them by bus to the southern Russian city of Taganrog. There I joined a team of international surgeon to carry out the operations on them. After the surgeries, the children, their mothers, and I returned by bus to Grozny, and for the next month I was able to visit each child frequently, and ensured that they were doing well before I had to return to Boston. Next September Operation Smile has agreed to hold one of their mission in Chechnya. with surgeons from the U.S. participating.
In addition to helping with medical equipment, we believe that one of the most important ways for the ICCC to help children in Chechnya is to introduce the medical profession to information on the Internet. Most doctors don’t even have computers let alone know how to use them. For this reason, I am trying to raise funds for an Internet medical center in Grozny which would allow medical personnel access to the field of medicine throughout the world.
Once more, I want to thank every one for their support. I want you to know I met so many people in Chechnya who expressed appreciation for our help. They were touched that Americans thought of them, even as the United States pursue its war in Iraq
With many thanks and all best wishes for the New Year,
Dr. Khassan Baiev, Chairman
Dear Friends and Supporters:
Now that the situation in Chechnya has taken a turn for the better, I was able to spend two months in Grozny, assessing the medical situation there. During that time, two ICCC board members -- Ruth and Nicholas Daniloff -- visited me in Grozny . They were able to see for themselves the conditions in the hospitals, and how the ICCC money was being spent. See Ruth Daniloff’s Boston Globe article for her general impressions of Chechnya.
We visited the Grozny Neurological Hospital which has received some funding from the government to reconstruct the building. At the School for the Blind we also found that the buildings had been reconstructed and that they had heat. Khava Karimova, the head of the Blind Association in Chechnya, is working to identify blind and deaf children throughout the republic so that they might receive help. We have invited a specialist from the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston to visit, too. The Perkins School is one of the world’s leading specialists on special education for blind and deafblind children so that they can become members of society.
My conclusions after two months in Chechnya is that the aftermath of war is as bad as war itself. Behind the reconstruction which is taking place in the country lie terrible medical problems. Along with the soaring birth rate are soaring birth defects which are largely a result of the war and a contaminated environment. Each morning while in Grozny I went to the 9th City Hospital to consult with desperate parents whose children suffered from various defects -- cleft palates, hare lips, Down Syndrome -- as well as injuries such as serious burns. In Chechnya there are no specialist in birth defects, and pre-natal care is practically non-existant. The hospitals do not have basic diagnostic equipment such as ultra sound or x-ray machines. And despite the beginnings of reconstruction, hospital buildings are still in terrible shape -- while I was doing my consultations with children water was dripping from the ceiling.
Working with the international organization, Operation Smile, which operates on children with cleft plates and hare lips around the world, I identified 20 Chechen children in need of operations and traveled with them by bus to the southern Russian city of Taganrog. There I joined a team of international surgeon to carry out the operations on them. After the surgeries, the children, their mothers, and I returned by bus to Grozny, and for the next month I was able to visit each child frequently, and ensured that they were doing well before I had to return to Boston. Next September Operation Smile has agreed to hold one of their mission in Chechnya. with surgeons from the U.S. participating.
In addition to helping with medical equipment, we believe that one of the most important ways for the ICCC to help children in Chechnya is to introduce the medical profession to information on the Internet. Most doctors don’t even have computers let alone know how to use them. For this reason, I am trying to raise funds for an Internet medical center in Grozny which would allow medical personnel access to the field of medicine throughout the world.
Once more, I want to thank every one for their support. I want you to know I met so many people in Chechnya who expressed appreciation for our help. They were touched that Americans thought of them, even as the United States pursue its war in Iraq
With many thanks and all best wishes for the New Year,
Dr. Khassan Baiev, Chairman