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Far away, but close to home: Resident interns with charity in Iraq
David McLain of The Colony, son of the late Wade McLain, arrived in Northern Iraq on May 19 for a summer internship program with the Preemptive Love Coalition./Submitted photo
By Blaine Crimmins, bcrimmins@starlocalnews.com
The sudden passing of Wade McLain, beloved head football coach at Prestonwood Christian Academy, in August 2011, shook not only the high school sports world but residents in communities across North Texas as well.
None more so, naturally, than his own son, David McClain of The Colony, who attended PCA for three years and is now a senior at Baylor University, where he will graduate with a bachelor's degree in journalism this fall.
Instead of spending his summer looking forward to his last semester of college, David has traveled halfway around the world to Iraq in the hopes of doing some good in his father's name.
"PLC's mission and vision is reason enough to spend a summer in Iraq, but I have a further vested interest," he wrote in an email from Iraq, where he's been working since May 19. "My dad passed away ... due to heat and heart-related complications, and the opportunity to work alongside a group of people dedicated toward keeping families from losing their children due to heart conditions brings extra weight and purpose to my work.
"I know the projects I will be invested in this summer will help PLC where every Iraqi child in need can have a lifesaving heart surgery."
David will be in Iraq until July 28. His role with PLC primarily involves assisting the development director design and generate the charity's annual report. In addition to his journalism major, David's minors are texts of the Western tradition and Arabic.
"All of these disciplines really tie into why I am here in Northern Iraq, but I applied for the Preemptive Love Coalition's internship program because I wanted to experience what writing, researching and developing stories would look like outside of the print media world," he said. "I also wanted to benefit an organization I thought was doing commendable work and doing it well."
David said he feels privileged to have the chance to help in the reconstruction of a war-torn country's medical infrastructure.
"It is an opportunity for me, as an American and a Christian, to use the journalistic tools I am learning in college for a cause much greater than my personal benefit, while gaining work experience abroad," he said.
David said that while PLC is not a Christian-based organization, every member is faith-driven in their efforts and that he became acquainted with the group through the church he attends in Waco.
According to a release from David on behalf of PLC, decades of turmoil have left the Iraqi healthcare system in shambles, creating a growing backlog of more than 30,000 Iraqi children in need of heart surgery. More than anything else, the children simply need doctors capable of performing the surgeries.
The PLC's objective is to both provide heart operations and to train local Iraqi doctors through its Remedy Missions, two-week training programs during which a team of international doctors and nurses operates on children and trains local medical professionals.
PLC plans to host eight Remedy Missions in 2012, performing between 15 and 25 heart operations per mission, saving the lives of possibly 200 Iraqi children this year alone, according to the release.
The organization's long-term goal is to establish between six and eight pediatric surgical centers throughout Iraq capable of performing lifesaving heart surgeries without the help of outside medical professionals.
PLC was founded in 2007. To date, the organization has saved the lives of over 230 Iraqi children and provided local doctors with over 50,000 hours of hands-on training, according to the release. For information, visit www.preemptivelove.org or email David@PreemptiveLove.org.
"Working with PLC to save lives will give families in Iraq an opportunity to save their children with (congenital heart disease), which means a lot to me since I can no longer live with my dad," David McLain wrote.
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