How Your Donations Help: The CINI Effect
This is Amal. She is a perfect illustration of how your donations help. On Oct 24, 2007, Brenda, CINI's founder, met Amal and her father at the Red Crescent Hospital in Amman, Jordan. In Iraq in 2005, Amal was injured in a mortar attack. Remnants of a building that was hit fell on her and shrapnel from the mortar was embedded in her intestines. It took four surgeries on her intestines just to remove the shrapnel. Unfortunately, when Brenda discovered her, little attention had been paid to her leg injuries. Brenda was told that if her legs were not corrected by the time she turned twelve years old, she would no longer be able to walk. The doctors at the Red Crescent Hospital and Doctors Without Borders had provided as much care as they could for her and when her father met Brenda and learned of CINI's mission, he asked if we could help.
We immediately got to work. Unfortunately, the medical care was not available through our network in Amman. So CINI contacted our partner, Shriners Children's Hospital in Sacramento, CA. After reviewing her medical record, they agreed to perform the surgery and to provide the post-operative care for Amal and housing for her father.
With that in place, CINI began the critical effort to obtain visas for them so they could travel to the US. It took two weeks for all the paperwork to be completed with the help of the Civil Liaison Team and CINI provided them with a place to stay in Amman during the wait.
CINI then arranged for round trip transportation and volunteer escorts through Chicago to Sacramento. Since her father did not speak any English, CINI arranged for Travelers Aid to provide a translator to meet them at customs in Chicago and help them through that confusing process. From Chicago, a CINI volunteer flew with them to Sacramento and helped check them into Shriners. Additionally, CINI volunteers visited them throughout their stay at Shriners to make certain that they had everything they needed.
As you can see in Amal's case, CINI has built a wonderful network of partners who provide special pieces of the medical aid. But the truth is, without CINI to fill in the critical gaps and to coordinate and facilitate the process, it would not have happened. We call this the CINI effect. By pooling our resources, we not only maximize your contribution, we multiply it. In Amal's case, $11,000 donated to CINI enabled over $200,000 of aid and medical care! Please consider making a donation today. As you can see, your contribution can go a long way to saving and improving lives.
