Posted: 8/03/07
Burned Iraqi children need
medical supplies; chaplain seeks help
By John Hall
Texas Baptist Communications
DALLAS—A Baptist General Convention of Texas-endorsed Army chaplain is encouraging churches to send medical supplies to support a U.S. military-run medical clinic in Iraq for child burn victims.
| Mark Richardson, a military chaplain endorsed by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, boards a plane for Iraq. Richardson has requested medical supplies for a clinic for burned Iraqi children.
Needed: medical supplies include bandages, dressings, medical scissors and hydrogen peroxide. Items can be mailed directly to Chap. Mark Richardson, CSC Scania, APO AE 09331. For more information, |
U.S. military personnel treat as many as 100 young people a week in South Central Iraq during the winter and 25 a week during the summer. One in five patients is burned as a result of the conflict there. Most of the burns are a result of accidents, since many Iraqis cook with gasoline and heat their homes with diesel heaters.
In the process of working on the burns, doctors also discover and treat other medical issues children have. In extreme cases, children are referred to a nonprofit group that seeks to provide free medical care.
“The burn clinic offers the only medical facility where trained doctors and medics see burn victims and offer sanitary medical treatment,” said Army Chaplain Mark Richardson, who made the request for supplies. “Without the clinic, numerous children each year would contract infections, would be disfigured and some would die of complications from burns.”
Bobby Smith, director of BGCT chaplaincy relations, said Richardson’s request is an opportunity to meet the physical and spiritual needs of Iraqi children.
“Chaplain Richardson’s primary responsibility is to provide pastoral care to United States military personnel and their families, but his ministry heart goes beyond that to try to meet the needs of hurting children in Iraq,” Smith said. “This request empowers Texas Baptists to reach their arms around the globe to help one of their own minister there in a practical way.”
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