War-scarred Iraqis find new hope with Swiss NGO

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Lying on a hospital bed, a young boy’s eyes, which have seen war, search the room for a reflection of his own face following a transformative operation that restored his smile. His gaze lands on the glasses of the surgeon standing at the foot of the bed.

Ali Mousa stands by his son Hussein’s head, sending warm looks to his child before his weary eyes shift to Dr. Ian Furst, who was part of the team of health professionals that brought back Mousa’s hope and faith in humanity. 

Hussein, 11, is one of hundreds of patients who registered their names for Swisscross Foundation’s first humanitarian surgical mission to Erbil that to provide reconstructive surgeries for people who have been scarred during conflict, like Hussein. 

Hussein, whose little body inhaled the smoke of bombs early in his life, is from Mosul. He was on his way to his uncle’s house to play with a cousin when the Islamic State group (ISIS) launched a mortar attack on a neighbor’s house months before its defeat in the city in 2017. Fearing the militants might fire another round of mortars, Mousa yelled for the kids to come inside and lock the doors. Seconds later, the terror group struck again, killing and injuring a dozen of people. The cousin Hussein was going to play with was among the dead.

As smoke rose over the ancient Iraqi city, the bodies of murdered children and elderly lay on the ground. Mousa ran to his car to help transfer the injured to hospital. He ended up taking his own son, Hussein. 

“Someone put him into my arms as I was on my way to get the car to drive the people who were injured to the emergency,” Mousa told Rudaw English hours after his son was operated on. 

The mortar had ripped Hussein’s cheek in half and fractured his jaw, covering his childish dreams with black and burying them under the rubble. The towel covering Hussein’s face had turned red with blood. Mousa was in shock and horror at the sight of his baby boy, who was seven years old at the time.

Iraq is a country torn by decades of war. The conflict with ISIS was the latest horror. In 2014, the militants seized control of swathes of land when it invaded the country, declaring its de-facto capital in Mosul. Earlier this year, the Swisscross Foundation partnered with UAE Aid to send international volunteer surgeons and healthcare professionals to the Kurdistan Region, mainly Erbil, which has housed thousands of families from across Iraq and Syria displaced by the conflict. 

Based in Switzerland, Swisscross is an independent humanitarian non-profit organization that performs surgeries on victims with often mistreated or compound injuries to restore normal appearance and function. It also works to enhance the quality of medical treatment in conflict zones while focusing on training local health staff. The Erbil program is supported by the Barzani Charity Foundation, Kurdistan Region health ministry, and the doctors’ syndicate. 

The foundation started registering patients who require care in late September, Swisscross CEO and maxillofacial surgeon Furst told Rudaw English from the wards of Zheen International Hospital, where the organization’s Centre for Complex Care is located. 

“Ten patients registered in the first week. By the second week, the number went up to 500. This showed how many people needed us here,” Furst said. 

Seven years after ISIS tore through Iraq and Syria, thousands of families remain scattered across camps and informal settlements. The Kurdistan Region hosts more than 900,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, with more than four thousand families living in Erbil. The Region has a dense population of people with neglected war injuries.

“Erbil is proof of the concept that we want to do. Treatment, training, education, and research… We want to train [local] doctors so they can lead in a crisis,” Swisscross founder and specialist in plastic and reconstructive surgery Dr. Enrique Steiger told Rudaw English. “When I leave, it [the mission] has to go on.”

Steiger has worked in the humanitarian field for 27 years. 

Injuries from conflict can be some of the most challenging wounds health care teams face. They usually involve fractured bones, burned skin, and other massive injuries. And treatment is often delayed. “The wounds we see in people affected by war are some of the most complex healthcare problems that exist,” Furst said, describing the cases he has seen through his medical career.

The specialized treatment these patients need is not always available in Iraq or costs far more than most people can afford. 

Swisscross often receives referrals from local doctors or NGOs who work with vulnerable communities in the Kurdistan Region. In October, the team of international health experts conducted their first screening mission in the Kurdish capital, booking at least 60 surgeries for the month after. 

During the second and third week of November, Swisscross performed 50 surgeries, including a tendon transfer operation for a Peshmerga who lost the function of his right hand when an ISIS militant detonated himself in Kirkuk in 2016. 

Swisscross “aims to have a team in Erbil every one to two months,” said Furst. Dozens of people from all around the country are seeking medical treatment in the city. 

A part of the foundation’s mission is to train local nurses, doctors, physiotherapists. During operations, the international surgeons are accompanied by local surgeons, nurses, and healthcare staff. 

“The humanitarian work they do touches my heart,” field officer Sarezh Saber, who recently graduated from Hawler’s Medical University, told Rudaw English. A team of two Kurdish field officers play a key role in coordinating activities related to the foundation’s centre in Erbil and help bring light back into the lives of people scarred by conflict. 

Steiger and local officer Lass Azad said seeing smiles on their patients’ faces following surgery is everything.