SPOTLIGHT

The T. Boone Pickens Foundation focuses grants to organizations that operate in its core giving categories (see “About TBPF”). The current partner spotlight is Project HOPE, which for fifty years has worked to make health care available for people around the globe — especially children.

The Virginia-based Health Opportunities for People Everywhere got its start by sending medical volunteers onboard the world’s first peacetime Hospital Ship, the SS HOPE. Today, it remains committed to long-term sustainable health care. The organization’s work includes educating health professionals and community health workers, providing medicines and supplies through humanitarian assistance initiatives, strengthening health facilities, and fighting diseases such as TB, HIV/AIDS and diabetes.

The T. Boone Pickens Foundation awarded $1 million to Project HOPE in May to continue health professional training for the Basrah Children’s Hospital in Iraq. Scheduled to open later this year, the Basrah Children’s Hospital is a modern, state-of-the art, 94-bed pediatric referral facility being built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

“I’m told that childhood cancers are eight to ten times more common in Iraq than in developed countries,” Pickens says. “The Basrah Children’s Hospital will be well positioned to address these childhood diseases with prevention, early diagnosis and cures using standard therapies otherwise unavailable in Iraq. This is the type of project we can easily get onboard with.”

The hospital also will become a center of excellence in technology, practice, training and administration, creating a revolution in health systems across Iraq.

 “This gift from the T. Boone Pickens Foundation is a wonderful vote of confidence in Project HOPE and our efforts to train doctors and nurses for this state-of-of the-art hospital,” said John P. Howe III, M.D., president and CEO of Project HOPE. “It will allow for the best cancer care – and ensure a healthy future for the next generation of Iraqi young people. The Foundation and its leadership deserve great credit for seeing the hospital to its full potential.”

In 2006-2007, Project HOPE trained 92 nurses for the new hospital. The Pickens grant will help Project HOPE to continue excellent medical education for nearly 60 nurses and ancillary staff leaders currently in training in Muscat, Oman, and nearly 200 who are scheduled for training in diploma nursing, radiography, physiotherapy and laboratory over the next few years. Project HOPE is committed to an active training program for clinical staff for the Basrah Children’s Hospital through the year 2020.

For more information on Project HOPE or to make a donation, visit projecthope.org or call 800-544-4673.