Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project

By Joshua Hill and Luke Wilcox

Maan Kareem

As the US military prepares to withdraw from Iraq, a group of Americans and Iraqis have been working for the last seven years to counter the effects of the war and support civilian partnerships instead. The Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP), a nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis, supports reconciliation between Iraqis and Americans through art, education, health, and exchange programs.

On October 16, IARP and its partner in Iraq, the Muslim Peacemaker Teams, brought a delegation of medical professionals to Minneapolis from its Sister City of Najaf, Iraq, for a 17-days of professional training and exchange. Among the delegation was Maan Kareem, director of three prosthetics and orthotics centers in Iraq. Kareem came to the US with a mission: find a supplier to provide high-quality raw materials for assembling and fitting prostheses at his centers in Iraq.

Since 2003, at least 80,000 Iraqis have lost limbs. The need for high-quality prostheses has skyrocketed. Unfortunately, there is little access to high-quality, affordable raw materials needed to produce prostheses, according to Kareem.

Kareem reported that he previously accessed raw materials from Germany, which cost around $600, or Turkey, which cost $120 and were of a significantly lower quality. In 2007, The Guardian stated that, “another issue is that the prostheses that are available [to injured Iraqis] are largely outdated – based on models designed in the 1970s – while injured US troops returning home have benefited from a recent leap in prosthetics technology encouraged by the Iraq war itself.”

In Minneapolis, Kareem and his colleagues met with many hospitals and medical centers, including Shriners Hospitals for Children, Gillette Healthcare, HealthPartners/Regions Hospital, Fairview Health Services, the Mayo Clinic, the University of Minnesota, and Winkley Orthotics and Prosthetics. At Winkley, Kareem spoke in depth with prosthetists and prosthetic technicians about their practices and the materials they use in fabricating prostheses.

Winkley, which previously donated services and prostheses to a visiting Iraqi woman who had lost her leg to an American missile, put Kareem in touch with its supplier, American Prosthetic Components of Green Bay, Wisconsin. IARP board member Al Nettles facilitated a letter of understanding between APC and Kareem, which both parties signed before Kareem and the other physicians returned to Iraq. The letter establishes Kareem as the exclusive distributor of APC’s raw materials inIraq. The initial order of materials by Kareem will allow him to provide a higher-quality final product at a lower cost to his patients.

Maan Kareem in Minneapolis

Nettles described Kareem as similar to many successful professionals he has met previously. He said Kareem was driven and worked hard to reach a solid business arrangement that would increase his ability to provide improved care to his patients at lower costs. “The connection made is good for Iraqi-American relations,” Nettles said. “The need for increased cooperation between the US and Iraq on medical resources is an issue the US State Department should revisit.”

For more information on the delegation’s trip to Minnesota and the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project, visit http://reconciliationproject.org/iraqi-doctors-visit-sister-city-of-minneapolis-for-learning-and-exchange/.

Joshua Hill is a volunteer with the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project. He can be reached at hill.joshuab@gmail.com.

Luke Wilcox is the Development and Communications Director of the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project. He can be reached at luke@reconciliationproject.org.

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