Amount Donated: $4,800 Date Completed: September, 2003 Primary Donors: Individual donors. Federal Express.

Request

Lt. Col. Al Burghard emailed Spirit of America requesting dental supplies for the people of Al Hillah, Iraq. He said, "Dental hygiene over here is horrible. In a country where you only got what Saddam wanted you to have, dental care was low in priority. Children have wonderful smiles and we want to help keep them that way."

Result

Spirit of America raised funds from individual donors in the United States to purchase 2,000 dental care kits (toothbrushes and toothpaste). The kits included an insert with images of the American and Iraqi flags, photographs of American men, women and children and the greeting "A gift of friendship from the people of the United States to the people of Iraq." Federal Express donated express shipping of the kits to the Marines.

Response

Burghard and his fellow Marines distributed the dental supplies to villages in and around Al Hillah. Al Hillah is south of Baghdad and is where the ancient city of Babylon is located. Burghard emailed, "These are our friends, and had exceptionally kind words when we brought the dental kits to them. They reacted differently than what we would see during a basic humanitarian assistance project. They considered the dental kits gifts from friends in America, quite literally as the small leaflet indicated."

"After giving the dental supply gifts, on the walk back to our building, all (yes all) people came out of their houses along the way," said Burghard. "The children followed us everywhere, shook hands and gave us high-fives. Shiite women, mothers, aunts and grandmothers, came into the street to wave and wish us a safe journey."

Later, village leaders and elders arrived at the Marines' command center with gifts of silk flowers and a religious icon now displayed at the unit. Burghard wrote, "We were shown by the village that they not only trusted us, but considered us as a part of their tribal family. That display of trust was the crowning moment of our interaction with them."

More Photographs

More photos provided by the Marines who distributed dental kits as gifts to the people of Al Hillah, Iraq.

Questions?

Please contact us via email at staff@spiritofamerica.net