(22 Oct 2019) LEAD IN: A special medical team has been providing much-needed support in Sulaymaniyah, in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq.
Residents have been able to get medical check ups , including dental treatment and eye tests, in the unusual setting of the local Coptic Orthodox Church.
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At this church in Sulaymaniyah, residents are being offered free health check-ups.
For some, this may be the first check-up in a while.
The initiative was set up by the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt.
A team of doctors was sent from Egypt to provide free health services for residents.
One patient is having their eyes tested.
"We thank our father and the Coptic Church for opening their doors to the people in need and those who cant afford it," says Sanaa Suliman, a local visitor from Sulaymaniyah.
"There are many people who can't afford to go to a dentist or eye surgeon because it is expensive and the people here are not getting salaries and the situation is bad. So, praise be to God, this initiative is lifting some of the weight on the shoulders of poor people."
The medical team is composed of eye surgeons, gynaecologists, internist, dentists and X-ray specialists.
The team is based at Mar Marqas and Virgin Mary Churches in the centre of Sulaymaniyah and it operates on two shifts; from 10:00 am to 01:00 pm and from 04:00 pm to 07:00 pm.
"We asked the Coptic Church in Egypt for a team of doctors to come here and to provide help to everyone in Sulaymaniyah - of all sects and ethnics, without any discrimination," says Shenouda Hakim Shenouda, a pastor from the Coptic Orthodox Church in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq and Jordan.
Shenouda says they have plans to have similar initiatives in Irbil and Dohuk in the future.
"God willing, we will bring a full and a complete medical team along with full equipment and devices to serve the governorate of Sulaymaniyah for free. God willing, we will expand soon to Irbil and Dohuk to provide some simple help from the Coptic Church to this hospitable and good region."
The medic team was in Sulaymaniyah October 13 - 17th, 2019 and is expected to return in November.
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