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KABUL, Afghanistan -- Children admitted to the Kabul Children’s Hospital slept more comfortably Thursday night since volunteers from the International Security Assistance Force Headquarters delivered mattresses and bed frames earlier that afternoon.
“We are grateful for the 12 beds,” said Mohammad Anwar, hospital administrator. “We will use these beds for the burn ward where people are badly burned. We are happy that the patients can have good mattresses and beds.”
Anwar stated that the hospital was currently serving 365 patients. The mother of one of the patients came out while Army National Guard Soldiers from Bravo and Charlie Troops, 1-134th Cavalry Squadron, from Freemont, Nebraska, were unloading the beds and frames.
The mother asked the coalition forces if there was anything they could do to help her son. Sofi, her son, suffers from leukemia and is a patient at the hospital.
U.S. Air Force Col. Skip Johnson, commander, Base Support Group, and Maj. Calvin Dixon, base chaplain, responded to the mother’s request by taking bags of toys to give to the children.
“You can’t really express the feeling,” said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Hannah Vigilla, a chaplain’s assistant from San Antonio, Texas. “Seeing those kids – it breaks your heart. They have nothing.”
Smiles filled the childrens’ faces as Vigilla and other volunteers handed out toys and talked with the children.
“The needs here [in Afghanistan] are so great,” said Dixon. “You can name almost any item and they need it.”
In the six months that Dixon has been deployed to Kabul, this mission is the third that the Chaplain’s Office has spearheaded. The previous two missions provided supplies to refugees last December and to an orphanage in March.
Many of the supplies given during these missions are donated, said Dixon. “It has been a great blessing to get these supplies and give them out.”
| Date Taken: | 04.07.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 04.09.2011 05:31 |
| Story ID: | 68483 |
| Location: | KABUL, AF |
| Web Views: | 103 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Afghan Children’s Hospital burn ward patients rest easy on new beds, by SSgt Jordan Jones, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
