Project HOPE Receives $1 Million Grant for Basrah Children’s Hospital from the T. Boone Pickens Foundation

(May 20, 2008) Millwood, Va. – Project HOPE, an international health education and humanitarian assistance organization, received a $1 million grant from the T. Boone Pickens Foundation 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 (USACE). Project HOPE is responsible for equipping the hospital and training hospital staff.

Childhood cancers are 8 to 10 times more common in Iraq than in developed countries (the most common being leukemia, lymphomas and brain and other nervous system tumors), and 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. The hospital will also 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 for children with cancer,” said John P. Howe, III, M.D., the 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, as the newest children’s hospital in the region.”

In 2006-2007, Project HOPE trained 92 nurses for the new hospital. The T. Boone 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.

The T. Boone Pickens Foundation improves lives through grants supporting education, medical research/development and services, athletics and corporate wellness, at-risk youths, the entrepreneurial process, conservation and wildlife programs and a wide-range of public policy initiatives. For more information call Jay Rosser at 214-265-4165 or visit tboonepickensfoundation.org.

Founded in 1958, Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is dedicated to providing lasting solutions to health problems with the mission of helping people to help themselves. Identifiable to many by the SS HOPE, the world’s first peacetime hospital ship, Project HOPE now conducts land-based medical training and health education programs in 36 countries across five continents. For more information, please visitwww.projecthope.org.