Project Life at a Glance

Saving a War Torn Childhood

Project Life was inaugurated in 1997 and since then has brought 136 orphans from the troubled lands of Bosnia, the North Caucasus (Chechnya and Ingushetia), Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka to peaceful western New York State. Project Life is an intensive, volunteer-based program that works to restore the lost childhood of innocent victims of war. These children have suffered hardship and losses, but they are not seeking long-term foster care or adoption in the U.S. After a wonderful summer, the children return to their native countries, where they live with close family members.

Over the years, a few of the orphans have come to us with undiagnosed health problems and have had to remain in the U.S. to receive the care they so desperately need.

Most recently, Project Life’s time and resources are committed to the needs of Mohammad of Afghanistan. He traveled from his home in Helmand Province along with other orphans in 2014. Within a few weeks of his arrival he was diagnosed with Beta Thalassemia Major, an extremely severe form of anemia. In his home country this would have been a death sentence. Project Life arranged for him to remain in the United States to have life-saving surgery and all the tests and treatments he requires to be stabilized. Thalassemia is not a curable condition, so Mohammad, now a teenager, must receive blood transfusions regularly and be carefully monitored for a complex array of side effects and organ damage that can result from his medical condition. Project Life is dedicated to looking after Mohammad’s medical, educational, and psychological needs.

Voluntary staff:

Director

Linda Redfield Shakoor

Email:

Deputy Director & Finance Manager

Deborah Wilson

Email:

USA Contact:

Project Life War Orphans

Box 167

13302 Stillwater Road

Waterport, NY 14571, USA