By Wladimir van Wilgenburg Amsterdam - Lawan Hawizy, an Iraqi-Kurd living in London, became the advocate of the week for the Preemptive Love Coalition (PLC). He plans to run a marathon, despite chronic back pain and a knee surgery, to collect money for the life-saving heart surgery for a little girl in Iraqi Kurdistan named Daroon. Lawan and 27,000 others will run the Semi-Marathon De Paris on March 7th. The only difference is that Lawan’s running to save a life, says the PLC on their website. Daroon is a little Iraqi Kurdish girl who was born with congenital heart disease and because of that she can’t play like the other kids. According to PLC, thanks to Lawan, Daroon has a chance at life and one day she too can be an advocate that’s willing to run miles in honor of those who can’t. The PLC wants people to join Lawan in his fight for Daroon’s life by donating money. “All donations help the Preemptive Love Coalition send Daroon (and any others in her group) to life-saving heart surgery.” Salan Hawizy, Lawan’s brother, said the goal is to raise awareness for both the Preemptive Love Coalition and for Daroon’s heart surgery. “Through just a few dollars from each person you can save a little girl's life, and maybe one day she'll take up running just like my brother has.” For this reason Lawan’s brother also created a fan page on Facebook. Lawan Hawizy says they eventually want to reach $5000 to save to life of Daroon. Executive Director of the Preemptive Love Coalition, Jeremy Courtney, was very happy that Lawan's friends already raised the money needed for food for Daroon while she's outside of Kurdistan for surgery. “That only took a few hours! We're excited to see what you can do in the next few days. Maybe a two plane tickets ($490/piece)!,” he said. The Preemptive Love Coalition calls itself an organization; movement; charity; and a megaphone. They attracted attention in the Kurdish media, after they start a campaign to sell Kurdish traditional shoes (klashi Kurdi) and use the profits to pay for Arab and Kurdish children from Iraq suffering from heart conditions to receive life-saving heart surgeries outside the country. PLC says it seeks to eradicate the backlog of Arab and Kurdish children waiting in line for live-saving heart surgery and to create cooperation between communities in conflict (Photo: PLC). © Rudaw
