Videoconferencing Brings the Faraway Home

FREEDOM CALLS FOUNDATION connects military families to active duty personnel at various camps in Iraq.

By LEO MIRAMON
Staff Writer 

BRAWLEY - Military troops from the Imperial Valley serving in Iraq can visit family members back home with the help of the Freedom Calls Foundation.

Available through Clinicas De Salud Del Pueblo, soldiers stationed in Iraq can communicate with family members locally through video conference by satellite from certain military camps in Iraq once a month.

The Clinicas in Brawley was the first to start the program but soon will provide the same service in its Niland, Calexico and Winterhaven clinics as well as two locations outside the Imperial Valley, Clinicas program coordinator Oscar Lopez said.

"We have four sites and we are  month," Lopez said. Adding two more this Freedom Calls is a project families with soldiers stationed at Camp Taji, Camp connecting military Fallujah, Camp Victory and al Asad Airbase, all in Iraq, Lopez said.

The Freedom Calls Foundation provides a connection via satellite, with Clinicas providing the video-conferencing site, equipment and personnel free of charge.  "We can provide state of the art communication capabilities to military families and their loved ones stationed in Iraq," Freedom Calls co-founder and Executive Director John Harlow said during a live video conference from New York City on Wednesday. He added there are about 1,000 video conferences a month. Calls range from simple family calls, to troops seeing a live shot of their son or daughter being born.

"Our mission is to enable the soldiers to keep their commitment to their families while they keep their commitment to their country from over 10,000 miles away," Harlow said.

During a test video conference call to Camp Taji in Iraq around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Lopez contacted Staff Sgt. Lisa Hamm, 30, of Michigan, who was willing to show how clear the connection is from the other side of the world, where it was 9:30 p.m.

Stationed out of Hood Fort, Texas, Hamm serves in the U.S. Army and has been in Iraq for more than 11 months. She is scheduled to return home in a couple weeks, she said. Hamm is in charge of running one of the video conference sites in Iraq and has had thousands of troops take advantage of the free calls while there, she said.
 
"I think this is probably one of the best programs that the military has ever taken up on," Hamm said.

When asked what's the first thing she will do when she returns home from Iraq, Hamm said, "I would like to have a nice cold beer and just sit on my couch with my bare feet." Assisting Lopez in setting up calls and by staffing call made on the weekend is Clinicas nurse supervisor Reyna St. Germain.

"Clinicas is very proud to provide the services to the community and to family members of the soldiers who are serving overseas," St. Germain said.

Anyone interested in participating in the program can call Clinicas at 344-9951 or e-mail freedomcalls@clinicasdesalud.org.

Staff Writer Leo Miramon can be reached at 337-3442 or at lmiramon@ivpressonline.com.