Kudos to the US congressman

The president of the Siouxland Tanzania Educational Medical Ministries (STEMM), Dr Steve Meyer, said recently that the US politician made it possible for the three survivors of the May 6 carnage to travel to America for medical care.

The horrific road accident involving a bus owned by Lucky Vincent Nursery and Primary School in Arusha Region claimed the lives of 36 people.

"All of these miracles (that happened) are links in a chain and if any of which were not together -- or enforced -- we would not be here today," Meyer said at a press conference at the Mercy Medical Centre-Sioux City where the Tanzanian children are being treated.

"Probably the greatest example of dogged determination and commitment to this project is sitting to my right, Congressman Steve King."

The three children were the lone survivors of the school bus crash that killed 33 other Standard 7 pupils, two teachers and the bus driver.

Three medical volunteers with STEMM were among the first people to come across the crash site at a roadside ravine in Karatu District.

Meyer, a Dakota Dunes-based surgeon, said once he had learned about the conditions of the survivors in Tanzania he reached out to King -- a good friend of his -- to see what he could do to get them to the United States.

The congressman for Iowa's Fourth District said he quickly got to work by contacting numerous US embassies requesting any help they could provide.

"We needed visas, we needed passports, and we needed an airplane," King said, adding the first two things were the easiest to get.

"We went to the West Wing of the White House and I had a White House team pushing the request out to the State Department and the DOD (department of defence), but our assets in that part of the world are kind of thin..."

Seeking federal help eventually didn't come to fruition, so King called Erik Prince, founder of the government security company Blackwater USA. Prince was able to find a leased plane with a price tag of $300,000 (over 670 million shillings).

Meyer said STEMM was ready to spend the money and solicit donations later, but King made one last call to Franklin Graham for help. Graham is the president of Samaritan’s Purse, an international humanitarian aid organisation, and he agreed without hesitation.

"It didn't take five minutes of me explaining the situation and have him say, ‘I want to help’," King said.  Mercy Medical Center- Sioux City agreed to donate tens of thousands of dollars in medical care to treat the kids, who sustained multiple fractures in the crash.

Meyer praised the three STEMM members -- Kevin Negaard, Jennifer Milby and Manda Volker -- who provided medical care at the scene of the crash as "American heroes" for their efforts. STEMM is a local humanitarian organisation which sends aid and volunteers to Tanzania a few times every year.

"The tragedy in Tanzania was so utterly awful -- the carnage of humanity the loss that was there, these people went through it and some faced it and did a lot," King said. "I found myself in a position I got to be a link in this chain."