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Live From...
Interview With Jim Jennings
Aired January 23, 2004 - 14:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And moving on to a segment we've been working on for you. All it took was 16 seconds and more than 41,000 people died and an entire ancient city was leveled. On December 26, 2003, Bam, Iran was rocked by an earthquake that changed the face of history and drastically changed the lives of thousands of families.
It also made an impact on the life of our guest this afternoon, Dr. Jim Jennings. He's president of Conscience International, an organization that provides humanitarian aid to victims of conflicts natural disasters.
Dr. Jennings brought doctors, supplies, grief counselors and a whole lot of love to Bam victims. He just returned and has pretty compelling home video and stories to tell us. It's a pleasure to have you here. We're glad you're back safely.
DR. JIM JENNINGS, PRESIDENT, CONSCIENCE INTERNATIONAL: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Let's talk first about the devastation as we start to look at your tape here. You were telling me this was Hiroshima.
JENNINGS: Well if you've seen pictures of Hiroshima, it's very much like that because it's more concentrated than any earthquake that we've ever worked in. And in (UNINTELLIGIBLE), India in 2001 it was widespread. In Turkey in 1999, it was over a vast area. And it was very strong but only about half as many people died because this was concentrated in a very small area.
And scientist tell us that if all the earthquakes in one year were put together, they would be 100,000 times as much as one atomic bomb.
PHILLIPS: So you arrived to this area and now you're seeing thousands of people that once lived in these homes in tents. It's basically turned into a tent city. What did they say to you? How did you interact with them?
JENNINGS: It's very compelling to see so many people and it's very chaotic with sirens and ambulances going back and forth, with people, many of them with bandages or just sitting shocked in front of their homes.
This is something that is unbelievable, and I've never seen anything quite like it anywhere else. Most of the people there had lost some of their family members. One man we talked to had lost 41 of his extended family. And one lady we may see a little later on has lost 11 of her own children.
It was just terrible, and of course, everybody was in shock.
PHILLIPS: As you went into this tent cities and started handing out clothes and supplies, I mean, they just mobbed you. But at the same time, you were telling me they couldn't take anything for free. They wanted to offer you tea, they wanted you to visit with them.
JENNINGS: They said, We don't want to be beggars. Could we give you some tea? And we said, Well, you're not beggars. We're your friends and friends should share with each other. So it made it a little easier for them to deal with.
But I think their pride is involved in this as well as their national sense of self and their sense of dignity. But it is a great thing that many nations rallied to this call and provided help.
PHILLIPS: Now, I think probably the most -- some of the most compelling pictures were the children in one of the orphanages that you went to. As we look at this video, this is unbelievable that all these children have been left orphaned.
Now, this one little boy right here just loved you.
JENNINGS: This one. That's my favorite one because he ran to me with his big eyes and he -- like I was his father. And he just put out his arms and embraced me. And I was filming at the time so it really took me aback.
But that's probably my favorite moment in the whole trip because these children have suffered so much and in need of love. And we were able, by play therapy and by having a grief counselor and post traumatic stress counseling, to be able to bring them a little bit out of themselves.
Some of them were almost catatonic and you could talk with them but they couldn't you. They were just staring into space. So it takes a lot of time to bring them out of that. We did have some success with that with one of the counselors who was with us.
PHILLIPS: I can't believe you didn't bring about ten of them home for you and ten for me.
JENNINGS: We'd like to but it's too sensitive politically. And of course they can care for them there and we're trying to help the orphanage and we will go back in about a month to be able to do it again.
PHILLIPS: And Dr. Jennings, the doctors that you brought over there, they spoke Farsi perfectly and they were looking at the x-rays and meeting. We have video of the victims actually in the hospital here that you shot.
Now your doctors that you brought over, they actually performed surgery on these victims, right? And helped the doctors there in Iran? JENNINGS: Yes, we had a heroic doctor, Dr. Michael Hogan who is here in this picture. And he was able not only to help them with the surgery that they did, but also to instruct them how to better save patients through amputations that were necessary because of the high rate of infections that they're suffering. They
really need all kinds of equipment. We were able to buy them a portable respirator and put some other money into buying equipment for the hospital there. And again, we're going to go back and do more of that.
PHILLIPS: Finally, the next piece of video, let's listen to it just a minute, the older woman that you mentioned here.
JENNINGS: Yes, this is very touching. I don't know when I've seen something as moving as this. This lady said, You know, I lost my 11 children, and why am I here? I want to die. She had one daughter only but she had her arm and leg broken. And even her daughter had lost her daughter.
And they were in extreme pain because of that. And then, of course, their life is ruined. They don't know where to go from here. It's very sad.
PHILLIPS: We commend you and your efforts. I've seen you do in this Afghanistan, in Turkey, Iraq, now Iran. Will you come back and visit us again when you come back from Iran again?
JENNINGS: Thank you. It's important I think that people hold humanitarian issues in front of them. And this is a good way to see that.
PHILLIPS: You do and you live that. Dr. Jim Jennings, thank you so much.
JENNINGS: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 23, 2004 - 14:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And moving on to a segment we've been working on for you. All it took was 16 seconds and more than 41,000 people died and an entire ancient city was leveled. On December 26, 2003, Bam, Iran was rocked by an earthquake that changed the face of history and drastically changed the lives of thousands of families.
It also made an impact on the life of our guest this afternoon, Dr. Jim Jennings. He's president of Conscience International, an organization that provides humanitarian aid to victims of conflicts natural disasters.
Dr. Jennings brought doctors, supplies, grief counselors and a whole lot of love to Bam victims. He just returned and has pretty compelling home video and stories to tell us. It's a pleasure to have you here. We're glad you're back safely.
DR. JIM JENNINGS, PRESIDENT, CONSCIENCE INTERNATIONAL: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Let's talk first about the devastation as we start to look at your tape here. You were telling me this was Hiroshima.
JENNINGS: Well if you've seen pictures of Hiroshima, it's very much like that because it's more concentrated than any earthquake that we've ever worked in. And in (UNINTELLIGIBLE), India in 2001 it was widespread. In Turkey in 1999, it was over a vast area. And it was very strong but only about half as many people died because this was concentrated in a very small area.
And scientist tell us that if all the earthquakes in one year were put together, they would be 100,000 times as much as one atomic bomb.
PHILLIPS: So you arrived to this area and now you're seeing thousands of people that once lived in these homes in tents. It's basically turned into a tent city. What did they say to you? How did you interact with them?
JENNINGS: It's very compelling to see so many people and it's very chaotic with sirens and ambulances going back and forth, with people, many of them with bandages or just sitting shocked in front of their homes.
This is something that is unbelievable, and I've never seen anything quite like it anywhere else. Most of the people there had lost some of their family members. One man we talked to had lost 41 of his extended family. And one lady we may see a little later on has lost 11 of her own children.
It was just terrible, and of course, everybody was in shock.
PHILLIPS: As you went into this tent cities and started handing out clothes and supplies, I mean, they just mobbed you. But at the same time, you were telling me they couldn't take anything for free. They wanted to offer you tea, they wanted you to visit with them.
JENNINGS: They said, We don't want to be beggars. Could we give you some tea? And we said, Well, you're not beggars. We're your friends and friends should share with each other. So it made it a little easier for them to deal with.
But I think their pride is involved in this as well as their national sense of self and their sense of dignity. But it is a great thing that many nations rallied to this call and provided help.
PHILLIPS: Now, I think probably the most -- some of the most compelling pictures were the children in one of the orphanages that you went to. As we look at this video, this is unbelievable that all these children have been left orphaned.
Now, this one little boy right here just loved you.
JENNINGS: This one. That's my favorite one because he ran to me with his big eyes and he -- like I was his father. And he just put out his arms and embraced me. And I was filming at the time so it really took me aback.
But that's probably my favorite moment in the whole trip because these children have suffered so much and in need of love. And we were able, by play therapy and by having a grief counselor and post traumatic stress counseling, to be able to bring them a little bit out of themselves.
Some of them were almost catatonic and you could talk with them but they couldn't you. They were just staring into space. So it takes a lot of time to bring them out of that. We did have some success with that with one of the counselors who was with us.
PHILLIPS: I can't believe you didn't bring about ten of them home for you and ten for me.
JENNINGS: We'd like to but it's too sensitive politically. And of course they can care for them there and we're trying to help the orphanage and we will go back in about a month to be able to do it again.
PHILLIPS: And Dr. Jennings, the doctors that you brought over there, they spoke Farsi perfectly and they were looking at the x-rays and meeting. We have video of the victims actually in the hospital here that you shot.
Now your doctors that you brought over, they actually performed surgery on these victims, right? And helped the doctors there in Iran? JENNINGS: Yes, we had a heroic doctor, Dr. Michael Hogan who is here in this picture. And he was able not only to help them with the surgery that they did, but also to instruct them how to better save patients through amputations that were necessary because of the high rate of infections that they're suffering. They
really need all kinds of equipment. We were able to buy them a portable respirator and put some other money into buying equipment for the hospital there. And again, we're going to go back and do more of that.
PHILLIPS: Finally, the next piece of video, let's listen to it just a minute, the older woman that you mentioned here.
JENNINGS: Yes, this is very touching. I don't know when I've seen something as moving as this. This lady said, You know, I lost my 11 children, and why am I here? I want to die. She had one daughter only but she had her arm and leg broken. And even her daughter had lost her daughter.
And they were in extreme pain because of that. And then, of course, their life is ruined. They don't know where to go from here. It's very sad.
PHILLIPS: We commend you and your efforts. I've seen you do in this Afghanistan, in Turkey, Iraq, now Iran. Will you come back and visit us again when you come back from Iran again?
JENNINGS: Thank you. It's important I think that people hold humanitarian issues in front of them. And this is a good way to see that.
PHILLIPS: You do and you live that. Dr. Jim Jennings, thank you so much.
JENNINGS: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
