Intermediate passages 1 The best recruiting agents

19 The chain of hope

The children who are cared for by the Chain of Hope come from countries which are stricken by poverty or torn by conflict. They are children who have been injured by a mine or an exploding shell, who have been born with deformities, who have caught diseases or who suffer from the after-effects of injuries. A very simple operation can often save them. But there is usually no prospect of such surgery in their own countries, owing to the lack of specialized expertise and technical resources.

"Faced with this terrible fact," says Professor Alain Deloche, a heart surgeon, "a simple idea took root: to bring these children to France, to provide them with operations, and then send them home, cured, to their families."

To achieve this, continues Professor Deloche, "one simply needs to bring into action a series of links in a chain of skills, asking people with all types of expertise to join in. This project has a powerful appeal. Everyone can participate and become a link in the chain."

And so, well-known surgeons, the most highly skilled in their fields, operate free of charge in their hospitals throughout France. Similarly, ambulances provide the children with free transport, and the airlines Air France and UTA offer complimentary tickets. At the end of the chain, one finds a network of families who take the children in free of charge during their recovery.

1. "The Chain of Hope" is an organization

1. 
   formed as a result of the appeals of surgeons from under-developed countries
   
2. 
   which operates throughout the world with surgeons well-known in their fields
   
3. 
   which deals with the health problems of poor children in France
   
4. 
   in which every member of society can take part
   

2. The children

1. 
   are cared for voluntarily by families after the operation until they are well enough to be sent back home
   
2. 
   are operated on by the Chain of Hope, because they come from poor families not able to afford such operations
   
3. 
   are adopted by French families after the operation if they have no family in their own countries to return to
   
4. 
   are chosen especially from countries where there is a war going on
   

3. We can conclude from the passage that

1. 
   the speaker Professor Alain Deloche complains about not receiving sufficient support from the community
   
2. 
   the aim of the organization in the long term is to spread its works to other developed countries as well
   
3. 
   the children operated on in France are those whose own countries lack the requirements for such operations
   
4. 
   one has to possess some kind of expertise to become a link in the chain