Medical Care for Rural Guatemalan Families

We are HALF WAY to our GlobalGiving project goal, and we want to thank you for your donations and especially those who commit to remembering Partner for Surgery each month. Every single dollar donated has a direct impact, and we couldn’t provide medical missions without you.

Here’s what’s happened since we last got in touch

March in the United States is National Nutrition Month, and basic nutrition is a life or death matter for the more than 20,000 Guatemalan babies born with cleft lip/palate each year. Infants born with this condition makes breastfeeding nearly impossible and with families unable to afford the formula, the results are tragic. Read how our Targeted Infant Nutrition Program (TINP) helps babies thrive. 

Here’s how you were crucial to helping these children

Your donation of $25 gave a stressed mother a breast pump and a special nursing bottle to feed her baby.

Those who donated $35 provided one infant suffering from a cleft lip or palate a full month’s of nutrition.

Babies who could have their cleft lip/palate corrected by Partner for Surgery medical missions don't because their mothers can't afford to accompany them. Your donation of $50 paid for the lodging of a family awaiting surgery.

Through this unique program, we accomplish four major goals by preventing:

1. Malnutrition, so the child will thrive and qualify for surgery;
2. Speech impediment, by providing cleft palate surgery before the child reaches the age of one and a half;
3. Ostracization with the community of family and child
4. Preventing ostracization encourages education, especially for girls like Delia.

Here’s how you changed Delia's life

Delia's cleft lip, palate, and resulting speech impediment left her so ashamed by her appearance and exhausted from the bullying, that she dropped out of school. Please remember our missions not only provide medical treatment, but we provide children like Delia with a future they didn't think was possible.

Here's how you impacted the lives of rural Guatemalan women

In March, we also celebrated International Women’s Day, and in addition to positively impacting Delia’s life, your donations led to the screening of 2,994 women in rural Guatemala for cervical cancer in just the last year.

Of those women, 75 received life-saving treatment, and 730 women were evaluated for breast cancer.

These treatments are direct impacts from your donations!

Here’s what’s happening next

Next month, from April 9^th to 13^th, GlobalGiving is running their Little by Little matching donation campaign. GlobalGiving will match donations up to $50 at 50% while the $50,000 in matching funds remain. Help us spread the word! Please invite your friends to follow Partner for Surgery on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, so we can share positive stories and smiling faces. 

We can’t thank you enough, but luckily for us, this smiling face is going to give us a hand.

Links:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram

As 2018 begins, we would like to look back at 2017 and be grateful for every achievement that was made possible through the generosity of our donors and the support of our volunteers.

In 2017, we:

• brought in 12 surgical teams
• performed 501 surgeries
• organized 5 mobile medical missions
• evaluated 2377 patients
• found 806 surgical candidates
• screened 2994 women for cervical cancer, resulting in the treatment of 75 women
• evaluated 730 women for breast cancer
• helped nourish 286 children through our Cleft Infant Nutrition Program
• reached over 2,000 women in our sessions on preventive care and early detection education

A special focus on women

Cervical and breast cancer are two of the greatest causes of suffering and loss among poor rural families in Guatemala. Cervical cancer ranks as the most frequent type of cancer, while breast cancer comes in second among women in Guatemala.

Partner for Surgery has been working closely with its Guatemalan counterpart, Asociación Compañero para Cirugía (ACPC), to reduce cervical and breast cancer morbidity and mortality by ensuring access to comprehensive and high-quality screening, follow-up, treatment, and education services.

Mobile medical missions

These missions, staffed by international medical volunteers and with ACPC staff and health promoters, provided health services to Guatemalans in the most remote areas of the country.

Trusted and appreciated in the villages, the ACPC staff and health promoters accompanied the medical professionals and helped with English/Spanish translations and/or indigenous dialects.

Surgical missions

Patients identified in mobile medical missions, patients from the Cleft Infant Nutrition Program, and others identified by ACPC Health Promoters were scheduled to receive needed surgery from teams of volunteer medical professionals from Canada and the United States organized by PfS/ACPC and from groups organized by Hospital Obras Sociales del Santo Hermano Pedro.

Operations were performed at Hospital Niño Jesús and Hospital Obras Sociales del Santo Hermano Pedro in Antigua Guatemala.

PfS/ACPC staff coordinated the transportation, lodging, meals, laboratories, etc. of patients traveling for surgery. Each patient was always escorted by a health promoter who helped with translations to local dialects and who provided all the support needed during the surgical weeks and after.

What comes next

Above all, we want to continue helping change the lives of rural Guatemalans through medical care. We touched thousands of lives in 2017, and we can only hope to touch thousands more in the following months. From infant to elder, every individual should have the chance to make the most of their lives in good health, and if we have the opportunity to provide that, we will.

We wish you a wonderful new year.

Links:

• Partner for Surgery's website
• ACPC's website