By Frank Peterson | President
It has been three months since our last report to you and even though things slowdown in the US and in Guatemala over the holidays, we continued our efforts to provide medical care in rural communities. We provided surgical patients to the Medical Mission for Children from Boston in January and the Cape Breton Nova Scotia team in February. In February we expanded our area of service by traveling to four communities in Northwest Guatemala with doctors and non-medical volunteers. These expansions are possible because additional health local promoters are recruited and trained in the process of preparing for the arrival of these teams and the care for patients that will be receiving surgery. These promoters also have the local responsibility for monitoring the children enrolled in our Cleft Infant Nutrition Program. Now 85 percent of the enrolled children in this in-home program are new born and called to our attention by midwives and government health providers. The result is that the children remain healthy and we have been able to reduce the time a child has to wait for surgical attention. The quicker a child receives all the needed surgical procedures, the quicker we can add children to the program. This cleft program is a wonderful example of how collaboration between an international non-profit, Guatemalan organizations and community volunteers can address and solve a very daunting health care problem.
We would like to share with you examples of the care that is provided.
Gift bags and quilts
In order to create a more friendly atmosphere, for the past 8 years Partner for Surgery has been taking gift bags to Guatemalan children, and more recently, dozens of beautiful quilts, both made lovingly by a McLean, Virginia church.
Inside the bags, children find items that are not available to them in Guatemala – coloring books, crayons, and stuffed animals. In fact, sometimes even the parents are not familiar with coloring books and we see them with crayons in hand as well!
The quilts are especially important to keep the children warm. Many come from hotter areas and are not prepared for their stay at the cooler, higher altitudes. And when they return to their villages, the quilts add a wonderful touch to their very sparsely furnished homes.
No age limits
We do our best at treating patients of all ages in Guatemala, from just a few months old, to a full and long life.
Felisa is on the other end of the spectrum, coming to us last year when she was 75 years old, with a hernia.
It wasn’t very easy to always understand this sweet woman, but we could still see the love and happiness after her surgery.
That’s the beauty in what we do. Medical care knows no borders, age, and language barriers when it comes to changing lives.
Non-medical volunteer opportunities
We are making a renewed effort to encourage non-medical volunteers to join us on a medical mission in Guatemala and also visit some of the patients in their rural homes. If you know of anyone who might have an interest in learning more, please contact us at info@partnerforsurgery.org.
Birth defect prevention program
Efforts are also continuing to build a program that is focused on birth defect prevention with emphasis on clefts. Universidad Rafael Landivar in Guatemala City has recently joined the effort which is being led by our sister organization, Asociacion Companero para Cirugia. We look forward to providing details on this effort in our next report to you.
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