Guatemala City, Guatemala

Medical Mission February 26 – March 5, 2022

Medical Missions

Each year the Foundation organizes a humanitarian aid project in a community located in the developing part of the world. Since 2016 we have opened ear, nose and throat (ENT) clinics in Ethiopia, India, Belize, and Peru, and have supported local efforts to improve the quality of life for some of the poorest communities outside the United States. 

With the help of our donors, we are able to provide life saving surgical care for families without access to ENT specialists, train local physicians, supply area hospitals with needed medical equipment, and partner with orphanages to improve the lives of children most vulnerable in these communities.

What Is The Need?

For families who live on as little as one US dollar a day, their very survival could be at stake when any illness takes hold. Being shunned from one’s community because of cultural stigma and fear of disease, distrust in state run medical facilities, and language barriers within countries that have hundreds of tribal languages, all contribute to higher mortality rates.

Barriers to reliable medical care in developing countries pile up quickly. Besides the lack of doctors, medical equipment, training, and local resources, many families are faced with the stark reality that medical care doesn’t exist in their community. Ear, nose, and throat diseases that are regularly cured or managed in the United States, quickly become a chronic illness, or even a death sentence for someone living in a village outside the Western World.

Our team is often the first and only hope for the patients we see. Most of the people we meet have never been to a doctor, and are unfamiliar with basic health questions. Families travel days on foot with the hope that our team can treat or save a loved one. When we can make an impact in the life of someone in need, their gratitude is overwhelming. For everyone we help, the joy is bittersweet, because we know there are hundreds more who need medical care.

Barriers to Medical Care

• Discrimination in health centers because they are indigenous and poor 
• Lack of access to transportation. Many people have never left their village
• Unaware of opportunities to access medical care available to them 
• Lack the financial resources to pay for medical expenses, surgical care, or being away from their livelihood 
• Fear of health centers and hospitals, many have never seen a doctor before  
• Language barriers when leaving their village and local communities

How Does My Support Help?

Donations to the Medical Missions give families in need hope. Your gift helps open ENT clinics in centralized locations within partner communities, and provide the necessary support to identify, triage, treat and care for families most in need. Donations help the Foundation cover related medical expenses, including:

• Patient and family transportation from a village to a partner hospital, lodging and meals 
• Hospital fees for a patient’s room and board, laboratories and x-rays, operating room expenses and surgical supplies
• Local health promoters and translators to help monitor, schedule, and interpret for patients
• Post-operative care after the patient returns home, and other support activities.

About the Guatemala Mission

Hope Has No Boundaries

With your help patients in Guatemala City will have the life-changing surgeries they’ve been waiting more than a year for.

After 9 months of planning with our regional partner Partners for Surgery, pandemic travel restrictions prevented our volunteer medical team from going to Guatemala in 2020.

As the world continues to grappled with the pandemic, families who were confirmed for surgical care in 2020, had their hope taken away from them as boarders closed. It has now been nearly 9 years since the last team specializing in head and neck care planned a visit to Guatemala City.

We are committed to ensuring these patients get the life-changing surgical care they need. Join us and help change their lives.

A team of dedicated volunteers have committed to travel with the Foundation to Guatemala in 2022, even during these uncertain times. They pay their own expenses to come on this journey, an incredible testament to their dedication. Monies raised by the Foundation help support the physicians in the field with specialized equipment, supplies and instrumentation.

With your help, we can improve the local medical facilities we partner with, and never take from a community in need. Everything required to perform a staggering range of procedures will be brought to this logically-challenging region of the world to ensure resources are not depleted.

Thank you for your support in this critical work. Your gift will save and change lives.

Photos from the Mission

Meet Some of The Patients
Waiting For Surgery