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 In 2001, a small group of doctors, nurses and volunteers traveled on the first medical mission to Sumpango, a small village in Guatemala, Central America. Their mission then and now is to provide quality medical care, medicines and vitamins free of charge for humanitarian purposes and further enhance goodwill of the United States in Latin America.
After providing free medical care, medicines and vitamins at no cost to well over a thousand needy patients, the medical team felt compelled and committed to return thereafter every 6 months to treat the needy people of Guatemala.
In May 2006, the Emmaus Medical Mission group decided to expand their medical care to other villages in San Pedro, another village in Guatemala. With a group size totaling over 110 (including 40 doctors, 20 nurses & 50 volunteers), their group was able to treat free of charge over 8,000 patients in both towns simultaneously, while providing them with a substantial amount of free medicine and vitamins.
By 2008, the medical mission has taken on the official name: Emmaus Medical Mission. The mission has gown in size to 80 to 100 volunteers per mission with an active roster of over 2,000 rotating doctors, dentist, pharmacists and volunteers. Presently, the Emmaus Medical Mission has a proven track record of successfully treating thousands of patients, complementing their treatment with free medicine and vitamins. Doctors, nurses and volunteers are willing to donate their time and services in recognition of their commitment to service mankind.
To date there have been 20 medical missions to Guatemala, Peru, and Ecuador, and their physicians and dentists have treated well over 65,000 patients. Their teams have performed numerous medical procedures including, but not limited to: hundreds of surgeries; pathological reviews; gastrointestinal endoscopies; pap smears; dental procedures; and many more specialized medical procedures.
Each mission’s group size consists of approximately 40 doctors & nurses, and 40 to 50 volunteers, to treat 4,000 to 5,000 patients per mission. Patients are offered a broad range of medical services & specialties: Pediatrics, Gynecology, Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology, Pulmonary, Urology, Infectious Disease, Dermatology, Hematology, Oncology, Dental, General and Maxillofacial Surgery, Podiatry, Psychology, Pharmacy, Chiropractic Services and Registered Nurses.
The most common medical conditions treated are: Malnutrition; Hypertension; Diabetes Mellitus; Pregnancies; Severe Heartburn; Chronic Diarrhea; Dehydration; Parasitic Infestation; Asthma; Allergies; Skin diseases; Syncope; Chronic Lung Infections; and Gastrointestinal tract problems. The most common surgical conditions treated are: Inguinal Hernias; Uterine Fibromas; Cleft Lip & Palate; Breast Masses; and Head/Neck Tumors.
The Emmaus Medical Mission is complemented by voluntary teams comprised of administrative support planning and logistics; triage units; and a pharmacy team. The clinic and each doctor’s have the capacity to deliver patient privacy and effective, field-based healthcare.
Several organizations including Americares, MAP International, and Heart to Heart provide donations for the missions in the forms of medicines, vitamins and supplies at a very low cost. Each mission member traveling as part of the medical mission pays for all expenses and donates their time and services. Furthermore, each member is committed to provide monetary donations; over the counter medicines; vitamins & personal hygiene products through donations.
Their present goal is to expand the mission to other countries, as well as other villages in Guatemala, Peru, and Ecuador with increased medical support and patient care; increase the scope and complexity of the medical procedures and increase the amount of free medicine and vitamins to be provided to the needy.
As Emmaus Medical Mission continues to grow and travel to new countries and villages, the need for medical and monetary donations must continue to grow as well. In 2010, five missions are confirmed. With the help of their community and the commitment and dedication of many, Emmaus hopes to carry out these missions with all the supplies and medicine needed to attend to the 25,000 to 30,000 people they anticipate seeing in 2010.
Emmaus Medical Mission is a Catholic based foundation. It is open to, and welcomes doctors, nurses, and volunteers of all religions, beliefs, and all walks of life. This is a medical mission that strives endlessly to provide the most important medicine that many of the forgotten people in the world need…Love. That is the unwavering foundation of their mission…Love & Care for those who are forgotten, one by one.
For more information, please visit their Facebook page or contact Fernando Becerra, Secretary/Treasurer by email, Lfbecerra @ aol.com (remove spaces) or phone (786) 202-0491.
 VOSH is a non-governmental, non-sectarian, non-profit organization made up of optometrists, ophthalmologists, opticians, and other persons who have donated their time, talent, and money to help those in need to by building self-supporting eye clinics in the countries they serve. The VOSH mission is to empower local eye care specialists in developing countries by building sustainable eye clinics, funding essential ophthalmic infrastructure, and establishing partnerships with like-minded organizations.
VOSH recognizes the importance of sustainability, and has helped establish permanent eye clinics in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, Mexico and Peru. The three eye clinics in Guatemala include:
- Visualiza, Guatemala City
- Vincent Pescatore Eye Clinic, San Benito, El Petén
- St. John the Baptist Hospital, Jutiapa
The three clinics are staffed by 80 Guatemalans, including 6 ophthalmologists and 2 optometrists, treat in excess of 50,000 patients, and are self-supporting for operating expenses for adult care. VOSH funds the treatment of all indigent children under the age of 14 years old. The clinics are funding the training of 4 employees to become optometrists.
VOSH mission trips provide short term optical and medical eye support as a means to strengthen new eye clinics that are in the early stages of development. The next trip will be to Ixcan on June 12-22.
For more information about VOSH, please visit their website.
 Project HANDS is a group of people whose goal is to provide healthcare, education and other support to those who, by chance of birth, have lives less fortunate than their own. Their projects are aimed at improving the quality of rural Mayan life by providing healthcare and education.
Healthcare: Because the Maya have little or no access to medical care, the group sends medical teams to run outreach clinics, and surgical teams to perform elective surgery. As an extension to their idea of bringing surgery to the patients, they are working on a long term project to build a small surgical facility or hospitalito in a rural area.
Their trips usually go to rural northern Guatemala, to the departments of Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz and Quiche. On these trips they work closely with their affiliate Partner for Surgery (PfS), a US based NGO. PfS does all the local ground logistics for the trips and Project HANDS provides a small group of about 5-6 people to run the clinics. These clinics are set up in outlying rural areas where the focus is to find patients who need surgery. However, they also bring a small pharmacy with them and try to help all patients who come to the clinics. The patients who require surgery are then scheduled to have their procedures done either by the next Project HANDS surgical team or other volunteer surgical teams.
The group’s next trips to Guatemala will be:
- October, 2010 – Triage trip to El Quiche
- November, 2010 – Surgery trip to El Quiche
Education: The majority of Mayan women are homemakers, wives and mothers. However, many have much more to offer their families and communities and wish they could. With the Guatemalan healthcare system desperately sagging and in need of everything from equipment, supplies, medications and professionals (throughout the whole country but especially within the indigenous population), it seems a perfect fit to marry these women with careers in the healthcare sector. When twenty one year old Carmen worked with the group as a Q’eqchi translator in one of their outreach clinics, they saw her potential. Upon asking her if she would like to be a nurse she smiled shyly and said “If only…” implying it was something completely out of her reach. But why should it be? That was enough to start the group thinking, and led to Project HANDS funding young women to continue their education and go on to nursing school.
To find out more about Project HANDS, please visit their website.
Rotaplast is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides free multidisciplinary care for cleft lip and palate and other conditions requiring reconstructive surgery. They promote self-sufficiency in the countries where they work by training local physicians, counseling families, and collaborating with health officials on the development of sustainable cleft lip and palate programs.
What is a Rotaplast Mission? Clefts of the lip and palate are among the most common of all birth defects. However, in some areas of the world treatment is not common. Untreated, these children are ridiculed, rejected from society, and often deprived of an education. They are prone to serious upper respiratory problems, hearing loss, speech and dental problems. Rotaplast works locally to educate families and communities and to provide free operations and therapeutic follow-up care for patients.
Multi-disciplinary surgical teams
Medical teams include reconstructive surgeons with special training in cleft care, pediatricians, nurses, pediatric anesthesiologists, dentists, orthodontists, and speech pathologists. Many teams also include geneticists focusing on researching causes of clefts. These highly skilled professionals work closely with local hospital staff and doctors sharing techniques and working side-by-side to augment and increase care and capacity for treatment. Non-medical volunteers, who pay for their own transportation, perform needed tasks such as instrument sterilization, translation, recovery room monitoring, and comforting families. Rotaplast Missions vary in size with teams ranging from 15 to 35 members. A typical mission lasts two weeks.
International partnerships
Rotaplast is an active partner wherever they go. They travel by invitation to each site. They work with hospitals, surgeons, local governments, NGO’s and other groups to bring needed care, medical equipment and supplies. Rotaplast also has a longstanding partnership with Rotary Clubs around the world. Working with these service clubs at mission sites, Rotaplast builds logistical capability to consistently support medical teams annually and to establish self-sufficiency in country.
Volunteers
Rotaplast is an organization built on volunteer spirit. Each year, hundreds of volunteers donate their valuable time and talent to treat over 1,000 children. Opportunities range from joining a Mission Team to serving as an Ambassador.
In Guatemala, Rotaplast will be in Retalhuleu, from May 16-31, 2010. The team will be returning to Guatemala in 2011, from April 3-16. During their trip, the group will post updates and photos on their blog.
To learn more about Rotaplast International, please visit their website. To learn more about the sponsoring Rotary Group from Sarasota, FL, please click here.
 The Gesundheit Institute began as a group of twenty friends, including three doctors, who moved into a six-bedroom home and called it a free hospital. The hospital was open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week for all manner of medical problems from birth to death. 500-1000 patients were seen each month, with 5-50 overnight guests a night. Though staff had to work outside jobs in order to support themselves and their families, for the first 9 years none of the staff left. Over its 12-year history, 15,000 patients were seen. These years provided a “proof of concept,” affirming the direction of building a full-scale, rural hospital to serve as a place of service and a model of care.
In 1998, Universal Studios released the movie “Patch Adams” starring Robin Williams, based on Patch Adams’s book Gesundheit. At the end of the film, Universal Studios inserted the inaccurate statement that Gesundheit had already built its free hospital. While this false claim hindered Gesundheit’s ability to fundraise for the free hospital, the movie itself raised visibility and helped launch a decade of teaching and Global Outreach.
Dr. Patch Adams and members of the Gesundheit Institute have lectured at medical and nursing schools in over 65 countries and on five continents, reaching approximately 150,000 attendees per year. Over 1300 people per year participate in Gesundheit’s medical student electives, volunteer programs, alternative spring breaks, health care system design intensives, humanitarian clown trips, and health justice gatherings.
What is Gesundheit Global Outreach? Gesundheit Global Outreach is the Gesundheit! Institute’s international service. Formed in 2006, Gesundheit Global Outreach (GGO) encompasses clowning missions, humanitarian aid, building projects and community development around the world. The goal of Gesundheit Global Outreach is the improvement of health of individuals and communities in crisis from sickness, war, poverty and injustice.
Background: Patch Adams formulated the Gesundheit vision in the late 1960s, and since then the Gesundheit! Institute has been an important voice in dialogues around health care delivery. Gesundheit’s international service began in 1984 when Patch led a clown trip to the Soviet Union as an act of “nasal diplomacy.” While the clown trips to Russia have continued every year with volunteer clowns from around the world, further clown trips have been added to touch the lives of people in over 60 countries on 6 continents. Gesundheit has sponsored and supported grassroots humanitarian organizations throughout the world and continues to educate students and adults in humanitarian volunteer service in developing countries.
Alternative Spring Break Clown International Clown Trips: GGO also sponsors Alternative Spring Break clowning missions for university students. Clown and work missions require no clowning experience. The work can be strenuous and the extreme settings can be difficult for those who have never experienced extreme poverty or human suffering. Feedback on these missions is overwhelmingly positive, indicating great impact on the individual’s personal development and life course.
GGO sponsors 6-8 overseas mission trips per year. Announcements of future trips will be posted on the website patchadams.org. If you are interested in being a supporter or participant in Gesundheit! Global Outreach, please contact John Glick at jawkneemail@comcast.net.
To read a report from a recent Alternative Spring Break trip to Guatemala, click here. To read about a young man in Colorado preparing to travel to Guatemala with GGO in July, click here.
To learn more about Gesundheit!, please visit their website.
 Pan En La Boca is a not-for-profit corporation that was organized to help provide necessities and services to the people of Latin America who live in poverty. It is a 501(c)(3) public charity. Through its recent endeavors, various groups in Guatemala have received food, clothing, medical care and housing. All of the people who currently belong to the organization are volunteers and 100% of contributions are used to fund the group’s service projects. All contributions are tax deductible.
The group currently partners with and supports Safe Homes for Children, a 501(c)(3) that supports an orphanage called Casa de Sion, in Los Robles near Panajachel. In their most recent volunteer trip, they helped build a new orphanage on the 17 acres of land that Safe Homes for Children bought a couple of years ago. They also built furniture for the orphanage and made their bodega usable. Construction of birthing rooms and a health clinic began in early 2010 through the generosity of Ralph and Sue Severson who donated $2500 which will pay for the birthing rooms and Gary Syman who donated $15,000 for the clinic. The clinic and birthing rooms are also being built on the land owned by Safe Homes for Children and will service both the children at the orphanage and the people of the community.
The groups’ latest project, assembling newborn kits including blankets, diapers and booties, has been chronicled in this article, published by The Danville Weekly. To learn more about Pan en la Boca, please visit their website.
Iowa MOST is a Rotary District 6000 initiative, which provides surgical repair for cleft lip and palate to individuals living in the western highlands of Guatemala. Without Iowa MOST, they would not be given this opportunity. District 6000 Rotarians have cultivated a strong collaborative partnership with their friends in the Rotary Club of Huehuetenango, Guatemala to carry out the mission.
IOWA MOST FACTS:
- The first surgical mission took place in February/March of 2006.
- The mission team consisted of 26 medical and non-medical personnel from the U.S. and 2 Guatemalan doctors.
- The MOST team performed cleft lip repairs, myringotomies, ear tube placements, fistula repairs, a frenulectomy, and tooth extractions, and began a database of patients for the next mission.
- Equipment and supplies were generously donated for the mission from many sources and with the help of FAMSCO.
- Mission equipment and supplies valued at $20,000 were donated to the Hospital Nacional in Huehuetenango.
- Iowa MOST now serves two communities in Guatemala–Huehuetenango and Quetzaltenango.
- In 2010, Iowa MOST performed its 5th mission in Guatemala with its Rotary parners in Quetzaltenango, also known as Xela.
To learn more about Iowa MOST, please visit their website or blog.
The Guatemala Healing Hands Foundation (GHHF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality and availability of health care in Guatemala through education, surgery, and therapy. Specializing in the treatment of congenital and hand injuries, they aim to reach Guatemalan children and adults through medical missions led by a team of specialized and skilled surgeons, therapists, and volunteers.
GHHF offers physicians, therapists, nurses, students, and volunteers the opportunity to take part in a cross cultural educational experience. GHHF aims to both educate the local medical providers and supply specialized care for the needed hands of this poor country. They hold a two day, bilingual conference; the purpose of which is to provide education that will, overtime, help the Guatemalan people to be able to care for their own with the latest medical techniques.
GHHF sends qualified professionals to Guatemala to train the local healthcare providers in hand surgery and hand therapy. These highly skilled volunteers come from across the globe to participate in GHHF. GHHF also welcomes volunteers of all ages and backgrounds who are looking for a multicultural educational experience and wish to lend a hand in a country that greatly needs their help.
On their 2009 trip, GHHF screened 174 patients, operated on 68, evaluated 190 therapy patients, fabricated 168 splints, and followed up on past patients.
Since the establishment of GHHF in 2004, their teams of dedicated volunteers have successfully:
- Evaluated 597 patients for hand surgery and therapy (at screening day);
- Completed surgery on 263 patients;
- Fabricated 622 splints;
- Brought one child to New Mexico to receive extensive hand surgery;
- Brought one child to Shriners for microsurgery; and
- Conducted workshops and conferences for over 1,875 people (doctors, therapists, and students).
To learn more about this group, please visit their website.
 Global Dental Relief brings free dental care to impoverished children of Nepal, northern India, Vietnam and Guatemala in partnership with local organizations. Volunteer dentists, hygienists, assistants and non-medical volunteers deliver treatment and preventive care in dental clinics that serve children in schools, orphanages and remote villages.
Travel and logistics for volunteers are coordinated by Global Dental Expeditions, dedicated to humanitarian journeys to serve children in need.
Since 2001, Global Dental has hosted over 600 dedicated dentists, hygienists, dental assistants and non-medical volunteers. Volunteers have treated over 44,000 children with first time and ongoing dental care. Global Dental recalls each population of children every two years to deliver continuous care. After ten years, they see children returning for their third or fourth visits. The results are clear –extractions are rare, restorations small, and children are aware of the importance of diet and consistent oral hygiene. This is the sustainable legacy they strive to leave with every child they treat.
In Guatemala, the group works in conjunction with Behrhorst Partners for Development in Chimaltenango.
This year, the group will host clinics beginning July 23 and November 19. To learn more about Global Dental, please visit their website.
 The Cascade Medical Team (CMT) is a 501 (c) (3) organization headquartered in Eugene, Oregon. Since 2002, in conjunction with its parent organization, HELPS International, as well as PeaceHealth, and McKenzie Willamette Hospital, CMT has provided free medical care to the Mayan people of the highlands of Guatemala.
Once a year, CMT takes a team of volunteer doctors, nurses, dentists, allied health professionals and support staff to Guatemala to perform general surgery, gynecological procedures, eye and dental care. CMT also takes a construction team that installs efficient ONIL wood burning stoves in Guatemalan homes. As of 2009, the construction team is also installing HELPS Gravity Water Filters, an inexpensive in-home purification system.
CMT’s yearly mission is housed at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala Altiplano, located just outside the city of Solola. This college campus provides the team with facilities for a small hospital and clinic, dormitories for men and women and a gymnasium that is used for meals and general meetings. While the setting is beautifully situated on a plateau overlooking Lake Atitlan in the highlands of central-western Guatemala, it is a region of extreme poverty. During each year’s week-long medical mission, people come from many miles around, usually by bus or on foot, seeking medical attention.
Members of the CMT team pay their own way to and from Guatemala, including expenses for food, lodging and transportation. However, CMT must raise the funds for all costs associated with the medical supplies and equipment.
CMT’s ninth Guatemalan mission begins on Saturday, February 20, 2010 and ends on Wednesday, March 3, 2010.
To learn more about CMT, please visit their website.
 Dentistry For All is a non-profit, 100% volunteer-run and supported organization whose members are dedicated to providing dental education, preventative, surgical and restorative care to the poor in numerous developing communities around the world. All dental volunteers cover the cost of their own travel, while fundraising assists in purchase of necessary equipment and supplies, volunteer sponsorships and other expenses related to the trip.
Over the years, DFA has formed relationships and partnerships with regional development organizations, local NGOs, dental organizations, university programs and countless dental equipment and supply companies, in order to continue to maintain and provide the highest quality of care to those whom they provide dental treatment to.
Dentistry For All recruits and requires volunteers from all walks of life – their efforts are focused on providing the much needed dental care in the poor regions of Guatemala and Nicaragua. However, it takes more than just dentists to form a successful team. A successful mission involves efforts made on many levels – and crosses countless skill sets. Several areas, behind the scenes and along the trip itself, require volunteers to put all the pieces together.
Over the past 15 years, Dentistry For All has seen over 12,000 patients. On February 18th they will be leaving for Guatemala for five weeks and working in four different communities: Comitancillo (San Marcos), Pastores (Sacatepéquez), areas around Guatemala City, and El Remate (El Peten). The Guatemala trip will involve groups averaging 16 people per week – comprised of dentists, assistants, sterilizers and other support volunteers.
To learn more about Dentistry For All, please visit their website (still under development).
 A Shalom Foundation General Surgery Team from Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital will travel to Guatemala City February 6-13, 2010 to provide surgical care to children through the Pediatric Foundation Hospital. We seek to provide surgical procedures for poor children who would not otherwise receive treatment. Currently Shalom Foundation works through a network of doctors and advisors in Guatemala to identify pediatric candidates for surgery, to provide parents/guardians with the information they need to attend a screening clinic in Guatemala City and receive these surgical procedures. A list of procedures to be performed are listed below. When The Moore Center for Children Health is opened in 2010 surgical teams will work out of this facility.
General Surgery Trip, Guatemala City, February 6-13, 2010: Open to all children living in poverty, without other options for care.
In-country organizations and US organizations working in Guatemala can contact Allison Bender at abender@theshalomfoundation.org to seek additional information and stream their children into this surgical process.
Proposed case list for pediatric general surgery trip to Guatemala, Feb 2010.
By body region (not all-inclusive):
- Skin, scalp, soft tissue
- Large nevi
- Subcutaneous masses
- Vascular malformations
- Wounds
- Masses
- Head and neck
- Branchial cleft cysts/sinuses/fistulae
- Thyroid masses (cysts, nodules, tumors)
- Thyroglossal duct cysts
- Lymphadenitis
- Breast
- Airway & esophagus
- Trachea: stenosis, malacia
- Esophagus: caustic injury/stricture/stenosis/atresia/duplications/achalasia/reflux
- Chest
- Mediastinal masses
- Empyema
- Lung lesions
- Patent ductus
- Diaphragm
- GI tract
- Gallbladder: stones, infection
- Stomach: foreign bodies, ulcers, tumors, obstruction, feeding access
- Intestine: stenosis, atresia, malrotation, intraluminal, anorectal malformation
- Liver & pancreas: stones, tumors, cysts
- Spleen: cysts, tumors, enlargement, sickle cell sequestration
- Abdominal wall
- Inguinal, ventral,umbilical, & incisional hernias
 Beyond the Walls is a 501(c)(3), not-for-profit corporation dedicated to making substantial long-term impact in the lives of the poor and disadvantaged through focused opportunities in their community, their country and their world. They believe meaningful impact is achieved by focusing on the physical, relational and spiritual needs of those they serve. This holistic approach addresses a variety of needs: education, food, housing, medical care, micro-enterprise, job training, and mentoring. Additionally, Beyond-the-Walls exists to encourage, empower and inspire volunteers “to whom much is given” to be the agents of change in these under-resourced communities by connecting them to relational, hands-on service.
In Guatemala City, the group builds homes, pours floors in homes to replace dirt floors, builds community streets, sponsors the education of two classes of elementary children, performs medical check-ups for 250 students and teachers, organizes and runs sports clinics for boys and girls, organizes and runs children’s day-camp programs, provides and distributes food, clothing and school supplies, trains teachers and improves school facilities.
The group will be working in Guatemala City from July 24 thru August 6, 2010. A medical group will accompany them during either the first or second week of that trip. To learn more about Beyond the Walls, please visit their website.
 Health for Humanity is a Canadian-based volunteer organization that provides quality medical care, equipment and supplies to the poor of Guatemala and other developing countries. Health for Humanity currently sends multidisciplinary teams of volunteer health care professionals to Guatemala and the Philippines. In addition to the surgical program, Health for Humanity works with local NGOs in Guatemala to support various other health care initiatives. All donations are used to pay for hospital costs, medical equipment, medications and operating room supplies. They have no paid staff and minimal administrative costs. Volunteers pay for their own travel and accommodation.
Their first surgical mission spent 2 weeks in Guatemala in November 2002 and since then they have sent five more surgical teams to Guatemala. More recently, they have also sent two surgical teams to the Philippines. Their teams have now completed more than a 1,000 surgeries and supplied much needed equipment to the hospitals they work in. They work in cooperation with local healthcare professionals and provide education when they can. In addition, they have provided immunization services to the residents and staff of the hospital in Guatemala.
Health for Humanity will:
- Organize multidisciplinary teams of volunteer healthcare professionals and support staff to travel to developing countries to provide needed healthcare services.
- Collect the funds, medical equipment and supplies to provide these services and arrange their transport to developing countries.
- Provide surgical services at hospitals in developing countries in collaboration with the local hospital staff.
- Provide funding and other support to their partner NGOs in the countries they visit.
- Empower the people and healthcare workers of the countries they visit to meet their own healthcare needs through education and training.
- Work in collaboration with the local Canadian Embassy Staff, Governmental, other non-governmental organizations and the local healthcare community to identify other healthcare projects for which Health for Humanity volunteers can provide assistance.
- Remain non-political.
- Interact with clients in a respectful and non-judgmental manner.
Health for Humanity’s next trip to Guatemala will take place from November 7 – November 21. To learn more about the group, please visit their website.
 HELPS International is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that partners with individuals, businesses, corporations, local and national governments to alleviate poverty in Latin America. HELPS integrated programs include: medical care, education, community and economic development, and agricultural innovations in order to improve the quality of life for the indigenous people of Latin America.
HELPS International was founded in 1984 as a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation in the tradition of service to others. HELPS programs extend a helping hand to people who then learn to become self-sufficient, giving them hope for a better life for them and a future for their children. HELPS offers its programs to all people regardless of ethnicity, social standing, political involvement, or religious belief.
HELPS believes in a world of liberty, stability, and personal opportunity. To achieve these goals, HELPS integrates its programs into the areas of healthcare, education, economic development, environmental protection and other special projects. HELPS works together with other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and private enterprise, and cooperates with local and national governments to promote sustainability of its programs.
HELPS strives for permanent change in communities through its programs, and promotes mutual respect, responsibility, and partnership with local infrastructure. This integrated approach ensures cohesiveness in cultural, medical, spiritual and economic affairs of the rural population.
- MEDICAL: HELPS has been said to be one of the largest medical relief efforts in the history of Central America. Since 1988, over 140 medical/surgical teams have gone to Guatemala. Each team composed of approximately seventy people provides over one million dollars in direct medical aid to Guatemala. These teams come from all over the US and travel to the remotest areas to provide US standard healthcare to those who have none. This year, HELPS will bring over 1,100 volunteers from the US and Canada who will provide over $11,000,000 in direct medical aid.
- EDUCATION: HELPS International believes that education is essential to the future of Guatemala, and has worked since the early 1980’s with Mayan (indigenous) women and children in the development of literacy and education. Today, the HELPS Education Program has developed into a system of K through Sixth grade education, with scholarship assistance for those seeking secondary education. HELPS continues to make a strong commitment to long-term literacy and education. HELPS School in Santa Avelina and its teacher training and other educational systems are a pattern for the region. This year, HELPS will educate 125 children.
- COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: The cornerstone of HELPS International’s development philosophy is the belief in an integrated approach with a variety of HELPS programs in order to assist communities in the developing world. HELPS recruits volunteer groups to implement such projects as the ONIL stove installations, school construction, potable water systems, and concrete floors for homes.
- THE ONIL STOVE: For centuries the indigenous population, the Mayan, have cooked their meals using open flame three-stone fires on the floors of their one room homes. This traditional method of cooking is the cause of rampant medical and environmental problems throughout rural Guatemala. After an investigation of the cultural and technological factors surrounding three-stone fires, HELPS International developed the “ONIL” Stove: a durable stove that minimizes smoke and burns, and reduces wood use by 70%. To date 60,000 stoves have been implemented in Guatemala and 10,000 in Mexico. Due to the wood savings, women have two extra days a week in time that are freed up by not having to gather wood. HELPS will run three stove factories with factory personnel and stove technicians for training and inspections.
- ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: HELPS International believes economic changes are essential in order for Guatemala to have real and permanent growth; HELPS, therefore, supports economic efforts that promote opportunity and individual initiative. HELPS programs include: micro-credit loans, and the creation of marketing outlets for the products of Guatemala.
- COFFEE PROGRAM: Guatemala is a place of great beauty and a place that grows simply the best tasting coffee in the world. In an effort to provide economic assistance to the country, HELPS International is now offering its own private labeled Guatemalan coffee. In addition to the great taste, this coffee offers a great benefit: all the profits from the sale of HELPS coffee go to programs specifically designed to improve the lives of the Guatemalan people.
- CORN PROGRAM: HELPS believes that increased yields in the cultivation of corn is key to alleviating poverty because improving corn production equals improving the economy of Guatemala. HELPS, in cooperation with its partner DISAGRO, implemented a corn program in the rural highlands that resulted in increased production and promises to bring real economic change to the region. This year 1,100 families in the corn program will add $400,000 in annual income to the region.
- WATER FILTER PROGRAM: The HELPS Gravity Water Filter is a practical solution to the need for safe drinking water every day in rural communities, and during emergency relief efforts. Safe drinking water is often very scarce, or available at great expense. The gravity water filter uses two containers: a person simply pours the water into the top container where it then filters to the lower container through a ceramic purification element, providing up to 10 gallons of safe drinking water every four hours. The initial assembly is easy and the setup time is about 15 minutes.
Check out their website to read more about HELPS projects; and check out the site links for volunteer opportunities, success stories, the needs of families in Guatemala and Mexico, videos and ways to donate.
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Global Health Missions is a non-profit organization founded by two physician assistants and an accountant who met in Guatemala while doing volunteer work in 2009. GHM is founded on the belief that the underserved in developing countries should also have access to quality healthcare.
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